EEVblog #802 - Mailbag

[Fungus]

A QZERTY keyboard on the mac, first time I've seen one and had to look it up.
The interwebs says it's Italian so that makes sense of the gui language also.

But apparently owned by an English speaker. Files are "letter to lisa", "job applic", etc.

[retiredcaps]

Thanks, it's an honour!

@crispy_tofu, you will likely need to change all the electrolytic capacitors on the pcb.  Take it apart and check the capacitor bungs to make sure they are not leaking.

[halexa]

- "What do you prefer? Nipple or balls?"
I prefer nipple, pair of them, thank you very much :-P

Nipple, best feature of my Lenovo ThinkPad and the awsome keyboard.

[vlad777]

I can't have the Fluke, but I can show off.

(You taunt my "OCD", I would like to take it apart and clean it thoroughly)

[vlad777]

I think the glass on that spinnie thing, goes other way around.
That is why it broke.

[SteveLy]

Thanks, it's an honour!

@crispy_tofu, you will likely need to change all the electrolytic capacitors on the pcb.  Take it apart and check the capacitor bungs to make sure they are not leaking.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If Dave says he'd rather not tear it down further because he doesn't know how to get the board out, then a beginner should probably best leave it alone. Dave's already had a look and has shown us inside the meter and everything looked fine. We've also seen it working with phenomenal accuracy on various settings.

[vlad777]

DVD laser thing is called PDIC,  photo detector integrated circuit.

If you tear down a laser head, from computer DVD, you will see something like this:

[knks]

Nipple? I prefer to call it clit...

[knks]

Dave, if I remember correctly, the ZX Spectrum you had before for tear down was missing many parts.

[JoshK]

Dave -

A lot of the IP cameras tend to have very limited smart phone apps. You may have better luck checking the admin interface via a web browser.
Not that you'll have much of a fun time with that experience, as it tends to be confusing or lacking across most brands.

But the manual has some information about how to get in and look around: http://foscam.us/downloads/User%20Manual_C1.pdf

I scanned that manual and didn't see anything specific to public viewing, but maybe it's in the software anyway. If nothing else, you'll find a host of settings you can tweak if you're so inclined.

[tszaboo]

Thanks for the good words on the Voltage Reference Dave.............yep, I have been thinking about making and selling them. I have yet to work out a price based on qty parts so not really sure about pricing yet.

It really is superb looking DIY.

[Shred]

I remember the PowerBook 165c - I worked as a tech for an Apple dealer when they came out.  The 165c cost megadollars in Australia.  The display was truly horrible, but it was the first colour portable Mac, so people bought them anyway.  The display contrast had to be tweaked frequently as the LCD heated up and the display backlight hammered the battery life.

Like all the early PowerBooks, it was a nice machine to work on though.  Remove the battery and five torx screws and the case split in two with all major components relatively easily accessible.  The designers of modern notebook computers should look long and hard at the design of these machines.

[crispy_tofu]

Congratulations crispy! You got yourself a classic super accurate meter there. I can't get over how after 30 years and obviously a lot of use, it's still dead on ~100ppm accurate on both voltage and current: an order of magnitude better than spec. Amazing!

Thank you! 

@crispy_tofu, you will likely need to change all the electrolytic capacitors on the pcb.  Take it apart and check the capacitor bungs to make sure they are not leaking.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If Dave says he'd rather not tear it down further because he doesn't know how to get the board out, then a beginner should probably best leave it alone. Dave's already had a look and has shown us inside the meter and everything looked fine. We've also seen it working with phenomenal accuracy on various settings.

I'm sure a liiiitle peek won't hurt 
I'll double check the capacitors but I'm not that confident in repairing anything yet! 

[EEVblog]

I scanned that manual and didn't see anything specific to public viewing

I found a script that supposed allows public viewing by direct IP. But the point with public viewing is that you want some other server handles those public connection, like a content delivery network (CDN). If you don't have that then every connection sucks the video bandwidth from my lab. If 100 people logged on I'd probably exceed my months bandwidth quota in a few days.

