Good morning All and welcome to another Julian's Electronics post bag. Oh and a very happy Vernal Equinox to people who take notice of these things. Yes, we're in the summer half of the year sunny today as well. One of those sort of rare fairly Cloud disguise.

Oh, there are clouds, but not that many, right? Let's have a look at what this first post bag item is and it is microphones for my phone. the one that's actually recording this and uh yeah, they're wireless microphones Wireless Show Live show interview V-log short video Why short video Does that mean the batteries don't last very long? Okay, let's get this out. Um, not sure that these were terribly expensive. About ten dollars I think which is remarkable because oh, come on, get open I opened it and then I sort of closed it again.

Why did I do that? Oh, these look quite cute. Um, there's a little display I wonder what will come up on there? There's a USBC charge port there. So these office have an internal lithium battery, but it's going to be a very tiny one because this is not big. I mean it's one and a half centimeters wide by about I don't know.

Six centimeters long? It's tiny. Now there are two of these. I Just wonder whether this means that it the uh audio will be stereo or will it just be two? Lots of mono Blended mixed I Suppose it is. There's even a display on there.

What does all this stuff do? It's so exciting. Oh, they sent me the wrong one that is a lightning connector and I asked for USBC Oh well, these are coming apart then. Oh that's really annoying because these came all the way from China I think I mean they did it. Didn't take too long a couple of weeks.

but I can't even test this because that's not going to plug into my USBC phone. these are USBC So why is that lightning? and it actually says on the side here for iPhone Not for type C. So I've got to order a replacement set or send messages to the seller. so you sent the wrong one.

So this is the item on AliExpress and if you look at these four choices, you've got color green and it says type C. This one is color purple and it doesn't really say anything. This one is color gray and it just says two in one and this one is color orange for type C. Well these colors are stupid and irrelevant.

I Can't believe these are colors at all. These are the different connector types so I said well I want gray obviously and does that look like a lightning connector to you? I mean maybe it does. So yeah, I mean I've ordered the the wrong one so we can take that one apart and I'll just have to order another one. But I mean how ridiculously cheap is this? 8.72 for two microphones, both of which have internal storage now I Don't know whether it's um, Lithium cells or whether it's a super capacitor or something.

It does hint that it's not for long-term use, so I don't know, but that's really annoying. So I'm gonna have to now. wait, uh, to order another one. Uh, the seller is Factory Direct Collected store? Um, well.

I Suppose we could try plugging some power into one of these mics and just seeing if something comes up on the display. If indeed, that is a display? maybe it's just a light? Uh, let's get some 12 volts. Uh, which is here? Plug it into this which is USB plug that into there which should give me five volts and plug that into one of these microphones. Oh tiny little red dot.

uh I don't think this is a display actually I don't know why they've covered it with that if it's not a display. Anyway, that's charging. Um, I might leave that charging and we'll move on to the next item. Uh yes, this is a teeny tiny item.

It's right in this corner here, so let's break it open and it is that. So this is a type C USB to 2.1 millimeter plug adapter and what's interesting about this is that there's there's got to be a chip in here or some sort of signaling type thing because you plug this into your type C on the end of a power bank and it tells the power bank. Oh, I'm a device that accepts 12 volts the power bank. then UPS its voltage to 12 volts and 12 volts comes out of the 2.1 millimeter plug.

So there's no converter in here. it's just a signaler. Um, right? Well, that's enough chat. Let's see if it works well.

Here's the perfect thing to try it on this little. um, this actually takes up to between seven and uh, 60 volts. I Think it's quite ridiculous. Um, okay, so here's a power bank which I know has power delivery and will respond to the signaling uh provided by this thing.

So if I plug that in, this thing should go into Power delivery and it has actually I don't know whether you can see that the PD LED has lit up. In fact, if I take that off, oh yeah, that just goes off and there's no way I can actually get that on because you can see there's nothing at the end of The Wire Uh, how can I simulate that? Well I can't really. let's just connect this up, see if it, um, charges or lights this thing up. Let's plug it in.

Well, it certainly lights it up and we've got the little red light. It's very tiny, there little red light on the microphone there. Next thing is is that 12 volts. So let's get my DMM right.

unplug that from there pauses the center pin isn't it? So shove that in there. Oh, let's turn the light on. Quite nice. these they're very visible.

but I don't know. they're strange dmms and the voltage is 12 point one volts. So yeah, this is just a little device that sits on the end of your USB tells the power bank I'd like 12 volts on this occasion and you can buy these in different um voltage ratings. I don't know whether this says 12 volts on it.

Yes it does. It says 12 volt PD I'll get a shot of that. and uh I haven't got my headset on. so I have to shout because the microphones aren't very good.

