Category Archives: Electronics

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Review & Teardown of Xiaomi 10400mAh Powerbank [NDY-02AD]

Page 1 : Advertised Features

Taken from Original Website : http://www.mi.com/en/pb10400/

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Listed as a 13.99 US$ — though I get it at around 15.5US$ Not a big deal, just 1.5$ differences. You’ll see later, that mine have the LG-Chemical Batteries, not the Samsung version.

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Advertised Safety features. I haven’t tested the Input Overvoltage. and cannot test the Output Overvoltage, which is only can occurs when the switching controller is going very wrong. I haven’t tested the thermal safety features, but all of the needed hardware is there (PTC & Thermal monitor). Short Circuit & Output Overcurret does kick in when I’m loading the powerbank more than around 2.5A.

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Go to next page to see the components inside!

INDEX :
Page 1 : Advertised Features

Page 2 : Internal Photos

Page 3 : Benchmarking the Power Output Quality

Page 4 : Conclusion

 

Pages: 1 2 3 4


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Motherboard Teardown: DFI LanParty DK X48-T2RSB+

Hey there.

This is my motherboard 3 years ago. The motherboard was really great for overclocking, plus the catchy UV-reactive color slots. Until, suddenly the MOSFET burned when I turn on the computer.

Don’t really know why, I assume it might be from ESD, because I don’t use any chassis before. My board are just laying on my desk.

Even the MOSFET already burned, I tried to remove it from the board, and viola! it still works!

The Audio jack housing is broken, intentionally, because I want to see inside the connectors.

Ok, Here we go~

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Overall board looks DFI LanParty DK X48 T2RSB+

 

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Intel 82801IR (ICH9R) Southbridge.

 

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Intel X48 Northbridge

 

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VRM PWM Controller – ISL6336 by Intersil Official Datasheet and Specification : HERE

 

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MOSFET array : CSD16404 and CSD16410 by CiclonSemi (now acquired by Texas Instrument) Official Datasheet and Specification (CSD16404): HERE

 

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MOSFET Driver : ISL6612 by Intersil Official Datasheet and Specification: HERE

 

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ITE 8268R. Anyone know what is this? Please comment below 🙂

 

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VRM for DRAM Modules. Using ISL6520 for MOSFET driver.

 

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Marvell 88E8053 Gigabit Ethernet Controller

 

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ITE 8266R. Anyone know what is this? Please comment below 🙂

 

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Realtek ALC885 High-performance Audio Codec. Decent sound for listening music and gaming

 

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LP DK X48-T2RSB+

 

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ICS 9LPRS918JKLF – FSB Controller/Clockgen(?) I don’t know the exact name for this chips…

 

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VIA VT6307 – Firewire IEEE1394 Controller. Honestly I never used the firewire peripherals… and ITE8718F Low-Pin Count (LPC IO). This chip controls much minor things, like Floppy Disk, Hardware Monitor, Fan Controller, PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse, UART, CIR, Parallel Port, etc…

 

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HCT164M by Texas Instrument : a simple logic circuit. Converts Serial to Parallel. Maybe for the 7-Segment Debug LED?

 

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74LV123D – Another Logic IC from NXP

 

ST Microelectronics – ST75185C COM Port Driver

 

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Old Jellybean Op-Amp! LM358 beneath the PCI-express slot…

 

 

Will post more motherboard later!
Wait for my MSI P67 Motherboard!

 

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Tearing up (if not the) most dangerous lithium battery!

I have lots of 18650 Lithium-ions lying at home. I’ve got them from dead laptop battery packs, hope to find some decent cell inside. I’ve got many dead cell, but sometimes I got good cell (75% or more of their original capacity)

And, yesterday (11 October 2014), my curiosity calls my hand to tear one of them. I’ve got leaked cell, the gas/pressure already escaped, because of the bad welding spot, that makes the canister leaked. So, it’s quite safe to assume there’s no more pressure inside.

The battery was Sanyo UR18650FM – 2600mAh got from 6-cell Toshiba laptop battery packs. I can’t find the exact datasheet for that battery, but I’ve found the siblings, UR18650F, same capacity, dunno what the differences, but some people at forum says it’s almost the same, as have same capacity.

Here is the UR18650F Datasheet, include the safety precaution too. DOWNLOAD

The battery was already completely dead, exactly 0 volts, and almost no resistance between the terminal, indicate the crystal already build up, making the plate short out. And, I assume (my assumption can be go wrong) that the battery have no or just a little energy to explode/starting fire/burn my hands, desk, house/starting a firecracker/melting stell/ {insert your own imagination here}.

PLEASE, ONCE AGAIN PLEASE, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME OR AT SCHOOL, AT LABS, OR EVERYWHERE YOU LIVE! LITHIUM CAN BE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS IF UNPROTECTED! THERE’S INCIDENT THAT THE BATTERY EXPLODE AND BREAK A GLASS, INJURED THE HANDS BADLY, TURNING TO BE A FLAMETHROWER AND BURNING ENTIRE GARAGE, ETC. You can watch it on youtube.

[External link] READ MORE about safety in lithium battery : Battery University

– Luckily, there’s no incident in this crazy experiment, no blood, no fire, just some mess and lithium fumes/smell-

Now, let the pictures say.

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the pressure valve

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the positive terminal

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I can’t pull out the cells – it turns out because the negative terminal was soldered to the bottom of the cell canister.

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The negative terminal

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Time to unroll~ rollin’ rollin’

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It was 4 layers-

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the positive terminal

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negative terminal

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positive terminal again. It was attached to bottom layer.

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negative terminal (again)

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something was like “burned” the foil — indication of dead cell?

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Repack?

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and, charge it again? lol! It was shorted somewhere inside, I was tried to doing crazy, charge it with 12volts.

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the lithium mess

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Bye-bye. You’ve being a hero, serving years to power up the laptop, fulfilled my curiosity, and learned me about the cylindrical lithium-ion battery.

 

Thanks for reading!