My workplace was throwing away an old SMART UF-55 DLP projector. The projector had many stuck mirrors and the lamp had already surpassed the rated useful life span. I had always wanted to take a look at a DMD chip…
I bought a non-working Lambda LQ-521 linear power supply on eBay a couple of weeks ago. Usually I avoid knowingly buying something that is broken unless I am certain that I could obtain parts for it at a reasonable price.…
I did a teardown of an RSA SecurID many years ago (you can see that post here). In that teardown, it was an older generation (SD600) of the RSA SecurID. In this post, let’s take a look at what’s inside…
I have received quite a bit of positive feedback since I wrote about the hacks on DTM0660L based multimeters last time. So I went ahead and translated the original Chinese datasheet into English and the PDF datasheet is linked below:
In my previous post, I did a review of the 6000 counts ennoLogic eM860T true RMS multimeter. This meter is based on a signal chip design using the versatile DTM0660L DMM chip. Besides the ennoLogic eM860T, several other multimeters such…
I picked up an autoranging True RMS multimeter from ennoLogic a couple of weeks ago. Before this purchase, I actually had never heard of ennoLogic. But the design and spec of the meter looked quite good and the selling price…
I did a teardown video of a microwave range (8-10 GHz) RF isolator last week. As a follow up, I will post some of the high-resolution pictures I took during the process here (click to see larger images).
Today at a time when digital storage oscilloscopes (DSO) are almost ubiquitous, analog scopes like Tektronix 2465 remain popular among many electronics hobbyists, especially among amateur radio operators who routinely work with high frequency circuits. I got my 2465 from…
The builtin real-time clock (RTC) in my Keithley 706 works rather nicely as a clock in my lab when the scanner is not in use. The 7-segment displays are big and clear and they are two dedicated displays for the…
I bought a Wavetek OCXO board a long while ago. My original plan was to remove the onboard crystal oven to replace the broken OCXO in my HP 5350B. But since I later managed to fix the original OCXO ,…
In this blog post, I will show you how to build a 0 to 5.8 GHz tracking generator for the HP 8566B 100 Hz to 22 GHz spectrum analyzer using off-the-shelf components for under $100. Although this tracking generator is…
In this blog post, Let’s take a look at how to measure a filter’s frequency response using a spectrum analyzer and a signal generator. Typically, a tracking generator is preferred for this kind of scalar network analysis as its center…
In my previous blog post, I did a quick teardown of my HP 8566B spectrum analyzer. In this post, I will discuss how to use a spectrum analyzer like this to demodulate an AM or a FM signal. A video…
The latest addition to my lab is an HP 8566B spectrum analyzer. This isn’t just any spectrum analyzer, it was perhaps the best spectrum analyzer money could buy back in the late 80’s. While it was discontinued in 1997 and…
Capacitor ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance) measurement is very useful in diagnosing issues with power supplies. In linear power supplies, a high ESR filter capacitor may cause excessive ripple current on the voltage rails and can cause the capacitor to overheat…