Looking for a good, cheap way to upgrade an older phone to have wireless charging? This probably isn’t it. It’s the good, the bad, and the REALLY ugly about the SXE Electronics Wireless Charging Digital Alarm Clock.
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Tech teardowns, repairs, and reviews; sketches; how-to; games; and lots of other interesting geekery. At least one new video per month! Thanks for watching, and be sure to like, share, and subscribe!
TRANSCRIPT:
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00:00:03,690 –> 00:00:10,360
[Music]
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00:00:05,310 –> 00:00:15,459
okay so here we have the FX e wireless
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00:00:10,360 –> 00:00:19,929
charging digital alarm clock wireless
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00:00:15,459 –> 00:00:21,939
charging enabled smartphone anyway so
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00:00:19,929 –> 00:00:23,830
here’s the box wirelessly charge your
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00:00:21,939 –> 00:00:25,210
smartphone they can charge no wires
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00:00:23,830 –> 00:00:26,140
needed because it comes with these
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00:00:25,210 –> 00:00:28,720
handy-dandy
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00:00:26,140 –> 00:00:30,970
wireless charging adapters that you can
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00:00:28,720 –> 00:00:32,860
stick on the banking phone or your
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family ever and then of course you can
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wireless charging have on top a physical
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device to clock
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00:00:39,180 –> 00:00:47,649
fuck your manual side and optional
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00:00:43,149 –> 00:00:50,699
battery backup with to delay that’s the
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acquirement well it’s days you just like
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00:00:50,699 –> 00:00:53,910
let’s do
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[Music]
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clock radio units we have two adapters
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AC adapter patient there this is light
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adapter the adapter it Saturday the
Make your 3D printer into a wireless print server by adding a Raspberry Pi and capture timelapse videos with an on-board webcam. What do you want to see me print next?
How To Install OctoPi http://airbornesurfer.com/2017/06/setup-octopi-raspberry-pi-octoprint/
AFFILIATE LINKS:
LED Lighting http://amzn.to/2rBwaZs
The Simpsons http://amzn.to/2sIXSTX
The Lord of the Rings http://amzn.to/2tcMk8w
Jurassic Park http://amzn.to/2sJ5t4w
Running Scared http://amzn.to/2rq8Nhf
Outlet Saver http://amzn.to/2rqigVK
Right-Angle USB Cable http://amzn.to/2sDdIQl
USB Power Adapter http://amzn.to/2szR7TM
Webcam http://amzn.to/2sDaYCo
THINGIVERSE LINKS:
Cable Loop/Holder https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:934927
Raspberry Pi Mount https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1205961
Camera Mount https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2389663
Spool Holder https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:255229
–Be sure to subscribe! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=theairbornesurfer
–Follow on Twitter http://twitter.com/airbornesurfer
–LIVE on Periscope every Wed @ 5pm Pacific http://www.periscope.tv/airbornesurfer
–Everything else is at http://airbornesurfer.com
Tech teardowns, repairs, and reviews; sketches; how-to; games; and lots of other interesting geekery. At least one new video per month! Thanks for watching, and be sure to like, share, and subscribe!
TRASNCRIPT:
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00:00:00,030 –> 00:00:04,799
hey folks Atari here I’ve been playing
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00:00:02,790 –> 00:00:05,580
around with this Robo 3d printer for a
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00:00:04,799 –> 00:00:07,379
while now
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00:00:05,580 –> 00:00:10,110
and I think I’ve got the hang of it
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finally the thing about 3d printing is
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it’s very much a hacker minded hobby
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there’s a lot of trial and error
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involved in the process and most
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consumer grade printers do lack a lot of
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the out-of-the-box features got some of
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the higher-end printers include which
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leads people like me to go ahead and
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build their own upgrades what I’ve done
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here is I’ve installed a Raspberry Pi
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with the octoprint software to make a
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00:00:36,090 –> 00:00:42,719
self-contained Wi-Fi printer and then I
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installed a webcam to capture time-lapse
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videos of the print process as well as
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some LED lighting for better video
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capturing and then I’ve you know kind of
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rejiggered the cabling and the filament
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00:00:53,390 –> 00:00:58,559
feeds so that they’re going to move a
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little bit better and they don’t be
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00:00:58,559 –> 00:01:03,629
caught up in may in the works inside it
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00:01:01,949 –> 00:01:08,280
just makes for a whole lot better
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00:01:03,629 –> 00:01:11,310
experience so this video is going to
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walk you through the process that I use
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00:01:11,310 –> 00:01:19,320
to install these physical upgrades but I
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00:01:16,350 –> 00:01:21,659
will have a link in the doobly-doo and
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probably up here in the corner a link to
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a full how-to article about about
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00:01:26,150 –> 00:01:33,479
installing and setting up octoprint on
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the Raspberry Pi or octopi as its called
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I will put a link to that I’ll have a
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full write-up on airborne surfer comm so
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you can follow that guide there but
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00:01:40,680 –> 00:01:46,380
again this is going to walk through the
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00:01:42,720 –> 00:01:48,509
physical installation and with that with
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the write-up on the software that should
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00:01:48,509 –> 00:01:52,680
get you through a pretty much down the
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00:01:50,579 –> 00:01:54,840
gist of it the first thing I’m going to
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00:01:52,680 –> 00:01:56,939
fix is the zip tie loop for the cable
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00:01:54,840 –> 00:01:58,770
loom having a zip tie here has been
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00:01:56,939 –> 00:02:01,950
holding the Loom a little too rigidly
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00:01:58,770 –> 00:02:03,930
and has led to a few failed prints I’ve
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00:02:01,950 –> 00:02:06,210
already cut the zip ties since removing
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the hood and now I need to replace the
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00:02:06,210 –> 00:02:10,500
mounting point for the zip tire I found
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a suitable two piece cable loop on
