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You are welcome!

Thanks for the info. I didn't have one at that time, but I have 3 of them now. Yes, very handy now that I've got them.

Yes, I think you are reading things wrong. Sorry, but this comes from assuming you are better than others, I think. 🤣 The reason the trace is all the way though is so that if I want to build up one with only 1, 2 or 3 switches it will still work without me having to add jumpers. Add to this that there is absolutely no advantage here to having a ground plane with this application. It's just something I try to do if I can without compromising something else because in a lot of cases it is advantageous.. High frequencies??!! What are you talking about? How fast can you press buttons? There are no high frequencies. Copper pours and ground planes require the deposition of more copper, unless there is some real advantage to them (heat sink, shielding, reduced supply impedance, reduced signal impedance, etc. - non of which we have here), or it does not compromise anything but maybe a good exercise to do it, then why do it?

@@uni-byte Haha you don't have to get this combative :D it's all in good fun. It's not like i don't make ugly boards :D I see your reasoning with through traces, the blue topside ones. The red bottom ones connecting two sides of the switch with each other are still redundant even if you want to leave switches unpopulated, might give you a little extra routing freedom, doesn't really help in this instance though. The S net can run the south side of switches for example if you were willing to put all the resistors on one side of the switches, which you might not want to. I mean there's no point nitpicking this board, i just do it for fun, not because it's bad or needs fixing. Indeed you don't need a ground plane. But you said you like having one, sooo... there's that then i guess if you wanted. Even if deeply entirely completely irrelevant, you're mistaken that there are no high frequencies on this board. The switching action at the moment of switching creates a pulse which is a frequency band from DC to infinity, and seen over a short enough time frame, the high frequency band is significant. And switch bounce adds to that. Sometimes it's worth keeping in mind, though not this time. Here you're having the capacitor take up the high frequency band and short it to ground, which is presumably why you installed it, aids with debouncing and makes for a much nicer better input read.

@@SianaGearz Not really trying to be combative, just giving back in kind with a little amplification, if you will. All's good with me.

Yeah, people are fond of their China bashing. Back when I was a kid the Chinese were not the manufacturing hub they are now. Then it was Jap-scrap. Now Japanese stuff is pretty much the most revered in the world.

Good idea!

Wow! That sounds like a terrible experience! Did they catch the people responsible?

Nothing heard from the Police. Think I will call them today. Unfortunately this is the world we live in now. Breaks my heart. This is small town rural Australia. Might have to go prospecting Opal.

@@snakezdewiggle6084 I hope they get them! I recently experienced a theft too, but all they took were some shovels and rakes. Nothing like your case. I think I'd be devastated.

The thing that gets me, its an invasion of privacy. A person has the right to make a living. They took Your Shovels and Rakes! I'm sorry to hear that. Thats a violation, a trespass, asault even. imo. Rule No.1: You don't touch another person's tools. Anyway, I would be happy to just get the equipment back. Thank you for your interest. I enjoy your videos, they are a great distraction at the moment.☺

I love my Pinecil but getting them to Canada SUCKS. It's $30 USD shipping which is absurd. Knowing there is a decent soldering iron out there that doesn't cost too much is nice

Hey Pat, no I haven't had that issue (yet). The PD power bricks they come with seem to do the job quite well. Maybe if you could get you hands on something like a 95+ watt genuine Lenovo laptop USB-C PD power brick. I've used them on cantankerous devices and have had no further trouble

@@FlakAttack0 FNIRSI seem to offer free shipping on everything either through AliExpress or Amazon. Do you have to order the Pinecil directly from the manufacturer?

@@uni-byte Unfortunately we need to order them from the manufacturer. PINE64 says they price the shipping to Canada so high because they have to use Fedex, otherwise the products get lost in customs. Honestly I believe them; shipping to Canada is an absolutely awful experience. That doesn't change that it makes PINE64 products very unattractive for Canadians despite their otherwise low prices and good quality.

@@FlakAttack0 Have to agree with you about Canada Post. Worst postal service in first-world western society. If the service from abroad does not have tracking number that Canada Post have to track, about 30% of shipments are either lost, thrown out or stolen by employees. The exception maybe some European countries and the UK. However most European countries offer tracked shipping at a fraction of the cost of Canada Post. This is one of the reasons I only buy things off AliExpress that are shipped by AliExpress. They send them in bulk to UBI who then pass them on to Canada Post using a tracked service like Expedited Parcel. Can you tell I'm Canadian too?

Thanks!

The retail side (AliExpress store) might remember. I have never mentioned it to the support folks. It's a possibility but I don't think my channel is big enough for their "RADAR" yet. LOL!

@@uni-byte Good to know, thanks!

Please let us know the results.

