Category Archives: Design

Touch Buzzer | Project 19/20 | Maxitronix 20in1 | Learning Electronics In The Lab With Jay Jay

Posted on by
Reply

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 we do the 19th project from the Maxitronix Sensor Robot 20 (20in1) Electronics Project Lab Kit: Touch Buzzer.

This circuit uses a Darlington pair to amplify the very weak signal from the touch sensor.

We use the Rigol MSO5074 Mixed Signal Oscilloscope to look at the square wave from the astable multivibrator.

We use the UNI-T UTi260B Thermal Imager to examine the thermal characteristics of the circuit, particularly the 1K resistors getting warm.

We use the Riden RD6006 Bench Power Supply to provide 9V for our circuit and also to measure the current drawn by the circuit in its inactive (11mA) and active (12mA) states.

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!

Maxitronix 500in1 Electronics Project Lab KitThis is an image of the product.notes

Let’s go shopping!

Rain Detector | Project 18/20 | Maxitronix 20in1 | Learning Electronics In The Lab With Jay Jay

Posted on by
Reply

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 we do the 18th project from the Maxitronix Sensor Robot 20 (20in1) Electronics Project Lab Kit: Rain Detector.

We use the Rigol MSO5074 Mixed Signal Oscilloscope to see the 1.6 kHz square wave from our astable multivibrator.

We use the UNI-T UTi260B Thermal Imager to watch the thermal effects of the circuit. We see both the 1K resistors in the astable multivibrator get warm, but only the activated side of the bistable multivibrator gets warm.

We use the Fluke 17B+ Digital Multimeter to buzz out the circuit looking for mistakes.

We use the Riden RD6006 Bench Power Supply to provide 9V for our circuit. I make a mistake and connect it the wrong way around to begin with!

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!

TOOKKS HZY ABS Wire FixtureThis is an image of the product.notes

Let’s go shopping!

JTAG ‘Hacking’ the Original Xbox in 2023

Posted on by
Reply

This turned up on hacker news today: JTAG ‘Hacking’ the Original Xbox in 2023 – Using Intel CPU JTAG to dump the secret bootrom in Microsoft’s original Xbox. There’s some info being collected on github: github.com/Necrosys/x86-JTAG-Information.

Learning the Art of Electronics: A Hands-On Lab Course 2ed

Posted on by
Reply

I have been sad for some time that Learning the Art of Electronics: A Hands-On Lab Course is out of print. Little did I know, they have been working on a second edition! The revised edition is due out in March 2025. Excellent news! I don’t usually pre-order books, but I will pre-order my copy of Learning the Art of Electronics: A Hands-On Lab Course 2ed. There’s more info on the book’s website: learningtheartofelectronics.com.

Demo #7: Octopus Third Hand | Learning Electronics In The Lab With Jay Jay

Posted on by
Reply

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 we demo our third hands from AliExpress: Octopus Soldering Helping Hands Bench Vise Table Clamp with Flexible Arms Solder Iron Holder PCB Repair for TS101 TS100 PINE64.

I mention that I found a YouTube video which has a look at it: Octopus Hand supports Soldering for only 5$ – Turtle Review but like me they couldn’t figure out what the rubber and bolts on the base are for! If you know please let me know in the comments!

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 Drill ExtensionThis is an image of the product.

Let’s go shopping!

Low-Water Indicator | Project 17/20 | Maxitronix 20in1 | In The Lab With Jay Jay

Posted on by
Reply

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 we do the 17th project from the Maxitronix Sensor Robot 20 (20in1) Electronics Project Lab Kit: Low-Water Indicator.

We use the Rigol MSO5074 Mixed Signal Oscilloscope to see the output of the astable multivibrator. In the video I make a mistake and attach the probe to the wrong pins.

We use the METCAL PS-900 Soldering Station to solder the wires I use for the banana plugs I attach to the touch sensor an voice sensor (microphone).

We use the UNI-T UTi260B Thermal Imager to look at the heat profile of the circuit. We see that the low resistances (470Ω and 1KΩ) get the warmest, but the higher resistances (e.g. 10KΩ) are also slightly visible.

We use the Fluke 17B+ Digital Multimeter to check the resistance of the touch sensor.

We use the Peak Electronic Design Atlas LCR45 LCR Meter to measure the resistance of the resistor we use in the LED attachment circuit. This extra circuit allows us to switch out the buzzer for an LED, which makes a lot less racket. The resistor it uses turned out to be 470Ω.

We use the Riden RD6006 Bench Power Supply to provide 9V for our test circuit. Usually I take a current reading to see how much power the circuit draws in its various states, but I forgot!

We use the Horusdy Soldering Station with Hot Air Gun for its hot air gun in order to shrink the heat shrink which we added to the banana plug cables we attached to our sensors.

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 9-Inch Needle Nose PliersThis is an image of the product.notes

Let’s go shopping!

High-Water Indicator | Project 16/20 | Maxitronix 20in1 | In The Lab With Jay Jay

Posted on by
Reply

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 we do the 16th project from the Maxitronix Sensor Robot 20 (20in1) Electronics Project Lab Kit: High-Water Indicator.

After we build the circuit we dump the sensor in a glass of water which causes the alarm to trigger. To avoid the obnoxious noise we put an LED in place of the buzzer.

Please be aware: while talking about this circuit I said that the astable multivibrator “flip flops” between states. And that’s kind of true in one sense, but I should be clear than an astable multivibrator is not a “flip flop” circuit. A flip flop circuit is a different type of circuit known as a bistable multivibrator, which is a different kind of thing. In this experiment we use an astable multivibrator to generate a 1.62 kHz square wave which provides our tone, we do not use a flip flop or bistable multivibrator circuit.

We use the Rigol MSO5074 Mixed Signal Oscilloscope to measure and visualize the 1.62 kHz square wave which generates our tone.

We use the UNI-T UTi260B Thermal Imager to investigate the circuit thermals. We see that the 1K resistors in the astable multivibrator generate the most heat.

We use the Fluke 17B+ Digital Multimeter to measure the voltage across Q5. Between about 500 mV and 750 mV is enough voltage to enable the output.

We use the Riden RD6006 Bench Power Supply to deliver the 9V DC required for the project. We use the current measurement from the power supply to see that when the LED is active the circuit draws about 23 mA compared to about 11 mA when the LED is not active.

We use the Horusdy Soldering Station with Hot Air Gun to dry the sensor after it got wet.

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!

Ausum 25 In 1 Precision Screwdriver SetThis is an image of the product.notes

Let’s go shopping!

Glass Organ | Project 15/20 | Maxitronix 20in1 | Learning Electronics In The Lab With Jay Jay

Posted on by
Reply

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 we do the 15th project from the Maxitronix Sensor Robot 20 (20in1) Electronics Project Lab Kit: Glass Organ.

We had some trouble getting this circuit to work. It turned out that the instructions omitted one necessary wire. After we added that the circuit worked.

The salty water and the clean water didn’t have hugely different effects. It was hard to get a resistance reading because the resistances seemed to just continually increase. In the end I didn’t really understand that.

The products I purchase from AliExpress in the video are these:

We used the Rigol MSO5074 Mixed Signal Oscilloscope to inspect the output of the astable multivibrator.

We used the METCAL PS-900 Soldering Station to solder some jumpers onto a 10K potentiometer which we use to alter the frequency of the astable multivibrator.

We used the UNI-T UTi260B Thermal Imager to inspect the heat profile of the circuit. We see the resistors in the astable multivibrator get warm, along with other components.

We used the Fluke 17B+ Digital Multimeter to continuity test our point to point links, to test various resistances, to check for capacitance (there was none), and to measure the current draw. It was interesting to see the current draw increase with frequency.

We used the Riden RD6006 Bench Power Supply to provide 9V for the circuit. The RD6006 also reported current draw.

We used the Horusdy Soldering Station with Hot Air Gun. We used the hot air gun to shrink the heat shrink we used on the potentiometer jumpers.

We used the Brother P-Touch D210 Label Maker to label our salt jar.

The Goo & Adhesive Remover product I recommend is Goo Gone.

The cheap but excellent wire cutters I mention are these. I got a five pack for ten bucks.

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!

Fluke 17B+ Digital MultimeterThis is an image of the product.

Let’s go shopping!