Tag: teardown

Voltlog #198 – SUNKKO 737G Battery Spot Welding Machine Review & Teardown

Welcome to a new Voltlog, today a review video. So you know I’ve been talking about building my own spot welding machine in previous videos, that project is still active but progress is slow. In the meantime I’ve been contacted by banggood they wanted to offer something for review and I thought I’d try out a chinese spot welding machine, this way I could have something to compare with.

So I picked this model from their inventory the SUNKKO 737G, I got the 220V version for EU, if you live in a 110V country, you need to choose the appropriate model. If you’re interested checkout the links in the description below the video.

So why do we need a spot welding machine? Because it provide a safe & reliable way of connecting battery cells. Sure you could take the risk and try to solder your battery cells, I have done that in the past but I would rather avoid doing it if I can because it’s risky, the temperature of the cell will rise too much while heating it up with the soldering iron. This machine does it in the blink of an eye so the cell doesn’t get hot at all.

Voltlog #188 – LIDL Silvercrest Thermostat Teardown

Hello and welcome to a new Voltlog, today we’re going to be doing a teardown and analysis of this SilverCrest Radiator Thermostat. Silvercrest is a LIDL brand, you will find these product in LIDL shops and I paid about $15 for this thermostat. It’s compatible only with radiators that have special thermostat type valves, installed, the ones that have a push-pin which controls the flow and since I don’t have those installed on my radiators I have also purchased one of those valves to see the thermostat in action.

Now this thermostat doesn’t have any kind of wireless connection, you have to set it up manually using these buttons. However I’ve noticed that in other countries LIDL sells a similar model, looks the same but also has bluetooth connection and then you can use a smartphone app to configure it with ease. I’m gonna go ahead and speculate that LIDL decided to sell these budget thermostats without bluetooth in east europe, while they sell the better equipped model in central and west europe.

Voltlog #175 – Aneng AN302 Pocket Multimeter Review & Teardown

Welcome everyone, review time again, today we are taking a closer look at this pocket multimeter. It’s the Aneng AN302, 8000 count, true RMS multimeters. It comes with this black pouch and inside, the meter is wrapped in some bubble wrap. I don’t know about you but when I’m receiving stuff from China it always contains this popped bubble wrap, have you noticed the same? I wonder why the bubble wrap is already popped, cause it kinda defeats the purpose.

Here are some links where you can order the Aneng AN302 Pocket Multimeter: Aliexpress, Amazon, Ebay,  Banggood. 

Here are some links with the other items mentioned in this video:

Here is the pocket multimeter spreadsheet where I list all the meters I’ve looked at.

Voltlog #174 – UNI-T UT125C Pocket Multimeter Review

Hello and welcome everyone, today it’s review time and we are taking a look at the UNI-T UT125C Pocket Multimeter. This is a 4000 count, CAT III 600V pocket meter they claim but as we’ll see in a moment it’s a bit bigger than an actual pocket meter.

Here are some links where you can order the UNI-T UT125C Pocket Multimeter: Aliexpress, Amazon, Ebay,  Banggood. 

Here are some links with the other items mentioned in this video:

Here is the pocket multimeter spreadsheet where I list all the meters I’ve looked at.

 

Voltlog #165 – USAMS 3 Port USB Charger With Display Review & Teardown

In this video I am taking a look at the USAMS 3 Port USB Charger With Display. Turns out the same charger is sold under many different names, and I suspect inside there is the same circuit labeled USB320G.

Like I mentioned in the past China is improving the designs of these charger each year so the situation is much better now than it was a few years back. There would still be the $2 death traps disguised as apple chargers but in the $10 range you can get some pretty decent chargers with adequate protection. This charger has the required protection features to make it safe to use however its not special in any way, the noise level is higher than I would like and the output current of just 3A is not enough for charging 3 devices. Not even 2 at the same time if they both require more current.

Here are links to where you can find this charger: Banggood, Aliexpress,  Amazon.

Voltlog #164 – Pirl USB Charger Review & Teardown

This is a review of the Pirl charger which has 4 independent USB ports each capable of up to 2.7A continuous output. The product will launch on kickstarter soon.

You get 4 ports each capable of 2.7A and we’ll put that to a test later. The 4 ports are independent so a fault on one of the ports is only gonna shut down that port. It has input reverse polarity protection, thermal protection and ESD protection. It can also detect and optimize the charging current based on the connected device so I expect to see one of those tiny chips which handles the usb data lines on each port.

Another interesting feature they mention on their website is voltage compensation such that each channel adjusts the output voltage according to the current drawn, if the current increases the voltage will increase slightly to compensate for the voltage drop that might occur in the cable up to your device.

They also have a wattmeter on the front of the device showing you how much power your device is pulling from the charger.

Voltlog #160 – Brymen BM22s and BM27s Pocket Multimeter Review

Welcome to a new voltlog, this is a follow-up on voltlog #148 the pocket multimeter shootout. In that video I reviewed 4 different cheap pocket multimeters. The general idea was that while some had advantages over others they were all missing important protection features on the input, making them safe to use only with low voltage, low energy circuits.

The guys from Welectron saw that video, they contacted me and said they have something better and they sent me the Brymen BM22S and BM27S for a review.

Welectron is offering a 5 EUR discount code (voltlog5) valid until 31st of May 2018. This will pretty much offer you free shipping for one of these meters which coupled with the 3 year warranty and their nice customer service, makes it a very nice deal if you are in the market for a good pocket multimeter.

You can also checkout my comparison spreadsheet to see how the Brymen meters compare against the other cheap pocket multimeters.

Voltlog #152 – Fake Aneng AN101?

So back when I was preparing for that video, I ordered an Aneng AN101 from aliexpress, I think I took the cheapest seller out of the ones that were available and when I got the meter I realised it doesn’t have the Aneng branding right here on the upper side of the LCD.

Here are links to where you can buy this pocket multimeter:

Voltlog #148 – Affordable Pocket Multimeter Shootout

In this episode we are going to be taking a look at the affordable pocket multimeter market, I’ve god 4 models which you can get for under $20 and I’m going to review these to see which one is best.

If you just want to skip to the results checkout this spreadsheet on google docs.

Here are links to where you can buy these pocket multimeters:

Here are the pictures from the teardown of these meters:

Voltlog #139 – Aneng AN8009 Multimeter Review

In Voltlog #114 I reviewed the Aneng 8008 and I said it’s probably the best $25 multimeter that you can buy. Today we are taking a look at the Aneng AN8009 which is a newer model from Aneng. 

In the end I would say this new AN8009 model is just as good as the AN8008 and they are both great beginner multimeters but they can also be good for the more advanced user who better understands their limitations.

My recommendation is to take a look at the differences between the two and choose based on your needs: ask yourself, do I need temperature measurements? Do I need the extra resistance range? Or do I need the square wave output. Better yet, and this is what I would do, I would get both models to have all of those functions when needed. Also it’s good to have two multimeters because you can measure both voltage and current at the same time.

Here are some links where you can get the Aneng 8009: