Silvercrest (Lidl) EIM-804 'digital weekly timer' teardown

I purchased up a few Silvercrest brand EIM-804 'digital weekly timer'  from Lidl two years, with some sort of hackery in mind. And finally I found a use for one. So I tore one apart.

There are two PCBs: one on the bottom which deals with power related matters and one attached to the top lid which is the user interface (UI). The PCBs are connected with a 3 wire ribbon cable.

The power board comprises a fuse, mains relay, relay drive circuit and a low voltage (1.2V) power supply and backup battery (cell) for the user interface board.

The UI board comprises an application specific Chip-on-Board (COB) IC, a custom LCD mated to the PCB by a zebra strip and contact pads for rubber buttons. It's connected to the power PCB by a 3 wire ribbon cable. Two wires for power (1.2V) and one (labeled 'D' on the PCB) for relay control. I found if this was left floating the relay was on and if I drive it to 0V the relay was switched off.

I am hoping to use the low voltage power supply to power my application. So I took a shot at reverse engineering the schematics of the power board:

So it seems there are two DC power rails: a 24V rail set by zener diode DZ1 (a 24V 1N4749A) which together with Q1 is used to energize the relay coil. A second power rail is derived from the 24V rail and is set by DZ2 and provides 1.2V for the UI PCB and the 1.2V backup battery.

The relay is controlled by line D. It's interesting to note that the Q1 (a SS9014 NPN) is a high gain transistor, so it doesn't take much base current to cause the relay to activate.  If D is left to float then the small current that flows through R4 (about 73µA) is enough to activate the relay. If D is driven to 0V then that current is directed away from Q1 causing the relay to deactivate.

D2 is the usual fly-back diode which absorbs the voltage spike due to the sudden interruption of current through the relay coil. Diode D1 protects Q1 (and the driving logic) from excessive current if D line is high.

The purpose of D3 (I guess) is to prevent the 1.2V battery from draining through EC2 etc when the device is unplugged.

One important observation about the 1.2V low voltage rail: the 0V is not ground. It will vary between 0V and +24V relative to the ground/neutral line. Therefore you must optoisolate it if interfacing to external circuitry. The following is a scope trace from the 1.2V line on the ribbon cable. Connecting this to external (grounded) logic devices is likely to damage it.

So my plan is to use this device with the UI PCB removed and a Lite-On LTV-817S opto-isolator with the output connected to the D and 0V line of the ribbon cable. The relay will be on by default. Passing a current through the isolator's input LED will cause the relay to switch off.  More on this another time...

When French words are really English

Pictured are some walkie talkies, or, as they’re known in France, talkie walkies. The French are proud of their language, and rightly so, and they go out of their way to create new words so the English language doesn’t take their language over. In fact, they even have theAcadamie français, with 35 current ‘immortals’ who get to wear funky outfits while they toy with the idea of replacing recent English words (like ‘software’) with made-up French words (like ‘logiciel‘).

Yes, these people are called ‘immortals’ by the French due to their contribution to the French language. I imagine they had heavy hearts when the French government decided to change all ‘Arret‘ road signs to ‘Stop’ signs. They’ve also given into the French usage of ‘weekend’ and ‘wifi’ (pronounced ‘whiffy’), which is a major bonus when playing Scrabble in French.

But these are exceptions. When a new English word barges nonchalantly into the French language, the immortals are on the case toute suit. They come up with an entirely new word that sounds French. So what happened with ‘talkie walkie‘? Of course the French pronounce it with an accent which sounds cool and hilarious in equal measures, but it doesn’t sound at all French. I can only presume that they’ll be called something completely different within a few years.

But for now, we can all rejoice in the talkie walkie. Rejoice with me by listening to the recording! What do you think?

How to use Oriflame’s Milk & Honey Gold Hair Mask in 3 Different Ways?

First of all I am extremely sorry for my bad posting schedule (Trust Me, I really am ). But I promise I will try to be more consistent from now. I am really lucky I have the best readers who were regularly in touch with mails and messages on my social media pages. I am really grateful for all the love guys it really means a lot to me.

Well lets begin with today’s post. Today I have really cool Hair Care Product to share with you all. I don’t know whether you have used it before or not, Its Oriflame’s Milk and Honey Gold Hair Mask. So lets check out this hair mask girls, shall we?

What I will be sharing in this article?