But yes, I didn't think to do this. Did I plug that into there that still hasn't actually triggered the power bank to send anything. But as soon as I plug this on there I'm actually using this rear dang backwards. But I don't suppose it mines and yeah, 12.17 volts? Nice.

Uh, it's embossed here. Where is it? Oh yeah, there it is. So there it is. 12 volts! PD So you know you could probably get a 9 volt, a 15 volt, a 20 volt.

even possibly now. I mean this is only good for up to well. this is a 60 watt power bank, so theoretically it could do the full 5 amps I don't know whether you'd be able to pull the full 5 amps I Suppose I should test that at some point, but probably not on this power bank. Um yeah, I could probably see it on this little watt meter.

In fact, what's it pulling when I connect it to that? it's pulling. Oh well. somewhere between zero and one. What? So yes, I mean you'd only use it on low power, but it just provides a it's just another bench top power supply isn't it? So this was the item and this one, uh, was bought on eBay So here it is: 12 volt adapter PD Power Delivery that is Type C female to DC male converter for router or fan? Yes or you could use it for charging your wireless microphone.

That's the wrong type. Um, four pounds 59 This was that came from a UK seller because I wanted it in a reasonable hurry. Uh, the seller was three day and night and the next item is this. It says booster made in China 900 watt, 15 amp CC Cccv Oh, constant current, constant voltage.

Yes, this is a DC to DC converter. Let's get my blade, which is blunt to the point where it's not going to really harm me. but is it actually going to open the box? Yeah, it seems to be doing all right and the item is. Come on.

Yes, it's another one of these boost converters. Um, well it looked when I looked at the display there. it's hard to see but there's the line right across the screen there. but I don't think it's a crack because if I peel that back, the screen looks intact.

So let's power this up. Um I'll need some connectors for there and some means of getting I don't know 12 volts into this thing. Um well I've been playing with these things quite a lot in recent days. so I made up this.

It's a big Spades to little Spades thing I think big Spades will go on there so let's put that on. uh, positive is towards me so that goes on like that I was just thinking actually, would it be a bit naughty to power this up using that 12 volt power delivery thing? it would? Really wouldn't it? Um I mean I this is going to take quite a surge isn't it because of this? uh, input capacitor and I don't know what happens if you overload power delivery. um something I could try I suppose Yeah, I'll use this I'll use a d3806 um which has a 2.1 mil Jack there. that'll take my 12 volts which is it's just not a very good Supply The batteries outside are a bit knackered, the wires coming into the window go to cigarette lighter and those plugs and sockets are never very convincing.

Are they? Um, okay. well look. I'll connect that to there and then I'll power this thing up. All right.

Just check this. Uh, pause out neg out, pause in neg in so that looks okay. let's plug this in I don't think it's set to come on automatically. Um, 24 volts? Is that okay? That should be okay.

This might squeal a bit, but okay, let's turn that on. Ah yes. Now in the listings for this thing, um, almost all of them just don't have a picture of what comes up on the display. There are one or two listings for this where there's an extremely grainy image of this display and I just it does actually look like this.

The font is absolutely horrible, isn't it? Um, but now I can see actually what's written on there. Well, I'll put my glasses on. Got a problem? You see, I'm wearing headphones because that's the only way that I could get a microphone. uh, in a sort of consistent place.

And then when I try to put my glasses on, um, it's very difficult to put glasses on when you're wearing headphones. That's why I want that wireless microphone? It doesn't doesn't actually need to be Wireless But I just wanted a microphone that will connect to this phone Anyway, that's all irrelevant. Let's get down and have a closer look at this display. actually.

I'm going to peel this off because it looks to me like that's a a line of a felt tip or something. and there's some stuff covering the display a bit there, so let's peel that off because that's going to look a little bit better. So what do we have on here? We have the status whether or not this thing is boosting. Now you've got to be careful with these boost converters because off doesn't mean off.

I've got 24 volts coming in, so there will be 24 volts on the output there. I'm going to drop that down a bit actually. Oh, that's interesting in 24 volts. That's very interesting.

I've never seen that on one of these. Um, there's only one of my DC to DC converters where it actually tells you the input voltage and I think it's that little phoenixy thing which had a similar display to this. but the point is with a nice display like this as opposed to seven segments where you can't see barely anything. Copy: Kevin Not to short everything out.

Um, you just get to see so much more stuff. So 23.9 volts is the output voltage, 24 is the input voltage. um. Amps Watts The status is constant voltage because it's not current limiting on the output.

The output, well, not the output is off, but the boosting function is off so it's acting just as a pass-through from the input to the output. And the set points are 20 volts 3 amps. That's just really nice. It's just nice to have all that data in front of you at one time.

well just quickly then because I don't really want to spoil this. I'll probably do a video on this. Um, the OK button. Yes, I just pressed that top button actually and that's seemed to change the data set.

