Posts Tagged ‘ problem ’

Scavenging: An ol’ 29″ TV

I had this old TV at home that I was barely using…  a 29″ TV with 3″ missing on top (quite annoying I tell you) but it was ok for the amount of TV we were watching… until … now. 🙂

The TV haven’t been turned on in the last year (or more) so… It rang my bell telling me that it was due for being ‘recycled’ my way 🙂 Only little issue, while removing stuff around the TV in the furniture, I accidentally turned it on with the remote… So, the anode was loaded -_-…

I carefully opened the case and carefully discharged the anode first. This step is MANDATORY if you’re going to play with a TV or a monitor… there is ALOT of current flowing in there and it act like a biggie capacitor so… if you don’t discharge it, you’re risking to electrocute yourself… and frankly… I don’t want any of my reader to get electrocuted so…. BE CAREFUL and Discharge it ! If you don’t know how to discharge an anode, check the net. there is TONS of awesome information on how to do it. (( for you guys who don’t want to google, here’s a link to Pinx’s Video Arcade website (Link). He’s showing how to safely discharge a CRT monitor using a HV probe but he also state that it can be done with a screwdriver & aligator clamp (the method I use) ))

So, I got everything out of this monster… Speakers & PCBs… and I got a surprise. I was looking at the board and was amazed by the amount of components that was there (I should have put that one in piece way before)! but also, when I flipped the board over, I noticed that that board had been repaired in the past ! the reparation is a bit the ‘hard way’ but if it worked 😛

And the speakers are some 7w sweet looking speakers 😛 much much better than what I had found in the previous TVs 😛

I also sliced the remote control for the TV… since well, a remote without a TV can be tricky to use 🙂 and… I love the little LEDs that are almost SMD components! They will sure come handy when I’ll build some other projects! In fact, I even have something in mind for them… but that’s a secret for now !

most likely, that biggie board will take me a while to get apart but it’ll worth it in the end!

2011
01/04
CATEGORY
Component Scavenging
Electronic
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Fix-It: Emergency Light System (Phase 2)

I still play with that thing once in a while when I have time to devote to it but… frankly, I’m clueless now.

I have tried a small 4.8v SLA battery ( after dropping the voltage to 4.8-ish volts from the charging system) but it doesn’t seems to charge … or not more than 1v after a while…

Next, I managed to get a 12v SLA battery from my father’s old Alarm system … and… same-ish issue, can’t get over 4v with it.

So now, I’m back to square 1 … or maybe square 2 since I fixed some issues already 😛 Anyways, I’ll try to get a real 6v SLA like the circuit is supposed to work with and try it again… in the mean time, enjoy the circuit with a battery (instead of a biggie Capa like the other time 🙂 )

2011
01/04
CATEGORY
Electronic
Fix-It
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Make It: Mouse Wheel From VHS Motor

Yup, another project that I started.

Basically, I scavenged some VHS motor from *D’oh, Captain Obvious* an old VHS and I though I could use that little monster to make a Mouse Wheel from it ! What a brilliant idea… except that I had no clue on how I would do this…  but, after a bit of trial and error, I … am back to nothing because I haven’t figured out an efficient way of knowing when the ‘wheel’ have moved and in which direction… but it’s a progress ! Here’s the build log:

Start from an old VHS motor:

Then, get the guts out ( for some reason, I can’t get tired of saying that ! xD ):

One of my try was to hack in the PCB and ‘find’ when the motor spin and which side… but…  failed 😦

at this point, I couldn’t get the MCU to detect whenever the little magnet was coming close to that sensor thinggy… so I had to forgot that idea

Then, I tried the microswitch approach, which might have some potential.

only issue so far is that the screw I’m using to do the trigger on the micro switches is a bit rough on the switches so, it might give a beatie to the switches… Another variation I’ve tried was to use a 3mm LED glued in but it’s a bit too long so the case cannot close properly (and that mean a no-go again).

The next plans are trying to see if I can use an optical reader and put something in the top part that will know when it moves but, i’m not sure yet how it’ll work… and, after that, I still have to hook it up to some USB mouse controller… so that’s not going to be done anytime soon… but I’m working on it 🙂

2010
12/30
CATEGORY
Electronic
Make-It
Mouse Wheel from VHS Motor
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Fix-It: Emergency Light System (Phase 1)

I recently got my hand on a broken Emergency light system for free. I was told that it was the battery or something like that who died… At that point… Fine 🙂 I’ll have a look.

