Here is a Marmitek Gigavideo 30 2.4GHz wireless video transmitter, has a receiver paired which will be uploaded shortly. Here is a view of the antennae, the large flat one being the 2.4GHz directional, the whip antenna possibly performing IR relay functions for the remote control.
For all those interested, here’s the bottom label.
The top cover removed reveals the main PCB. Big metal can is the RF transmitter circuitry. was encapsulated circuitry below that looks like an FM modulator for the whip antenna. Big TO220 package on heatsink is a LM7805 5-Volt regulator for the transmitter module.
These units work fantastically well when the antennas are aligned properly, at a decent range, however, they do have a nasty habit of doubling as a very effective WiFi LAN jammer.
This is an old cordless landline phone, with dead handset batteries.
Here’s the handset with the back removed. Shown is the radio TX/RX board, underneath is the keyboard PCB with the speaker & mic. All the FM radio tuning coils are visible & a LT450GW electromechanical filter.
Radio PCB removed from the housing showing the main CPU controlling the unit, a Motorola MC13109FB.
The keypad PCB, with also holds the microphone & speaker.
Bottom of the keypad board, which holds a LSC526534DW 8-Bit µC & a AT93C46R serial EEPROM for phone number storage.
Here’s the base unit with it’s top cover removed. Black square object on far right of image is the microphone for intercom use, power supply section is top left, phone interface bottom left, FM radio is centre. Battery snap for power backup is bottom right.
PSU section of the board on the left here, 9v AC input socket at the bottom, with bridge rectifier diodes & main filter capacitor above. Two green transformers on the right are for audio impedance matching. Another LT450GW filter is visible at the top, part of the base unit FM transceiver.
Another 8-bit µC, this time a LSC526535P, paired with another AT93C46 EEPROM. Blue blob is 3.58MHz crystal resonator for the MCU clock. The SEC IC is a KS58015 4-bit binary to DTMF dialer IC. This is controlled by the µC.
Underside of the base unit Main PCB, showing the matching MC13109FB IC for the radio functions.
This is the internals of a motorised valve for central heating systems. Here the top is removed showing the motor & microswitch.
Left side of the valve, showing the gearing under the motor, & the valve body under the powerhead.
Right side of the valve, showing the sprung mechanism of the valve quadrant.
Here the motor has been removed from the powerhead, showing the microswitch & the sprung quadrant gear. This spring keeps the valve closed until the motor is energized. The motor remains energized to hold the valve open.
Here the valve body has been opened showing the internal components. The rubber valve rotates on the shaft, blocking the lower port of the valve when in operation.
The motor’s protective cap has been removed here showing the rotor. This is a synchronous motor, of a special type for use in motorised valves. As the windings need to be continuously energized to hold the valve open, it is designed not to burn out under this load. 240v AC 50Hz, 5RPM.
This is a little security measure you get with Internet Banking with the Co-Op, generates codes to confirm your identity using your bank card. About the size of a pocket calculator, this is the keypad & screen.
The rear of the unit, the card slots into the top, manufactured by Gemalto Digital Security.
Outer back cover removed, showing the 8 contacts for the chip on the bank card, the 2 contacts below that switch on power when a card is inserted. Power comes from 2 lithium coin cells in the compartment on the lower left.
PCB removed from the casing, showing the internal components. Two large pads at top left are battery connections, while the only IC on the board is the main CPU, under the card connector. 6MHz oscillator & 32Khz crystal on board for processing & timekeeping. LCD screen connection at far right.
Reverse side of the PCB, with the keypad contacts. LCD on right, with programming interface pads at side of keypad.
Here is a Bosch 14.4v Professional cordless drill/driver, recovered from a skip!
It was thrown away due to a gearbox fault, which was easy to rectify.
Here is the drill with the side cover removed, showing it’s internal parts. The speed controller is below the motor & gearbox here. The unit at the top consists of a 12v DC motor, coupled to a 4-stage epicyclic gearbox unit, from which can be selected 2 different ratios, by way of the lever in the centre of the box. This disables one of the gear stages. There is a torque control clutch at the chuck end of the gearbox, this was faulty when found.
Here is the drive motor disconnected from the gearbox, having a bayonet fitting on the drive end.
This is the primary drive gear of the motor, which connects with the gearbox.
The motor is cooled by this fan inside next to the commutator, drawing air over the windings.
This is the gearbox partially disassembled, showing the 1st & second stages of the geartrain. The second stage provides the 2 different drive ratios by having the annulus slide over the entire gearset, disabling it entirely, in high gear. The annulus gears are a potential weak point in this gearbox, as they are made from plastic, with all other gears being made of steel.
Here is the charging unit for the Ni-Cd battery packs supplied with the drill. The only indicator is the LED shown here on the front of the unit, which flashes while charging, & comes on solid when charging is complete. Charge termination is by way of temperature monitoring.
