Longer delay modification for TDL-2023 PIR sensor

I have a TDL-2023 pass-through motion activated sensor that turns on a device. While I have already set the delay to the maximum value with the internal trimmer, the advertised 360 seconds were not enough.

Click to zoom.

On the small board there is a BIS50001 IC, whose datasheet can be found online. The delay is set with an RC combination and can be seen on some schematic diagrams that use the same BIS50001 chip. Starting from the trimmer pins I poked around and found a series of 1 Mohm (trimmer) and 56 kohm (fixed resistor marked R0). Since I need a longer delay I decided to replace the fixed resistor with a larger value, 1 Mohm being probably enough.

Click to zoom.

The smallest resistor I could find is 1/4W but it fits into the case if installed as seen on my picture. The delay is now over 8 minutes. Since I have not been able to locate the capacitor of the delay circuit I cannot confirm the datasheet formula, but the ON time "feels" like twice as much as before.

An update to my KiCAD library for obsolete LED

I got a new batch of old LED displays and before doing something with them I needed a KiCAD symbol and footprint.

So I added TIL308 and TIL309 to my KiCAD libraries. Also fixed TIL306 and TIL307 that were missing their respective symbols.

My KiCAD library of obsolete displays (Nixie, VFD, LED) is published on a github repository.

Meanwhile I confirm that TIL311 symbol and footprints are correct since I got PCBs, built them and I am enjoying the result.

Blue dot and leg glow in Z520M Nixie

I love Nixie tubes, and I especially love round top-view ones. Perhaps that is because the first ones I bought were of this kind.

Lately I got one Z520M with the red coating quite damaged (pictures seem to make it look even worse!). Since the red coating can be restored/replicated, I proceeded to test the tube. I was not surprised to find out that it needs to be driven a bit harder than newer Nixies, both because this one is quite old and probably it has been used a lot.

Digits 0 to 2 were behaving normally. When pulling low other digit cathodes only the leg was glowing. If left ON for few minutes the glow transferred to the digit from the area close to the pin. Unfortunately if the digit is switched off for a while the malfunction comes up again the next time the same digit is lit.

Now that I own a variable HV power supply I could experiment with the current through the tube, and saw that the "leg" does not glow if the current flow is lowered closer to the datasheet value. Even 0.1 mA makes a difference. But then the digit is faint or not completely lit (like "5" and "7").

Since the red coating is cracked I could see through the plain glass and note that the leg glow releases the infamous blue dot. It is caused by mercury and overcurrent. Since it does not happen on digits 0-1-2 it could be just a deposit on unused digits/wires and might be cured throughout hours of operation of the same symbol. Perhaps. I will not go further and keep the tube as-is in the collection. (Or make a test harness where I can leave it running for days out of the way in the lab?)

Can you see the infamous blue light through the crack in the coating?

TTL integrated circuits "collection"

Not a real lockdown project, I tried to organize my "collection" of TTL integrated circuits. These have been piled up in numerical order to ease a future search for a specific part. The picture shows all of them and it is posted here for my own future reference.

I thought I had more laying around, actually. The 74(1)41 Nixie driver are not amongst them because they are the only 74-series ICs that I still use.

At least now I have a group picture in case I (or someone else) need one of these, or I really run out of interesting projects and start designing something out of them.

Another HV DC power supply

DISCLAIMER. This "project" handles lethal voltages and currents. Do NOT replicate. I take no responsibility for any damage that might occur from replicating or imitating what is illustrated below.

Having lots of time to spend at home to do "whateveryouwant", I started to clean the lab: move stuff around, make room on the desk, prepare a trip to the recycling facility, see stuff under a different light.

I happen to have two 12V power supplies from 1980's, when heavy transformers were dominating the scene and guaranteed RF silence. The first purchase was 12V/2A, then upgraded to 12V/5A (not that I cared about RF noise back then in my CB years!).

Both power supplies, as of April 2020.

They took space in the lab, one partially broke, one was recently upgraded with a step-down converter in place of 7812 so, as the headline suggests, I made a high-voltage DC power supply out of them.

What was (left) inside. Dust included.

D-C rectifier and back2back trafo.

How? I wired the two transformers back-to-back and rectified the AC output. Bonus, since transformers were both centre-tapped, I can select two outputs just by switching the intermediate connection: 170V or 340V. And both transformers fit into one original case!

According to transformer ratings I should be able to draw about 100-120 mA at 170V and half of that at 340V. Then the voltage drops, transformers vibrate and overheat.

The transformer receiving the mains is the bulkier one, from the former 12V/5A PSU, so there is some room for a low voltage output with decent current.

Final look, with HV output yellow/black.

Needed improvements:

• fuse the AC input
• fuse the HV output
• add a damping resistor on the HV output
• attach the HV output selection switch to the case 
• add a status LED/lamp
• add the low voltage output circuit

Unloaded 340V.

Unloaded 170V.

Cleverly hidden reset button

Like many people involved in COVID-19 lockdown, I am using the opportunity to tidy up home and reorganize things. Something that popped up was a couple of tiny mp3 players/radio/voice recorders, size roughly 4x5 cm.

One of them was "fat", an obvious sign to the trained eye that the Lithium-based battery inside has gone bad. So .... an excellent candidate for looking inside! The second specimen does not hold the charge, so I think it is going down the same road of its brother.

I didn't expect fancy technology, and I was surprised I could read markings on ICs: (RDA)5807M I2C FM radio and AK2117C "Artek Digital Multimedia Chip" (an 8051-like MCU with multimedia I/O).

While looking around the board I noticed a strange "white" component behind the 3.5 mm audio socket. Looking closer I saw that it is a pushbutton! That's why in the picture there is a small screwdriver stuffed into the audio socket.

I tried to push it on the still-intact yellow player and it seems to act as cold reset button. Probably it works for something else too, like triggering firmware update, but I don't really care.

Still, that button has been hidden in a very smart way!

By the way, the RDA5807M chip tunes from 50 to 150 MHz WBFM!

High voltage DC power supply

Most hobbyist electronic labs are equipped with a variable voltage power supply of some kind. It could be a benchtop commercial box, a modified AT PC PSU, a variable step-down circuit on the output of a 20-30V upcycled (laptop) power supply.

At some point I realised I was missing an important power source for my never ending learning experiments: a variable high-voltage DC power supply. I mean something that would output as much as 300Vdc regulated (I've build it with a switcher, with back-to-back transformers and voltage multiplier) and high current, possibly limited (neither easy nor cheap).

Not long ago in the neonixie mailing list someone mentioned buying a second-hand electrophoresis power supply. A quick check on eBay showed it would cost me 60-100€ for a device capable of 300V and few hundred mA. Unfortunately all of them are in USA or in UK, with large shipping cost. I think there is very little Italian second-hand market for these devices because professional labs need lots of certifications etc etc and probably rent/lease them.

So I patiently waited for something in Italy to be sold online and before the COVID-19 lockdown I bought a second-hand Bio Rad Power-Pac 300: a whopping maximum of 300Vdc at 400mA, digitally controlled.

The power supply at 300 V output between older devices. The Philips DM needs calibration...

The voltage regulation goes from 10 to 300V, while the current can be limited between 5 and 400 mA. Or vice-versa. The only drawback is a minimum load of 4 mA regardless the output voltage, that I can overcome inserting a fixed resistor in one of the 4 parallel outputs.

With 400 mA available I can power a lot of Nixie tubes and valve-based equipment. Or experiment the beauties of electrophoresis!