I cracked open the baby to have a quick look inside and gave a visual inspection real quick…  everything seems fine except one of the resistance that is darken a bit (bad sign!), the Pot seems to have either a goo or rust on it but happily, no exploded parts ( like in that old rooter PSU ? huh ? remember ? 🙂 ). Since I don’t have a battery on hand (6v SLA is not *yet* in my part bin but I’m working on it… ), I didn’t bothered trying the system.

So, First thing first, I decided to unplug everything to have a closer look at the board and when I pulled the Bat+ plug, guess what stayed in my hand ? That’s right ! the header !…  Cold Solder? maybe…

Few minutes later, I had the pot out of the board, tested (works fine) and resolered, the header was resoldered properly and the resistance changed. Initial power up with 0 load and no battery seemed to work fairly well, nothing blew up! So, I added the multimeter on the bat+ and bat- and I was surprised to see 6v ! which is pretty good ! next was the terminals for the load… I had to come up with an idea on how to see if, when the power come down, the battery was coming into play ? …  …   ….  *insert long waiting here*…  … DING ! Capacitors ! Yes, so I plugged in a small 10v 2200uf Cap on it, It did show as charging for about 1/2 of a second and when I was cutting the power, the multimeter would show 6v for a fraction of second before dieing. So far, So good ! … … But, that’s not how I’m going to see if it is not just a luck…  so I found that biggie cap in one of my boxes…  10v … 130000MFD …   pretty big one 😀 … after a 3-4 second charge, I cut the power and the voltage stayed stable for … ouff, at least a good 5 minutes. ( FYI, difference from the 2 picture is the multimeter voltage, 1st picture is with power on, 2nd picture is with power off )

Next test was to use the lamps… but I figured out at my expense that… when I put the lamp on the cap, I get about 1 second of light…. when I put it on the load terminal, it looks like it’s shorting and I can’t get anything out of it… but the cap still hold the charge. So, I will have to see if it’s not the mofset who’s playing tricks on me or I really have to use a SLA battery.

On this, I will go to bed and continue working on it soon !

2010
12/18
CATEGORY
Electronic
Fix-It
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Scavenging: Deep Fryer

I recently got my hand on a deep fryer. At that time, I had no idea of the condition beside it being ‘greasy…  Like very greasy! My initial assumption were that the previous owner needed a bigger fryer and decided to throw away that one… In fact, the only part where my initial assumption were right is the part where they needed a new one… The issue revealed when I popped open the controller…  Yes Yes…  Burnt timer was the issue… no wonder why the ‘reset’ switch was popped up… (See the picture for an idea of the issue…)

My biggest deception with that wasn’t the fact that there is only a very few components in the controller but the fact that  I couldn’t salvage much from it… So, in the end, I got a few screws (obvious), a switch with very neat activation system, the 4 rubber feet & the nice Stainless bin (that I washed after the picture).  The timer/switch did burnt out so it was not usable, the reset switch system accidently got damaged in the dismantling (so I got rid of it) and the lamp was covered with so much oil/grease that It was too gross to play with it…

2010
12/08
CATEGORY
Component Scavenging
Electronic
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Bench PSU: Feedback from the Electrical Engineers

I got the result of the ‘analyse’ from my couple friends who are Electrical Engineers… and it’s stunning!

I have done everything properly except for 1 little thing that messed up everything *Big time* :). Dieing to know what ‘Noobie’ error I did ? Yes, you can laugh but I’ve learned the hard way and I’ll know for next time…

… I had solderer the Transistor (the LM238) wrong way ….

Yes Yes, I know… Now I know… may this serve me as a lesson and now, I know how to read datasheet *more* properly…
Remember kid… the diagrams are always top view… Always top view for pinouts…

So basically, I inverted the Adjustment pin and the V++ pin…

On the bright side, the PSU is now fully functional and just would need some minor adjustment (including piercing ~150 ventilation holes in the cover but that’s another story). In fact, I have used it last night to try something at a precise voltage and it worked flawlessly !

2010
12/01
CATEGORY
DIY: Bench Lab PSU
Electronic
Tools
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TI MSP-430: Follow up on my order…

As you might have read on my blog, I have ordered on September 22nd, 2010 3x MSP-430 MicroControllers from the eStore @ TI.com … They gave me an approximate shipping date of 27th of October … which is still acceptable… but now, end of november and I had not received any information from them… so I decided to send them an email… result:

I got a nicely done email telling me that they are sorry that I’m having trouble with my order on the eStore and that they would be glad to take my order if I call them on phone….