Here the bottom of the charger has been removed, showing the internal parts. An 18v transformer supplies power to the charger PCB on the left.
This is the charger PCB, with a ST Microelectronics controller IC marked 6HKB07501758. I cannot find any information about this chip.
Here is a battery pack with the top removed, showing the cells.
This is the temperature sensor embedded inside the battery pack that is used by the charger to determine when charging is complete.
This is an old USB 1.1 hub that was recently retired from service on some servers. Top of the unit visible here.
Bottom label shows that this is a model F5U021 hub, a rather old unit.
PCB is here removed from the casing, Indicator LEDs along the bottom edge of the board, power supply is on the left. Connectors on the top edge are external power, USB host, & the 4 USB outputs. Yellow devices are polyswitch fuses for the 500mA at 5v each port must supply.
This is the USB Hub Controller IC, which is a Texas Instruments TUSB2046B device. Power filter capacitors next to the USB ports are visible here also, along with 2 of the polyswitches.
The power supply section of the unit, which supplies regulated 5v to the ports, while supplying regulated 3.3v to the hub controller IC. Large TO-220 IC is the 5v regulator. Smaller IC just under the power selector switch is the 3.3v regulator for the hub IC. The switch selects between Host powered or external power for the hub.
This is a device designed to reset Epson brand ink cartridges that are reportedly out of ink, so they again report full to the printer Here is the front of the unit, with the guide for attaching to a cartridge.
Back of the device removed. 3 button cells provide power to the PCB. Indicator LED sticks out of the top of the device for reset confirmation.
Row of pads on far left edge of the PCB are presumably a programming header for the uC on the other side of the board.
Here is the front of the PCB, main feature being the grid of pogo pins to connect to the cartridge chip. IC on lower right of that is a MSP430F2131 uController, a Texas Instruments part.
The IC directly to the left of the pogo pin bed is a voltage regulator, to step down the ~4.5v of the batteries down to the ~3.3v that the uC requires.
Here is a more modern phone, the Motorola V360v. Features include Dual screens, 640×480 VGA camera, full col
our TFT Main LCD, SD-Micro slot.
Here on the back the grey scale LCD can be seen, with the camera lens to the right of the Motorola logo
Here the phone is opened showing the keypad & the full colour TFT LCD display.
Here the battery is removed from the unit, showing the SIM connector. The antenna cover is still on at the bottom.
The antenna cover has been removed in this shot, the antenna is the white section at the bottom, With the loudspeaker & the external antenna connector hidden at the right.
Here is the main PCB. Parts from left are the Bluetooth module at the top, supplied by Broadcom, the SD Card socket at the bottom. Main CPU next to that is the Freescale SC29343VKP. Above right of the CPU is the Freescale SC13890P23A Charger, Power & Audio IC. Below is the SIM card socket. Under the main CPU is the Intel Flash memory IC. ICs inside the shields are the RF sections for transmit & receive.
Rear of the display unit showing the monochrome LCD. The camera module on the bottom left. Ear speaker on the far right of the unit.
Main colour TFT LCD.
Camera module removed from the LCD unit.
The vibration motor attached to one of the LCD looms.
Another phone from the mid 90s. This is the nokia 7110.
Here the slider is open showing the keypad.
Here the battery is removed, a Li-Ion unit.
The battery cell & protection circuit removed from the casing.
This is the rear of the PCB removed from the housing. Data & charging ports on the right hand side f the board.
Front of the PCB with the RF sections at the left hand side & the keypad contacts on the right.
Closeup of the RF sections of the board, big silver rectangular cans are VCO units.
Closeup of the top rear section of the PCB, with SIM cnnector, battery contacts, IR tranciever at the far left. Bottom centre is the external antenna connector.
The logic section of the board, Large chip is CPU, to right of that is the ROM storing the machine code. Other chips are unknown custom parts.
The Mic & the loudspeaker removed from it’s housing.
LCD from the front of the unit, SPI interfaced. Flex PCB also contains the power button, loudspeaker contacts & a temperature sensor.
The scroll wheel removed from the front housing.
Tiny vibration motor removed from the rear housing, alerts the user to a text or phone call.
Here is a phone from the mid 90s, the Ericsson GA628. Here visible is the front of the unit with keypad, & single line monochrome LCD for number display.
Here the battery is removed from the phone, showing the SIM card socket. At the top under the antenna stub is the socket for an external antenna.
Here the front is removed from the phone, PCB on left, rear of keypad on right. Microphone is at bottom of keypad, with speaker at the top. Top right of the PCB is the ringer buzzer, left is shield for RF amplifier.
Here is the back of the main PCB, RF sections on left & centre. Processing & memory on right.
