Electronics – MickRed

Wismec Reuleaux RX200S Blank Screen Fix

If you want help fixing your device or want me to do it please contact me.

Wismec Reuleaux RX200S Blank Screen Fix

A reader sent his RX200S, after reading the rx2/3 fix, hoping I could fix a blank screen issue.

Hooked up to PC where the firmware tool successfully detected the device. Went ahead and updated the firmware to V4.13. This let me know there wasn’t a processor issue.

I disassembled and checked connections. The ribbon cable seemed loose.

Used a heat gun to reflow the ribbon solderings. Got info on the display but it was very dim. The issue still persisted but the ribbon cable definitely needed this because it was separating from the solder.

After poking around at the surface mounted resistors near the ribbon traces I found that bridging two of the resistors the screen came to life. My untested assumption is that one of the resistors went bad and bridging them brought the screen back to life.

Reassembled and tested again. The resistance of the coil reads the same on 2 devices and the wattage to run the coil is equal between the 2 devices. Good to go.

Try this at you’re own risk and understand I’m not responsible for anything that goes wrong.

Wismec Reuleaux rX2/3 Check Battery Fix

If you want help fixing your device or want me to do it please contact me.

With no drops, no overheating, 2 batteries in use and a lower power user the Wismec rX2/3 started throwing a Check Battery error. I did not have the proper hex bit to do the existing standard fixes so I came up with a new fix.

To test if this is the fix for you connect a piece of wire to the 2 points below with batteries in and attempt to fire the device. If the Check Battery error does not appear then this fix should work for you.

The new fix bypasses the cover connections. With that said the note that this fix has not been checked against using 3 batteries so use at your own risk. I apologize for not taking pictures during the repair so I have illustrated over pictures posted on the net by others. Credit for original images at end of post.

Solder a wire between the 2 points circled in yellow and shown connected in red. Beauty of this fix is that you can test without the back cover. Once the new wire was is in place I reassembled with everything working.

If you use this fix contact me and let me know how it turned out.

Reuleaux RX2/3 Fix — Reuleaux RX2/3 Check Battery Fix

Try this at you’re own risk and understand I’m not responsible for anything that goes wrong.

Image adapted from

DIY Geiger Counter – Planning

I’ve always wanted to have and build a Geiger Counter. This doesn’t mean I want to start experimenting with radioactive materials, I just have a general interest. At most I might collect items from thrift stores that measure higher than normal amounts of radiation. At most I wouldn’t mind sputtering the radioactive metal onto glass slides.

Found some tutorials but the most appealing to me was one built by tanner_tech featured on HackADay.com recently that utilized a 555 timer and a step up transformer to get the 400V. 400V across the tube allows gamma rays or beta particles to start the ionization completing the circuit.

After settling on a design I purchased 3 Russian Geiger tubes CI-3BG / SI-3BG from ebay link here. They sent me 4…. Win!

I want to take this one step further and have the data output to a screen and log that data rather than just make noise. So the end result will be an Arduino or Raspberry Pi to control the Geiger Counter. I just need to learn the best way to take the 400v pulses and turn that into something a microcontroller can safely read. If you know the best way to do this please contact me.

After a few corrections to the circuit to level the voltage to a consistent 400V I believe I’m ready to begin building the initial geiger counter. That is after I get a few other projects out of the way. Being able to simulate the circuit, as shown below, was a huge help.

Parts List

1x 555 timer
2x 47k resistors
1x 22nF capacitor
1x 2.2nF capacitor
1x 1k resistor
1x 8:800 ohm transformer
1x Any N-channel MOSFET
2x 1n4007 diode (on regulator)
2x 100nF 500 volt capacitor (on regulator)
4x 100 volt zener diode
1x Geiger tube (in simulation I’m using a lamp)

If built from scratch, buying parts in small quantities each unit is estimated to cost around $12-$15 so not bad at all.

Recreation of the circuit with simulation on EveryCircuit

Friggin loving Every Circuit! Visually seeing the results and being able to tweak values during live simulation is beautiful.

Links to original design

Tanner_tech’s Instructables

[instructablesUP username=”tanner_tech” num=”6″ thumb=”true” tileview=”true”]

Parsing Digital Sheet Music MXL Files – Stranger Things Theme Song on Arduino

I’ve been toying around with playing music using simple tones on the Arduino. I’m no composer or musician so looking around for sheet music I eventually stumbled across MXL files on a few sites like MuseScore.com. Below I have posted a sample of the Arduino playing the Stranger Things theme song.

MXL is a compressed XML file that contains the Sheet Music data, Credits, Parts, Voice Definitions, Notes, Tempo and Durations along with other information. Basically a universal format designed for composing music, project sharing and several additional applications.

Ok so MXL files, what I keyed in on was that the MXL file contained the Notes and their Durations. This is perfect because you can create a simple Arduino code to play notes if you have this information. Sorting through these files is very daunting and time consuming so I decided to create a simple app to parse this information to use it more easily.

This app was banged out pretty quickly so please forgive possible errors. Because some MXL files are compressed and others are not I built in the code necessary to unpackage the XML before parsing. The app allows me to separate the notes by voice with their durations. In addition I placed a numeric control that limits the amount of notes that get parsed. A screenshot example is on the left.

Huge thanks to Shvelo who’s Ruby code got me pointed in the right direction.

