Andrew Huang's Blog, page 19

The Essential Guide to Electronics in Shenzhen, Web Edition

It’s taken me a long time to get around to doing this, but here’s a link for a free-to-download copy of “The Essential Guide to Electronics in Shenzhen”. The catalyst that prompted me to finally get around to this is the fact that Crowd Supply is now sold out (I think Adafruit is also sold out, too). Since the maps in the guide are now quite out of date, I figure it’s not worth re-printing the guide. Instead, it may be more useful to publish a link, so that others can swap out the map pages with something more up-to-date and have a swing at making their own derivative works.

To the best of my knowledge, the last few physical copies of the book available for purchase are at MJ Maker’s stall on the 2nd floor of the SEG Plaza in Huaqiangbei. His stall number is 2A08; I think he has maybe 10 copies left as of this post. If you do stop by MJ’s booth, say hi for me.

Thanks again to everyone who supported the book campaign and purchased books. It was a fun adventure making and selling the guide. It was also a good reminder of why print publishing is a hard business!

Essential Guide to Shenzhen, Web Edition

It’s taken me a long time to get around to doing this, but here’s a link for a free-to-download copy of “The Essential Guide to Shenzhen”. The catalyst that prompted me to finally get around to this is the fact that Crowd Supply is now sold out (I think Adafruit is also sold out, too). Since the maps in the guide are now quite out of date, I figure it’s not worth re-printing the guide. Instead, it may be more useful to publish a link, so that others can swap out the map pages with something more up-to-date and have a swing at making their own derivative works.

To the best of my knowledge, the last few physical copies of the book available for purchase are at MJ Maker’s stall on the 2nd floor of the SEG Plaza in Huaqiangbei. His stall number is 2A08; I think he has maybe 10 copies left as of this post. If you do stop by MJ’s booth, say hi for me.

Thanks again to everyone who supported the book campaign and purchased books. It was a fun adventure making and selling the guide. It was also a good reminder of why print publishing is a hard business!

Name that Ware, November 2019

The Ware for November 2019 is shown below.

This is one half of the ware, and the more “generic” half. I left some pretty important hints during the cropping of this ware, though — if it’s too hard, I’ll add an image of the other half.

I also found the memory daughter card to be amusing, here’s a detail shot of it, removed:

Winner, Name that Ware October 2019

The Ware for October 2019 was a TomTom Multisport Cardio. After many years of reliable service it finally developed a small leak which lead to the failure of some buttons, and ultimately an inability to transfer data. Had to tear it apart and dry it out to extract the logs from the watch’s final journey, and figured it’d make an interesting ware to share. It was guessed very quickly, as I had expected — congrats to Ed Marshall, email me for your prize!

Name that Ware, October 2019

The Ware for October 2019 is shown below.

Should be a much easier ware than last month’s :)

Solution, Name that Ware September 2019

The ware for September 2019 is an Ameda Purely Yours Breast Pump. There’s actually a teardown of this ware on another blog. The gold strips are positions sensors for a syringe pump driven by a lead screw. I have been puzzling over design strategies for syringe pumps for a while, so I found looking at this ware to be particularly instructive.

Nobody even got close to guessing the ware, so there isn’t a winner this month. Thanks again to jackw01 for submitting this real stumper of a ware!

Name that Ware September 2019

The Ware for September 2019 is shown below.

Zilog. Now there’s a name that brings back memories!

Thanks to jackw01 for contributing this ware!

Winner, Name that Ware August 2019

The ware for August 2019 is the main logic board from a Brother QL570 label printer. Congrats to Adrian for nailing it! Great sleuthing work, email me for your prize.

Name that Ware, August 2019

The Ware for August 2019 is shown below.

This was a victim of an *ahem* “minor water spill” in my lab (oops) so I tore it apart to check for damage. Fortunately, it was distilled water so it survived without any ill effects.

Winner, Name that Ware July 2019

The ware for July 2019 was an Adtek aISA-P21, 16 input, 16 output isolated parallel I/O board. I really do admire how clean, crisp and orderly the board layout is on this one. It definitely bears several hallmarks of a Japanese design aesthetic, from the style of the SOICs to the font choice to the general organization and tidiness of the board assembly.

Congrats to Adam for nailing it, email me for your prize! I’d love to know more about how you knew what it was — had you encountered the board before? Or just a lot of sleuthing through the Internet. Either way, I didn’t expect anyone to get this one down to the exact make and model.