I’m sorry but… WTF ? after almost a month after the estimated shipping date, they still didn’t figured out that they need to ship my stuff ? …  Yes, the board was dirty cheap and free shipping but… com’on -_- …

Note to self: Never order from TI eStore ever again…

2010
12/01
CATEGORY
Electronic
MicroController
TI MSP430
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Fix-It: Ericsson “Rocket Hub” 3G Modem PSU Fix

This weekend, somebody handed me a “Ericsson Rocket Hub 3G modem” which the PSU had been beaten up (the power wires were cut from the PSU).

Instead of wasting priceless money on a new PSU (which would have cost over 50$), I took a look at the little box. Good thing I did 🙂 !

Cracking the box open:
Probably the hardest part of the whole experience. When they built that PSU, It was on purpose meant ‘There is no serviceable parts inside.” but… since when that stopped me ? 🙂 So, first, if you need to open one, you’ll need a flat screwdriver (somewhat big) to pry on the little edge. Be warned, the case is sealed shut by pressure fit & some kind of glue… It will not come off easily. Once you have the top piece removed, you will have to pry (Again!) to remove the bottom part. This one will come off more easily than the previous one but you will still have a good fight with it. I’d suggest using the same screwdriver and pry where the heatsink is (on the side). Be careful to not break the board and FYI, there is a little ‘somewhat fragile’ floating PCB under the main one so be gentle.

Finding the issue:
This one was quite easy to find… the Output power wires were cut off so, I’ve noticed the issue right away. Now, let’s clean up that mess to be able to fix it… This mean, heat up the iron, arm the solder pump and enjoy! Careful to torn apart the ‘floating’ board (you can see it pretty well in the following pictures). In fact, I’m warning you against it since it did happen to me. The ‘floating’ board came off really quick after I unsoldered one side. I’m guessing the 2nd side didn’t liked the visit so I had to solder a new pin to make the ground connection.

Fixing it:
Then, you will want to test if the PSU is still good (Nothing beat fixing everything, putting it back in the case, getting the case sealed shut properly… and realize that the PSU doesn’t is no good at all…). Grab some alligator clamps and check the voltage; should fire the proper voltage. Take note, once you unplug the PSU, be sure to leave it alone for a few minutes ! the capacitor charge up and it require TIME to bleed up all the current it got stored (If you want to verify by yourself, plug in your multimeter on the 2 clamps and unplug the box… you will see the voltage drop slowly). So, once you know it is working for sure, find out your pinout on ‘which wire should have what’.  Once done, solder it up and retest the voltage on your pins in the socket. Should be properly giving the right current.

The finishing touch:
Then, close up the box, put some seal or retainer on your wire so it doesn’t get cut again and enjoy a fully working appliance without spending a bunch of bucks !

 

2010
11/29
CATEGORY
Electronic
Fix-It
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Issues: Got Power?

got a fairly annoying issue with a power supply for my rooter at home …  first, the symptoms were that the rooter was flickering on/off and disconnecting for no reason. So I decided to give it a look (Good thing I did).

The rooter and PSU were both very hot (not the ‘normal’ hot, but way more). I though it was not a good sign so I unplugged everything and went to give a try on another plug to see if the PSU was giving me the wanted 5V…   So, I prepared my multimeter, came to plug the little brick in and *Psssskkk* Spark magic happen as I put the PSU plug in 😦 That was the bad sign I needed.

Then, I didn’t unscrew the case; it did came off all by itself I must say (guess It was begging to be unplugged). So, I carefully looked at all the components to notice that 2 of the electrolytic capacitor were looking like ‘sumo’ capacitors. They were bloated and round (which is not good but probably not the cause of the issue). then, I stumble on the transistor… this little guy blown into 2 pieces and put a mark on the transformer right aside of him. So, after unsoldering everything, I also noticed that the fuse was wrong (D’oh!) and that I had a 1/8w resistor that have molten. I also think that one of the trace on the board was lifted and was doing contact once in a while (probably what blown up when I plugged it in the 2nd time). Also, the board heated so much that the normally brown circuit board is now of a fair black color.

In other words, it was due. and mostly all theses little parts are now in the trash can since I couldn’t trust any of theses after been used for … at least 10 years on a 24/7 basis…

Here’s the pictures of the ‘issues’: (make sure to open the resistor image to see how bad it was)

2010
11/18
CATEGORY
Electronic
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Bench PSU: General Progress & Issues

More progress has been done on the little monster…

Proper Fan Screwing:
I recently bought the screws for the back fans and decided to install everything as they should be. Now I have 12 screws that are properly placed.

Power LED:
I also installed the power LED in front of the case. It looks much better now with the green light when it’s on! The steps were fairly simple for this one: Solder the resistor to the LED, solder the wires and heatshrink it and Voila!

