This is a cheap kit from eBay, to retrofit an older car with ultrasonic parking sensors. 4 sensors are included in the kit, along with a hole saw to fit them to the bumper. There’s a small controller module, and a display module that fits onto the dash of the
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
Here’s another domestic CO Alarm, this one a cheaper build than the FireAngel ones usually use, these don’t have a display with the current CO PPM reading, just a couple of LEDs for status & Alarm. This alarm also doesn’t have the 10-year lithium cell for power, taking AA cells
Continue readingFirst Alert CO-FA-9B Carbon Monoxide Alarm Teardown
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. 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
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
Here’s the solar charge controller to go with the MT50 from the last post. This is the 40A version of the EpEver Tracer A series, the 4210A. This unit is large, and very heavy. Most of this weight comes from the enormous heatsink which doubles as the mounting plate for
Continue readingEpEver Tracer 4210A MPPT Solar Charge Controller Teardown
Here’s the MT50 controller from EpEver, that interfaces with it’s Tracer MPPT solar charge controllers, and gives access to more programming options on the charge controllers, without the need for a laptop. The display is a large dot-matrix unit, with built in backlight. Above is the display on the default
Here’s the biggest portable USB powerbank I’ve seen yet – the PowerAdd Pilot X7, this comes with a 20Ah (20,000mAh) capacity. This pack is pretty heavy, but this isn’t surprising considering the capacity. The front of the pack houses the usual USB ports, in this case rated at 3.4A total
Continue readingPowerAdd Pilot X7 20,000mAh Powerbank & Fast Charging Mod
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
As one of my current projects involves a small petrol engine – a Honda GX35 clone, I figured an hour counter would be very handy to keep an eye on service intervals. (More to come on the engine itself later on). I found a device that would suit my needs
Continue readingInductive Hour Counter / Tachometer – Petrol Engines
Overview Time foe some more retro tech! This is a 1980’s vintage CCD-based VHS camcorder from Panasonic, the NV-M5. There are a lot of parts to one of these (unlike modern cameras), so I’ll split this post into several sections to make things easier to read (and easier to keep
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
Continue readingELuc BLU4 Intelligent Lithium Battery Charger W/Bluetooth
Another random teardown from the junk box time! Here’s an old Motorola DECT landline phone, no use to me as I’ve not used a landline for many years. Not much on the back, other than the battery compartment for a pair of AAA rechargables. The base unit contains the charger.
Here’s a useful tool for the kit, a digital angle gauge/protractor. These use a silicon sensor to show the number of degrees the unit is out of level. Magnets are provided in the base, so the tool can attach to any ferrous surface. Power is provided by a single AAA
Since the 4×18650 battery pack supplied with my Cree head torch is pretty shit, even by China’s standards, I figured something I could put my own cells into would be a better option. An eBay search turned up these battery boxes, not only with a direct battery output for my
Here’s another Dyson teardown, in my efforts to understand how marketing have got hold of relatively simple technology & managed to charge extortionate amounts of money for it. This is the DC35, the model after the introduction of the brushless digital motor. On this version the mouldings have been changed,
I was looking around eBay for decent deals on a branded CO alarm, and came across these for next to no money, so I thought I’d grab one just to see how bad they could be. Popping the casing open shows the very small circuit board inside, with the CO
It’s well known that there are two versions of the 701 type controller available for Eberspacher heaters, the version with the blue logo is the official un-restricted model, while the version with the white logo is a version built for BT that restricts the heater to 1 hour runtime &
Continue readingMini Teardown: Eberspacher 701 BT Controller
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 another torch from eBay, this time with 5 Cree XML-T6 LEDs. Having 5 Cree LEDs rated at up to 3A a piece, this light has the capacity to draw about 50W from it’s power supply. In this case though, current draw is about 1.5A at 12v input on the
Here’s another quick teardown, a cheap 5-port HDMI switch box. This is used to allow a single input on a monitor to be used by 5 different external HDMI devices, without having to mess about plugging things in. Here’s the DC barrel jack & 3.5mm TRS jack for power &
Finally, after a couple of weeks wait time, the fan controllers for the power supplies have arrived. They’re small boards, which is good for the small space left inside the case of the supply. Here they are. I’m not certain what the pair of potentiometers are for – there’s no
Continue readingDIY SMPS Fan Speed Control – The Controllers
One bit of my equipment that I’ve never looked into is my scanner, a handheld Uniden unit. I got this when Maplin Electronics had them on special offer a few years ago. Here’s the scanner itself, roughly the same size as a usual HT. Here the back cover has been
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.