EEVblog #1286 - Mailbag

More Mailbag!

SPOILERS:
29:45 Chumby teardown!
38:02 SPO256-AL2 Speech Allophone chip
41:47 PCB business card

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[PocketBrain]

You can still get the Speakjet...


The voice of Joshua, the computer in Wargames was voiced by John Wood, who also played Dr. Falken. The computery effect was added in postprocessing.

[Sharklops]

"STET" is a proofreading mark indicating that a previous correction should be ignored. It's Latin meaning something like "leave it standing"

[irdmoose]

That's not felt material! That's "The Cloud" everyone keeps talking about!

[gamerpaddy]

10:00 so, they feeding the dual led power trough a ordinary microusb connector. i wonder what happens when you plug it into any device with microusb ... magicsmoke maker 3000

[KevinOsborne]

I always watch to the end! No worries Dave!

[larssg]

Reference to Sneakers at 36:08? Setec Astronomy is an anagram of Too Many Secrets.

[J_i_m_]

8:15 "seems to be something in there blocking it, and I can't figure out what" On camera, you can clearly see that the white wires are blocking it from sliding out.

[jameswong]

Microchip previously was General Instrument, I was a summer trainee (before graduate) at GI Hong Kong office during 1982 summer.

[Sharklops]

That cellphone actually is an IED (Improvised Electronic Device) !

[alienrd]

7:45 Looks like there are 2 fingers of aluminium spacing the LED strip, surely these would provide some degree of heat dissipation for the LED board. 8:04 It looks like the wires are preventing the LED board from sliding out because they're hitting against the 2 aluminium fingers that run the length of the tube. 41:10 The SP0256 AL2 was originally made by GI or General Instrument. Also, there are a lot of fake SP0256 AL2 chips about, I believe they're being produced in China (of course). All those that I have seen are marked as Microchip so the device you have might be fake I'm sorry to say.

[cemx]

at 34:57 Dave talks about the daughter board for the WiFi module connected by a USB extension cable. From the looks of the rectangular outline (35:58) on the main board it seems that the WiFi module was originally designed to be plugged in there (and no daughter board). Quite a bodge! Why the move? Heat? Probably so because of the thermal pad from the main chip to the USB connector's metal shroud.

[yappymat]

Always nice the big company’s send you stuff knowing it may get torn down and reviewed at least they know Dave’s honest and straight to the point.

[ElmerFuddGun]

I would rather have that DIY kit cell phone than anything from Apple! And at least you can get replacement parts for the kit!

[zaprodk]

The LED strip doesn't push out because the wires are hitting! - they are soldered after assembly!

[ammagee]

Was happy to see the Chumby and what makes it work inside. Bought one used back in 2012 and have been using it beside, on 24/7, since. Love it as a clock.

[demoncloud]

Mailbag is like "Happy Birthday" and everyone loves present !

[TimHoppen]

I've still got my Chumby in a bin up on a shelf. It was cool at the time.

[bostedtap]

Love the "A" & "B" buttons on the phone, I can just about remember them on British public telephones. 🧐.
Great mailbag Mr Jones.

[pifflebunk]

The board at 31:40 brought back a lot of memorys for me. That was a TINI board with a TINI stik plugged into it. It was a devolpment board for a Java OS. Used to play around with them many years ago. The socket that looked like a battery holder is for an iButton from Maxim Integrated.

[LazerLord]

That driver chip for the BenQ light noted LCDs as a typical application. I wonder if BenQ has a bunch of them in stock and use them in this secondary product to save a bit?