Old Book Teardown #8: Radio Engineering 3rd Edition (1947) | 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 on this show’s homepage.

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

Silly Job Title: Amp Alchemist

Note: this video is nearly five hours long! If you’re interested but don’t have 5 spare hours (and who does??) you might like to listen at 2x speed or more. The standard YouTube interface only supports playback up to 2x speed but I have some notes about YouTube hacks you can use to set the playback at 3x speed… or more!

In this video I teardown “Radio Engineering” (3rd edition) by Frederick Terman published 1947.

Frederick Terman was a Doctor of Science which is what the Sc.D. after his name stands for. It’s like a Ph.D. He is remembered as a father of Silicon Valley.

In the book there is much talk of diodes, but of course that is in reference to the old thermionic diodes which were vacuum tubes. These days diodes are semiconductors made from something like silicon or germanium.

The book talks a lot about power amplifier classes. Today the same classes are still used, it’s just that anything other than class AB and class D are very uncommon.

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!

Scotch Titanium ScissorsThis is an image of the product.notes

Let’s go shopping!

Disable HTTP gzip compression in W3 Total Cache

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This is a note for Future John.

I recently installed W3 Total Cache for WordPress for my blog.

Then I started having this weird problem where sometimes when I loaded the blog home page I would see binary garbage rendered as text in my browser. I think the problem was either that the Content-Type header was being set incorrectly or that the data was being double gzipped.

On the second assumption I found this setting:

W3 Total Cache > General Settings > Browser Cache > Enable HTTP (gzip) compression.

I disabled HTTP (gzip) compression and now my page seems to be working correctly again. But I will need to keep an eye on it. If you have a problem accessing my blog, please let me know!

Interlude #7: ElectroneX 2024 Debriefing | Learning Electronics 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 on this show’s homepage which is here.

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

In this video I tell you about the SWAG (Stuff We All Get) I collected this year at ElectroneX.

I had the very good fortune to meet Dave Jones of EEVblog fame. He was nice enough to take a photo and mention my channel on X.

And as if things couldn’t get any better I then went on to meet Nicholas Vinen of Silicon Chip fame. For the record, the very first thing I ever said to Nicholas Vinen was: “is that a spectrum analyzer?” :P

I mention that the channel’s logo a version of the Hacker Emblem. There’s more info on the show’s website.

My business cards were designed by DAC Design and printed by ClickMedia.

My business card holder is this one: Business Card Holder, 1 Pcs Build in 40 Card Slot PU Leather Business Card Wallet for Credit Card, Business Cards, Men, Women (Black).

The companies who gave me SWAG that I mention in this video are:

I mention my One PCB to Ruler Them All from Adafruit which is part of my costume.

The cheap wire cutters I mention are these ones: Aokin1PC 170 Universal Pliers DIY Electronic Diagonal Side Cutting Nippers Wire Cable Cutter 3D Printer Parts Hand Tools.

As I suspected J.Burrows is a stationary brand. Must have stolen someone’s pen! Whoops! :P

You can read more about Pogo pins. I’ve never used them myself. Looking at them I’m not sure how you would mount them to a board. Lot’s of things to learn!

You can find more info about the probe tweezers I mention in the video over here: Yum Cha Probe Tweezers.

My cheapo multimeters are these ones: DT830B Digital Multimeter. My slightly less cheapo multimeter is this one: DigiTech QM1323 Multimeter. The multimeters I am saving my pennies for are these ones:

Check out the line of Peak test instruments. When I’m rich I am gonna get the full set!

My capacitor testers (and discharger) I mentioned are these ones:

You can find more about my Maxitronix Xin1 Kits. I am making videos as I work my way through them.

You can find the STM micros I showed you over here:

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!

FNIRSI DC580 Power ModuleThis is an image of the product.

Let’s go shopping!

Interlude #6: Fixing Corrosion on T15 Torx Bit | Learning Electronics 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 on this show’s homepage which is here.

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

In this video I fix up one of my Torx T15 drill bits which was damaged by corrosion.

I mention about my broken Logitech C922. I have three of these. They are low resolution (1080p) cameras I use for doing low res video such as with the Welcome Cam, Wide Cam, and Lab Cam. (If you’re interested my good 4K cameras are Logitech BRIO which I use for doing high res video such as with the Bench Cam, Book Cam, and Booth Cam).

The BlueRigger active USB cable I mention is this one: BlueRigger USB 3.0 Extension Cable (32FT, Active, 5 Gbps, in-Wall CL3 Rated, Type A Male to Female Cord). An “active” cable is a powered cable which includes a signal amplifier so the cable can transmit a signal over a long distance, in this case 10 meters (32 feet). I’m not sure if this active cable somehow damaged my Logitech C922? It was working, then it stopped working, but I don’t know why. Maybe dodgy power supply, maybe dodgy cable, maybe dodgy camera, hard to say.

The Deoxit I mention is this one: Cleaning Solution Kit DeoxIT Contact Cleaner & Rejuvenator Improve Performance. But the one I want to get is Hosa D5S-6 CAIG DeoxIT 5% Spray Contact Cleaner, 5 oz. which was mentioned on Adrian’s Digital Basement.

When I say that “I will turn it up to eleven”, I am obviously referencing the old classic, Spinal Tap.

The Mechanic UV solder mask and UV light I use in this video is this one: 3PCS MECHANIC 10ML UV 3S Quick-drying Solder Mask Ink for Mobile Phone Repair Jumping Wire + L1 UV curing light.

The UPS devices I mention are these ones: PowerShield Defender 1600VA. I am pretty happy with them, but it’s annoying that I have to replace the batteries every few years. My new powerboards are these ones: 10 Way Power Board Surge Protected Outlets USB Ports Coax USB Network Protection.

I mention that I’ve been working on the website for the channel. The main website is here: https://www.inthelabwithjayjay.com/ and there is a shortlink redirection service here: https://jjlab.net. You can find all my videos indexed on the site, along with RSS feeds, equipment lists, and other info.

I mention about the upcoming Jaycar / Silicon Chip Mini Projects which will be coming up soon. If you’re interested in those don’t forget to subscribe!

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 14″-27″ With 2 Arms VESA Wall MountThis is an image of the product.

Let’s go shopping!

New WordPress plugins for the blog

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I have been rolling out CloudFront for a few of my domains, including blog.jj5.net.

In order to integrate CloudFront with WordPress I used the W3 Total Cache plugin.

And in order to set the <link rel=”canonical”> element I used the Yoast SEO plugin.

At one point I had a problem with garbled content in my browser. Looked like the browser was trying to display compressed content as text. But now I can’t reproduce, so hopefully whatever the issue was it is now fixed…

InTheLabWithJayJay.com now with RSS feed

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I added RSS capabilities for InTheLabWithJayJay.com. You can subscribe to the whole thing, or just one channel, or just one show, or just one feature… it was difficulty to create the UI to support that without overcomplicating things. I made the link on the RSS icon support different feed depending on which page you are on.

Refactoring jjlab.net

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I just spent two whole days refactoring and improving my jjlab.net website.

One thing I had to think very carefully about for my modeling was the class/instance distinction for various things, you can see my notes below.

So channels have shows, and shows have features.

A series has segments, and segments have a video.

A series is an instance of a show, and a segment is an instance of a feature.

Everything is easy when you know how!

John's notes about the design of his model