Category Archives: Asset

Electronics Project #10: TJ-56-428 4-Digit Digital DIY Clock | In The Lab With Jay Jay

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This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

You can support this channel on Patreon: patreon.com/JohnElliotV

Silly Job Title: Switch Sleuth

Happy New Year!

In this video, my first video for 2025, I construct a 4-digit digital clock I recently purchased from AliExpress: TJ-56-428 4-Digit Digital DIY Clock Kits with Acrylic Shell, DIY Alarm Clock Soldering Practice Kit for Learning Electronics.

I thought it might be nice to kick off the new year with an actual electronics project, as that is what this channel is supposed to be mostly about!

I translated the instructions from Chinese to English, and those are here: TJ-56-428. These include instructions for use of the complete and fully assembled clock.

This was a great chance to try out my new METCAL PS-900 Soldering Station and I am pleased to report that I am very happy with my new soldering iron! It is a pleasure to use.

The heart of this circuit is the STC15W404AS which is a microcontroller! It has been pre-programmed with the clock functionality, there was no software or source code that shipped with the kit.

Update: my mate @sadata777 pointed out that there was a protective coating on the acrylic and I remove that in this video: https://youtu.be/y9btakLOCHc

Update: my mate Joe pointed out that I had the case on back-to-front which you can see me fix here: https://youtu.be/IyJ3IHgRfiw

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)

Following is a product I use picked at random from my collection which may appear in my videos. Clicking through on this to find and click on the green affiliate links before purchasing from eBay or AliExpress is a great way to support the channel at no cost to you. Thanks!

Yum Cha IC Chip Pickup ToolThis is an image of the product.

Let’s go shopping!

Equipment from Peak Electronic Design

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The British company Peak Electronic Design has a wonderful range of Test Instruments.

Today I purchased these ones:

Still on my wish list is this one:

The reason for this particular splurge is that after I purchased my METCAL PS-900 Soldering Station element14 sent me an email with a coupon for 15% off. Since these Peak Atlas devices were on my wish list I figured I might as well get them while I can get 15% off.

METCAL PS-900 Soldering Station

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Update: my notes about my METCAL PS-900 soldering station are on my personal wiki, over here: METCAL PS-900 Soldering Station.

The other day I was doing some soldering with my Horusdy Soldering Station but I got the feeling its soldering iron was under performing. I just wasn’t getting good solder joints even though I was using good solder and plenty of flux.

So today I did some research and found myself a new soldering station: METCAL PS-900 Soldering Station. I found one for sale on element14 for AU$458.59 which as far as I can tell was a really good price. They were going for more like AU$700+ on Amazon, eBay, and even AliExpress.

I did also research and consider some other options from JBC, Metcal, Weller, and Hakko.

I also picked up a couple of spare tips:

The tip it came with was the METCAL SFV-CH10, 30° Chisel, 1.5 mm Soldering Iron Tip.

I am expecting that the 1 mm chisel tip is going to be my weapon of choice, so I got two of those. (Update: this was a mistake, the 1.5mm or 2mm option would have been a better choice.)

Conspicuously absent on this soldering station is a temperature setting. That’s because these METCAL irons come with SmartHeat technology, as ChatGPT explains. For the SFV-CH10 the Curie point is designed to maintain a nominal tip temperature of around 380 °C (715 °F) under typical load conditions.

Mail Call #15: iPhone 6s, USB Accessories, Software Books, IEC Power Adapters, and More!

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This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

You can support this channel on Patreon: patreon.com/JohnElliotV

In this video I open the stuff that has arrived in the mail recently:

I mention that I’m working on a new book teardown for God Created the Integers.

The epaper modules I’m working with are these ones: WeAct 2.9” 2.13″ 2.9 2.13 Inch Epaper Module E-paper E-Ink EInk Display Screen SPI Black-White Black-White-Red and the microcontrollers I’m experimenting with are these ones: WeAct ESP32 ESP-32 ESP32C3 ESP32-C3FH4 Development Board Wireless WiFi Bluetooth-compatible Module Micropython.

The Arduino Nano you see is one of these: Mini / Type-C / Micro USB Nano 3.0 With the bootloader compatible Nano controller for arduino CH340 USB driver 16Mhz ATMEGA328P connected to an OLED display like this: 1.3″ OLED Display Module White/Blue Color Drive Chip SH1106 128X64 1.3 inch OLED LCD LED IIC I2C Communicate.

The video I mention about the test clips is this one: Unboxing #9: Unboxing of Sudake SDK07 and SKD08 IC Clip SMD Gripper Test Probe | In The Lab.

If you’re interested in the old iPhone 6s you can find more information at Wikipedia: iPhone 6s or from Apple: iPhone 6s – Technical Specifications.

My iPod touch is 7th generation, you can get more info from Apple: iPod touch (7th generation) – Technical Specifications.

I mention that I listen to di.fm. If you’re into electronic music, check it out.

I keep my notes which I display on my bench iPhones on the web, over here: https://www.jj5.net/display/

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)

Following is a product I use picked at random from my collection which may appear in my videos. Clicking through on this to find and click on the green affiliate links before purchasing from eBay or AliExpress is a great way to support the channel at no cost to you. Thanks!

3ELIGHTING 10″-26″ VESA Wall MountThis is an image of the product.

Let’s go shopping!

Unboxing #19: Kingston Fury Beast White XMP DDR5 128GB 5600MT/s CL40 RAM DIMM – KF556C40BWK4-128

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This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

You can support this channel on Patreon: patreon.com/JohnElliotV

In this video I unbox my new Kingston FURY Beast White 128GB (4x32GB) 5600MT/s CL40 DDR5 XMP DIMM | Overclocking | Plug N Play | Intel XMP 3.0 | Kit of 4 | KF556C40BWK4-128.

