Seeing NFC with Oscilloscope

Seeing NFC with Oscilloscope

In the last post (https://michaellogusz.blogspot.com/2019/03/wireless-power-transmission-to-make.html) I showed a smart card reader.

This smart card reader sends and receives 13.56Mhz signals for Near Field Communication. To test it I put a little LED chip that lights up by harvesting 13.56Mhz energy.

I wanted to see these waves on my oscilloscope. I found one super simple way to sniff NFC signals and another that was almost as easy.

The first thing I did was plug my RFID smart card reader thing into a cell phone AC wall charger outlet. Luckily, that made the card reader constantly send out a continuous NFC signal. This way I didn't have to hook it up to a computer and keep clicking "read" to get a signal. Nice!

Next I turned my oscilloscope probe into a signal tracer antenna sniffer loop. How did I do this? I clipped the alligator ground clip to the tip of the probe. That's it! Oh, I also set the probe to 10x instead of 1x. That's not a big deal, but the readout on screen looked nicer, because I had the scope set to 10x for no particular reason I can recall.

Anyway, then on my Rigol oscilloscope I clicked "Clear" button and all of a sudden all 4 channels came on. I shut them off one-by-one except for channel 1. I must have had some weird settings leftover from last time I was playing with it, because after seeing nonsense information all of a sudden I was treated to this:

Big waves with tiny little waves jiggling around inside them. If you look at the center of the photo you'll see toward the bottom "Freq = 13.7MHz". This would constantly go from 13.56MHz to slightly above and below. There was my Near Field Communication signal from the card reader right on screen.



Then I thought, what if I used an actual antenna made for NFC--instead of my home made loop? So, I fished around in a junk drawer and phone a broken phone I found in the garbage that had an NFC antenna. This antenna is pictured below. It's actually technically not an antenna: it's an NFC and wireless charging induction coil.

As you can see by my drawings I took a multimeter and did continuity tests. It turns out the little copper connection boxes (which I arbitrarily numbered 1-7) aren't all connected.

Boxes 1, 2 and 4 connect to each other.
Boxes 3 and 7 connect to each other.


So, I hooked my oscilloscope probe tip and ground clip up: one went to 1 or 2 or 4; and the other went to 3 or 7.

When I slammed this induction sniffer onto the card reader I got a way cooler looking set of waves and the frequency readout at the bottom of the oscilloscope screen read 13.56MHz most of the time.

In this way I sort of proved that the smart card reader was putting out 13.5MHz waves, but also that the phone induction coil wasn't just self-resonating at 13.5Mhz: because my crappy sniffer loop in the first part of this experiment also gave me 13.5MHz.

If you have an oscilloscope that's 50-100Mhz you can do this too. However, older scopes that don't go up that high (I have many scopes that are under 10Mhz) won't show you 13.5MHz waves. I think you're supposed to have an oscilloscope that is rated about 5 times the signal you're trying to see. Theoretically, my oscilloscope would be just under this...but it still worked.

If you want to do this the correct way, you'd by a $9000 spectrum analyzer or one of those cool hand-held "RF Explorer" boxes that go up to 6GHz (GIG! not Meg) so like 6000MHz. RF Explorer has units that are weirdly advertised and named so you think you're getting a certain range of frequency, but it's not really that range. For this I think they have a model that's only $180 that would do the trick, for a little more you can get a 2.4GHz model to play with Wifi signals (but I don't think that model can go down to 13MHz. The RF Explorer units range from $120-$500 and up.

The best thing they have is a signal generator that can go up to 6GHz. I thought about getting one of those for doing this same stuff with WiFi signals, but my oscilloscope can't go up to the Gig range (only MHz). Then I came up with an idea: the router I used for my last post about lectennas puts out 2.4 and 5Ghz signals: just plug an ethernet cable into one port and then into another of it's output ports: create a loop back into itself: this creates a packet storm and plenty of WiFI waves flooding the room. This might also be a way to stress-test a WiFi system, lol: no anechoic chamber and spectrum generators needed.