Uh, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one zero. Okay, that now if I press OK it should turn on the boosting function. so the output is now being boosted up to well 20 volts and it's actually less than the input voltage so it's not going to be doing any boosting. Um I Really want to load? Don't I what if I how do I turn this off? do I press OK again.

Yes, you do right? I'm just going to wind uh this down so I think I'll do it as actually as a setting. So that's off and let's wind this down to 12 volts and then I can use the booster to boost up to 24 volts. Um, oh, that'll do 1177 one amp current limit so that powers this up. You get that nice indication.

this font really is awful Isn't it. But input voltage 11.8 boost up to 20. I'll just get a little bulb to put on there. Now this will light up.

even though this says off because it doesn't mean that the output is off, It means that the Boost function is off. So this will. oh, who tightened these up? Ridiculous. Really tight.

Uh, okay, so let's put that in there that will power up. It's two, um, 12 volt fruit machine bulbs in series so they will take 20 volts. Okay, we can see from the display that the set point is that's really terrible because there's really not much gap between the actual characters and the Border Lines. But anyway, let's turn on the Boost function and up it goes to 20 volts or 19.9 We've got a bit of current there.

We've got a bit of Watts um 1.7 watts and you can see that it's still in constant voltage because we're not triggering any sort of current limit, right? I'm going to leave that there because this is a post bag video, not a video about this. Rather nice, um, boost converter. So here's the item. Um, it's another eBay item.

Let's just bring that down a bit. So here you can see the photograph and if I go through all the photographs, we'll just hover over them. They all have the display blank. I've Got a Feeling one of these I think I have to scroll down.

Oh yes there now. can you see that really? Oh, hang on. I'll have to click on that. Oh, it's gone too full screen.

but I mean look at that really grainy image it is actually oh I've switched it off now, but it's very similar to what we're seeing on the actual unit. I have to go back now and I Um, but anyway. um, I Wasn't really sure what I was getting and in fact I'm pleasantly surprised. It's very nice to see the input voltage um indicated on the display.

Yeah, it's just a it's just a nicer unit, isn't it? So this is 900 watts. Uh, a very specific circumstances to get 900 watts and you're very unlikely to get it anyway. So derate that. um.

15 amps. You're unlikely to get that either. Step Up Converter Boost 8 to 60, on the input 10 to 120. on the output and I have used that high voltage um to power up little 12 and 5 volt power suppliers because they can be run on DC Uh, Boost converter CC CV It has got constant current.

now. of course the constant current won't work. Um, if the boosting function is Switched Off it can only bring the voltage down in order to maintain current. Um, if it's doing boosting.

so if if that voltage is under its control, it has no control over the pass-through But anyway, we can come to that more when I do the video on this unit. Um, this came from home time. Fun 30. I Just thought I'd show you briefly the previous incarnation of this thing.

You can generally search for this thing. just say 900 W boost 900 watt boost and this thing will come up. Um, so yeah, this also was LCD but it had that sort of cut down LCD didn't really show you much on here I Don't think it even shows the input voltage. And then of course there was a previous version which had an LED display and the four buttons.

A bit like that. that one's out in the shed and it's all wired into stuff and yeah, I can't really? Uh, bring that here. but uh yeah. Latest incarnation, right? Let's do one more and this is the big one.

Really? Uh, quite expensive. It was about fifty dollars. Uh, you'll see why in a moment. Well, I don't know, will you see why? I don't really think.

uh, judging by the prices of some of the other stuff I've had today how this is Justified But um yeah, they don't sell in large quantities and it's that is that it is there nothing else in here? No, that is it. I'll just put this nut and washers back on. Um, yeah. so what this is is a Type 2 Outlet for electric vehicle charging.

Uh, I'll take this apart actually if I can. how high does that come up fairly high? So this is for what they call untethered. Which means that this is on the actual charge unit what they call an Evse Electric Vehicle Supply equipment. and then you use a cable with a plug at this end and another plug at the other end.

Once the socket, one's a plug and then that goes into the car. Now the reason I wanted this is because this project, my home brew Evse Electric Vehicle charger has become impossibly unwieldy. If I let that go, it will slide forward and fall off the table. And that's because it's got these two fixed cables.

