Here is a cheap chinese made flash drive given out for free by Westlaw UK. Capacity 512MB
Here is the PCB removed from the casing, USB connector on the left, followed by the clock crystal for the flash controller, a CBM2092, which is a Chipsbank part. 512MB flash memory IC, unknown maker. Access LED on far right of the board.
This is a device designed to reset Epson brand ink cartridges that are reportedly out of ink, so they again report full to the printer Here is the front of the unit, with the guide for attaching to a cartridge.
Back of the device removed. 3 button cells provide power to the PCB. Indicator LED sticks out of the top of the device for reset confirmation.
Row of pads on far left edge of the PCB are presumably a programming header for the uC on the other side of the board.
Here is the front of the PCB, main feature being the grid of pogo pins to connect to the cartridge chip. IC on lower right of that is a MSP430F2131 uController, a Texas Instruments part.
The IC directly to the left of the pogo pin bed is a voltage regulator, to step down the ~4.5v of the batteries down to the ~3.3v that the uC requires.
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 opened showing the keypad & the full colour TFT LCD display.
Here the battery is removed from the unit, showing the SIM connector. The antenna cover is still on at the bottom.
The antenna cover has been removed in this shot, the antenna is the white section at the bottom, With the loudspeaker & the external antenna connector hidden at the right.
Here is the main PCB. Parts from left are the Bluetooth module at the top, supplied by Broadcom, the SD Card socket at the bottom. Main CPU next to that is the Freescale SC29343VKP. Above right of the CPU is the Freescale SC13890P23A Charger, Power & Audio IC. Below is the SIM card socket. Under the main CPU is the Intel Flash memory IC. ICs inside the shields are the RF sections for transmit & receive.
Rear of the display unit showing the monochrome LCD. The camera module on the bottom left. Ear speaker on the far right of the unit.
Main colour TFT LCD.
Camera module removed from the LCD unit.
The vibration motor attached to one of the LCD looms.
Another phone from the mid 90s. This is the nokia 7110.
Here the slider is open showing the keypad.
Here the battery is removed, a Li-Ion unit.
The battery cell & protection circuit removed from the casing.
This is the rear of the PCB removed from the housing. Data & charging ports on the right hand side f the board.
Front of the PCB with the RF sections at the left hand side & the keypad contacts on the right.
Closeup of the RF sections of the board, big silver rectangular cans are VCO units.
Closeup of the top rear section of the PCB, with SIM cnnector, battery contacts, IR tranciever at the far left. Bottom centre is the external antenna connector.
The logic section of the board, Large chip is CPU, to right of that is the ROM storing the machine code. Other chips are unknown custom parts.
The Mic & the loudspeaker removed from it’s housing.
LCD from the front of the unit, SPI interfaced. Flex PCB also contains the power button, loudspeaker contacts & a temperature sensor.
The scroll wheel removed from the front housing.
Tiny vibration motor removed from the rear housing, alerts the user to a text or phone call.
Here is a phone from the mid 90s, the Ericsson GA628. Here visible is the front of the unit with keypad, & single line monochrome LCD for number display.
Here the battery is removed from the phone, showing the SIM card socket. At the top under the antenna stub is the socket for an external antenna.
Here the front is removed from the phone, PCB on left, rear of keypad on right. Microphone is at bottom of keypad, with speaker at the top. Top right of the PCB is the ringer buzzer, left is shield for RF amplifier.
Here is the back of the main PCB, RF sections on left & centre. Processing & memory on right.
This phone had a Ni-Mh battery, before Li-Ion batteries were introduced.
The LCD from the front of the phone is shown here. A simple dot matrix single line unit.
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 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.
Here the cartridge door is open. Takes HP 95 Tri-Colour Inkjet Cartridge.
Battery compartment on the bottom of the unit. A Li-Ion battery pack can be installed here for mobile photo printing.
Specifications label.
Power adaptor & USB connection for PC use.
Rear door opened. Showing the paper feed tray.
Rear door has been removed in this shot. Paper feed roller & platen roller can be seen here.
Paper holder attached to rear door.
