Here’s the CRT & it’s drive board removed from the main chassis. Nicely modular this unit, all the individual modules (radio, tape, TV), are separate. This is effectively a TV itself, all the tuner & IF section are onboard, unlike in other vintage units I’ve modified, where the tuner &
Here’s one of the old modems from my spares bin, a Vodafone Mobile WiFi R207. This is just a rebranded Huawei E5330. This unit includes a 3G modem, and a WiFi chipset, running firmware that makes this a mini-router, with NAT. The back has the batter compartment & the SIM
Here’s another random bit of RF tech, I’m told this is a wireless energy management sensor, however I wasn’t able to find anything similar on the interwebs. It’s powered by a standard 9v PP3 battery. System control is handled by this Microchip PIC18F2520 Enhanced Flash microcontroller, this has an onboard
Yesterday, the Raspberry Pi community got a nice surprise – a new Pi! This one has some improved features over the previous RPi 3 Model B: Improved CPU – 64-Bit 1.4GHz Quad-Core BCM2837B0 Improved WiFi – Dual Band 802.11b/g/n/ac. This is now under a shield on the top of the
Continue readingRaspberry Pi 3 Model B+ Initial Tests & Benchmarks
This is a pair of modules that Maplin was selling some time back, to send stereo audio over a 2.4GHz radio link. The transmitter identifies as a USB sound card, I’ve personally used these units to transmit audio about 60ft. The transmitter, above, has a single button for pairing with
I recently got the latest upgrade from Virgin Media, 200Mbit DL / 20Mbit UL, and to get this I was informed I’d have to buy their latest hardware, since my existing CPE wouldn’t be able to handle the extra 5Mbit/s upload speed. (My bullshit detector went off pretty hard at
The other day I was given a random pile of car electronic parts from the scrap bin at the local garage, so I decided to do a few teardowns. This first one is a Temic Central Locking / Immobiliser module from a Mercedes van. Judging by the 125kHz stamped on
Continue readingMercedes Benz Temic Central Locking / Immobilizer Module Teardown
Here’s a piece of medical equipment that in recent years has become extremely cheap, – a Pulse Oximeter, used to determine the oxygen saturation in the blood. These can be had on eBay for less than £15. This one has a dual colour OLED display, a single button for powering
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
The Eberspacher heaters can be controlled with a single switch, but it’s more convenient to have some temperature control & the option of a timer. Above is an ex-BT 701 series controller, with built in 7-day programmer. Being an ex-BT van version though, it’ll only switch the heater on for
Here’s a quick look at one of the now surplus cards from my old networking system, a MiniPCI Wireless interface card. This is an older generation card, one of the first with Wireless N support on 2.4GHz. Network PHY & firmware EEPROM. Power supply stuff is over to the left.
Continue readingAlpha Networks WMP-N06SA MiniPCI Wireless N Card
Here’s the final bit of the radio install now the required parts have arrived! The radio being inside, we needed a reliable way to route the antenna coax through the hull to the external antenna, I managed to find some N-type bulkhead connectors, that are perfect for this job: This
Recently I’ve noticed my usual mobile rig, the Baofeng UV-5R, has had very poor receive, and non-existent transmit. I did a power test on the radio, and confirmed it was still outputting it’s rated RF power. Trying another antenna proved that the radio was fine. Time to tear down the
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
The latest addition to my radio shack is the GY561 frequency & power meter, which has already come in useful for measuring the output power of all my radios. It’s a small device, roughly the same size & weight as a stock UV-5R. Power is provided by 3 AAA cells.
In my original review, I noted that this radio was supplied with a SO-259 socket for the antenna connection. However I’m less than fond of these, due to their non-constant impedance, which can cause signal loss issues at VHF/UHF. Because of this, I’ve replaced it with a high quality N-type
For convenience, a pair of USB ports have been fitted to the wearable Pi, which open on the bottom of the unit. These will be hardwired into a 4-port USB hub which will also support the wireless adaptor for the mini-keyboard that is to be used with the device. The
Here is the project I’m currently working on. A completely wearable computing platform based on the Raspberry Pi & the WiFi Pineapple. Above can be seen the general overview of the current unit. On the left: Alfa AWUS036NHA USB High Power WiFi Network Interface 512MB Model B Raspberry Pi, 16GB
This is the control unit for a Routemaster system, that downloads traffic information for the area local to the vehicle. Here is an overview of the unit, in it’s aluminium box. Here is the unit with the top cover removed, showing the pair of PCBs.
Pocket sized GPS navigator. Here is shown the greyscale dot matrix LCD. Serial interface on the back of the unit. Pinout from left is +3v, Rx, Tx, GND. PCB Removed from the casing. RTC backup battery in the centre of board, CPU & flash ROM on the left. GPS chipset
Here is one of the first USB tuners that was available from Hauppauge Computer Works. Totally analog tuner of course, this model required 2 cables – a USB interface & a sound cable for the audio output of the tuner. A/V connections. For those who are interested. Here is the
This is an old legacy wireless mouse from Logitech. This uses a ball rather than optical technology. Bottom of the mouse, showing the battery cover & the mouse ball. Top removed from the mouse, showing the PCB inside. The smaller PCB on the left supports the microswitches for the buttons
Here is a Marmitek Gigavideo 30 2.4GHz wireless video transmitter, has a receiver paired which will be uploaded shortly. Here is a view of the antennae, the large flat one being the 2.4GHz directional, the whip antenna possibly performing IR relay functions for the remote control. For all those interested, here’s the
Here is an old Belkin Wireless G network card. This is a PCMCIA version. Here is the bottom of the device, with all the details. Plastic antenna cover removed, showing the pair of 2.4GHz etched antennae. There is a pair of LEDs on the upper left of the PCB showing
Here is a more modern phone, the Motorola V360v. Features include Dual screens, 640×480 VGA camera, full col our TFT Main LCD, SD-Micro slot. Here on the back the grey scale LCD can be seen, with the camera lens to the right of the Motorola logo Here the phone is