Potentiometer Soldering & hooking:
The potentiometer also got hooked up and finalized. After soldering the pins, I wanted to do something nifty for the wire so it is running down while being held by the extra pins on the Pot. Also, instead of tie wrap, I went for miniature section of heatshink to hold both wires together. Now, with the Pot and LED on, the face should be final.

General Wiring:
I also did the wires to connect the terminals, hooked the PS_On wire and finalized some wire stacks (3.3v & 1 of the ground). All the connections are either soldered together then heatshrink wrapped or soldered to the component/connector then heatshrink wrapped. (note that the 3.3v was heatshrink wrapped after the picture.)

Variable Voltage Regulator:
I also did some progress on the VVR. The spacers to lift it and hold it in place have been added and only need to mount them in the case now. I also defined where I’ll be placing it inside the box (just didn’t had time to drill the holes yet).

Issues:
I aam currently running into a somewhat nasty issue. when the PSU have no load, I can get the voltage from ~ 1v to 9v (which satisfy me for the moment until I can get a -5v PSU) but as soon as I put some load on the PSU, the voltage drop to around 3v or less (9v -> 3v & 1v -> nothing) and the component doesn’t work; so I’m totally clueless. Also Debugging electronic circuit ain’t my speciality so I’ll ask a friend at work to have a look to see if the circuit is properly built (( Never Know… ))

Current Inside&Front:

2010
11/11
CATEGORY
DIY: Bench Lab PSU
Electronic
Tools
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Fix-It: Computer USB connector Fixing (Part 2 – Final)

During the weekend, I finally managed to find time to fix my USB connector on my PC case.

First started by demounting the circuit from the case.

Then, I desoldered the previous connector (which was a total pain) and cleaned up the holes. I also noticed a tiny issue… one of the trace for one of the connector pin is in very bad shape so, I made sure that It was still usable by checking connectivity on that little piece of trace (otherwise, I’d have had to use the classic ‘Green wire’ technique :P). Oh and, I’m sorry for the semi-blurry Trace picture, I HAD to try my new Reverse Macro setup with circuit trace 😉 !

So, I put the new connector back in, soldered it in place and made sure that every pins were keeping connectivity to the socket on the other side of the board. Success ! Then I mounted back everything in and tried it with a USB key and everything went flawless!

2010
11/08
CATEGORY
Electronic
Fix-It
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Bench PSU: Added the PSU Board & Wiring

Last night, I wanted to get things moving with the PSU box so I decided to tear apart the old PSU case and put it in the new case.

Spacers:
I started by placing the spacers for the board. Quite a painful job to mark it all down and figure out where to place them without the screws getting stuck in top-part of the casing. I think it end up being pretty good except that 2 screws are a bit in the way of the casing (but it’s still able to close properly, I’ll just have to use a counter-sink screw instead when I’ll have more time to upgrade the PSU).

Wiring:
I then started to wire stuff like the AC In and the Fans (I wanted to try it badly heh). It was pretty straight forward except for a few issue (like me getting my finger a bit burnt by my girlfriend … but that was a little negligible accident 😉 ).

Issue:
Indeed, there HAD to be issues :). So, once everything was properly installed, I checked and rechecked and re-rechecked the connections everywhere. Everything was in place and properly placed for my test. So, I plugged in the AC connector (while being over-stressed in case something happened (I so have trust in myself, it’s crazy!)) and nothing blown (good thing!). I flipped the switch carefully and nothing happen… (bad thing!) and after a few On/Off, nothing moved… So, I unplugged everything and rechecked everything Again… to notice that the fuse had blown…   But well, I can’t really complain since the fuse was a 250V 0,5A…  So, it was sure it would blow up (since the fuse on the PSU board is a 250V 4A 😉 )…  Anyways, I’m heading probably tonight to get a new fuse to continue the work on the PSU asap 😉

Current Inside:

2010
11/08
CATEGORY
DIY: Bench Lab PSU
Electronic
Tools
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Scavenging: More to play with…

So, I cut open the Lexmark printers I got, I sliced the Hair Dryer and I carved the HiFi system… TONS of fun to dismantle and surprises.

The Printer dismantling is : Here.

For the HiFi, I started with the ides that I’d fix it and use it but after a bit of time testing components, I gave up and turned it into pieces.

As you can see, the boards pictures splits on 2 pictures… it’s crazy the amount of parts in there AND it’s all ‘thru-holes’ components so no issues with surface mount stuff!
and…  the U.S.S. Holy Sh*t (Sorry for bad word… I know I know…) HeatSink has boarded… seriously, have you seen that ‘MONSTER’ ? and the Transformer is humongous as well… When I’ll desolder theses guys, I’ll take better pictures because… it worth it !