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Thingiverse that holds the Loom in
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00:02:13,140 –> 00:02:18,240
face while being loose enough to allow
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00:02:15,480 –> 00:02:20,000
some play in the tension remove the two
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screws holding the loop mount in place
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00:02:20,000 –> 00:02:25,740
then replace it with the base of the
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two-piece print hang on to the second
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00:02:25,740 –> 00:02:31,709
piece for later next thing to do is
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00:02:29,580 –> 00:02:34,500
install some lighting I picked up the
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self-adhesive USB powered LED strip from
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Amazon and ran it along the interior of
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00:02:37,680 –> 00:02:42,630
the hood be sure to start with the USB
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plug on the slide with the cable well
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00:02:42,630 –> 00:02:48,239
this is the same side that the loop
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00:02:44,790 –> 00:02:51,120
mount is installed now before we put the
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00:02:48,239 –> 00:02:53,459
hood back on go ahead and unplug the USB
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cable and the power cable from the
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printer place the hood back onto the
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base of the printer with the cable loop
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on the same side as the well make sure
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all the wiring is tucked inside the hood
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before pressing down to properly align
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the screw holes then screw the hood
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securely in place now gently lift the
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printer and set it on its side make sure
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to hold on to the print cartridge and
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abed as they’re likely to slide around
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00:03:21,810 –> 00:03:26,790
to install the Raspberry Pi we’re going
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to need to siphon some electricity from
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the printers power supply specifically
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from the AC input coming from the switch
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on the back of the unit the power supply
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on a robo 3d printer is a tough zombie
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to remove
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there aren’t any screws or anything it’s
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00:03:46,769 –> 00:03:53,430
just held in the friction very tightly
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as you can see taking quite a bit of
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00:03:53,430 –> 00:03:58,950
effort to remove I found that shifting
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00:03:56,190 –> 00:04:01,380
it down at an angle back and forth will
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garner the quickest results but your
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00:04:01,380 –> 00:04:06,810
mileage may vary so here are the
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terminals these four go into the Arduino
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board that controls the printer and
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these three are for the AC what dish
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blue brown green and yellow OnLive just
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get get somebody killed
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you see standards exist for a reason
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well they exist for many reasons but one
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00:04:27,039 –> 00:04:33,099
of them is safety international standard
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00:04:29,889 –> 00:04:35,289
wiring colors are such so that one does
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00:04:33,099 –> 00:04:37,710
not accidentally connect the wrong
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conduct to do the wrong terminal or
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00:04:37,710 –> 00:04:47,740
worse touch the wrong live conductor
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00:04:41,439 –> 00:04:50,199
this is wrong this is it’s good right
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00:04:47,740 –> 00:04:57,370
I mean bed at least the goddamn
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00:04:50,199 –> 00:04:59,770
terminals are clearly marked anyway
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00:04:57,370 –> 00:05:02,919
we’re going to need to tap into these
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00:04:59,770 –> 00:05:05,139
leads to direct power to a standard 110
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00:05:02,919 –> 00:05:07,180
volt outlet so that we can use an
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off-the-shelf power converter to power
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the Raspberry Pi
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we’ll start by loosening the terminal
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screws and removing the leads I picked
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00:05:14,169 –> 00:05:19,210
up this outlet saver at micro Center for
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a couple of dollars essentially it’s a
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10 inch long grounded extension cord
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take a pair of scissors and cut off the
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plug-in then strip away the outer casing
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leaving just the outlet end and the
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exposed inner wiring at least these
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wires are the proper colors so now we
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00:05:35,949 –> 00:05:40,569
just need to strip the end of the
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insulation off of each of the wires so
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we can hook them up to the terminal now
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00:05:43,330 –> 00:05:48,969
remember kids ground is green like grass
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on the ground white is neutral because
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00:05:48,969 –> 00:05:55,719
it’s the neutral color and black is live
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because black lives matter anyway
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so we reinsert the leads from the switch
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into the proper terminal then insert the
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00:06:01,270 –> 00:06:06,810
new leads from the extension cord into
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00:06:04,240 –> 00:06:10,599
the appropriate terminals as well and
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tighten the retaining screw then simply
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00:06:10,599 –> 00:06:19,629
reposition the power supply back inside
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its retainer with a good shove now we’re
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going to need to run a USB cable to
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connect the Arduino to the Raspberry Pi
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and because the Arduino is mounted so
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00:06:26,259 –> 00:06:31,330
close to the edge of the base we’re
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going to use this right angle USB cable
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00:06:31,330 –> 00:06:36,279
to make the connection now even with the
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00:06:33,789 –> 00:06:38,409
