EEVblog #606 - Mailbag

[nitro2k01]

National advert according to widlar

Should have gotten the full size, so you can read the subtext. (Upload. Click to view full size.)

[Rigby]

Corporation666 - really Mickey Dolenz?  I was such an insane fan of that band when I was a kid.

[firewalker]

Did anyone tried EasyEDA?

Alexander.

[gemby]

Did anyone tried EasyEDA?

Alexander.

I did last night, a little bit of struggle, some menus are weird, but it seems like it can be usable, will give it another go. Anyone else?

[ElektronikLabor]

Hello Dave, many thanks for the video!
For the next time: can you spend more time with playing with the mailbag content?

I find the Tek demo board very interesting. I also would like to see you experimenting with the nixies!   

[Mr Simpleton]

I'd say MC3357 in the base and MC3361 in handset as NBFM receivers, they seem to use 455 kHz ceramic filters too. Bet they are double super with 10.7 MHz as first IF. No low frequency ferrite antenna so yes it seems to be a VHF unit only (Base: 43.72-46.97 MHz, Handset: 48.76-49.99 MHz).
Switch on handset: OFF/STBY/TALK... just one channel.

Loved the cordless phone.

Old school analogue FM, crystal control.

Looks like a 30 / 39 MHz or similar - the older ones used 30 / 1.7 MHz.

No scrambling/encryption.

Transmitter on the right / superhet receiver on the left (maybe using a CA3089 or similar?).

Bit curious about the 3 position switch on the handset. Was thinking it's a channel change but there's not enough crystals for that.

So it looks like a single channel - if your neighbours had one you'd probably overhear all their calls.

[orion242]

Just picked up Bob from the printer and I must say....

He is looking pretty good looking down on the lab!

[Corporate666]

Corporation666 - really Mickey Dolenz?  I was such an insane fan of that band when I was a kid.

Finally, someone got the joke!

[deth502]

Corporation666 - really Mickey Dolenz?  I was such an insane fan of that band when I was a kid.

Finally, someone got the joke!

i got it, and was a bit surprised dave didnt, i would think that he would have heard that at least a few times before. 

[German_EE]

Cute kid opening the parcels and a pretty blonde reading the letters, Mr Jones, you could be out of a job 

[echen1024]

Just picked up Bob from the printer and I must say....

He is looking pretty good looking down on the lab!

I would hang up that poster in my school locker... but something tells me staff might not be so pleased.

[xDR1TeK]

Just picked up Bob from the printer and I must say....

He is looking pretty good looking down on the lab!

I would hang up that poster in my school locker... but something tells me staff might not be so pleased.

For his living memory, I would do it.

[codeboy2k]

Due to Dave's raving about the Probemaster probes, I decided to buy a set to use with my Keithley 197a I just bought on the 'bay, as it was lacking probes.  I received the probes on Friday.

Wow!  I must chime in with Dave here... These are great probes, and really not expensive at all.

The silicone cable is like silk.. The tips are sharp as a tack... and it fits comfortably in my hands.  I bought the straight banana jack ends with retractable sheath, and some accessories such as the screw on alligator clips and extended tip for long reach.

My only gripe is that you need to buy the tip covers separately (which I did not buy).  The picture shows something included that looks like tip covers but these are not, they just cover the screw and the major portion of the tip extension, but leaving just the tip exposed still for probing.

These are so sharp that you really need to cover them, so remember to order tip covers too.

Despite this, I think it's well worth supporting this family owned business

[electrolux]

It's an awful poster and I thought you didn't like puffing smokers

[Corporate666]

Due to Dave's raving about the Probemaster probes, I decided to buy a set to use with my Keithley 197a I just bought on the 'bay, as it was lacking probes.  I received the probes on Friday.

Wow!  I must chime in with Dave here... These are great probes, and really not expensive at all.

The silicone cable is like silk.. The tips are sharp as a tack... and it fits comfortably in my hands.  I bought the straight banana jack ends with retractable sheath, and some accessories such as the screw on alligator clips and extended tip for long reach.

My only gripe is that you need to buy the tip covers separately (which I did not buy).  The picture shows something included that looks like tip covers but these are not, they just cover the screw and the major portion of the tip extension, but leaving just the tip exposed still for probing.

These are so sharp that you really need to cover them, so remember to order tip covers too.

Despite this, I think it's well worth supporting this family owned business

Big thumbs up for Probe Master... that's why I sent them to Dave.  I have a ton of probes, mostly ones that came with meters (i.e. crap).  So when I got the Probe Master ones, it was like "wow, these things are great!  Dave will love those".  I picked up a few more sets and sent a couple to Dave.

I have a set of the unsheathed banana style ones (like those Dave has) hooked up to my power supply and I use them when batch testing panels of PCB's.  It makes it easy to test boards without having to depanel and solder wires on, and the sharp tips cut right through flux residue.

I also received their scope probe set last week - also very high quality.  The 1/10 probe has a very nice clicky feel, the connectors are metal, and they just have a really nice quality feel overall.  Highly recommended.

[peter.mitchell]

Corporate666 and codeboy2k, I ordered somewhere around $200-$250 with of probes from them, they were all really great apart from their SMD tweezers which where terrible. In the 7 or so pairs of multimeter probes, they all came with tip covers, so they are included, Maybe you missed out on them accidentally codeboy2k?

Also, when I ordered, the lady mentioned daves video and asked if thats where i saw it and that a few people had bought from them because of it.

[orion242]

Just picked up Bob from the printer and I must say....

He is looking pretty good looking down on the lab!

I would hang up that poster in my school locker... but something tells me staff might not be so pleased.

For his living memory, I would do it.

I would tell them its my uncle and that is the best memory I have of the dearly departed...

[mayor]

Did anyone tried EasyEDA?

Alexander.

Figured I'd report back here after a few week's use of EasyEDA. My previous experience is with the free version of Eagle.

Disclaimer : I have always found Eagle's UI and workflow to be absolutely horrible, painful and frustrating, especially the PCB layout part. The only reason to use Eagle is that so many hackers are also using it, like SparkFun, Adafruit, etc, and the huge parts libs.

The first thing with EasyEDA is that it happily imports Eagle libs (and Kicad), schematics and boards. So, as it stands, I think EasyEDA's library is actually the largest, and if not, could easily be by just importing what's out there.

The second thing is that while it takes a little bit of getting used to, it IS, imho, a million times better in terms of usability than Eagle. There are still things that need refining, but the good news is that the there is a team working on improvements.

I've made a couple of boards and they came back pretty much as expected.

I may sound like I work for EasyEDA, but really, I'm just sold on the idea, and feel liberated from Eagle's terrible UI and workflow.

That was my 2c, for anyone who cares :-)

[mechtheist]

Corporation666 - really Mickey Dolenz?  I was such an insane fan of that band when I was a kid.

Hi, I'm new, really new, but a quick fan of EEVBlog, so of course I started binging on them for awhile.  During one of the mailbags, Jones got a something from 'Mickey Dolenz', addressed to 'Davey Jones', and there was no reaction.  I didn't know if it was a really old joke or what.  I searched and this is the closest thing to any mention, and I can't figure out what your post here refers to.  is that it?  I thought it was pretty funny, but I saw nothing to make me think Dave Jones got the references.  Anyways, y'all will surely hear more from me, great forum, web site, blog etc.  Have a good one.