LDR Kit build video

Hi folks check out my latest video on YouTube here

hope you enjoy it

Signalex Powerbank Teardown

Hi Folks today I am going to share a quick teardown of a Sgnalex Powerbank I got from Poundland yesterday.

As you can see from the above picture the powerbank has a small size of 98 X 25 X23 mm which made me wonder what it was like inside.

 so using my spudger I gently popped the back off to reveal a small circuit board and cell

the cell is a 18650li-ion 3.7v 1200mha which is a very good cell and makes me think about buying more of these just for the cells.

 voltage on the battery

 here is the charging and boost circuit and the main chip seems to be a MP3401A (data sheet ) which is a P-channel mosfet it does its job and considering this is only £1 its not bad value

to close the model no of the powerbank is 170327 I have used one of these for a while now on my prototyping board as a steady source of power for my projects 

thanks for reading 

Eyepiece light project Part 4 making things smiple

Hi Folks welcome to Part 4 of the eyepiece light project in this part we will talk about a change to the chip and the power supply for the project .

 I've decided to change to the sn74hc595 chip an I can run it without a mico controller and for this project I think it will make it easier to prototype. I have the chip set up with power and ground on pins 16 and 8 I also have a 1000k resistor on pin 13 with is the output enable pin and then I have leds attached to 4 of the outputs.

you can find the data sheet here

as for the power supply for the project I'm using 2 of these button cell batteries giving me 6 volts  in total which gives me plenty power .

here you can see the very simple breadboard layout

here is the project working its pretty bright but I am going to add some low value resistors to help the the leds last longer and run slightly less bright but I will left you know what value I choose after some testing .

thanks for reading 

Upcoming videos update

Hi Folks

Today I'd like to share news upcoming videos  that I plan to make over next few weeks I have a few kits that you can see below I'm not sure which one I will do first but I should have the first one up by the weekend I will also be record the proto version of the eyepiece light project as well and some other little things as well .

Tomorrow I will have and update on a eyepiece project don't forget the check out my last video Here 

thanks for reading 

first full kit build video youtube video

Hi folks
check out my first full kit build on YouTube this is the first video in which I solder a kit from ebay on camera you can check the kit out here   I know it isn't the best video but with practice and time I am sure I will get better at them as well as editing so let me know what you think the video is here 

thanks for reading

Dobby

EyePiece Light Project Part 3 Testing AT TINY 85 with TLC5916

Hi folks welcome to part 3 of the eyepiece project in this instalment I will be finding out if I can drive the TLC5916 with an at tiny 85 .

the at tiny 85 is a really usefully little I have a done a post in the past about programming them. (you can find that here)  I will be giving a full  explanation on the code in a later part of this project.

After uploading the code to the at tiny and wiring it up I found it was able to run the TLC5916 which is great news for the weight and size of the Project

What does this mean going forward?

 This means I will be able to move on to the next stages of  the project which are writing the code for the project and working on the layout of the board before build a prototype  and finally getting a PCB made .

Thanks for reading see you again soon for part 4

Eyepiece Light Project Part 2 Playing With The TLC5916

Hi folks welcome to part 2 of the eyepiece light project in this part I will show you one of the possible IC that I may use the TLC5916 you can check the Datasheet  this is an 8-channel Led sink Driver .

after a bit of playing around I found that it needed to have a micro controller to work which is a pain but I hooked up my Arduino and found some code online you can find that here  and had it working.

The TlC5916 can easily power the 4 leds as I want and I could run twice the leds I was planning to of a 5volt supply which is one of my goals for this project and with a little bit of coding I will be able to get constant light rather than flashing leds but I will cover that if I decide to use this IC.

After some thoughts about size of the final board I thought I would see is I could run it of a Arduino mini and it  does run so maybe I can use a pic micro controller as a smaller option I will let you know as soon get one to try .

Thanks for reading what IC would you use ? 

Lets talk about Flowcharts

Hi folks 

Flowcharts are used in designing and documenting simple processes or programs. Like other types of diagrams, they help visualize what is going on and thereby help understand a process, and perhaps also find less-obvious features within the process, like flaws and bottlenecks. There are different types of flowcharts: each type has its own set of boxes and notations. The two most common types of boxes in a flowchart are:

• a processing step, usually called activity, and denoted as a rectangular box.
• a decision, usually denoted as a diamond.

A flowchart is described as "cross-functional" when the chart is divided into different vertical or horizontal parts, to describe the control of different organizational units. A symbol appearing in a particular part is within the control of that organizational unit. A cross-functional flowchart allows the author to correctly locate the responsibility for performing an action or making a decision, and to show the responsibility of each organizational unit for different parts of a single process.