This is the replacement RAM I ordered after the Corsair RAM debacle (wherein they sold me scrap metal, not RAM, really, you wouldn’t dream of it!)

You can read about Kingston FURY Beast DDR5 Memory and find the KF556C40BWK4-128 specs (PDF). There is also warranty information and memory installation instructions.

You can learn more about memory timings, particularly CAS Latency.

Today I managed to double the RAM in ‘charisma‘ from 64GB to 128GB and also double the RAM in ‘treat‘ from 16GB to 32GB. A productive day!

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)

Following is a product I use picked at random from my collection which may appear in my videos. Clicking through on this to find and click on the green affiliate links before purchasing from eBay or AliExpress is a great way to support the channel at no cost to you. Thanks!

Eversure PB-10-HT3 Black 10-Way Power BoardThis is an image of the product.

Let’s go shopping!

Unboxing #18: CORSAIR HS55 Surround Sound Gaming USB Headset w/ Microphone | In The Lab With Jay Jay

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This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

You can support this channel on Patreon: patreon.com/JohnElliotV

In this video I unbox and install my new CORSAIR HS55 Surround Sound Gaming USB Headset with Microphone made by CORSAIR and sold by Amazon.

If you’re interested in buying a headset yourself you might like to know that CORSAIR has other models. I am very happy with my new HS55 headphones. They sound great and they feel great too.

In the video I install the iCUE software from CORSAIR and the NVIDIA App from NVIDIA.

The NVIDIA App is used to install the drivers for my RTX 4060 graphics card in my gaming rig ‘treat‘. NVIDIA maintains a list of games supported by the NVIDIA App.

We also install the NVIDIA Broadcast software following this setup guide.

I had some trouble I think with the compatibility of the NVIDIA Broadcast software and the iCUE software. If I had my time again I wouldn’t have bothered with the NVIDIA Broadcast software, I don’t intend to use its features (it can filter out background noise on your microphone, but I don’t care about that). The only reason I installed the NVIDIA Broadcast software at all is that the iCUE software seemed to suggest that it integrated with it, but if it does it didn’t work for me. After I reinstalled the iCUE software it seemed to work properly again, so not really sure what happened there, but I think it all worked out in the end. Also I seemed to have some trouble when using VNC to connect to my gaming rig that didn’t happen when I used it directly (via the ATEN CS1922 2-Port DisplayPort KVM on my desk).

There were some YouTube videos from CORSAIR which played during the iCUE installation:

While reading about the NVIDIA driver options I learned about WHQL Testing:

The Windows Hardware Certification program (formerly Windows Hardware Quality Labs Testing, WHQL Testing, or Windows Logo Testing) is Microsoft’s testing process which involves running a series of tests on third-party device drivers, and then submitting the log files from these tests to Microsoft for review. The procedure may also include Microsoft running their own tests on a wide range of equipment, such as different hardware and different Microsoft Windows editions.

There is some more info from Microsoft about the program over here: WHQL test signature program.

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)

Following is a product I use picked at random from my collection which may appear in my videos. Clicking through on this to find and click on the green affiliate links before purchasing from eBay or AliExpress is a great way to support the channel at no cost to you. Thanks!

Yum Cha KT-908 Digital ThermometerThis is an image of the product.

Let’s go shopping!

Designed by in California

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My Chinese knock-off USB wall chargers say “Designed by in California” on the back. Classic.

I got myself a new iPhone 6s this week on eBay for forty bucks. Gonna use it as an extra small screen on my bench. The features to price ratio is insane. When I was a kid I couldn’t even imagine a pocket computer like this, let alone getting one for forty bucks.

Here’s a happy snap of me getting the new iPhone setup:

John setting up two iPhones and metering the power draw

CORSAIR HS55 Surround Gaming Headset Plus Games

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I’m such a good little consumer. Today I got myself some surround sound headphones with microphone attached. I got the CORSAIR HS55 Surround Gaming Headset which was a step up from the CORSAIR HS35 v2 option.

I am interested in getting a VR headset but honestly I don’t know anything about that technology yet, so I am holding off for now. I don’t understand why the price differentials are so drastic, there are $20 thru $3,000 options. I think some of them are just straps which you attach your smartphone to.

Also I am planning to get the Logitech G X56 Throttle and Stick Controller but I haven’t hit the buy button on that one yet either. I want this so I can play my Descent games (see below, I got Descent 1, 2, and 3).

There is a sale on games at the moment over on Steam and I got a bunch of games while they were up to 90% off:

A few days ago I got Prey which I have been playing on my new gaming rig ‘treat‘, that’s been a bit of fun.

Unboxing #16: StarTech.com 7.1 USB Sound Card and ASUS XONAR SE 5.1 PCIe Sound Card | In The Lab

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This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

You can support this channel on Patreon: patreon.com/JohnElliotV

In this video I unbox two surround-sound sound-cards which I ordered recently from Amazon:

These were replacements for this sound card which I couldn’t get working in surround sound (only stereo): USB 5.1 Audio Sound Card 6 Channel Sound Card Built in HighEnd Chip, with Sound Mixing Function Support 48/44 KHz Sampling Rate for Both Playback and Recording.

You can get the latest software for the StarTech USB sound card over here: https://www.startech.com/ICUSBAUDIO7D

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)

Following is a product I use picked at random from my collection which may appear in my videos. Clicking through on this to find and click on the green affiliate links before purchasing from eBay or AliExpress is a great way to support the channel at no cost to you. Thanks!

Yum Cha Metal SpudgersThis is an image of the product.

Let’s go shopping!