Differential amplifiers come in handy in applications where common-mode noise and interference are present in the system. This is largely attributed to the very high common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) these amplifiers provide. And because of the high CMMR they are…
In my previous post, I did a teardown of an HP 8620C sweep generator along with an HP 86245A 5.9 GHz to 12.4 GHz RF plugin. A few of the plguin boards in the 8620C had leaked capacitors and also…
I just picked up an HP 8620C sweep oscillator with an HP 86245A 5.9 GHz to 12.4 GHz RF plugin on eBay. This time around though, the unit does not work. While it was advertised as a working unit I…
I recently bought an HP 8671A microwave frequency synthesizer on eBay. This synthesizer can generate signals from 2GHz to 6.2GHz with an unleveled output of more than 8dBm. It is a nice complement to my HP 8642B signal generator and…
My video on the teardown of an HP 493A traveling wave tube amplifier had generated quite a bit of interest. After I revealed that the electron gun portion of the tube was radioactive, a couple of my YouTube channel viewers…
Big thanks to Dave Jones at the EEVBlog for featuring one of my teardown videos. His generosity would certainly help smaller channels like mine attracting more viewers.
Quite a few people had contacted me on the availability of the firmware for the Amrel PPS-2322 programmable power supply I did a teardown with a few years ago. I finally got a chance to it and backed it up…
As I mentioned in one of my posts a few years back, a color analyzer from the 80’s can be a treasure trove for the hobbyists. And at the very least, it is a cheap way to get yourself a…
I few months back, I wrote about my experience with the six dimmable Philips LED bulbs I purchased a year ago. Those light bulbs all failed within months of each other in just over a year of use. This time…
In this blog post, let’s take a look at what’s inside an Extech 380460 miliohm meter.
As mentioned in my previous post, besides the broken LCD there was also an issue with the power supply portion of the unit and the output voltage was clamped at around 10 to 11V. The digital circuitry portion however seemed…
I recently picked up a BK Precision 1696 programmable switching power supply off eBay. Unlike many of the vintage test equipment I did teardowns with in the past, this model is still in production today. The one I got was…
Power meters for measuring power consumption of consumer electronics have been around for at least a decade. The most popular ones are argubly P3 International‘s power meters and many of its clones. I have a later version of the P4400…
We are all familiar with the I/V characteristics of a diode. The main characteristics of a typical diode is that when forward biased, it starts to conduct as the voltage applied approaches the threshold voltage of the diode and the…
To charge the 110Ah battery bank I built, I need a power supply that can provide at least 10A at 14.6V. Since I have many old ATX power supplies lying around and the 12V rails of these power supplies are…