Anyway, after clearing the settings the frequency stopped bouncing around from 60-100Hz and went to 13.5MHz, and cool waves appeared. Not sure why that didn't happen until I hit "clear" on the oscilloscope. Keep fiddling with buttons and sometimes stuff just works out!

Rectenna Lectenna Wireless Power Transmission

Wireless Power Transmission

To make a battery-less, wirelessly powered LED rectenna (Lectenna) energy harvester you just need a few components.

First you need a 1SS106 Diode, but this diode MUST have a little “H” on it for Hitachi. I bought a bunch of these little Schottky diodes that the eBay and Amazon listers said were made by Hitachi. I bought the “boutique” $5 diode from the UK. None of them had the little white “H” on them and so, none of them worked for this project.

Finally, I got fed up and started opening customer fraud complaints and a single dude on eBay (in China) said he had some “H” marked diodes and would send them. After 2.5 months of this I finally received a bag of these “H” diodes that actually worked. If you’re going to order off eBay or Amazon use the message function and tell the seller you must have “1SS106 Hitachi Diode with the white H on them” as nothing else will work. All the other 1SS106 diodes will fail to function! There are surface mount versions of similar diodes that will work, but they are literally smaller than the exclamation point at the end of this sentence and are super hard to pick up with tweezers is nearly impossible!

The other half of the circuit you need is a low CURRENT LED bulb. Just go on Digikey and get a bunch of Avago HLMP-D150 bulbs. They work, they are very low current, they are very cheap and they are red.

Ignore the two wires going to the old wifi router antenna (that's a later experiment). Notice how the flat side of the LED is OPPOSITE the banded end of the diode.

Again, notice how the flat side of the LED is OPPOSITE the banded end of the diode. Negative to positive.

Here's a pic of the two little guys twisted together. I put some dabs of solder at each end, only because I didn't want them falling apart when I took it around other people's gear.

Now what? Bend the legs of the red LED flat. This is your dipole antenna. It’s good at picking up microwave oven leaks and 2.45GHz wifi waves.

Next, put these two diodes (1SS106 & HLMP-D150) together so that the leg of the LED that has the flat side is connected to the side of the Schottky diode that has no marking. The LED has a leg near a flattened side. The Schottky diode has a leg near a banded end. You do NOT want these two legs to touch.

On diodes, one end will have a thick black or white stripe. The other end will have nothing. The end with the stripe is the NEGATIVE cathode wire. LEDs will have a flat spot on the base of the bulb or a shorter leg wire that means it’s the NEGATIVE cathode wire. FOR THIS EXPERIMENT WE WANT TO CONNECT ANODE TO CATHODE!!!!!  So we want the flat side of the LED connected to the NON-banded side of the diode.

You twist the two legs on one side together. Then the other.

Put this near a working router with 2.45Ghz (as opposed to just 5Ghz) band running and it will light up. I used an old Net Gear router that wasn’t hooked up to the internet. I just plugged the router into the AC wall outlet, turned it on then held down the padlock WPS button for a few seconds until the router went into the WPS easy connect mode which only then made the LED flash.

Lectenna in a dental floss container.

If you touch the metal wire legs of this energy harvester, you’re actually touching the antenna. This will make the light go out. So, you can try holding it by the bulb or just find a little plastic tube or bag or better yet just tape it to a piece of paper or a wooden stick and then you can poke it all around different equipment: routers, older cellphones, leaky microwave oven doors, etc.

On my Xfinity Arris “gateway” that is a modem and wireless router combined it blinked and lit up, but not as much. You have to lay it right on top of the bridge, near the rear of the box.

The best way to light these was one of those white TPLink Wi-Fi extenders that look like a kid's nightlight.

Someone was throwing away a BUNCH of wifi routers and they gave me about a dozen of this little black detachable, 90-degree bendable wifi antennas. I’m going to attach one of those antenna’s to this device to see if I can get farther away and still have the bulb light up. Right now it has to be touching either of the routers to light up, and it has to be in the correct spot on the router too!

