Following on from the viewfinder teardown, here’s the rest of the camera. This unit dates back to 1980, and is made almost exclusively of cast aluminium. Very little plastic has been used here & only for the bits that the user comes into contact with. This camera is based around
For accurate measurements, you’ll need an optical instrument such as a monochromator or spectrophotometer or optical spectrum analyzer. But to simply see the complexity of the discharge spectrum inside the bore of a He-Ne laser tube, it’s much easier and cheaper. (Spectra for various elements and compounds can be easily
Continue readingViewing Spectral Lines in Discharge, Other Colours in Output
Here’s an old HDSPA 3G USB modem stick that I got with a mobile phone contact many years ago. As it’s now very old tech, and I have a faster modem, not to mention that I’m no longer with Orange (Robbing <expletive>), here’s a teardown of the device! The top
In my shack, 99% of my gear is all 12v powered, which is good for a few reasons: Single Power Supply – This increases efficiency, as I’m only getting the losses of a single supply. Safety – Mains voltages are dangerous, I’m not fond of working on such equipment. Portability
Onboard the boat we have a small issue with a weak TV signal, and this coupled with a 60′ long run of coax is an issue. Due to the loss in the coax, we’ve lost most of the already weak signal. To try & solve this issue, I’m fitting a
I recently came across a design for an Arduino controlled AD9850 DDS module, created by AD7C, so I figured I would release my Eagle CAD design for the PCB here. It is a mainly single-sided layout, only a few links on the top side are needed so this is easy
Here are a few details of a valve amplifier I am building, using the valve related parts from a 1960’s reel to reel tape recorder. This amplifier is based on an a Mullard ECL82 triode/pentode valve, with an EM84 magic eye tube for level indication. Here the first components are
Continue readingDIY Valve Amplifier – Part 1 – Amplifier Section
Here is an old XM2000 marine VHF tranciever. Here is the casing split, with the main CPU board & display on the right, & the RF tranciever board on the left. View of the main CPU board, with the mic & loudspeaker on the right hand side. The channel display
Here is a Sanyo tape recorder, with built in voice activation. Takes standard audio cassettes. Here visible is the speaker on the left, microphone is on the right of the tape window. The tape counter is at the top. Back cover removed from the unit, showing the PCB & the
This is a small audio mixer, marketed for camcorder audio dubbing. I/O Panel on the rear of the unit. Contains a small preamp, but will not drive speakers directly. Power is a 9v battery or plugpack. Front of the PCB removed from the case. Mic preamp bottom right corner. Each