@@uni-byte i just checked mine, a black one. The center of the DC-barrel jack is + on mine.

@@Hellhound604 interesting, thanks. Did you get your directly from China (AliExpress or the like)?

@@uni-byte got it directly from China in February.

@@Hellhound604 Okay. Support did tell me that ordering directly from China would get me the correct pig-tail. I guess the problem exists only with NA stock. Still a good idea to check before plugging in your iron.

Thanks! The direction you pass power in a USB-C should not change the gender. Neither will flipping it over. It's designed that way to either supply or use power in either direction. The same goes for other forms of USB, but they are keyed to prevent reversing the power accidently. USB-C is not keyed but the power goes through both top row and bottom row with a - and a + on both rows. Kind of like this: Top row of pins: (-ll+lll+ll-) Bottom row of pins: (-II+III+ll-)

@@uni-byte Thank you (arigatō). I understand more now. BTW - This is all going on my resume The check is in the mail. It's true what people are saying; You do RoCk. But don't let that go to your head Cheers from So.Ca.USA 3rd House On the Left.

@@ovalwingnut You're welcome.

Good information, thanks!

Nice idea!

Good tip!

That's just it, I couldn't get all the tracks on ne side. Really this is for high speed circuits (which this is not) but a ground plane needs to be free of traces, especially in teh case where the traces running on the ground plane side intersect traces running on the other side. The return path for current in a ground plane follows right under the signal trace. So if that path is broken by a trace on the ground plane side it actually ends up being a high impedance ground return. Also, another interesting I found out from my contacts at PCBWay, the do not etch the boards to remove copper. The traces are actually deposited on, so not adding copper pours where they are not needed is actually saving copper and hence the environmental impact.

@@uni-byte WOW ! thats a big deal I wonder if other manufacturers do that ! I shall check. so if you want a copper pour using Dip Trace you can it's just you prefer not to. My question wasn't worded well I'm a Kicad Fanboy and I thought DipTrace wouldn't let you thats all !. The ground plane or no ground plane argument will run forever. As you say doesn't matter in this case but I personally like to use a pour top and bottom and until now that was also to aid the environment and that may not be the case....cheers :)

@@andymouse Correct, in this case I chose not to as there was no use to it. Cheers

@@uni-byte thanks!! fascinated by the deposition process and want to know more but it's getting late in the UK !! so bed time!..cheers :)

Thanks. That's interesting. While I like their idea I'm not sure their implementation matches the sticker price. On something like that they should have a better quality switch.

Thanks. While I'm not exactly a first time designer I choose this design because it's easy to understand how it works, it's easy to build, it's reliable and it uses easy to find (almost ubiquitous) inexpensive parts. The purpose is to provide a 4-switch input to a microcontroller using just a single analog pin. (I thought I mentioned that in the vide?). What other ways would you suggest doing this?

@@uni-byte I meant that for your audience. I didn't mean you are a first time designer! Serial data would be another way to go (I2C for example), but since you only have an analog input, that wouldn't be a good fit.

@@yeroca Gotcha. Yes, this is aimed at the beginner. As to using I2C or other serial input I would certainly consider that for more switches. 74HC165 shift registers could be cascaded to provide input for any number of switches but I think you'd need at least 3 pins (clock, data and latch).

@@uni-byte check out "1-wire protocol", which is an async protocol, not needing a separate clock.

@@uni-byte Huh not a first time designer, could have fooled me :D

Nice! Thanks for sharing.

They are!

Thanks for your comments. As to going between ZIF socket and cables, yes you need to recalibrate but you have to do that using the supplied cables too with any small caps and coils. As for those long cables shown in the video, I don't really use them except to reach components that are a good way off. As you can see in the video they calibrate fine for most things except small capacitances and then only if the cables are disturbed during the measurements. For diodes, transistors, resistors large capacitors etc. they are fine. However I have made shorter (10") cables for use with this most of the time. My guess is you bailed early on the video and decided to proceed with your imagination rather than facts. Flying without facts is not generally the way I do things, but that method does seem to be popular amongst some folk, like flat earthers and such.

@@uni-byte - I have many of these testers, and have extensive knowledge about their operation, modification and limitations. As I said, even fairly short leads directly plugged into the ZIF socket will cause calibration errors and erroneous measurements, as well as sometimes causing detection errors of some types of components.

@@johncoops6897 Wonderful! So how does that explain the accurate (enough) results I got using these long leads? And as I said, but it seems worth repeating, plugging in leads (even the ones that come with it) requires re-calibration. Anyway, I don't think either of us will benefit from an argument, so I'll give you the last word.

Good tip!

Thanks!

I agree with you Mike. I have done likewise in the past. In this case the "instrument" does not have a power input other than the 5V for the fan. It's just a passive resistive load. My only choice was a standalone fuse holder.

