Author: voltlog

Voltlog #173 – µAmp Current Source

Welcome to a new voltlog, today we are taking a look at a very interesting item that was sent in by a viewer of the channel. Fabian who is from Romania sent me this microAmp current source that he designed and built himself. Even though he built only a few units by hand it looks professional and you must have noticed the resemblance with the uCurrent built by Dave from eevblog, but that gadget is used to measure small currents while this one is used to generate small currents.

Link to the uAmp Current Source on Tindie

 

Voltlog #172 – InTheMail

Welcome to a new InTheMail the series that will touch both your passion for electronics and your bank account at the same time.

Here are links to all the products shown in this video:

 

Voltlog #171 – XFS5152CE Speech Synthesis Module Example Project

Welcome to a new Voltlog today we are taking a closer look at this inexpensive speech synthesis module. The part number is XFS5152CE and we do find a datasheet for this chip but unfortunately it is all in Chinese. The datasheet contains schematic examples, they show you how to wire a microphone pre-amp, how to wire an audio amplifier, they also give you some code examples but most of the text is in Chinese.

I found this online doc translator service which worked surprisingly well, it translated my document and kept most of the formatting intact. So now I have a translated datasheet which I will link in the description below and I will also place a link to places where you can buy this module and also where you can buy just the chip.

 

 

Voltlog #170 – Li-Ion Battery UPS Module Testing

In this video we are taking a closer look at the UPS Battery module I got in a recent InTheMail video.

Get this UPS Module: Ebay , Banggood. 

Datasheet links:

 

Voltlog #168 – Polycom CX600 IP Phone and Jabra 410 Speaker Teardown

A viewer sent in a Polycom CX600 IP Phone and a Jabra 410 Speaker for a teardown and a teardown I did. The phone has this TI TNET series system on chip, I couldn’t find any info on that but it looks like it may contain an ARM11. The speaker interestingly contained a bluetooth chip even though it doesn’t have a bluetooth feature but an explanation for that is given in the video.

Voltlog #167 – InTheMail

Welcome to a new InTheMail the series that will touch both your passion for electronics and your bank account at the same time.

Here are links to all the products shown in this video:

Voltlog #166 – LRC Reference Box (Hao QI Xin)

In this video we are taking a closer look at the Hao QI Xin LRC Reference Box which contains a couple of polystyrene capacitors, a vishay precision resistor and an un-marked inductor. I also talk about getting the AD584 voltage reference box, however it is hard to find the LH version as most seller will be sending you the KH version which is a lower grade of stability.

Here are some links mentioned in the video:

Voltlog #165 – USAMS 3 Port USB Charger With Display Review & Teardown

In this video I am taking a look at the USAMS 3 Port USB Charger With Display. Turns out the same charger is sold under many different names, and I suspect inside there is the same circuit labeled USB320G.

Like I mentioned in the past China is improving the designs of these charger each year so the situation is much better now than it was a few years back. There would still be the $2 death traps disguised as apple chargers but in the $10 range you can get some pretty decent chargers with adequate protection. This charger has the required protection features to make it safe to use however its not special in any way, the noise level is higher than I would like and the output current of just 3A is not enough for charging 3 devices. Not even 2 at the same time if they both require more current.

Here are links to where you can find this charger: Banggood, Aliexpress,  Amazon.

Voltlog #164 – Pirl USB Charger Review & Teardown

This is a review of the Pirl charger which has 4 independent USB ports each capable of up to 2.7A continuous output. The product will launch on kickstarter soon.

You get 4 ports each capable of 2.7A and we’ll put that to a test later. The 4 ports are independent so a fault on one of the ports is only gonna shut down that port. It has input reverse polarity protection, thermal protection and ESD protection. It can also detect and optimize the charging current based on the connected device so I expect to see one of those tiny chips which handles the usb data lines on each port.

Another interesting feature they mention on their website is voltage compensation such that each channel adjusts the output voltage according to the current drawn, if the current increases the voltage will increase slightly to compensate for the voltage drop that might occur in the cable up to your device.

They also have a wattmeter on the front of the device showing you how much power your device is pulling from the charger.