This is a device to use an IDE or SATA interface drive via a USB connection. Here is the front of the device, IDE interface at the bottom, 2.5″ form factor.
PCB Top
PCB removed from the casing. USB cable exits the top, 12v DC power jack to the left.
SATA interface below the DC Jack.
Molex connector below SATA is the power output for the drive in use. This unit has a built in 5v regulator.
PCB Bottom
Bottom of the PCB showing the interface IC.
Drive Adaptor
Adaptor to plug into the 44-pin 2.5″ form factor IDE interface on the adaptor, converts to standard 40-pin 3.5″ IDE.
Power Cable
Power pigtail with standard Molex & SATA power plugs.
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 Removed
Back cover removed from the unit, showing the PCB & the connections. The IC is the controller/amplifier.
PCB
Top of the PCB, control switches, volume potentiometer & microphone/headphone sockets on the right. DC power jack top left. Switch bottom centre senses what mode the tape drive is in.
Tape Deck
Rear of the tape deck, main drive motor is bottom right, driving the capstan through a drive belt. This drives the tape spools through a series of gears & clutches. Belt going to top left drives the tape counter.
Drive
Front of the tape drive. Read/write head is top centre. Blue head is bulk erase head used during recording.
Here are the internals of a cheap Microwave/Convection Oven combo. Electronics bay is pretty much the same as a standard microwave, with the magnetron, transformer & diode/capacitor voltage doubler, with the addition of an extra fan & a pair of nichrome elements to provide the convection oven function.
Convection Fan
Convection blower which keeps the cooking vapours & smoke away from the elements, & circulates the hot air around the cooking chamber. This is a 12v DC centrifugal type blower.
Convection Element
The elements are inside this steel shield, air duct extends from the centre.
Thermal Cutouts
This oven has a pair of thermal switches on the magnetron.
Capacitor & Diode
The usual capacitor/diode voltage doubler in the magnetron power supply. The transformer is visible to the left.
Controller
Electronic controller PCB. This has a pair of relays that switch the elements & the magnetron transformer.
An old IDE interface Zip drive. This fits in a standard 3.5″ bay.
Cover Removed
Top cover removed from the drive, IDE & power interfaces at the top, in centre is the eject solenoid assembly & the head assembly. Bottom is the spindle drive motor.
Head Assembly
Head assembly with the top magnet removed. Voice coil is on the left, with the head preamp IC next to it. Head chips are on the end of the arm inside the parking sleeve on the right. Blue lever is the head lock.
Controller
Controller PCB removed from the casing.
Spindle Motor
Spindle motor. This is a 3-phase DC brushless type motor. Magnetic ring on the top engages with the hub of the Zip disk when insterted into the drive.
Magnets
Magnets that interact with the voice coil on the head assembly.
Head Armature
Head armature assembly removed from the drive. The arm is supported by a pair of linear bearings & a stainless steel rod.
This is the hydraulic system from an Audi TT that would power the soft top. Here is the hydraulic pump unit. Oil Tank is on the left. Power is 12v DC at ~20A
Cylinders
The pair of hydraulic cylinders that attached to the roof mechanism.
Limit Switch
One of the cylinders has a limit switch built in. The brass bolt coming out of the side of the head is one contact. The other contact is the cylinder body.
Hose
Marking on the hoses. This is Parker Polyflex hydraulic hose. 1/8″ ID.
Motor
Drive motor for the hydraulic pump. Standard DC permanent magnet motor.
Motor Suppression
Motor power terminals & suppression capacitors. As the reversing relays actually short the motor out when de-energized, there is a lot of arcing at the brushes without some suppression.
Reversing Relays
Reversing relay stack. Each relay is a SPDT configuration. The pair are arranged as a DPDT bank to reverse the motor, depending on which relay is energized.
Tank
Detail of the oil tank showing the level markings.
Power Valve
Solenoid valve on top of the unit. This valve provides full pump pressure to the cylinders when energized.
A quick update to my portable power pack, a mains charging port. Uses a universal DC barrel jack.
Connection to the battery. 1N4001 reverse protection diode under the blue heatshrink tubing. I used a surplus PC CD-ROM audio cable (grey lead). Seen here snaking behind the battery to the DC In Jack.
This is an old cordless landline phone, with dead handset batteries.
Handset Radio Board
Here’s the handset with the back removed. Shown is the radio TX/RX board, underneath is the keyboard PCB with the speaker & mic. All the FM radio tuning coils are visible & a LT450GW electromechanical filter.
Handset Radio Board Bottom
Radio PCB removed from the housing showing the main CPU controlling the unit, a Motorola MC13109FB.
Keypad Board
The keypad PCB, with also holds the microphone & speaker.
Handset Keypad Board Bottom
Bottom of the keypad board, which holds a LSC526534DW 8-Bit µC & a AT93C46R serial EEPROM for phone number storage.
Base Main Board
Here’s the base unit with it’s top cover removed. Black square object on far right of image is the microphone for intercom use, power supply section is top left, phone interface bottom left, FM radio is centre. Battery snap for power backup is bottom right.
Power Supply Section
PSU section of the board on the left here, 9v AC input socket at the bottom, with bridge rectifier diodes & main filter capacitor above. Two green transformers on the right are for audio impedance matching. Another LT450GW filter is visible at the top, part of the base unit FM transceiver.