low profile of the right angle cable
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though we’re going to need to
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move the Arduino to plug in the cable so
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just remove these three mounting screws
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from the Arduino and carefully plug in
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the USB cable you can use the existing
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wires to hold the new USB cable in place
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just be careful not to pull any of the
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wires from the Arduino screw the Arduino
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back into place and you’re done with
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step 2
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I found the simple mouth for a Raspberry
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Pi on Thingiverse but I also printed if
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00:07:05,769 –> 00:07:10,959
you get the hole size right you can use
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00:07:08,379 –> 00:07:12,610
screws to mount the pie in place but I’m
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00:07:10,959 –> 00:07:15,339
just going to use glue as it’s a little
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00:07:12,610 –> 00:07:17,439
easier than drilling out the hole apply
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the glue to the mount and press the
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Raspberry Pi board into place some glue
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should come through the holes in the pie
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and mushroom over to provide a pretty
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good hole clamp some parts together
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until the glue sets apply glue along the
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perimeter of the mouth and press it into
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place on the bottom of the printer make
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sure to hold it tightly against the base
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of the printer until they do the sex
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finally plug the printer into one of the
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USB ports on the pie plug one end of a
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USB to micro USB cable into the power
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port on the Raspberry Pi and the other
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end into a wall wart power converter I
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think this one up at Tashi station for
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about 5 imperial credits just make sure
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it’s rated for at least 5 volts and 1
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ampere plug your power converter into
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your hacked up power outlet from earlier
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and now your pie is powered on by the
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main switch on the printer again you can
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use the existing wiring to hold your new
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wiring in place I picked up a short USB
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extension cable to connect the lighting
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to the PI as well so I just need to
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connect that the last USB connection is
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made for the webcam which will record
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our time-lapse videos for this i’ll
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thread the USB cable from the front of
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the printer through the cable well to
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the underside of the printer and connect
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00:08:34,659 –> 00:08:40,120
it to the Raspberry Pi
190
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before setting the printer up light go
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ahead and insert the cable loom in place
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inside the loop installed earlier and
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enclose it with the locking piece then
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carefully write the printer this is a
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widget that I designed myself and
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Tinkercad and I’ll put a link to it in
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00:08:54,670 –> 00:08:58,900
the doobly-do what it does is it clamps
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onto the edge of the print bed and
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00:08:58,900 –> 00:09:03,970
allows you to mount a clamp style webcam
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level with the print bed so you can
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capture time-lapse video that stabilize
202
00:09:06,130 –> 00:09:11,860
to the y-axis stabilizing one axis is
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nice because otherwise motion gets
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really messy and you can’t really see
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much detail in your printing lastly
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00:09:17,410 –> 00:09:20,800
we’re going to turn the printer around
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to the back so I can install the new
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00:09:20,800 –> 00:09:25,180
spool holder that I printed this is a
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00:09:23,410 –> 00:09:27,940
replacement for the stock holder that
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00:09:25,180 –> 00:09:29,590
hangs off the side of the hood this one
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00:09:27,940 –> 00:09:31,720
keeps the footprint of the printer a
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00:09:29,590 –> 00:09:33,700
little smaller and keeps the filament
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00:09:31,720 –> 00:09:35,620
closer to the center axis of the printer
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00:09:33,700 –> 00:09:38,470
which helps keep the feed steady
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00:09:35,620 –> 00:09:40,060
preventing jams and tangles and it just
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00:09:38,470 –> 00:09:43,290
grips onto the side of the hood and
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00:09:40,060 –> 00:09:43,290
slides down to lock in place
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now if you’ll install these upgrades as
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soon as possible after setting up your
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logo through the printer you’ll find
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that you’re going to get a much better
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and much more consistent quality in your
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prints and you’ll have a lot fewer
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headaches along the way so anyway thanks
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for watching and if you like this video
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give it a thumbs up and click that
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little subscribe button and be sure to
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share it with your friends and in the
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meantime uh what would you like to see
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me 3d print leave an answer in the
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comments below until next time Tallyho
Do you have some rechargeable batteries lying around that need a capacity check? Today, we’ll take an Arduino Nano and a few other electronic parts to build a AA battery tester that will give us fairly accurate “real world” readings on NiMH batteries. This little device will come in handy for the next project on the list, so be sure to subscribe for more how-tos!