I have this project posted on GitHub where you can obtain the code for the app as well as the Arduino sample code.

You can download the compiled app from GitHub.

Playing the Stranger Things theme song on the Arduino was a bit tricky tweaking the tempo to make it sound right but way easier without having to manually extract the notes and durations. To the left is the simple Arduino setup using piezo from a walkie talkie wired to pin 8 and ground on the controller. Ignore the other wires because they’re not used here.

A thanks to Riley Apperson on MuseScore for his/her Composition of the Stranger Things Theme.

RedBeards Lab Gets New Equipment

Is that a pile of junk? That is a gold mine for this guy. New equipment for the RedBeard lab. I have no idea if any of this stuff works except the centrifuge which does very well.

My son has an interest in becoming a Genetic Engineer so I told him well I don’t know much about that subject but I will learn enough to get you started. After reaching out to friends I got this equipment donated to the lab.

Some of this equipment is old but what better way to learn. Lets see if we can wire some of this stuff to a Raspberry Pi or Arduino, re-purpose it, hack it and/or learn from it.

Spectrometer
Gas Chromatograph
Electrophoresis Power Supply
Centrifuge

How I fixed my Poweradd Solar Panel Portable Charger

Poweradd Apollo 7200mAh High Capacity Solar Panel Portable Charger
Solar type: Monocrystalline Solar Panel (highest efficiency rates)
Original Cost: $19.99 on Amazon

The other day I was very bummed to find out that my solar charging battery backup had failed and no longer charged via sun or either USB. I wrote the seller on Amazon from who I purchased the device with no answer. Considering the high failure rate I was seeing while trying to find a fix and the fact that it didn’t cost a whole lot I figured what the heck I’ll try to fix it because what’s the worst that could happen cause it’s already broken.

First problem disassembling

There are no screws so the case just snaps together? Turns out yes but there is an adhesive tab on top of the battery stuck to the back of the solar panel. Pay attention to the wires when taking apart. Loosen the case all the way around with a flat edge blade or screwdriver then pull apart at the bottom end first (opposite of USB ports).

Finding The Problem

What I think happened is that the lithium ion battery protection circuit got activated (lack of better term)? Maybe? So what I did was first check the voltage directly from the battery and got about 3vdc, then on the opposite side of the main protection circuit at about 3vdc. So the battery has a charge which means the battery didn’t fail.

Battery is good and I have voltage so did a component fail?

I decided to start bypassing voltage regulators and charging circuits using alligator clips to see if I could get the battery to turn on. In the end I hooked the voltage entering the circuit directly to the opposite side of this diode or resistor (I forgot to note it and the resolution sucks) then held down the power button. Viola I’ve got power!

Turning a lamp on and off with an arduino uno

Turning a lamp on and off with an arduino uno and a relay break-out board. I will post more about this later.

My DIY E-Cig Was on HackADay

A while back I posted a DIY Variable Voltage E-Cig how-to on Instructables.com and it eventually got picked up on HackADay.com here. I look at articles that make their way to HackADay as successes so when I found out that mine had made it I got excited and nerded out.

Since then I have taken feedback from readers and updated the schematics to be more efficient and longer lasting. I have plans to one day publish an Arduino based variable voltage and wattage version with display that will fire sub-ohm coils.

Philips TV Model 37mf331d/37 Power Supply Repair

Philips TV Model 37mf331d/37
2006 – 37” LCD TV with Fluorescent Backlight
Information on TV

Got a call about this Philips TV and was asked if I could fix it. When I went to check it out the TV was already taken apart and the owner had already researched the issue identifying the power supply as the culprit. At first look I saw that he was right because there was a section blown out to include an erupted capacitor. So I left with a part number of and the power supply.

Power Supply Unit: 715t2056-1

This the same power supply used in several products so I thought if nothing else I might be able to salvage an old power supply board from something else. Its more fun to try and fix the issue so I was hoping salvage wouldn’t be the solution. I ordered the surface mounted resistor, zener diode and capacitor from Mouser for less than $2.

I removed and replaced the capacitor with no issues. Then I began to remove the diode and the damage really reared its head. Whenever these parts blew it blew a chunk of circuit board with it that wasn’t noticeable until the solder was taken off. This took off the surface mounted resistor and the mounting location for one side of the diode. Well crap! After giving this some thought I came to the conclusion that the resistor was probably more for tolerance matching and protection than anything else so I refilled the broken trace and connected the diode directly to it. This was a bit sloppy due to the missing pieces of circuit board so I covered the area with hot glue to secure it.

A. Capacitor B. Diode Connection C. Repaired Broken Trace, Bypassed Resistor & Diode Connection

Not being able to test it immediately after repair made me a bit worried. Today I went back and installed the repaired power supply and reassembled the TV just enough to test it out. When we plugged it in I could hear it hum to life automatically. Initially it did nothing but light up the power button but after a few seconds the screen came on and this older flat-screen TV got an extended life for less than two dollars.

Who Lives in a Pineapple?

Spongebob Peltier Cooler missing power cord – $6 from Savers (a thrift shop) – Originally sold for $45-$60
DC Female Plug – $3.99 from radio shack
12vdc Power Supply – $1.99 from Savers (a thrift shop)
Total Cost – 11.98
Cost Difference from Original Price: ~$38.02

I searched for a while to try and find a power cord with no luck. So I bought and installed a new one from Radio Shack. IT WORKS!!!