Voltlog #247 – InTheMail

Welcome to a new InTheMail, the series that will touch both your passion for electronics and your bank account at the same time. We’re going to start with this small module, at first when I ordered it I didn’t fully understood what it does but now after doing a bit of research for this mailbag it seems this is an immobiliser emulator for the VAG group. So am immobiliser is a security component of your car that will not let the ECU start the engine unless a certain key or token is present. And there might be valid reasons why you might need this emulator, for example if the immobiliser is broken, you can supposably cancel it and start the engine with this emulator or if you exchange the motor/ecu combo once again it might not be possible to use the old immobiliser and so an emulator will help.

It talks over a K-line interface which is something specific to the automotive domain but it’s basically a form of serial interface. At first I thought this was going to emulate some kind of can bus and I was planning to play with it by scanning the bus but now I realize this is useless for me.

Voltlog #166 – LRC Reference Box (Hao QI Xin)

In this video we are taking a closer look at the Hao QI Xin LRC Reference Box which contains a couple of polystyrene capacitors, a vishay precision resistor and an un-marked inductor. I also talk about getting the AD584 voltage reference box, however it is hard to find the LH version as most seller will be sending you the KH version which is a lower grade of stability.

Here are some links mentioned in the video:

Voltlog #137 – Eachine EV100 Distortion Problem Fix

In this video I show you how to fix the EV100 distortion or gray line problem. The problem is caused by an internal ac coupling capacitor which should be of a higher value to decouple any dc voltage offset from the video signal. While some people report a gray line plus some distortions I was seeing a black spot on the left plus some distortions.

I used a 220uF B sized tantalum capacitor and it worked great. But you can use anything above 100uF, electrolytic, ceramic, tantalum, whatever you have around. The voltage rating doesn’t matter as much, anything above 3V is good.

Something like an electrolytic might be easier to solder because of the longer leads that can be bent into the required spot, it’s really up to you what type of capacitor to use in this fix. There is enough room inside to fit any type of capacitor.

Here are some links where you can get the capacitors and extra info: