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BluVision Bluetooth Low Energy Beacon

Violent Disassembly
Violent Disassembly

These photos were sent over to me by a friend, an interesting piece of tech that’s used in the retail industry. This is a BluVision BLE Beacon, which as far as I can tell is used to provide some automated customer assistance. From their website it seems they can also be used for high-price asset protection & tracking. These units don’t appear to be serviceable, being completely sealed & only having a primary cell. I’m not sure what they cost but it seems to be an expensive way to contact clients with adverts etc.

Component Side
Component Side

There’s not much populated on this PCB, the main component here is the CC2640 SimpleLink ultra-low-power wireless microcontroller for Bluetooth Low Energy. It’s a fairly powerful CPU, with an ARM Cortex M3 core, 129KB of flash & up to 48MHz clock speed. There’s a couple of crystals, one of which is most likely a 32,768kHz low-power sleep watch crystal, while the other will be the full clock frequency used while it’s operating. Unfortunately I can’t make the markings out from the photos. There doesn’t appear to be any significant power supply components, so this must be running direct from the battery underneath.

2.2Ah 3.6v Lithium Cell
2.2Ah 3.6v Lithium Cell

The other side of the PCB has a single primary lithium cell, rated at 3.6v, 2.2Ah. The factory spec sheet specifies a 2.2 year life at 0dBm TX Power, Running 24/7, 100ms advertisement rate.

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Contec CMS-50F Pulse Oximeter Teardown

Rear Case
Rear Case

The rear has the specifications, laser-marked into the plastic. The serial numbers are just sticky labels though, and will come off easily with use.

Contec CMS-50F
Contec CMS-50F

This is the Contec CMS-50F wrist-mounted pulse oximeter unit, which has the capability to record data continuously to onboard memory, to be read out at a later time via a USB-Serial link. There is software supplied with the unit for this purpose, although it suffers from the usual Chinese quality problems. The hardware of this unit is rather well made, the firmware has some niggles but is otherwise fully functional, however the PC software looks completely rushed, is of low quality & just has enough functionality to kind-of pass as usable.

Top Cover Removed
Top Cover Removed

A total of 4 screws hold the casing together, once these are removed the top comes off. The large colour OLED display covers nearly all of the board here. The single button below is the user interface. The connection to the probe is made via the Lemo-style connector on the lower right.

Lithium Cell
Lithium Cell

Power is provided by a relatively large lithium-ion cell, rated at 1.78Wh.

Main Processor
Main Processor

All the heavy lifting work of the LCD, serial comms, etc are handled by this large Texas Instruments microcontroller, a MSP430F247. The clock crystal is just to the left, with the programming pins. I’m not sure of the purpose of the small IC in the top left corner, I couldn’t find any reference to the markings.

Aux Processor
Aux Processor

The actual pulse oximetry sensor readings seem to be dealth with by a secondary microcontroller, a Texas Instruments M430F1232 Mixed-Signal micro. This has it’s own clock crystal just underneath. The connections to the probe socket are to the right of this µC, while the programming bus is broken out to vias just above. The final devices on this side of the board are 3 linear regulators, supplying the rails to run all the logic in this device.

Main PCB Rear
Main PCB Rear

The rear of the PCB has the SiLabs CL2102 USB-Serial interface IC, the large Winbond 25X40CLNIG 512KByte SPI flash for recording oximetry data, and some of the power support components. The RTC crystal is also located here at the top of the board. Up in the top left corner is a Texas Instruments TPS61041 Boost converter, with it’s associated components. This is probably supplying the main voltage for the OLED display module.

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Arduino Milliohm Meter Build

During the rebuild of the wheelchair motors for the support trolley, I found myself needing an accurate milliohm meter to test the armature windings with. Commercial instruments like these are expensive, but some Google searching found a milliohm meter project based around the Arduino from Circuit Cellar.

Circuit Diagram
Circuit Diagram

Here’s the original author’s circuit diagram, paralleling nearly all of the Arduino’s digital output pins together to source/sink the test current, an ADS1115 ADC to take more accurate readings, with the results displayed on a jellybean 128×64 OLED module. The most expensive part here is the 10Ω 0.1% 15ppm reference resistor, R9.
I decided to make some small adjustments to the power supply section of the project, to include a rechargeable lithium cell rather than a 9v PP3 battery. This required some small changes to the Arduino sketch, a DC-DC boost converter to supply 5v from the 3.7v of a lithium cell, a charger module for said cell, and with the battery voltage being within the input range of the analogue inputs, the voltage divider on A3 was removed. A new display icon was also added in to indicate when the battery is being charged, this uses another digital input pin for input voltage sensing.
I also made some basic changes to the way an unreadable resistance is displayed, showing “OL” instead of “—–“, and the meter sends the reading out over the I²C bus, for future expansion purposes. The address the data is directed to is set to 0x50.

I’ve not etched a PCB for this as I couldn’t be bothered with the messy etchant, so I built this on a matrix board instead.

Final Prototype
Final Prototype

Since I made some changes to both the software and the hardware components, I decided to prototype the changes on breadboard. The lithium cell is at the top of the image. with the charger module & DC-DC converter. The Arduino Nano is on the right, the ADC & reference resistor on the left, and the display at the bottom.
The Raspberry Pi & ESP8266 module are being used in this case to discharge the battery quicker to make sure the battery level calibration was correct, and to make sure the DC-DC converter would continue to function throughout the battery voltage range.

Matrix Board Passives
Matrix Board Passives

Here’s the final board with the passive components installed, along with the DC-DC converter. I used a Texas Instruments PTN04050 boost module for power as I had one spare.

Matrix Board Rear
Matrix Board Rear

The bottom of the board has most of the wire jumpers for the I²C bus, and power sensing.

Matrix Board Modules
Matrix Board Modules

Here’s both modules installed on the board. I used an Arduino Nano instead of the Arduino Pro Mini that the original used as these were the parts I had in stock. Routing the analogue pins is also easier on the Mini, as they’re brought out to pins in the DIP footprint, instead of requiring wire links to odd spots on the module. To secure the PCB into the case without having to drill any holes, I tapped the corner holes of the matrix board M2.5 & threaded cap head screws in. These are then spot glued to the bottom of the case to secure the finished board.

Lithium Charger
Lithium Charger

The lithium charger module is attached to the side of the enclosure, the third white wire is for input sensing – when the USB cable is plugged in a charge icon is shown on the OLED display.

Input Connections
Input Connections

The inputs on the side of the enclosure. I’ve used the same 6-pin round connector for the probes, power is applied to the Arduino when the probes are plugged in.

Module Installed
Module Installed

Everything installed in the enclosure – it’s a pretty tight fit especially with the lithium cell in place.

Meter Top Cover
Meter Top Cover

The top cover has the Measure button, and the OLED display panel, the latter secured to the case with M2.5 cap head screws.

Kelvin Clips
Kelvin Clips

Finally, the measurement loom, with Kelvin clips. These were an eBay buy, keeping things cheap. These clips seem to be fairly well built, even if the hinges are plastic. I doubt they’re actually gold-plated, more likely to be brass. I haven’t noticed any error introduced by these cheap clips so far.

The modified sketch is below:

 

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ELuc BLU4 Intelligent Lithium Battery Charger W/Bluetooth

BLU4 Battery Charger
BLU4 Battery Charger

Here’s another battery charger designed for lithium chemistry cells, the BLU4. This charger doesn’t display much on it’s built in LCD, apart from basic cell voltage & charging current limits, as it has a built in Bluetooth module that will link into an Android or iOS app.

Above the charger is operating with 4 brand new cells, at a current of 500mA per cell. If only a pair of cells is being charged, the current can be increased to 1A per cell.

LCD
LCD

Not much in the way of user interface on the charger, a tiny LCD & single button for cycling through the display options.

Dataplate
Dataplate

The usual stuff on the data plate, the charger accepts an input of 12v DC at 1A.

Bottom Cover Removed
Bottom Cover Removed

Removing the 6 screws on the bottom of the casing allows the board to be seen. Not much on the bottom, the 4 cell negative connections can be seen, with their springs for adjusting for cell length.

MOSFETs
MOSFETs

There’s a couple of P-Channel FETs on the bottom side for the charging circuits, along with some diodes.

Main PCB
Main PCB

The main PCB is easily removed after the springs are unhooked from the terminals. Most of the power circuitry is located on the top side near the power input. There are 4 DC-DC converters on board for stepping the input 12v down to the 4.2v required to charge a lithium cell.