In some cases I don't like them. Sometimes they are in circuit to protect against a common issue and they go pop. One example is my mini lathe, if the work jams or stalls the spindle then the fuse blows. As this does happen quite a lot I got rather fed up with constantly changing fuses. So I machined up a brass fuse for the fuse holder, and fitted a mains rated thermal fuse behind the panel. The brass fuse was done so that I could use the fuse holder to mount the thermal fuse, and the mod was easily reversible. Worth thinking about is some cases./ Andy

A Circuit Breaker would have been a better choice, imo. If you want even more assurance, a Self Reseting Thermal fuse in SERIES with the Breaker. Its Not the best solution, but the risk is lower.

Thank you!

You're welcome and thank you. The filters featured in this video do work but are most effective at higher frequencies. What is approximately the frequency of the noise you are getting?

That’s a great question. Since I’m more of a DC kind guy. How would I check the frequency of the noise I am getting with my AC power? I do own an oscilloscope and frequency generator if you can tell me how to utilize it, I’d really appreciate it.

@@jaylinton3003 there is a 99.9% chance that you amplifier has a non-ground referenced output, but there is that .1% that it is. In which case hooking up a scope could result in some excitement. Do you know how to check if one side of teh output is ground referenced? You'll need a multi-meter to do this.

@@uni-byte If you're asking if the neutral is connected to the ground, it is indeed. I get the exact same voltage from L to N, as I do from N to G. 122.2VAC I believe it was...

@@jaylinton3003 Not quite. I'm asking if either terminal on the speaker is connected to ground.

Nice. I also found a case for it on AliExpress. If you do a search on "1PC Portable Accessories Collection Foam" you should be able to find it. It's a semi-hard case and it perfectly accommodates the foam insert that the scope is shipped with. So it will take the DMM probes and the USB cable. As well it has a pouch in the top that holds the scope probes very nicely. It was about $9 US.

@@uni-byte Correction. I have one case that I already had lying around and one on the way hehe Thank you for that! Much better being able to include all the accessories as opposed to my current method!

@@MHTSAPAS No problem. You got the one that was 230mm x 180mm x 70mm, right?

Thanks for the comment!

Thanks for your support @andymouse.

You meant the little LCD? I will put a link to it in the description. You'll find it under "Video Specific Links"

@@uni-byte Great thanks!

@@mikestokes235 No problem!

Thanks! Sometimes I may put things aside, but only if they have not given me a challenge. LOL!

Glad to help!

The capacitor had an ESR of more than 3 times that of the Nichicon! For 99% of what you need an op-amp for, the 741 is golden.

Thanks! Great minds think alike.

Unfortunately I don't. I bought a carton of 100 of these back in 2012 off a vendor on ebay. They only go back 7 years on the history. I've looked for them, but I can't find them any more.

@@uni-byte thx for looking. Do you have dimensions for those?

@@wdl1908 I found the invoice for them. I got them from the Ningbo Everest Enclosure Tech co. in Ningbo China. They are model # PC039 and they are 106mm x 66mm x 32mm. I got 100 of them for $25 back in September of 2013.

There was so much wrong with this I'd have to agree. I'd go a step further and say there is no quality control of any kind.

I was actually thinking about recommending it to you for circuit drawing, etc.

Well, maybe I'll get one for myself too. They are pretty cheap. I have this one for another week anyway.

I know, right? Could it be because I keep ordering it? LOL!

@@uni-byte, nah. Couldn't be.

Very true.

Thank you too!

I didn't have to do anything. It was there by default. I don't even think there is a way to turn it off. Do you have the same scope?

Good going!

I guess it's just there to protect the 555 when you are using higher voltages. Schematic says "4.5V to 20V".

@@uni-byte Maybe, the reg can take 35V, but it also makes operation below 15V unregulated. Also the 4.5V minimum is IMPOSSIBLE due to 2V drop across the regulator, the TRUE minimum V is 6.5V! So in reality the TRUE operating voltage: is 6.5 - 35V

@@stevenbliss989 The measured drop @ 4.6V is .9V.

It is!

Good thought. It's a pretty low frequency and I'm not sure why they did that. I did try 33nF but it did not help. What did help was putting in a free-wheel diode across the output.

@@uni-byte Interesting, I would love to the the waveform with/without the diode at the motor.

@@stevenbliss989 Your wish is my command. I added screen shots in the description of the waveform going to the motor with and without the free-wheel diode. Enjoy.

@@uni-byte thank you :)

@@uni-byte Quite the voltage kick down and quite long too!

At the very least it will collect them out of sight! LOL!

I was just using a battery pack @ 4.6V as supplied with the kit. 3.6V was getting through the regulator to the 555. See my reply to Mike.