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LED hourglass for self-assembly - Made in China - Review.

CMS 3630 12
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Treść została przetłumaczona polish » english Zobacz oryginalną wersję tematu
  • Hello my dear readers.

    One of the gadgets I found in the test package I received from Gulson was an electronic self-assembly hourglass, the so-called DIY Kit.

    LED hourglass for self-assembly - Made in China - Review.

    For the price of about eleven zlotys, we can buy ...
    Exactly what? Because for me it is a completely useless gadget, but more on that soon. First, to avoid lynching, let me quote Kamil and then insert a screenshot:

    gulson wrote:
    The modules were chosen on the basis of what most people from all over the world order. If people order an electronic hourglass for timing, it means it's popular for some reason, and we need to see why! :) There are modules from advanced to beginner.


    LED hourglass for self-assembly - Made in China - Review.

    I was expecting something useful (boiling eggs, etc.), that is, the ability to adjust the time, some pipek / beeper / buzzer, as he called it, reminding that time is running out and that it has already expired. I was quietly counting on even the simplest sensor, detecting the rotation of the hourglass by 180 ° and thus resetting it.

    Meanwhile, we get:

    LED hourglass for self-assembly - Made in China - Review. LED hourglass for self-assembly - Made in China - Review. LED hourglass for self-assembly - Made in China - Review.

    As you can see not much :( .

    We also have a diagram and a list of elements (I don't know why, but it is).

    LED hourglass for self-assembly - Made in China - Review. LED hourglass for self-assembly - Made in China - Review.

    The list shows that the set includes:

    1. 57 LEDs, blue in this case.
    2. STC15W201S chip pcs one.
    3. PCB with dimensions of 84mm x 41mm.
    4. DC Jack 3mm x 1.2mm. With a plus inside.
    5. ISP connector in the form of a four-pin goldpin strip.
    6. 5mm x 5mm microswitch momentary button.
    7. Power switch - miniature switch.
    8. The power supply of the system is 5VDC. We can put them on the DC Jack socket (then the switch works), or on the goldpins, as in the pictures. In this case, the circuit breaker will not work.
    9. The system starts at a voltage of 2.6V. At full voltage, it consumes 14mA.
    10. After assembly, a few more components remain, namely ceramic capacitor 334 and three diodes.

    After assembling. (And it took me a lot of time for such a small circuit. That's because of quite a lot of LEDs placed close to each other.) The circuit looks like this:

    LED hourglass for self-assembly - Made in China - Review. LED hourglass for self-assembly - Made in China - Review. LED hourglass for self-assembly - Made in China - Review. LED hourglass for self-assembly - Made in China - Review.
    LED hourglass for self-assembly - Made in China - Review. LED hourglass for self-assembly - Made in China - Review.

    After connecting the power, the hourglass starts in the default mode, let's call it slow. When we hold the S2 button for a few seconds, the second mode will be activated, let's call it fast. I have absolutely no idea what this gadget would be used for. Well, he gets tested and described, they do their job.

    Finally, two more videos of the action.

    Slow:




    Fast:




    As you can see, this is not any useful length of time. I have no idea why this crap is so popular on Aliexpress, or what people use it for.

    Best regards.
    CMS

    Cool? Ranking DIY
    About Author
    CMS
    Administrator of HydePark
    Offline 
    CMS wrote 8190 posts with rating 2391, helped 235 times. Live in city Warszawa. Been with us since 2004 year.
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  • #2 17193956
    adamGazda
    Level 15  
    CMS wrote:
    I have no idea why this crap is so popular on Aliexpress, or what people use it for.

    Maybe to acquire single items for other projects. The average cost of one element is approximately PLN 0.16.
  • #3 17194220
    piotr_go
    DIY electronics designer
    CMS wrote:
    I have no idea why this crap is so popular on Aliexpress

    Learning to solder?

