EEVblog #715 - Mailbag

Mailbag Monday
Dave opens his mail.

SPOLIERS:

Atmel AT89C2051

TI Voyage 200 Calculator
Data Precision Multimeter teardown

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[aaronlaubenthal]

yay a day off of school and a new video :) thanks dave

[AliMirjamali]

I would recommend visiting Zapta's Gitbub repository for his ARM board (link at 2:00). It is a sample of through comprehensive documentation of an electronic project. Even if you are not interested on the ARM development board, you will love the documentation.

[dwDragon]

Dave, on the car emoticon thing, I think that extra LED under the IR detector is just to hold it up in place. With so many LEDs on the BOM, it must have been cheaper to just include one more per unit rather than use a proper support...

[nodriveknowitall]

Dave, you're a nifty dude. I love taking things apart, even if I don't fully understand them. Marveling at what's inside is often satisfying, and every time I do I learn something. You've spurned me to purchase an oscilloscope and other things that I may never have any practical use for but they assist me when I'm taking things apart and delving into what makes them tick.

[xDRTeK]

It's nice seeing everyone being busy and making PCBs and circuits.
I can't wrap my head on what to make anymore, always relied on perforated boards for my circuits which makes them kind of tiny. I know, it is the idea that counts.

[TheOldmankk]

The Nano Beam is neat. Really like it.

[gamccoy]

I love through-hole boards from the 70s and 80s.  It reminds me of the days ripping open stuff when I was a kid. 

[FrontSideBus]

That car thing needs a ”twat" message option :)

[OhhBabyATriple]

Video Quality looks great this week, Dave!

[andljoy]

the LED thing would be good if you could programme it to say

TURN YOUR FUCKING FOG LIGHTS OFF!

[edwardLongman]

Nice short mailbag Dave,
I like the shorter ones!

[Elfnetdesigns]

I have an old early 90's style license plate frame with a actual tri color LED matrix in it. We already parted it out though but the actual LED matrix units we still have.

The GE Phoenix SX mobile 2-way radio used a PAC-Tec type case also.

The RFD device is not a new thing, We have run trials here to harvest up to a couple hundred DC volts from nearby RF sources. problem is the sources either have to be high powered and very close by or connected directly.
The best way to harvest DC wirelessly id to connect the device to a capacitor bank and have a times triggering circuit to act as a pulsing charger for a battery bank.
Main issue we had was the power required to generate enough RF to effectively charge a 12 volt DC battery was far greater than the harvested power. basically speeking it takes more energy to start the process than what is collected.

The device can in fact collect fractions of a volt from ambient RF being fed in from an old analog TV antenna which you can  wire to a multiplier and then a cap bank..We got several White LEDS to flash at a 1 second pulse at a decent brightness doing this though. 
Our testing was done a few years back also, I;m sure the whole thing has advanced greatly since and I await to see what this FRD produces!

[EVguru]

When I reach for a calculator, it'd for my old faithful Casio FX-100, still going strong on its original Casio branded AA cells with 1983 date codes!

[ForViewingOnly]

4:25 Dave, that was a mini version of a late 1970's toy in the UK called Big Trak, which was a programmable vehicle for kids (go forward 9 steps, turn 90 degrees, go forward 5 steps... that kinda thing). I only recognised it because I wanted one so badly when I was 9 years old :-)

[JustinHallPlus]

I always imagine that that knife is actually regular sized, and you're just 3 feet tall.

[twocvbloke]

I think I'd have to reconfigure that LED thing saying "Back off" to something of a similar spelling (involving swapping the B for F, and A for U), much more descriptive than just "back off"... :P

[worroSfOretsevraH]

I know you are a big calculator fan. Wondering which one is your all time favorite calculator, that you (would) use every day? Thanks.

[xlnyc]

the new camera is ridiculously clear and almost disorienting.
cheers mate 

[seancsnm]

Doing homework with my TI-Voyage 200 as I watch this video. I love this calculator.

[mosi]

I've been using this calculator for years.
BTW Just press the ^ button below the D pad to enter exponents.