There are a lot of ways of making a rectifying antenna (rectenna). Most involve intricately cutting tiny, flat sheets of copper into square cutout maze-like shapes. A Hitachi Schottky diode is easier: just make sure it has the “H” on it.

There are a lot of ways of proving your rectenna is working. Most involve satellite dishes and frequency analyzers and tons of fancy equipment. This way just blinks an LED for you to see it’s working.

I bought from China eBay user Hifiic and initially got Schottky diodes without the “H” on them and they didn’t work. I left feedback (negative, my first ever negative) about counterfeit. The dude(?) sent me a bag of real ones with the “H” and those were the only ones that worked. If you order from them, in the message to seller on the order page make sure you say “HAS TO BE “H” ON THE DIODE OR ELSE IT WON”T WORK!!!!” and they’ll hook you up hopefully. The UK seller LittleDiode sent me something which also didn’t work for way, way more money. To be fair, this is an oddity in the diode market: it’s the right case and product number, but only the older “H” diodes will work.

I also bought some smaller, surface mount diodes that should theoretically work, but they are so, so, so tiny I can barely see them. I would have to solder them because they are rectangles with pads (no wire legs sticking out) so I’d need to by one of those ultra-thin soldering irons with the microscope attached to even work with these. I’ve seen people take the insulation of a thin copper wire and pull the copper strands apart and then solder that tiny single copper strand (the width of a human hair) onto a surface mount diode.

That’s how they make fingernail NFC powered LED lights: seriously, they’re even smaller and they are glued to a person’s fingernails and they are lit up by the NFC (near field communication) waves coming out of a cellphone (you know: the “tap” to pay thing). Crazy blinking lights on your fingernails!!!! I have some of those (cheap from Amazon) and I have a test/development board NFC USB reader device ($10) coming that will hopefully light them up—since my current phone doesn’t have NFC. Which is probably a good thing: I can’t imagine not passing by a vending machine if I had tap-to-pay on my phone. Plus, I’m a dude so it’d look weird if I glued this microchip lights onto my fingernails.

I'll update later, there is a vicious thunderstorm happening now.

Mandelbrot BASIC Program

Mandelbrot BASIC Program

Here's another cool bit of code to cut and paste into BASIC emulator.

Same as previous post: download and install a BASIC emulator onto your computer, and paste the code in. I used "PC-BASIC" made by Rob Hagemans because it is one of the few emulators that also emulates graphics! I got it off a site called SourceForge. A lot of BASIC/QBASIC/GW-BASIC emulators don't do graphics. PC-BASIC does. Worked for me on a modern Lenovo ThinkCentre desktop   https://sourceforge.net/projects/pcbasic/

PC BASIC also one of the few emulators that seems to allow pasting lines of code in. That sure beats retyping everything.  I typed this program into an email at some point. Then I just copied it in the email program like normal (Control + C) and pasted into into PC-BASIC by hitting F11+V and it all appeared. Then type RUN and Mandelbrot stuff appears.

There are an infinite number of fractions between any two whole numbers: between 1 and 2 there are 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/1000, 1/2304049904, 1/9994848483292929, etc. The dark set are the Mandelbrot numbers. The colors are numbers outside the set, blasting toward infinity.

Zoom in for a closer look, and there is always a ton of similar detail to see: fractals!

Here's the code to cut and paste (remeber to use F11 + V to paste once you're inside PC BASIC):