How To Install The Correct Arduino Nano Driver https://goo.gl/zWB4BD
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Tech teardowns, repairs, and reviews; sketches; how-to; games; and lots of other interesting geekery. Thanks for watching, and be sure to like, share, and subscribe!
Matthew Eargle pays a visit to Ben in Madison so that they can work together on a Zen robot garden using CNC parts. The build will use a handheld controller, a stepper motor, and a 3D printed Zen garden rake that will draw designs.
This Sharp atomic alarm clock features a nice backlight that shuts off after 5 seconds. My mother-in-law, however, would prefer the light stay on so she can see it in the middle of the night. In this video, we’ll open up the Sharp atomic alarm clock, override the backlight switch, and install a DC converter so that she doesn’t have to worry about batteries running out in the middle of the night!
As part of Project Rankin, I need to be able to convert 120VAC to a more usable 5VDC, so I’ll be using a ubiquitous wall wart. However, I want to keep it as clean and tidy as possible, so I need to wire the adapter directly into the project itself. While I’ve got the case off, I’ll walk through the basic components and how an AC adapter works.
As discussed previously, a Geiger counter is a fairly simple circuit that takes a high voltage and runs it through the switch-like Geiger-Müller tube and into the meter mechanism. To build a Geiger counter, we need to look at three basic parts: a high voltage source, the GM tube itself, and the counting mechanism.
3 Main Parts of a Geiger Counter
DIY Geiger Counter Circuit
After a bit of research, I decided to base my own circuit on this design by markusb on RobotShop.com. In this circuit, built around a Röhre ZP-1320 GM tube, the high voltage source is provided by a 40:1 transformer and charge pump that supplies the requisite 500V. Of course, a transformer requires an AC input, so a 555 timer in astable mode feeds an alternating 5V to the transformer. The metering side of the circuit uses a 555 timer to generate an electrical pulse that can be fed into a microcontroller or analog counter.
555-based Geiger counter by markusb (RobotShop.com)SBM-20
For Project Pripyat, I’m using a Soviet-era SBM-20 (СБМ-20) GM tube that we had lying around the shop, and I’ll need to adjust the circuit somewhat to power it. I like the oscillator-transformer concept, and I’ll keep that in tact, but I think I can simplify the charge pump somewhat and still provide a reliable 400V to power my tube.
I also want to run my Geiger counter off a rechargeable LiPo battery, so I’ll add a 3.7V pack and an Adafruit Powerboost 500 module to provide a stable 5V (and handle battery charging). On the counter end, I’d like to be able to have extended functionality such as data logging or triggering various outputs, so I’m going to send the GM tube pulse to an Arduino Nano (after passing through a voltage divider, of course).
After quite a bit of trial and error, I’ve come up with this:
As you can see from the schematic, I’m using a different transformer and a simpler rectifier circuit than the model’s diode ladder. I also tweaked the oscillator slightly, using only an N-channel MOSFET instead of the NPN-MOSFET combination in the original design. The NPN transistor, though, serves a new purpose as the pulse generator that drives the digital input for the Arduino. From this configuration, I can add a piezo buzzer, LED, analog meter, or any other output as well as save data to memory or pipe it to a computer via serial connection.