ICs
Another 8-bit µC, this time a LSC526535P, paired with another AT93C46 EEPROM. Blue blob is 3.58MHz crystal resonator for the MCU clock. The SEC IC is a KS58015 4-bit binary to DTMF dialer IC. This is controlled by the µC.
Base Main Board Bottom
Underside of the base unit Main PCB, showing the matching MC13109FB IC for the radio functions.
Here is a Bosch 14.4v Professional cordless drill/driver, recovered from a skip!
It was thrown away due to a gearbox fault, which was easy to rectify.
Internals
Here is the drill with the side cover removed, showing it’s internal parts. The speed controller is below the motor & gearbox here. The unit at the top consists of a 12v DC motor, coupled to a 4-stage epicyclic gearbox unit, from which can be selected 2 different ratios, by way of the lever in the centre of the box. This disables one of the gear stages. There is a torque control clutch at the chuck end of the gearbox, this was faulty when found.
Motor
Here is the drive motor disconnected from the gearbox, having a bayonet fitting on the drive end.
Drive Gear
This is the primary drive gear of the motor, which connects with the gearbox.
Cooling Fan
The motor is cooled by this fan inside next to the commutator, drawing air over the windings.
Gearbox
This is the gearbox partially disassembled, showing the 1st & second stages of the geartrain. The second stage provides the 2 different drive ratios by having the annulus slide over the entire gearset, disabling it entirely, in high gear. The annulus gears are a potential weak point in this gearbox, as they are made from plastic, with all other gears being made of steel.
Charger
Here is the charging unit for the Ni-Cd battery packs supplied with the drill. The only indicator is the LED shown here on the front of the unit, which flashes while charging, & comes on solid when charging is complete. Charge termination is by way of temperature monitoring.
Transformer
Here the bottom of the charger has been removed, showing the internal parts. An 18v transformer supplies power to the charger PCB on the left.
Charger PCB
This is the charger PCB, with a ST Microelectronics controller IC marked 6HKB07501758. I cannot find any information about this chip.
Battery Pack Internals
Here is a battery pack with the top removed, showing the cells.
Temperature Sensor
This is the temperature sensor embedded inside the battery pack that is used by the charger to determine when charging is complete.
This is a HP PhotoSmart 375 portable photo printer. With built in card reader, screen & PictBridge.
Top of the printer showing the UI Buttons & Screen.
Front
Front of the unit, card reader slots at the top, Pictbridge USB connector at top left. Paper out slot at bottom. Cartridge door is on the right.
Cartridge Door
Here the cartridge door is open. Takes HP 95 Tri-Colour Inkjet Cartridge.
Battery Compartment
Battery compartment on the bottom of the unit. A Li-Ion battery pack can be installed here for mobile photo printing.
Bottom Label
Specifications label.
USB + Power
Power adaptor & USB connection for PC use.
Paper Tray
Rear door opened. Showing the paper feed tray.
Paper Feeder
Rear door has been removed in this shot. Paper feed roller & platen roller can be seen here.
Rear Cover Paper Feeder
Paper holder attached to rear door.
Top Cover
Bottom of the top cover, with connections for the buttons & LCD panel.
Main PCB
This is the main PCB of the unit. Controls all aspects of the printer. CPU in center, card reader sockets are along bottom edge. various support circuitry surrounds the CPU.
Rear
Rear shell has been removed here. Showing the main frame & the carriage drive motor on the left.
Carriage Drive
Closeup of the carriage drive motor & timing belt system. All the motors in this printer are DC servo motors, not steppers.
Main Drive Motor
Main drive motor, feeds paper, drives rollers, operates cleaning mechanism for the inkjets.
Shaft Encoder
Mainshaft encoder. Main drive motor is bottom right hand side with timing belt drive.
CPU
Closeup of the CPU. This is a Phillips ARM chip, unknown spec.
Card Reader Sockets
Detail of the card reader sockets, this unit takes all current types of Flash memory card.
An ICL barcode scanner from the 80s is shown here. This is the top of the unit with cover on.
Cover Removed
Plastic cover removed from the unit showing internal components. Main PSU on left, scan assembly in center. Laser PSU & Cooling fan on right. Laser tube at top.
Scan Motor
Closeup of laser scan motor. This unit scans the laser beam rapidly across the glass plate to read the barcode.
Controller PCB
View of the bottom of the unit, showing the controller PCB in the centre.
Scan Motor Driver
The 3-phase motor driver circuit for the scan motor. 15v DC powered.
Laser Unit
This is the laser unit disconnected from the back of the scanner. HT PSU is on right hand side, beam emerges from optics on left.
Laser Unit Label
This unit is date stamped 1987. The oldest laser unit i own.
This is a 1500W hairdryer, death caused by thermal switch failure.
Switch
This is the switch unit. Attached are two suppression capacitors & a blocking diode. Cold switch is on right.
Heating Element
Heating element unit removed from housing. Coils of Nichrome wire heat the air passing through the dryer. Fan unit is on right.
Thermal Switch
Other side of the heating element unit, here can be seen the thermal switch behind the element winding. (Black square object).
Fan Motor
The fan motor in this dryer is a low voltage DC unit, powered through a resistor formed by part of the heating element to drop the voltage to around 12-24v. Mounted on the back of the motor here is a rectifier assembly. Guide vanes are visible around the motor, to straighten the airflow from the fan blades.
Fan
5-blade fan forces air through the element at high speed. Designed to rotate at around 13,000RPM.
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