10           DEFSNG A-Z

20           SCREEN 1: KEY OFF

30           MAXDWELL = 150

40           NUMCOLORS = 4

50           NUMROWS = 100

60           NUMCOLS = 100

70           YOFFSET = 1

80           XOFFSET = 1

90           INPUT "LOWER LEFTHAND CORNER, REAL PART"; ACORNER

100         INPUT "LOWER LEFTHAND CORNER, IMAG. PART"; BCORNER

110         INPUT "LENGTH OF SIDE"; SIDE

120         CLS

130         COLOR 1

140         LINE (0, 0)-(NUMCOLS + XOFFSET, 0)

150         LINE (NUMCOLS + XOFFSET, 0)-(NUMCOLS + XOFFSET, NUMROWS + YOFFSET)

160         LINE (NUMCOLS + XOFFSET, NUMROWS + YOFFSET)-(0, NUMROWS + YOFFSET)

170         LINE (0, NUMROWS + YOFFSET)-(0, 0)

180        LOCATE 17, 1

190         PRINT "PERCENTAGE COMPLETE = 0"

200         PRINT "DWELL FOR LAST PIXEL = 0"

210         PRINT "LARGEST DWELL = 0"

215         PRINT "MAXDWELL ="; MAXDWELL

220         PRINT "REAL PART = "; ACORNER

230         PRINT "IMAGINARY PART = "; BCORNER

240         PRINT "SIDE =  "; SIDE

250         HIGHDWELL = 0

260         GAP = SIDE / NUMROWS

270         AC = ACORNER

280         FOR X = XOFFSET TO NUMROWS - 1 + XOFFSET

290         AC = AC + GAP

300         BC = BCORNER

310         FOR Y = YOFFSET TO NUMCOLS - 1 + XOFFSET

320         BC = BC + GAP

330         AZ = 0

340         BZ = 0

350         COUNT% = 0

360         SIZE = 0

370         WHILE (SIZE < 4) AND (COUNT% < MAXDWELL)  

380         TEMP = AZ * AZ - BZ * BZ + AC

390         BZ = 2 * AZ * BZ + BC

400         AZ = TEMP

410         SIZE = AZ * AZ + BZ * BZ

420         COUNT% = COUNT% + 1

430         WEND

440         COLOR 1

450         LOCATE 18, 23  

460         PRINT COUNT%; " ";

470         IF (COUNT% < MAXDWELL) AND (COUNT% > HIGHDWELL) THEN HIGHDWELL = COUNT%: LOCATE 19, 16: PRINT HIGHDWELL

480         IF COUNT% = MAXDWELL THEN PSET (X, NUMROWS - Y + 1), 0 ELSE PSET (X, NUMROWS - Y + 1), COUNT% MOD (NUMCOLORS - 1) + 1

490        NEXT Y

500         LOCATE 17, 22

510         PRINT 100 * X /NUMCOLS; " ";   

520         NEXT X

530         AS = INPUT$(1)            

                

                       

Once you run it you'll be asked to input three numbers. Here's the starter version:

-2
-2
4

these three inputs will give you the same Mandbrot as above.



Other numbers suggested are:
-.114
.917
.017

You end up zooming into the Mandelbrot, but since it's like fractals it looks very similar (but never the same). Sort of like the chaos in the last post's bit of code.

You can zoom in too much and get crazy numbers like 1.2453245E-9 in the readouts. If you've got the time and computing power you can try this:

10 DEFDBL A-Z




This Mandelbrot code really grinds the hard drive as it works. I used the default 20 Line of Screen 1. You can up the ante for more colors and better resolution by changing the lines, same as last post. Each variation increases colors and/or resolution/and or size but always makes it take longer to actually render onscreen:

20 SCREEN 7 : KEY OFF
40 NUMCOLORS = 16


Lots more colors:

20 SCREEN 13 :KEY OFF
40 NUMCOLORS = 256


Here's one that gives you 16 colors but increases the image size from 100 rows and columns to 200:

20 SCREEN 9 :KEY OFF
40 NUMCOLORS = 16
50 NUMROWS = 200
60 NUMCOLS = 200

Like in the last post, if everything goes haywire, it's probably because your graphics card can't handle this program...even though it's like two decades later chaos, infinities, bifurcations and fractals use a lot of computing power. Plus, you're going through a BASIC emulator which is going to slow things down too.

How slow? Here's a video I took with Line 20 Screen set to only "1" and the colors limited to only 4. The little window is only 100 rows x 100 columns. Look how slow it goes!

BASIC Programming for CHAOS

BASIC Programming for CHAOS

The last time I played with BASIC programming was on my Commodore 64 computer. I'm attempting run a program that shows chaotic bifurcations (just like my Chaotic Chua Circuits).