    CMS wrote:
    nor what people use it for

    To a new time machine as he found :)
    LED hourglass for self-assembly - Made in China - Review.
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  • #4 17194416
    398216 Usunięty
    Level 43  
    You can get items in a more thoughtful way. There are different sets of LEDs, resistors, transistors, integrated circuits ...
    And this is a gadget for little ones learning to solder, which is probably clear and at the same time the only logical explanation of popularity.
  • #5 17194512
    pawel1029384756
    Level 21  
    Usefulness is like any other kit, which is only a gadget, that is, practically none. You solder to the "cannon" and to the wardrobe, and in about five years to the trash, or split into parts.

    Although if you want to make precise adjustments to the timing, a slightly different timer could be created for brushing teeth or cooking eggs.
  • #6 17194683
    Gonza
    Level 27  
    It seems to me that such a kit will be the most popular among beginner electronics. I myself, when I started almost 20 years ago with Nord Elektronik and Jabela kits, I mainly bought various kinds of sparkles, glowing arrows, floating lights, dice, roulette, in general everything with leds was interesting. And there were no blue LEDs then. I also had hourglasses from Nord Elektronik, the NE113 set, I remember that it was based on the 4060 system, it was possible to adjust the "timing" with a potentiometer. Back then, this kind of kit cost a dozen or so zlotys at the end of the 1990s, so spending less than PLN 10 for such a twist today does not surprise me, only that here we have everything simplified to the maximum, only a microcontroller and LEDs.

    piotr_go wrote:
    To a new time machine as he found

    On the left I see a floating arrow, on the right a floating light, both from Nord Elektronik, I still have. As they say, it used to be :D
  • #7 17195421
    ptero
    Level 24  
    Er, there. And so the best sets were "Young Electronics" :)
    I had them all, it was fun! :)
  • #8 17195467
    szeryf3
    Level 29  
    Like a colleague pawel1029384756 wrote, this toy is for soldering, to see if it works and to the wardrobe.
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  • #9 17195828
    gulson
    System Administrator
    So, apart from the visual effect, there is absolutely nothing that would alarm that the time has expired? There is no smooth time control from 1-6min? It's a real embarrassment and CMS sorry for taking up your precious time :)
  • #10 17196043
    CMS
    Administrator of HydePark
    Absolutely nothing. I am disappointed with this gadget. I really hoped it would be useful in some way.
    You have nothing to apologize for :)
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  • #11 17199993
    rb401
    Level 39  
    CMS wrote:
    I really hoped it would be useful in some way.


    Unless:

    CMS wrote:
    5. ISP connector in the form of a four-pin goldpin strip.


    So I looked around and noticed that this controller (STC15W201S) in this toy, maybe an old school one, but it is quite interesting. From the STC website you can download an application that programs this bone through the most ordinary rs232 TTL. But this application, apart from flashing itself, is a whole combine with calculators (timers or baudrates), initialization code generator, demo applications (both C and ASM) and a source of relevant information.
    And the processor itself is an old, good 8052 but tuned so that, according to the manufacturer, it has the speed of the classic 8052 with a clock of 420MHz! Despite the mess in the documentation (as is often the case in Chinese companies), it seems to me that it is possible to complete the full knowledge on how to use this die.

    Here on the forum there are sometimes enthusiasts of assembler of old processors, it seems to me that the development of this controller (e.g. when a child gets bored as a toy) is probably the most simple way to get into the 8052 problem practically. .
  • #13 17277219
    adamGazda
    Level 15  
    The hourglass version from the link in the preceding post is different than that presented by the author of the topic. It is based on common CMOS devices: CD 4015 (two shift registers) and CD 4069 (six inverters).

Topic summary

The discussion revolves around a DIY electronic hourglass kit from Gulson, priced at approximately eleven zlotys. Users express disappointment regarding its functionality, noting the lack of useful features such as adjustable timing, alarms, or sensors for resetting. The kit is perceived primarily as a soldering practice tool for beginners in electronics, with some users reminiscing about similar kits from the past. While the hourglass serves as a visual gadget, its practical applications are deemed minimal. Some participants mention the underlying components, including the STC15W201S microcontroller, and compare it to other electronic kits from brands like Nord Elektronik and Jabela.
Summary generated by the language model.
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