There are a couple of important things to note with this circuit: First, I have to reiterate that it is a high voltage circuit and you will likely get popped pretty hard if you’re not paying attention. I accidentally touched one of the capacitor terminals on the charge pump during testing and received quite an unpleasant surprise! It’s unlikely that you will suffer any lasting damage, though, but caution is the order of the day whenever high potentials are involved. Second, if you choose to use a different GM tube for this circuit, you will need to adjust the resistor and capacitor values in the charge pump. The film capacitors that I used are rated for up to 700V and the first version I assembled (using 5 capacitors) built a potential in excess of 600V (and literally screamed at me). Third, and it should go without saying, this is a device used to measure ionizing radiation and ionizing radiation is a hazardous phenomenon. Please take all precautions to limit your exposure to beta and gamma particles by using alpha sources for testing and storing your radioactive samples in appropriately shielded containers.
The Califone 1400 series record players were built like tanks: able to be thrown across a classroom, climbed upon by kindergartners, and still keep playing! Let’s take a peak inside and see just how it was built!
The big takeaway from this expedition is that the internals are extremely simple. Despite the relatively large size of the unit, most of the internal space is empty. A 12″ speaker driver sits behind the steel grille on the front of the unit and a small 3×5-inch PCB contains all of the electronics. The grounded 120VAC input directly powers the turntable motor then connects to a 4:1 transformer providing 30VAC to the tonearm light, and a small rectification circuit on the PCB that powers the amplifier circuitry.
Califone 1430K wiring schematic
I’ll have to make a better copy of this schematic for posterity. Fortunately, Califone was good enough to glue one inside the case. I’ll just have to copy it into Fritzing to make it a little more legible and update this article once it’s available.
Some 1400 series phonographs had their AC motors replaced with DC models as they were cheaper to produce and didn’t require 60Hz mains for timing. Califone issued a service bulletin in 1990 to illustrate the process for their field technicians. At least mine is still original.
Like many of our hosts, Matthew is an aficionado of vintage technology. In this project, Matthew is completely rebuilding a Califone 1400 series portable phonograph from the early 1980s to improve its playback quality. The first obstacle he has to overcome is rebuilding the preamplifier circuit to bring the raw phono signals from the tonearm up to RIAA line level, but he’s having a little trouble with the op-amp chip. How hard could it be to build a simple preamp from scratch?
I had taken a bit of a hiatus from production (as I discussed in the last Surf Report), due to both a sense of being overwhelmed by my new day job and a general lack of enjoyment in the process. Building things became a job, and it stopped being enjoyable for a time. 2021 gave me an opportunity to reflect on my own goals, and I ended up scratching hundreds of projects from my list that I knew I would either never finish or had no interest in pursuing. I’m still culling that list, but the Califone stands firm. I’m still working on it, but I’m doing it slowly and on my own terms.
In an effort to get me back in the rotation on element14 Presents, the Producers and I agreed on this smaller-format video, showing a chunk of the project in the detail that I like to provide. It’s part of a new Friday series that highlights more conceptual projects, asking How Hard Could It Be? and following the trials that go into a simpler idea. In this case, I needed to build a phono-line preamplifier for the record player from scratch, and I made a fatal error along the way. The idea is to highlight how everyone makes simple mistakes and that it’s okay to ask for help.
The video was a nice transition back into work-for-hire and a way for me to warm myself back up for the next stage of the project. Now that I have a basic design for a power supply and preamp, I can get started on breadboarding a class-D main amplifier so these parts won’t have to spend another year on the shelf!
As I explained in the How Hard Could It Be? video, the first objective in getting sound out of a record player is amplifying the phono-level signal from the tonearm (about 5mV) up to line-level (1V). This pre-amplifier stage uses a low-noise operational amplifier to boost the signal to the appropriate level. For Project Califone, I’m building the preamp stage using a Texas Instruments NE5532 OpAmp chip. Of course, I was having a little bit of trouble getting the device to work because I neglected to realize that I needed to apply both a positive and a negative voltage to the chip in order for it to function.
After realizing my mistake, I sourced a 10:1 AC-AC transformer that I could use for prototyping purposes. From the wall, I can get down to a manageable 12VAC and with a simple rectifying circuit, split that into +/-12VDC. I will have to adjust the power supply circuit to account for the 30VAC output from the transformer already installed in the phonograph, but that is a problem for another day!
At this point, I have a minimum-viable amplifier circuit for a single audio channel. Note in this schematic that there is no resistance on the input signal, so there is effectively no gain control at this point. The signal is horrendously over-driven–and when piped through the main amplifier becomes so over-modulated that even Luigi Russolo would shiver–but it works! From here, it’s a matter of adding some resistors to control the gain before feeding the output to a single-knob tone control, the second pre-amp stage, then the main amplifier.