We'll start with a simple 7 line code that will become the center of our chaos inducing 23 line code (don't worry, you can just copy and paste from here once you download a BASIC emulator).


So, here is an iterated logistic difference equation showing animal population growth. If you run it on an online BASIC simulator it works. For this, an online simulator works fine. Try this one:  https://repl.it/repls/InsignificantTepidEquipment



TURN ON YOUR CAPS LOCK FOR ALL CAP LETTERS!

If you type "2" as your input the population hovers at around half an animal. If you type "5" as your starting population it goes to infinity (which is an error). So you need numbers less than 4 to keep it running true. The population levels out if you put in 1.5 as a start:


10 N=.1
20 INPUT"VALUE OF R";R
30 FOR I=1 TO 30
40 N1=R*N*(1-N)
50 PRINT N1
60 N=N1
70 NEXT I




Here is the screen capture of it in action:

Infinity: that's a lot of kitties! But an error in the program of going too high (R=5).



So here is R = 3.999

There is a new version of BASIC from Microsoft available as a download or an online simulator here: https://smallbasic-publicwebsite.azurewebsites.net/

It's called Small Basic...and the language is different.

Here's a cut and paste version of the above script in the new language (it works, but doesn't give as many lines of results):

N=0.1

TextWindow.Write("What is the value of R? ")

R = TextWindow.ReadNumber()

FOR I=1 TO 30

N1=R*N*(1-N)

TextWindow.WriteLine("The result it " + N1 + ".")

N=N1

ENDfor

Each one of these lines is a seperate line in Small Basic (just number them 1, 2, 3, etc.) like this screenshot:

Oddly, it cannot handle decimals for the R value, so here is R=5:

Fun in (Small) BASIC for the year 2020!!!!!!!!!!!

Bifurcation/Chaos

Now here is the bifurcation program, which I snagged from a booksale of weeded library books (I'm a librarian). There was a whole pile of stuff on chaos, but it was written in the early 1990s, so it was computer stuff and not oscilloscope stuff--pretty cool! Check out "Science of Chaos" by Christopher Lampton, the appendix (Page 111) has a great little primer on BASIC; although most of the commands seem to be in QBASIC and not BASIC (but it's been about 3 decades ago for me, so who knows). It doesn't matter because this is super easy (just copy and paste what I did).

You download and install a BASIC emulator onto your computer, like I did for the following video and screen shots you can just paste the code in. I used "PC-BASIC" made by Rob Hagemans because it is one of the few emulators that also emulates graphics that are needed to display the chaos! I got it off a site called SourceForge. A lot of BASIC/QBASIC/GW-BASIC emulators don't do graphics. PC-BASIC does. Worked for me on a modern Lenovo ThinkCentre desktop, LOL! https://sourceforge.net/projects/pcbasic/



There is an emulator is called "DOSBOX" also works but is very slow, and you can't paste into it--you just have to retype everything. It runs online, so no downloads. The problem is that you can't pause/exit a program without crashing/locking up:  https://archive.org/details/msdos_qbasic_megapack



Anyway, it is also one of the few emulators that seems to allow pasting lines of code in. That sure beats retyping everything.  I typed this program into an email at some point. Then I just copied it in the email program like normal (Control + C) and pasted into into PC-BASIC by hitting F11+V and it all appeared. Then I typed RUN and it started drwing the lines/single attractor/two splits (4) attractors and finally the chaos.

Here is the BASIC code for Bifurcation Leading To Chaos:

10 KEY OFF:CLS
20 SCREEN 7
30 DEFSNG A-Z
40 COLUMNS = 320
50 ROWS = 200
60 START = 1
70 FINISH = 3.999
80 TOP = 0
90 BOTTOM = 1
100 MAXREPS = 10
110 HEIGHT = BOTTOM - TOP
120 VPCT = 1/HEIGHT
130 FOR R = START TO FINISH STEP(FINISH - START)/COLUMNS
140 X = .1
150 FOR I = 1 TO 100
160 X = R * (X - X * X)
170 NEXT I
180 FOR I = 1 TO 30
190 X = R * (X - X * X)
200 PSET ((R- START) * COLUMNS/(FINISH - START), ROWS-(X - TOP) * ROWS * VPCT)
210 NEXT I
220 NEXT R
230 A$ = INPU$(1)

This was way easier than my Chua Circuit + Oscilloscope adventures in chaos (which were lots of fun too though).

