TSP #222 - Fluke 5450A Precision Resistance Calibrator (1-Ohm - 100-MOhm) Teardown & Repair
26.6K views
February 11, 2023 11:33 PM
In this episode Shahriar takes a look at a non-functional Fluke 5450A resistance calibrator box. The unit is equipped with a wide range of resistors ranging from 1-Ohm to 100-MOhm some of which are 0.005% tolerance. The instrument powers on and shows a single LED on the front panel without any other activity.
Upon further inspection it becomes clear that there are no other activities from the main CPU despite the clock signal being present. A replacement CPU returns the unit to normal front-panel operation. The analog board also has two blown fuses which may be the result of a in-rush event. After fuse replacement the analog relay arrays also function. The unit is measured against a Keysight 3458A 8.5-digit multimeter and shows remarkable accuracy despite its age.
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TSP #221 - Anritsu MS46121A 6GHz USB Vector Network Analyzer Teardown & Reverse Engineering
25.4K views
February 5, 2023 2:45 PM
In this episode Shahriar presents an in-depth analysis of the an Anritsu single-port USB VNA which operates from 150kHz – 6GHz. The instrument has a corrupted firmware which prevents it from being useable.
The instrument’s internal dual-board design is presented alongside detailed analysis of the digital and RF boards. Various components are identified as well as the ferrite directional coupler at the heart of the RF path. A simple version of such a coupler is used to demonstrate the impact of the ferrite material on the low-frequency coupling factor.
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TNP #28 - CZUR E24 Pro Vertical Scanner with Live HDMI Output Review & Use-case Demos
6.9K views
February 2, 2023 10:33 PM
In this episode Shahriar takes a look at a mailbag item from CZUR. The ET series digital document scanners are intended for a wide range of document & book scanning situations. The free software accompanying the unit is capable various editing, stitching, batch job processing as well as OCR (optical character recognition) tasks.
You can also purchase the unit from here:
https://bit.ly/TheSignalPath-CZUR-ET24PRO;
Please note that I do NOT collect any commission from the sales. The tracked link is intended for the seller to see how the video performs for their internal evaluation.
The live 1080p 6FPS HDMI output is used along some schematic analysis to judge the suitability for future tutorial videos. The Windows application is used for several scanning examples to produce searchable PDFs using the OCR capability. The book scanning (using flattering capabilities) is also demonstrated.
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TSP #220 - Infineon 24GHz Doppler Radar Module Detailed Reverse Engineering & ASIC Analysis
65.4K views
January 15, 2023 2:47 PM
In this episode Shahriar takes a close look at the Infineon 24GHz doppler radar module in the spirit of the upcoming IEEE ISSCC 2023 Conference:
https://www.isscc.org/
The 24GHz radar module block diagram and its principle of operation is presented in details as well as the X-Ray of the PCB. Various design techniques and architectures are also explained. The RFIC ASIC is then extracted from the QFN package and examined under the microscope. The internal ASIC elements are correlated to the block diagram with discussions about various mm-wave layout techniques & high-frequency circuit design.
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TNP #27 - Design of a Custom Control Board & Software for a Broken NordicTrack S15i Exercise Bike
15.4K views
January 6, 2023 11:08 PM
In this episode Shahriar resurrects a broken NoridTrack S15i stationary exercise bike. The brain of the bike resides inside a custom Android table at the front console of the unit. The software & hardware of the bike are not publicly available and a replacement unit costs upwards of $1000.
Despite the consumer-unfriendly approach of NordicTrack, it would be a huge waste to dispose of the bike. Instead, we will design a custom hardware and software to control the bike’s resistance as well as read RPM numbers to calculate wattage and calories. Although much simpler than the original hardware, the new system is sufficient to use the bike and achieve a satisfactory exercise routine.
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