• Oriflame’s Milk and Honey Gold Hair Mask ‘s Appearance.
• Its Pricing and Shelf Life.
• Ingredients.
• How to use it?
• Its effects on my Hair.
• Pros of Oriflame’s Milk and Honey Gold Hair Mask.
• Cons of Oriflame’s Milk and Honey Gold Hair Mask.
• Overall HCS Rating.
• Will I purchase again and recommend this to Product to a friend?

Lets begin with the review

Oriflame’s Milk and Honey Gold Hair Mask ‘s Appearance

As you can see in the pictures above, the mask is cream in color and is not thick. Actually it felt like a cold cream consistency. It was pretty easy to apply because it wasn’t that thick.

The smell of this mask is really pleasant and trust me on this one you will love your hair even more because of this smell. It smells like a bit of honey and milk mixed together (LOLZ..). It is not too strong but if you have a sensitive nose then this may annoy you a bit. As for me, I found it really wonderful and fresh.

Its Pricing and Shelf Life

It is priced Rs. 499 for 250 gms. It has shelf life of about 3 years. I got it on great discount from my friend since she is a consultant in Oriflame.

Ingredients

Its really sad but they haven’t mentioned ingredients on the pack. This is one of the biggest turn offs for me while buying a product. Especially if you are using a product to apply on your skin or on your hair then this is a must for me.

How to use it?

Sadly even this was not mentioned anywhere. So, basically I had to try it in different ways to find out which one works best for the hair.

I tried it in three different ways

1. Applied on my hair like normal hair mask and left for 40 mins and washed it off.
2. Used it in small quantity as leave in conditioner.
3. Oiled my hair for atleast 1 hour before applying this mask. Then let the mask stay just for about 20 mins gave a bit of steam to my hair and then washed it off with the shampoo and conditioner.

Lets check these all out.

In this first case

I applied on my hair like normal hair mask (in a really generous quantity) and left for 40 mins and washed it off. This time it gave really beautiful results. My hair became little soft at the ends and became frizz free. But this cloud had a dark lining. Since I was lazy enough to wear my shower cap, the mask dried and took 3 buckets of water, 20 minutes of my life and lot of patience to finally get out of my hair.

VHF/ UHF DUAL-BAND TWO WAY RADIO

. Dual-band handheld transceiver with display function menu on the display “LCD” . DTMF encoded . Lithium-ion battery with high capacity . Commercial FM radio receiver (65 MHz ~ 108MHz) . Incorporates 105 codes “DCS” and 50 privacy codes “CTCSS” programmable . Function “VOX” (voice operated transmission) . Alarm function . Up to 128 memory channels . Broadband (wide) / Narrowband (narrow), selectable . High power / low (5W/1W) selectable . Display illumination and programmable keyboard . Function “beep” on the keyboard . Dual watch/dual reception . Selectable frequency step 2.5/5/6.25/10/12.5/25kHz . Function “OFFSET” (frequency offset for repeater access) . Battery saving function “SAVE” . Timer transmission “TOT” programmable . Selecting the Scan Mode . Function Busy Channel Lock “BCLO” . Built-in RX CTCSS/DCS scan . Built-in LED flashlight . Programmable by PC . Level threshold “Squelch” adjustable from 0 to 9 . Crossband reception . Tone end of transmission . Built-in key lock 

GENERAL

Frequency Range:      VHF 136-174MHz UHF 400-520MHz

Memory channels:      Up to 128 channels

Frequency stability:    2.5ppm

Frequency step:  2.5/5/6.25/10/12.5/25kHz

Antenna impedance:  50Ω

Operating temperature:     -20°C to +60°C

Supply voltage:    Rechargeable Lithium-lon mAh 7.4V/1800

Consumption in standby:   ≤75mA

Consumption in reception: 380mA

Consumption in transmission   ≤1.4A

Mode of operation:     Simplex or semi-duplex.

Duty cycle:    03/03/54 min. (RX/TX/Standby).

Dimensions:  58mm x 110mm x 32mm

Weight:  130g (approximate)

TRANSMITTER

RF power      4W/1W

Type of modulation     FM

Emission class     16KΦF3E/11KΦF3E (W/N)

Maximum deviation    ≤±5 / ≤±2.5kHz (W/N)

Supurious emissions  ＜-60dB

RECEIVER

Receiver Sensitivity       0.2 V(at 12dB SINAD)

Intermodulation     60dB

Audio output  1000mW

Adjacent channel selectivity   65/60dB