After you cut and paste and run the program the line drawing will eventually stop. If you hit any key and then type LIST it will show you the lines of the program again.

Then comes a neat part: if you want to make a change in a line you could use arrow keys and move up and retype little bits and pieces of the code; or you could just retype the line.

Lets say you want to change line 20 from having a screen value of 7 to a value of 9. Right at the cursor that you're left at after hitting list just type:    20 SCREEN 9      then hit enter and then type RUN and it will change the line and run the program and you can see the changes it makes (or get an error).






COOL CHANGES YOU CAN MAKE TO THE ABOVE CODE:

Line 20 
This sets the screen resolution to 7.
You can change that to 9 and get higher resolution. It worked for me.
I tried setting it to 12, but got an error message. Probably because the emulator couldn't handle that high of a resolution. Here, the higher resolutions are the emulation of old EGA and VGA video cards, LOL! This program is actually best performed on an old CGA graphics adapter (which is why the crappy value of 7 is chosen--it's low res, but works).

Many emulators I tried gave an error at line 10 or 20, meaning they didn't emulate graphics adapters.



The QBASIC Screen values represent:

SCREEN 0: Textmode, cannot be used for graphics. This the screen mode that text based programs run on.

SCREEN 1: 320 x 200 Resolution. Four Colors

SCREEN 2: 640 x 200 Resolution. Two Colors (Black and White)

SCREEN 7: 320 x 200 Resolution. Sixteen Colors (USE THIS ONE)

SCREEN 8: 640 x 200 Resolution. Sixteen Colors

SCREEN 9: 640 x 350 Resolution. Sixteen Colors

SCREEN 10: 640 x 350 Resolution. Two Colors (Black and White)

SCREEN 11: 640 x 480 Resolution. Two Colors

SCREEN 12: 640 x 480 Resolution. Sixteen Colors

SCREEN 13: 320 x 200 Resolution. 256 Colors.





Line 40 and Line 50
I changed the values from the original 320 & 200 to higher values. This changed the aspect ratios and distorted things. Once the values got too high (around 800) it gave stack overflow errors. It also tended to start the line drawing near the center of the screen, and/or have stuff run off the edge of the screen which was annoying.




Lines 160 through Line 200
You'll notice these mirror the equation in the first (animal breeding) program.
What's crazy, is that if you plug in other equations, you'll get nearly identical chaotic bifurcations on screen...because whenever something breeds chaos, the chaos is the same. Chaos = Chaos!




Lines 60 through Line 90
Here's where it gets really interesting and beautiful. These lines are Start, finish, top and bottom. Which you would assume to just shift the same image on the screen left or right or up or down, just like the line 40 and line 50 stuff tended to do. You'd be wrong. It actually enlarges portions of the original output--and because it's a fractal like chaos it stays interesting and amazing.

Here are the original lines:

60 START = 1
70 FINISH = 3.999
80 TOP = 0
90 BOTTOM = 1

And here are a new set of values:

60 START = 3.5601
70 FINISH = 3.59
80 TOP = .34
90 BOTTOM = .35



I'll pop them into the entire code, so you can cut and paste one block:


10 KEY OFF:CLS
20 SCREEN 7
30 DEFSNG A-Z
40 COLUMNS = 320
50 ROWS = 200
60 START = 3.5601
70 FINISH = 3.59
80 TOP = .34
90 BOTTOM = .35
100 MAXREPS = 10
110 HEIGHT = BOTTOM - TOP
120 VPCT = 1/HEIGHT
130 FOR R = START TO FINISH STEP(FINISH - START)/COLUMNS
140 X = .1
150 FOR I = 1 TO 100
160 X = R * (X - X * X)
170 NEXT I
180 FOR I = 1 TO 30
190 X = R * (X - X * X)
200 PSET ((R- START) * COLUMNS/(FINISH - START), ROWS-(X - TOP) * ROWS * VPCT)
210 NEXT I
220 NEXT R
230 A$ = INPU$(1)


...and here are the results, which are a an enlarged portion of the lower "eye" of the original:

Keep playing with lines 60 through 90 and get your own crazy, unique views of chaos.




