WEBVTT 00:00:08.660 --> 00:00:11.325 >> Hi, welcome to the sigma path. 00:00:11.325 --> 00:00:12.510 Since the last episode, 00:00:12.510 --> 00:00:16.680 I received a lot of messages from you guys about a type of episodes you like to see, 00:00:16.680 --> 00:00:19.680 and we have a lot of exciting topics to cover in the future. 00:00:19.680 --> 00:00:20.930 A lot of equipment review, 00:00:20.930 --> 00:00:22.250 a lot of component review. 00:00:22.250 --> 00:00:26.475 A lot hacking, and today's episode is also for you hackers out there. 00:00:26.475 --> 00:00:30.584 We'd like to see if you can combine this disposable camera, 00:00:30.584 --> 00:00:35.760 and this Nixie tube. Well, specifically the flash circuit inside disposable camera, 00:00:35.760 --> 00:00:38.390 and the process we're going to learn exactly how 00:00:38.390 --> 00:00:41.270 that flash circuit works at the schematic level, 00:00:41.270 --> 00:00:42.735 and also using some measurements. 00:00:42.735 --> 00:00:45.695 We are also going to take a little bit look at these Nixie tubes. 00:00:45.695 --> 00:00:47.425 So let's get started with this, 00:00:47.425 --> 00:00:49.310 and see what I'm talking about here. 00:00:49.310 --> 00:00:54.625 You can get these at pretty much any convenience store or any big supermarket. 00:00:54.625 --> 00:00:57.500 What is special about these thing is that, 00:00:57.500 --> 00:00:59.720 this particular model has a built-in flash, 00:00:59.720 --> 00:01:01.325 so that's you're looking for. 00:01:01.325 --> 00:01:05.540 If you're going some places that developed the film for these things, they may 00:01:05.540 --> 00:01:09.780 give you a used band for free since really they just recycled them. 00:01:09.780 --> 00:01:11.910 They throw them away. So what we're going to do is, 00:01:11.910 --> 00:01:12.990 we're going to take this apart. 00:01:12.990 --> 00:01:16.465 Take the circuit that we want out of it, analyze the circuit, 00:01:16.465 --> 00:01:20.390 and at the same time see if we can use that circuit to somehow power the Nixie tube. 00:01:20.390 --> 00:01:22.110 So, it will be an interesting combination. 00:01:22.110 --> 00:01:23.930 Am not sure if anyone's ever done that before, 00:01:23.930 --> 00:01:26.885 but there's a lot of cool things that people have done 00:01:26.885 --> 00:01:29.360 using these disposable flash cameras because there's 00:01:29.360 --> 00:01:31.870 a high voltage DC-DC converter that is inside of it, 00:01:31.870 --> 00:01:33.650 and of course a very big capacitor. 00:01:33.650 --> 00:01:35.300 So we're going to take one of these apart, 00:01:35.300 --> 00:01:37.460 and let's take a look and see what's inside it. 00:01:37.460 --> 00:01:40.105 Will look at a circuit, and we'll go from there. 00:01:40.105 --> 00:01:44.345 Okay, here we have a disposable camera with a flash built-in. 00:01:44.345 --> 00:01:46.370 Before we take this apart I have to warn 00:01:46.370 --> 00:01:48.200 you that you should only do this at home if you have 00:01:48.200 --> 00:01:49.880 experience with high voltage circuits 00:01:49.880 --> 00:01:52.690 because even if the camera hasn't been used for a while, 00:01:52.690 --> 00:01:56.710 the capacitor inside may hold enough charge to give you a nasty shock. 00:01:56.710 --> 00:02:00.380 So never do this unless you have experience with this type of circuits. 00:02:00.380 --> 00:02:04.430 These type of cameras are all housed inside a paper containers. 00:02:04.430 --> 00:02:06.290 This is done because they want to be able to 00:02:06.290 --> 00:02:08.539 take this apart very quickly, and take the film out. 00:02:08.539 --> 00:02:12.035 So I've already taken this apart so we can throw that away. 00:02:12.035 --> 00:02:16.445 The top and the bottom are held together using these little plastic pins. 00:02:16.445 --> 00:02:18.230 So you can put a screwdriver on and shift, 00:02:18.230 --> 00:02:19.325 and then we can take that off. 00:02:19.325 --> 00:02:20.900 So I've done that also. 00:02:20.900 --> 00:02:23.240 So you can take the top cover off, 00:02:23.240 --> 00:02:26.330 and we can throw that away. 00:02:26.330 --> 00:02:28.700 So if you look inside the camera, 00:02:28.700 --> 00:02:31.555 we can right away see this large double A battery. 