This phone had a Ni-Mh battery, before Li-Ion batteries were introduced.
The LCD from the front of the phone is shown here. A simple dot matrix single line unit.
This is a HP PhotoSmart 375 portable photo printer. With built in card reader, screen & PictBridge.
Top of the printer showing the UI Buttons & Screen.
Front of the unit, card reader slots at the top, Pictbridge USB connector at top left. Paper out slot at bottom. Cartridge door is on the right.
Here the cartridge door is open. Takes HP 95 Tri-Colour Inkjet Cartridge.
Battery compartment on the bottom of the unit. A Li-Ion battery pack can be installed here for mobile photo printing.
Specifications label.
Power adaptor & USB connection for PC use.
Rear door opened. Showing the paper feed tray.
Rear door has been removed in this shot. Paper feed roller & platen roller can be seen here.
Paper holder attached to rear door.
Bottom of the top cover, with connections for the buttons & LCD panel.
This is the main PCB of the unit. Controls all aspects of the printer. CPU in center, card reader sockets are along bottom edge. various support circuitry surrounds the CPU.
Rear shell has been removed here. Showing the main frame & the carriage drive motor on the left.
Closeup of the carriage drive motor & timing belt system. All the motors in this printer are DC servo motors, not steppers.
Main drive motor, feeds paper, drives rollers, operates cleaning mechanism for the inkjets.
Mainshaft encoder. Main drive motor is bottom right hand side with timing belt drive.
Closeup of the CPU. This is a Phillips ARM chip, unknown spec.
Detail of the card reader sockets, this unit takes all current types of Flash memory card.
An ICL barcode scanner from the 80s is shown here. This is the top of the unit with cover on.
Plastic cover removed from the unit showing internal components. Main PSU on left, scan assembly in center. Laser PSU & Cooling fan on right. Laser tube at top.
Closeup of laser scan motor. This unit scans the laser beam rapidly across the glass plate to read the barcode.
View of the bottom of the unit, showing the controller PCB in the centre.
The 3-phase motor driver circuit for the scan motor. 15v DC powered.
This is the laser unit disconnected from the back of the scanner. HT PSU is on right hand side, beam emerges from optics on left.
This unit is date stamped 1987. The oldest laser unit i own.
This is the Current Cost CC128 Real Time Power Meter. Shown here is the display unit, British Gas issued these free to some customers.
This unit measures current power draw in Watts, cost of power currently being used (requires unit price to be set), overall kWh usage over the past 1, 7 or 30 days & power trends during the day, night & evening. Also displays current time & current room temperature.
Here the front panel of the display has been un-clipped. At the bottom are the RJ-45 serial port & power connections.
This unit uses a PIC micro-controller as it’s CPU (PIC18F85J90) Just above & left of the CPU is the 433MHz SPD radio receiver module. The chips on the right of the CPU are a 25LC128 SPI serial EEPROM for data storage & a 74HC4060 14 stage binary counter, to which is connected the 32kHz clock crystal. The red wire around the top of the display is the antenna for the radio receiver.
For more info on the CC128 in general, the serial port & software for computer data logging, see this link
See this link for Current Cost’s list of software
Closeup of the ICs on the mainboard.
Here we have the transmitter unit, with Current Transformer (CT). The red clamp fits around one of the electric meter tails & read the current going to the various circuits. This unit is powered by 2x D cells, rated at a life of 7 years.
The PCB inside the transmitter. Again very minimal design, unknown controller IC, 433MHz radio transmitter on right hand side with wire antenna. Two barrel connectors on left hand side of board allow connection of up to two more CT clamps for measurement of 3-phase power. Centre of board is unmarked header. (ICSP?)
CT unit. Inside is a coil of wire & an iron core which surrounds the cable to be measured.
This is a Western Digital drive recently removed from my laptop when it died of a severe head crash.
Top of drive can be seen here.
Here the cover has been removed from the drive, showing the platter, head arm & magnet. Yellow piece top left is head parking ramp.
The head assembly of the drive is shown here. The head itself is on the left hand end of the arm in the plastic parking ramp. The other end of the arm holds the voice coil part of the head motor, surrounded by the magnet.
Bottom of drive, with controller PCB. SATA interface socket at bottom.
PCB removed from bottom of drive. Spindle motor connections & connections to the head unit can be seen on the bottom of the drive unit.
Controller PCB. Supports the cache, interface & motor controller ICs.
Closeup of the motor driver IC, this controls the speed of the spindle motor precisely to 5,400RPM. Also controls the voice coil motor controlling the position of the head arm on the platters.
Interface IC closeup. This IC receives signals from the head assembly & processes them for transmission to the SATA bus. Also holds drive firmware, controls the Motor driver IC & all other functions of the drive.
Cache Memory IC.
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