Bottom of the top cover, with connections for the buttons & LCD panel.
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 shell has been removed here. Showing the main frame & the carriage drive motor on the left.
Closeup of the carriage drive motor & timing belt system. All the motors in this printer are DC servo motors, not steppers.
Main drive motor, feeds paper, drives rollers, operates cleaning mechanism for the inkjets.
Mainshaft encoder. Main drive motor is bottom right hand side with timing belt drive.
Closeup of the CPU. This is a Phillips ARM chip, unknown spec.
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.
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.
Closeup of laser scan motor. This unit scans the laser beam rapidly across the glass plate to read the barcode.
View of the bottom of the unit, showing the controller PCB in the centre.
The 3-phase motor driver circuit for the scan motor. 15v DC powered.
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.
This unit is date stamped 1987. The oldest laser unit i own.
Laser tube power supply. Input voltage: 24v DC. Output: 1.8kV 4mA.
Rear of HT PSU. Obviously the factory made a mistake or two 🙂
Top cover removed from the laser unit here shows the 1mW He-Ne tube. Manufactured by Aerotech.
Tube label. Manufactured July 1993. Model LT06XR.
Here the tube has been removed from it’s mount to show the bore down the centre while energized.
OC end of the tube shown here lasing.
Beam output from the optics on the laser unit.
Optics built into the laser unit. Simple turning mirror on adjustable mount & collimating lens assembly.
Kind of hard to see but the unit is running here & projecting the scan lines on the top glass.
Laser tube mounting. A combo of spring clips & hot glue hold this He-Ne tube in place
This is the Current Cost CC128 Real Time Power Meter. Shown here is the display unit, British Gas issued these free to some customers.
This unit measures current power draw in Watts, cost of power currently being used (requires unit price to be set), overall kWh usage over the past 1, 7 or 30 days & power trends during the day, night & evening. Also displays current time & current room temperature.
Here the front panel of the display has been un-clipped. At the bottom are the RJ-45 serial port & power connections.
This unit uses a PIC micro-controller as it’s CPU (PIC18F85J90) Just above & left of the CPU is the 433MHz SPD radio receiver module. The chips on the right of the CPU are a 25LC128 SPI serial EEPROM for data storage & a 74HC4060 14 stage binary counter, to which is connected the 32kHz clock crystal. The red wire around the top of the display is the antenna for the radio receiver.
For more info on the CC128 in general, the serial port & software for computer data logging, see this link
See this link for Current Cost’s list of software
Closeup of the ICs on the mainboard.
Here we have the transmitter unit, with Current Transformer (CT). The red clamp fits around one of the electric meter tails & read the current going to the various circuits. This unit is powered by 2x D cells, rated at a life of 7 years.
The PCB inside the transmitter. Again very minimal design, unknown controller IC, 433MHz radio transmitter on right hand side with wire antenna. Two barrel connectors on left hand side of board allow connection of up to two more CT clamps for measurement of 3-phase power. Centre of board is unmarked header. (ICSP?)
CT unit. Inside is a coil of wire & an iron core which surrounds the cable to be measured.
| PIC18F85J90 |
This is a Western Digital drive recently removed from my laptop when it died of a severe head crash.
Top of drive can be seen here.
Here the cover has been removed from the drive, showing the platter, head arm & magnet. Yellow piece top left is head parking ramp.
The head assembly of the drive is shown here. The head itself is on the left hand end of the arm in the plastic parking ramp. The other end of the arm holds the voice coil part of the head motor, surrounded by the magnet.
Bottom of drive, with controller PCB. SATA interface socket at bottom.
PCB removed from bottom of drive. Spindle motor connections & connections to the head unit can be seen on the bottom of the drive unit.
Controller PCB. Supports the cache, interface & motor controller ICs.
Closeup of the motor driver IC, this controls the speed of the spindle motor precisely to 5,400RPM. Also controls the voice coil motor controlling the position of the head arm on the platters.
Interface IC closeup. This IC receives signals from the head assembly & processes them for transmission to the SATA bus. Also holds drive firmware, controls the Motor driver IC & all other functions of the drive.
Cache Memory IC.