So what I was thinking, this is Mains In and at the other end of that cable is this thumping great connector. I could replace this with um an IEC Mains connector you know Kettle lead style and then mounted on this piece of wood or possibly a slightly bigger piece of wood. I will have this as my output and then I can connect my type 2 cable that came with the car to here and then plug it into the car at the other end and still use this thing. but it has just become impossibly unwieldy.

this project I can't actually keep it on the desk while I'm working on it. so I want it to be more Standalone by having a connector at each end instead of these really thick, really heavy cables. so have a little look at this. I think this is only going to come apart actually if I take all these nuts off which I'll do off camera and now that bit comes off there.

so yeah, lots of gaskets which you'd put into whatever casing you were using and then this is the sort of uh, rain cover to try and keep all these connectors dry. and this one was unusual. Oh, I think I've not quite got what I thought I was going to get Um, most of these require that the cables are crimped in, but the imagery on the sales page for this showed um screw terminals I'll take these screws out actually, because I'm quite interested to see whether I've actually got what I thought I was going to get. You see, some of these are available with half a meter of cables already crimped in.

and if these are crimp terminals, then I'd rather have the crimping done for me because I don't have a crimp tool and you can buy a crimp tool but it's about twenty dollars. Um, but I Just wanted to avoid that whole scenario and certainly it looks to me like these are crimp Terminals and not the terminals with a little screw. To be quite honest, I wasn't sure how this could be terminals with a little screw because I couldn't quite see how it would work. but certainly the photography.

oh uh oh okay, these are coming out Yeah, these are crimp. I Mean you can solder these ones because uh, they're just signal um connectors but these are the high current connectors where your Mains live, uh, neutral and Earth uh, transfer fairly High current Mains to the car and these are crimp not solder, which they appeared to be in the listing. Um, let's let's look at the listing now actually for this. So this is the item on AliExpress It's from the We Like Elv store in case you wanted to know and it says sorry, this item is no longer available And indeed, if you look through these images I think it's that one.

No, it's this one. Actually, you can see all the components here laid out and these very clearly have little screws. um in these connectors and this whole housing looks entirely different. So what I got is not what and this also has multiple of these locking these lock attachment points one on the side, there, one on the top, one on the other side and the unit I've received has only got one.

I mean I don't think it matters particularly. But anyway, Um, I can't even show you the price of this because it's no longer available I'll have a look at what I paid for that now. I'm just taking off this port cover here. Um, because this is where you attach a little Servo motor type thing which drives the locking mechanism which should put little locking pins in on the four sides to hold in the cable because the idea is it's locked at both ends so no one can run off with your cable.

but I can't see any locking mechanism in here and I have a funny feeling. Yes, there's absolutely nothing under there, so this is, well, it will work and I can use it temporarily, but it's not exactly what I was expecting. In some ways, it's a bit of a Swizz because it's not got screw terminals, it's not got any type of locking mechanism that is just complete dummy. Port there.

Yes, interesting. Fifty dollars I tell you what I always thought eBay was a bit Wild West AliExpress I think is even more so well. actually it's not quite what I was saying because um I'll just use one of these if I put that in there, you can actually see it run into the unit. and I know that these little Servo motors have a pin which is driven out by a motor and driven back in.

So yes, it would drive into there and lock the cable in. but I thought that it had some sort of complicated mechanism where four pins all drove in together. but maybe I was kind of overthinking this. Yeah, I mean that would work as a lock.

It's just a bit more primitive than I thought it was going to be I thought it was going to be much more sophisticated. Yeah, fifty dollars for this is is a lot. but then again, anything to do with electric cars, it's a pretty Niche um Topic At the moment it'll become more mainstream in a few years, of course. Um, yeah, you do get charged an awful lot because this stuff sells in very small quantities.

So anyway, I'll put this back together and then I'll do my Assamblage shot. Yes, I probably should have gone for the um, the connector with half a meter of cable pre-crimped onto it because they obviously understand the issue. You know I don't have a crimper? I could buy a crimper one of these big hydraulic crimpers, but I don't particularly, uh, want to do that because I'm very short of space and it'll only end up out in the shed where it'll go Rusty because believe me, the Shed is a very harsh environment for half the year. I'll do a Shed update in a video soon.

but um, yeah, I mean yeah, this. this has got some weight to its made of the proper material. It's all thermoplastic. It's not a bad unit, it's just not what the pictures uh, hinted it was going to be okay.

Assamblage shot I Just want to see what happens to this microphone if you press and hold the button. Yeah, you get an alternate red and green flashing light. So this is probably saying I'm trying to find the oh, it's gone. Is it still red and green? Yeah, still red and green.

It's probably saying I'm trying to find the um, the unit that plugs into the phone and it's never going to find that is it? But yeah, I wonder if that's got capacitor or battery in it? That'd be interesting to tear down, right? I Shall continue assembling and so these are today's post bag items. Uh, big thanks as always to my sponsor Jlc. PCB Also huge thanks to my uh, Patreon patrons who stuck with me for years now. I Don't thank you enough I Really should thank you more.

Um, what else do I say in these Assamblage shots? Oh yeah, that's right. Um, yeah, watch these videos. I'll put some pictures somewhere and press that and subscribe. And oh, do not forget Cheerio!.