00:02:31.555 --> 00:02:33.735 Large with respect to the rest of the circuit, 00:02:33.735 --> 00:02:37.160 and you should always keep these even if you're not 00:02:37.160 --> 00:02:40.820 interested in the circuit itself because once the camera's used up, 00:02:40.820 --> 00:02:42.815 and you are about to throw it away or give it away. 00:02:42.815 --> 00:02:45.500 These guys usually still have enough charge in them to be 00:02:45.500 --> 00:02:48.260 useful for something else maybe a remote control for example. 00:02:48.260 --> 00:02:50.130 So don't throw these away or if you do, 00:02:50.130 --> 00:02:51.680 make sure you recycle them. 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:54.860 So here's a double A battery that powers the flash. 00:02:54.860 --> 00:02:56.600 Here's a flash circuit itself. 00:02:56.600 --> 00:03:00.785 This entire PCB is only responsible for operating the fly circuit. 00:03:00.785 --> 00:03:03.935 At the top, you can see these little metallic pin. 00:03:03.935 --> 00:03:07.880 This metallic piece here is actually the "On" and "Off" button of the flash. 00:03:07.880 --> 00:03:10.040 There's a plastic button on the outside. 00:03:10.040 --> 00:03:12.440 When you press down, everything comes down and 00:03:12.440 --> 00:03:16.460 connects the two paths that are right underneath it, 00:03:16.460 --> 00:03:18.125 and that closes the circuit, 00:03:18.125 --> 00:03:20.045 and turns the flash on. 00:03:20.045 --> 00:03:23.245 On the front side of the camera, 00:03:23.245 --> 00:03:25.790 you can see that big capacitor I was telling you about. 00:03:25.790 --> 00:03:29.240 This capacitor is what holds the charge for the flash. 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:33.145 There is the flash unit, the flash tube itself at the top, 00:03:33.145 --> 00:03:35.310 and there is a little LED. 00:03:35.310 --> 00:03:38.450 This one's actually equipped with a little LED that shows you, 00:03:38.450 --> 00:03:40.220 tells you when the flash is charged, 00:03:40.220 --> 00:03:41.615 and ready to be fired. 00:03:41.615 --> 00:03:45.625 Interestingly enough, I took apart another identical camera, 00:03:45.625 --> 00:03:47.480 and that one had a neon lamp inside. 00:03:47.480 --> 00:03:51.125 So we'll talk a little bit about that when we analyzing the circuit. 00:03:51.125 --> 00:03:54.140 So let's try, and run this flash once, 00:03:54.140 --> 00:03:56.230 and fire it, and see how it works. 00:03:56.230 --> 00:03:58.475 Again, so we have to be very, very careful here. 00:03:58.475 --> 00:04:00.005 So here's the "On" and "Off" button, 00:04:00.005 --> 00:04:02.360 and there's also two pieces of wire, 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:03.560 two piece of metal here, 00:04:03.560 --> 00:04:08.960 and these two pieces of metal are the mechanism that fires the flash itself. 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:13.490 When you push the shutter button, a little lever comes down 00:04:13.490 --> 00:04:16.110 and briefly touches these two pins together, 00:04:16.110 --> 00:04:17.930 and I think that's the lever right here. 00:04:17.930 --> 00:04:20.360 This thing comes down right there, 00:04:20.360 --> 00:04:21.935 and touches those two pins together. 00:04:21.935 --> 00:04:24.780 When that happens, that's when the flash actually is fired. 00:04:24.780 --> 00:04:26.040 So we can charge it, 00:04:26.040 --> 00:04:29.760 and then I will manually do that so we can see the flash go off once. 00:04:29.760 --> 00:04:32.150 So I will push this down and you will hear 00:04:32.150 --> 00:04:36.260 that characteristic noise that you hear when the flash is being charged, 00:04:36.260 --> 00:04:39.740 and we'll talk about why that is later on. So here we go. 00:04:39.740 --> 00:04:41.720 So I can hear it charging. 00:04:41.720 --> 00:04:46.200 So I can see that the LED is turned on meaning that flash is fully charged, 00:04:46.200 --> 00:04:47.570 and ready to be fire. 00:04:47.570 --> 00:04:49.865 So I'm going to let go of the button. 