2020-05-28

KOSS Spark Plug earphones

Inexpensive (bought for about $12, although now identical model seems to cost more) earphones from Koss. Some love them, some hate them - sound quality is good in general, although there may be too much bass depending on preferences. They are relatively big for earphones and this kind of design is not too ergonomic. My biggest issue with them is degrading foam - this is "memory" foam that is supposed to fit in ear when squeezed. It should retain sqeezed form for a few seconds, but with time it looses this "memory" property and starts behaving like plain rubbery foam. It probably would take few months, but after time you won't be able to fit them in ear canal at all. Second issue: this plastic is brittle (or gets brittle with time?) - one of my earphones cracked after being dropped on hard floor, so I had to glue it with 2-component resin.
Two identical in size foam sets were included in my package. Additional ones are somehow expensive - I'm seeing them at $12 (+ shipping cost as you won't find them at local shop) for 6 pairs at the moment.
These earphones were covered with lifetime warranty, although there is processing fee that makes it not viable economically (processing fee is basically same as earphones cost).
 Plastic tubes under foams:
 Old trick to restore these earphones is using hearing protection foams like these, 3M model 1100 to replace original foams. They are available in every drug store for $0.25 a pair (or less, about $0.10 a pair if buying in bulk).

 Cut foam to match tube length, make hole for the tube

Overall, sound isolation is not necessary better than for earphones with silicone seal, but from my use foam has less tendency to slip out of the ear after time and can sit in place for hours.

2020-05-21

Aiwa SX-WNSZ52 speakers

Speaker set from NSX-SZ52 Aiwa system - popular class all-in-one with 3 CD changer and double cassette deck with full logic control. From what I can find, priced in $25-$40 range at the moment as used.
Height: ~32cm, weight ~5kg.
Dust cover on woofer is missing on this photo.


 Front plastic cover is glued to black plastic frame that is holding mid-band speaker - glue is applied on 6 plastic pegs. This is some kind of elastic, rubber-like glue. With some luck front could be removed without damages, although glue is still pretty strong - opening it I've damaged chipboard with screwdriver in few places at the edges and broken one of the pegs.


 Twitter is just a piezo speaker.


 8A-NS8-604-01 midrange speaker, 8 Ohms

 8Z-NS7-602-01 woofer, 6 Ohms

 As speaker set is labeled as "BUILT-IN POWERED SUBWOOFER" I though that it might have built-in amplifier at least for low band speaker, but speaker are just wired directly. I had to open it anyway as I've got it as junk with cables cut off point-blank at the back.

2020-05-01

PC-802 Android 2.2 8" tablet

Cheap, "no name" PC-802 tablet based on Android 2.2/Froyo.
Received as "partially working" - stuck on Android boot screen.

 Opening: two screws under plastic element partially covering speakers, two screws under sticker. Relatively easy to open latches on all four sides.



 Two 463985 cells, 1800 mAh each. Still holding reasonable charge.

 WM8650 from WonderMedia - 600 MHz ARM926EJ-S, single core mounted on separate PCB module. Apparently hundreds of different tablets and "mini-PCs" were based on it back in 2010-2012.
Samsung K9GAG08U0E - 16Gbit MLC (2 bits/cell) NAND Flash.
2 x ELPIDA E1108AFSE-8E-F DDR2 DRAM - apparently used also in PC memories.
Exposed JTAG pads.
 WM8900L - low power input/output audio codec with microphone amplifier, analog mixing capabilities, supporting I2S.

 VIA VT6113 Ethernet PHY.
 S16011G ethernet transformer. Apparently ethernet can connected through wide, proprietary connecter at the edge.




 WiFi on separate module, apparently connected through USB.

 UOR6153 - controller for resistive touch screen, working along with Semico CS7146.

 Stucking on boot screen seemed like typical NAND bit rot - 10 years would be close to declared NAND data retention time and also problems with NAND probably were less known back then as testing this takes time.
Loading Uberoid for WM8650 fixes the problem:
https://www.mobilarian.com/showthread.php?t=877342