Also, I sliced in the Hair dryer (AND found the issue !, or at least, one of …  in case there was many). So, Got it open, did a bit of test on everything (and there is not alot) to see that nothing looks ‘wrong’ but I tried to see if the current was flowing with the heating system fuse… nothing… so guess I had found my issue !

Enjoy !

2010
10/24
CATEGORY
Component Scavenging
Electronic
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Desoldering Wednesday: October 20th, 2010 (None :( )

I sadly caught an Eye infection so I’m taking things slow. So, as you can figure out, there was no Desoldering Wednesday this week. I will try to have something for the weekend tho…

2010
10/21
CATEGORY
Component Scavenging
Desolder Wednesday
Electronic
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MSE-6: Design Flaw

Bad news… I just realized that my design wasn’t good.

Issue: The propulsion system would have been mounted too high for the wheels to work or to look screen accurate.The mount of the propulsion system will have to be under the droid instead.

Solution: Buy the foam wheels that I was supposed to get, get the axle, gears, motor, ESC and everything I needed. Mount a gearbox under the droid and hook the motor with the ESC so it mean that I won’t be able to have an interchangeable interior or even a ESC/Motor plate. So, instead, I will mount everything as final.

Morale of tonight: Plan better so nothing like that will happen again

2010
09/26
CATEGORY
Droid
MSE-6 'Mouse' Droid
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MSE-6: Progress

Lots of new stuff to tell:

Received my MSE-6 “Mouse” Droid 1:1 Shell !
Yes, just before Montreal Comic Con, I received the little monster shell. It is HUGE compared to what I had expected but I’m very happy about it. The bigger it is, less chances that it’ll get Squished! heh. It also came ‘un-trimmed’ which mean that I still had some work left on the edges to get it cleaned & ready. Here’s a picture of the shell as I received it.

Experimentation with the Arduino!
I had time to experiment and play with my arduino and the various pieces and bits of parts that I bought. Making the LCD and the Keypad work (separately) was probably the most awesome achievement I had made on an electronic point of view in … a Long time. I still had alot of fun figuring out the pinout/code to make them work tho. Only thing with the LCD is that I didn’t figured out how to code it so it use the 2nd line display but that’s another story. Pictures of the LCD interface:

Trimming the MSE-6 “Mouse” droid shell
Using the same techniques as I had seen by many other builders, I decided to get a piece of wood, drop it in the shell and cut the right height. In theory, it works like a charm, In practice, that’s another story… It will require alot of sanding to get the edge good and probably a good shot at the rotatory tool too. Also, I did a few dents on the side so I’ll have to spend tons of time fixing it up with either another piece of plastic or Bondo or any other method I’ll come up with.

Making the inside Support for the MSE-6 “Mouse” droid
The way I’ve designed my Mouse droid is that it will contain an interchangeable ‘guts’. That piece will hold everything and it’s going to be possible to unscrew 2 screws and remove the ‘board’. That thing allow me to make everything outside of the shell (without breaking anything in the crafting process) and then, just screw the board in and Voila! I also made the schematic for the wireing if you’re curious:

Feel free to comment!

2010
09/23
CATEGORY
Droid
Electronic
MSE-6 'Mouse' Droid
Plastic
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Issues: Burnt Servo

In my various tests, I came to the point of testing my Spektrum DX6 w/ it receiver (AR6000) that I got. Only issue, it didn’t came with a battery for the Rx (It was 2nd hand) so I had to build mine :).  So I got 4 NiCd from the electronic store, solder them in serie and Tada ! I had a 4.8v battery that works with my thing as it was supposed to be (according to the wall charger).  Only issue, I had 2 ‘loose’ connectors instead of the 1x 3 pin connector that is supposed to fit on Rx but… I didn’t minded since it was more of a Test battery. Things goes well, I managed to bind my Rx w/ the Tx and connected 2 servos to it and they were working perfect. Then, my girlfriend wakes up and, all happy, I wanted to show her how great it was… so I plugged the battery with reversed polarity…  :/  All we could hear is … ‘Bzzzztt’ so I unplugged everything fast and looked the little smoke comming from one of the servo…. Gratz me, I managed to burn 2 servos and made a very nice 1/4″ black burn on our dinner table at home.

I have learned the hard way but now I am fully aware of the polarity of my battery. And on the bright side, I managed to get 2 extra connector (3 pins) that were in perfect condition so, I changed the connector on the battery… in case 🙂 oh and, here’s a picture of the little guy who burnt and that I cut into pieces to scavenge the parts 🙂 notice the ‘toasted’ part ? 🙂

2010
09/10
CATEGORY
Electronic
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