00:04:49.865 --> 00:04:53.500 I'm going to connect those two wires that I told you together a very briefly, 00:04:53.500 --> 00:04:57.790 and we can see the flash go off. There it is. 00:04:57.790 --> 00:05:00.950 So even as the flash went off, the capacitor is not 00:05:00.950 --> 00:05:04.150 fully discharged, so there is enough charge in there to give you a shock. 00:05:04.150 --> 00:05:05.650 You have to be very careful. 00:05:05.650 --> 00:05:10.565 So I'm going to discharge the capacitor first using a metallic piece. 00:05:10.565 --> 00:05:12.920 Take the battery out, and then take the flash circuit out. 00:05:12.920 --> 00:05:14.990 So let us take the battery out first. 00:05:14.990 --> 00:05:21.360 Put that aside, and I can see the two terminals of the big capacitor at the top. 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:23.600 You can see them right there. 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:25.760 That's the first terminal, and that's the second one there. 00:05:25.760 --> 00:05:28.130 So I'm going to use a screwdriver, 00:05:28.130 --> 00:05:32.260 and discharge that capacitor before we move forward. 00:05:32.260 --> 00:05:35.870 Okay. I went ahead and discharge the capacitor of the camera. 00:05:35.870 --> 00:05:39.230 I will show you a complete discharge using that method. 00:05:39.230 --> 00:05:41.615 It's just fun to do later on during the video. 00:05:41.615 --> 00:05:45.380 So, you can take a flash circuit out by moving this pin on the side. 00:05:45.380 --> 00:05:51.035 So let me do that, and here we go. 00:05:51.035 --> 00:05:52.865 So the flash circuit comes right out. 00:05:52.865 --> 00:05:55.130 It's one single unit. We don't need this. 00:05:55.130 --> 00:05:57.425 We can throw the rest of this out, 00:05:57.425 --> 00:05:59.765 and let's take a close look at this, 00:05:59.765 --> 00:06:02.870 and see what components are involved in making one of these, 00:06:02.870 --> 00:06:04.775 and then we will analyze a circuit. 00:06:04.775 --> 00:06:08.020 So of course, from the back you can see that flash tube, 00:06:08.020 --> 00:06:10.279 and you can see the two terminals of the battery, 00:06:10.279 --> 00:06:14.285 and the little terminal here that does the firing of the flash itself, 00:06:14.285 --> 00:06:21.110 and in the front we can see that the entire circuit uses only one transistor. 00:06:21.110 --> 00:06:22.850 So there is one transistor. 00:06:22.850 --> 00:06:24.245 There's one diode. 00:06:24.245 --> 00:06:25.580 There's three resistors. 00:06:25.580 --> 00:06:27.260 One little in here. 00:06:27.260 --> 00:06:29.900 I hope you can see this on camera. 00:06:29.900 --> 00:06:35.435 There's one there, and there's one resistor right there. 00:06:35.435 --> 00:06:37.460 There is a big transformer here, 00:06:37.460 --> 00:06:40.470 and a little transformer on this side, 00:06:40.470 --> 00:06:44.840 right here, and there is another capacitor up here, and a big one here. 00:06:44.840 --> 00:06:46.790 This big this is electrolytic capacitor, 00:06:46.790 --> 00:06:49.130 that's capacitor that keeps the charge for the flash, 00:06:49.130 --> 00:06:53.570 and this is an aluminum foil capacitor here that is for a slightly different function, 00:06:53.570 --> 00:06:55.130 so I'll tell you about that later, 00:06:55.130 --> 00:06:58.520 and this transformer has a top connection. 00:06:58.520 --> 00:07:05.090 This top connection from this transformer goes directly to the center top of the flash, 00:07:05.090 --> 00:07:10.235 and these two connectors of the capacitor go to the other two sides of the flash, 00:07:10.235 --> 00:07:12.260 and we will take a look at that, too. 00:07:12.260 --> 00:07:15.680 So, what I've done is that I've taken this, 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:18.095 and I have drawn a full schematic of it, 00:07:18.095 --> 00:07:20.675 and we would like to find out how this works. 00:07:20.675 --> 00:07:23.610 So there's going to be a little bit of theoretical stuff there, 00:07:23.610 --> 00:07:26.200 and then we will see what we can do with it.