Flowcharts depict certain aspects of processes and are usually complemented by other types of diagram. For instance, Kaoru Ishikawa defined the flowchart as one of the seven basic tools of quality control, next to the histogram, Pareto chart, check sheet, control chart, cause-and-effect diagram, and the scatter diagram. Similarly, in UML, a standard concept-modeling notation used in software development, the activity diagram, which is a type of flowchart, is just one of many different diagram types.

Nassi-Shneiderman diagrams and Drakon-charts are an alternative notation for process flow.

Common alternative names include: flow chart, process flowchart, functional flowchart, process map, process chart, functional process chart, business process model, process model, process flow diagram, work flow diagram, business flow diagram. The terms "flowchart" and "flow chart" are used interchangeably.

The underlying graph structure of a flowchart is a flow graph, which abstracts away node types, their contents and other ancillary information.

I use flowcharts to help with fault finding on all sorts of things from pcbs to why a car won't start and so on I find them it very helpful as it helps me look at the problem in a smaller way instead of a whole.

at first it may seem like a complicated way to fault find but once you start using them you soon find it easy to do I often find myself making notes next to my flowcharts which help when  I start putting things back together .

I have been using draw.io make my flow charts its simple and easy to use and does everything I need 

Dobby.

Eyepiece Light Project Part 1 planning

Hi Folks I have some cheap eyepieces that I got from eBay to help with inspecting PCBs the only problem with the is that there is no light which can make it hard to see parts of the PCBs so I have decided to try and make a solution to this problem.

Below there is a rough drawing of what id like to do I have also decided that I would like to try and build it to the following rules

1. be powered by 5volts or less 
2. to use and IC of some type 
3. to be as compact as possible 

I hope you will find this project interesting in the next part I will talk about the IC I plan to use and hopefully do some breadboard work .

Thanks for reading 

Draper Cordless Driver Teardown and Quick Fix

Hi folks today I thought I would show you a quick teardown  of  a cordless driver that belonged to my granddad and had stopped holding a charge which I had put down to a failed battery as it turns out one the metal tabs joining the batteries together had broken so I used a bit of solder to reconnect  it and that fixed the problem so now onto the pictures of the teardown as well a little bit text explaining what your seeing.

 this is the driver it has two screws in this side and seven in the other side

 after removing the screws I pulled a removed the black plastic ring that holds the driver together

 as you can see the driver opens in half with one side holding the parts

 here is the battery pack that was the problem as you can see they have come apart

 a better look at the rest of the parts

 here is the inside of the chuck

 and here is the chuck part

 here is the motor that drives the chuck

 here is a picture the batteries as you can see they are not connected together

 here is better picture of the power jack and switch

 here is the connections on the switch board

 here is the batteries after they have been desoldered  from the switch board

 checking the battery for charge as you can see the voltage is ok

here is the switch after desoldering the motor and batteries

 here is the quick fix  as I said at the start I just used some solder to reconnect it

that ends this quick teardown now have it back together and working but I have been thinking about making a few mods to it such as replacing the batteries and making it chargeable via usb  

I hope you liked this post 

Washing Machine Repair Basics What Tools You Need

Hi folks in this update I will go over the basic tools you need to repair a washing machine I know this will only be a short list of items so I will explain why I think you need these tools and show you what tools I am using at the moment .

Lets get started...…….

The first tools you need is a good selection screwdrivers these are the main tools you use in the repair of washing machines.

I use the set that are seen in the picture above it has a three cross head drivers and four flat head drivers as well a bit driver which I can use the bits in the picture below. I can also use the sockets in the picture but I my opinion its better to use a ratchet with sockets so that is why I have included a socket set on this list.

The next tool on the list is a socket set I use the set you can see in the picture below.

The set has two ratchets one of which is a 3/8 and the other 1/2 and it has a wide range of sockets the ones I use the most are the 7,8, and 10 mm ones on most machines I've fixed so far but its always useful to have other sizes for when they are needed.

The next tool is a multimeter  I use the one below this is for fault finding I use it for checking switches, motors and much more .

Moving on to the next tool which is are a few pairs of pliers these a used for removing clips from pipes and to help get stubborn spade connectors off.

Another thing you might find helpful are a camera you can use this to take picture of things like where cables and plugs go as well how you have taken the machine apart .

I hope you found this basic tool guide helpful and I look forward to sharing more information on repairing washing machines and other things very soon