[EEVblog]

Congratulations crispy! You got yourself a classic super accurate meter there. I can't get over how after 30 years and obviously a lot of use, it's still dead on ~100ppm accurate on both voltage and current: an order of magnitude better than spec. Amazing!

Thank you! 

And I'm going to drop it off personally!

[SteveLy]

I'm sure a liiiitle peek won't hurt 
I'll double check the capacitors but I'm not that confident in repairing anything yet! 

Sure. I bet it's all top shelf components that have many more years left in them. Don't forget to grab the incredibly comprehensive official manual: http://assets.fluke.com/manuals/8060a___imeng0300.pdf - it's a ripper!! You can learn a lot from the "Applications" and "Theory of operation" chapters; each section is like a mini electronics lesson.

[krivx]

Large numbers of those 8060as have vomiting electrolytic caps (including mine), there has been quite a bit of discussion about it. If they haven't died they may be just about to. I wouldn't assume that all is good just because the label says Fluke.

[SteveLy]

Ooft, Dave you might want to check your messages... 

_{don't kill me pls}

Oh, this sounds interesting!  

[bitwelder]

The 8060 battery has a MAR 2008 date. Is that the expiration date?
I wonder how much charge is left and how little must be the meter using it (while still running in full spec).

[HAnilsen]

Dave, you should be careful about the ELM327 readers from China. There are a lot of clones out there, and they're usually slow, and they can cause interference. When I plug it in my car and turn on the ignition, the ABS lamp starts flashing. My reader has a MAC address of AA:BB:CC:11:22:33 or something like that, and it also came with a burned mini CD with a windows program and a key generator for it, so that tells you how much thought they've put into it. I'd not trust an expensive car to some cheap ass Wun Hung-Lo thing. I've that read the genuine ELM327 chips alone costs around 20 euros in bulk.

Edit: Another thing is that modern car has a CAN-BUS network which almost EVERYTHING in the car is connected to, and the CAN technology was never really designed to be connected to the outside world, so there's not much security in that system. If you haven't heard about the Jeep that got hacked on the highway, you may want to check out that.

[krivx]

I've that read the genuine ELM327 chips alone costs around 20 euros in bulk.

ELM chips are PICs. The code has been extracted and is widely pirated so it's not surprising that they would be cheap.

[Godzil]

@Dave: When doing the teardown of the PowerBook, be really careful as the ABS plastic around the metal insert for the screw break really easily, because it aged badly. I have one of that era and when I wanted to do a tear down to check the inside I just get tons of small plastic bits and was unable to reassemble it correctly.

So be careful as the plastic Apple used at that time is really fragile.

[Stonent]

This was a great mailbag and I did notice that the audio seemed a bit harsh early on, I blew my nose and it came good, probably my end I suspect.

Nope, the audio sucked.
It was better when I was away from the mic, but up close behind the cam the auto mic gain doesn't work well. quite harsh compression.

I noticed there was no 720p50 or 1080p50 feed on this one.

[Stonent]

Congratulations crispy! You got yourself a classic super accurate meter there. I can't get over how after 30 years and obviously a lot of use, it's still dead on ~100ppm accurate on both voltage and current: an order of magnitude better than spec. Amazing!

Thank you! 

And I'm going to drop it off personally!

 

[Stonent]

I've that read the genuine ELM327 chips alone costs around 20 euros in bulk.

ELM chips are PICs. The code has been extracted and is widely pirated so it's not surprising that they would be cheap.

STN1110 chips are based on Pic24, cheaper than ELM327 and software compatible.  They are sold by scantool.net
They come in DIP and SMD.

I requested some samples and got some.  I was hoping on hacking one into a chinese dongle, but pic24 has different power requirements than the older PIC based elm327.