Second Controller
Second Controller

Not entirely sure what this IC is in the bottom corner, as it’s completely unmarked. I’m guessing it’s a microcontroller though.

DC Input Side
DC Input Side

The top left of the board is crammed with the DC-DC converters, all the FETs are in SO8 packages.

DC-DC Converters
DC-DC Converters

One pair of DC-DC inductors is larger than the other pair, for reasons I’m unsure of.

Bluetooth Module
Bluetooth Module

Bluetooth connectivity is provided by this module, which is based around a TTC2541 BLE IC.

Microcontroller
Microcontroller

Below the Bluetooth module is yet another completely unmarked IC, the direct link to the BLE interface probably means it’s another microcontroller. The Socket to the left of the IC is the connector for the front panel LCD & button.

LCD PCB
LCD PCB

There’s not much to the LCD itself, so I won’t remove this board. The LCD controller is a COB type device, from the number of connections it most likely communicates with the micro via serial.

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Eberspacher Controller & Remote

7-Day Programmer
7-Day Programmer

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 1 hour at a time.
To get around this slight niggle, I fitted a bypass toggle switch.

Remote Control
Remote Control

For a bit of extra convenience, I got an RF remote controlled relay module from eBay (£5).
This allows me to switch things on remotely, so I can return to a nice toasty tent while camping.
There is an official RF remote for Eberspacher heaters, but I’ve no doubt they’re hideously expensive.

RF Receiver
RF Receiver

Here’s the receiver PCB, there’s an EEPROM & a microcontroller onboard for handling the codes the remotes send, but as the number has been scrubbed off the micro, no data there. This uses a standard RF receiver module.

RF Remote
RF Remote

Here’s the remote itself, this uses a 12v battery instead of a 3v lithium cell. A little of a pain since these batteries can be a bit pricey.
As this RF system operates on 315MHz, it’s technically illegal in the UK, but I was unable to find a 433MHz version with the features required. Nevermind ;).

Controller Internals
Controller Internals

Here’s the module installed in the controller casing. I have since run the antenna wire around the edge of the case to try & get the furthest range on receive. The relay contacts are just paralleled across the bypass switch, so when the relay energizes the heater fires up.
Luckily the thermostatic control portion of the 701 programmer is operational even when heating mode is not active.

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Fire Angel CO-9D Carbon Monoxide Detector Teardown

Fire Angel CO-9D CO Detector
Fire Angel CO-9D CO Detector

This detector has now been retired from service since it’s a fair bit out of date. So here’s the teardown!

Information
Information

Unlike older detectors, this unit has a built in battery that never needs replacing during the life of the sensor, so once the unit reaches it’s expiry date it’s just trashed as a whole.

Cover Removed
Cover Removed

4 screws hold the cover on, here’s the internals of the detector. There’s a 3v CR123A LiMnO² cell at the right for power, rated at 1500mAh. A 7 year life is quite remarkable on a single cell!
The sensor is just to the left of the lithium cell, and is of quite unusual construction. Previous CO sensor cells I’ve seen have been small cylinders with a pair of brass pins. This one appears to use a conductive plastic as the connections. These sensors contain H²SO⁴ so they’re a bit hazardous to open.
There are no manufacturer markings on the sensor & I’ve not been able to find any similarly shaped devices, so I’m unsure of it’s specifications.
The alarm sounder is on the left, the usual Piezo disc with a resonator to increase the loudness.

Microcontroller
Microcontroller

The brains of the device are provided by a Microchip PIC16F914 microcontroller. This is a fairly advanced device, with many onboard features, and NanoWatt™ technology, standby power consumption is <100nA according to Microchip’s Datasheet. This would explain the incredible battery life.
The choke just at the right edge of the photo is actually a transformer to drive the Piezo sounder at high voltage.

PCB Reverse
PCB Reverse

Here’s the PCB with the LCD frame removed. Not much to see on the this side, the silence/test button top right & the front end for the sensor.

Sensor Front End Amplifier
Sensor Front End Amplifier

Here’s a closer look at the front end for the CO sensor cell itself. I haven’t been able to decode the SMT markings on the SOT packages, but I’m guessing that there’s a pair of OpAmps & a voltage reference.