D5 EVO PCB REPAIR

8 November 2022 Cale 2 Comments

#92 Repairing a D5 EVO PCB board

Big burn inside enclosure with semi melted screw.

Back of IR beam PCB board compared with new PCB

After a huge thunderstorm I noticed that the IR beams on my old electric gate were not working so I decided to take a look at the IR beams connected my electric gates poles.

After opening the IR beams enclosure I was greeted with a burnt PCB.

Upon closer inspection I was able to determine that after a lightning strike the bolt flowed through the pole then through the screw inside the enclosure and then from the bolt to the IR PCB board,
The board fried and then the bolt transferred from the IR beam PCB to the D5 EVO positive output PCB terminal and blew up a SMD power mosfet above the 12v relay.

Strangely enough the D5evo PCB could still open and close the electric gate it seems that the only thing affected by the lightning strike was the output power terminal and the destroyed mosfet (55L104 N-Channel)

I had to purchase a set of two new IR beams for R950.00 but I decided to see if I could repair the D5EVO PCB myself. I decided to use an IRL520N N-Channel mosfet since this was commonly available at the time. Unfortunately I could only find the TO-220 package so I had to bend the mosfet a bit but it worked out in the end.

Electronics

WIFI FIREWORK IGNITER

5 November 2022 Cale Leave a comment

#91 A WiFi battery powered firework igniter

Since I used low voltage with nichrome wire using LAN (RJ45) cable was not an issue. However with the next version I will solder a female RJ45 socket to avoid the hot glue tsunami… 🙂

Creating a WiFi fireworks igniter with a backup LiPo battery.

With December just around the corner I wanted to design a remote fireworks igniter working on WiFi and battery power.

The board will use mosfets as switches to nichrome wire which will heat up and ignite fireworks from a safe distance.

The idea is to have the system self contained with the ability of remote control via a WiFi AP using an ESP8266 12F

The link to my GitHub repository (containing the design, parts list and other files) can be found here.

Electronics, UPS

DC1018P MINI UPS

1 November 2022 Cale 16 Comments

#90 DC1018P mini ups from Sinye Tech

After testing the generic Andowl UPS device I decided to find out if there were any alternatives in the same price range with similar features. After a few google searches I came across the SINYE TECH UPS device which has very similar features but is black in color and uses a different PCB.

After purchasing one and opening the ups I was disappointed to find out that the 4 18650 batteries had no markings on them whatsoever.. Also the main battery management IC has no identifying text on the chip. Seems like the mystery chip can of worms opens once again.

The good news is that the ups device has battery protection and has some decent components however… the actual black PCB board looks cheap unlike the good quality Andowl PCB…

Another major shock was the soldering (or should I say smoldering) of two of the transformer coil wires.. just looks ugly…

I also noticed the UPS device had a low battery LED flashing when I first switched it on and it never reaches the 100% LED even though the batteries are charged to 4.2V