Line 150 / Line 180
Change the numbers in these so instead of 1 to 30. Let's say: make it 1 to 10 and 1 to 20 it will draw faster, but also differently!!! If you make the numbers larger (especially on Line 180 it will draw much slower, and also give an error at the end that might blank the screen out--so take a photo before it reaches the end just in case--or video).



Lower numbers in Lines 150 and 180 so it drew very quickly, and gave a sort of negative Lorenz Butterfly type look:

This one had a larger number on Line 180 and took a couple minutes to finish. It's filled in quite a bit in the chaotic area (which might not be chaotic anymore I guess).






Another useful feature you can use in QBASIC (which I think most of these commands are actually from) is BEEP.

At the end of your program add another line and write BEEP.

So for the above experiments we would add:

240 BEEP

Then, when your chaos is done drawing you're treated to a very loud BEEP! Don't have headphones on with that one.

Link to Omega 1250 9162 f300hz Tuning Fork Movement Service Manual PDF

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1cAna84osa1M3aaP-JF9scC0thZX7l_BG 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1cAna84osa1M3aaP-JF9scC0thZX7l_BG 


This is for the tuning fork movement, referred to as a 1250 by Omega and as 9162 by ESA. It was used in a variety of watches by different manufacturers. The Omega version is identical, except that it was always a copper plated color instead of nickel (chrome looking).


I've been inside a few f300Hz movements and the first thing the repair manual (above) tells you as that you MUST NEVER INSTALL OR REMOVE the 1250/1255/1260 movements from the case with the oscillation mechanisms installed. Before you case or uncase the movement the oscillator module MUST be removed!!!!! Of course, they tell you that on page 16 of a 66 page technical manual, lol!



I've found this movement (working and clean) in a cheap, used Titus wristwatch.

It is used in the Electronic Omega Seamaster f300Hz shown above and the Omega Constellation below.



There are variations:

Omega Calibre 1250 = ESA 9162 (date only)
Omega Calibre 1255 = ESA 9210 (chronograph day and date)
Omega Calibre 1260 = ESA 9164 (day and date)


Common problems:

The watch doesn't hum! Put a new battery in it. 

I use Reneta batteries, but for no other reason in that I had some already.


ESA 9162 / 9164    

Old: Mercury Battery (not made anymore) 343

New: 344, 350, SR1136SW

The old mercury batteries were only about 1.3v and the new silver oxide ones are 1.55v, but the f300Hz movements can handle it just fine.

Some other battery movements had "issues" and would run double-speed with a new battery, then you'd have to either: install a new coil (hundreds of dollars) or use Accucell Batteries that are made for this issue--but they only last about 9 months in a watch.

You could also adjust the watch, since it was excess power that would cause these watches to double click. Sometimes they would keep great time sitting on a table but would go too fast when warn: arm movements plus the extra power would make them double click every few seconds.

The watch doesn't hum! PART 2 

Coil or resonator.

Maybe the coil needs to be replaced because it's shorted? Bummer. Find a list of other (cheaper) manufacturers that used the 1250 and buy a donor watch). My Titus was like $40 with a WORKING and clean 1250 in it!!! A NOS (new old stock) 1250 is like $400 on eBay.

I've had a 1250 stop humming because a screw was too tight. Loosening: plate screws, battery holder screws has made a "dead" watch hum back to life for me.

Adjust the resonator. The double + or - adjustment thingies. I've had them be too asymmetrical and I've had them cranked all the way one way or another and fiddling with them brought a hummer back to life for me. The manual states that you can adjust one or both, but try to keep them reasonably symmetrical.


Take off the two coil units and measure their ohms. No ohms at all means open circuit which means you need a new coil (or two). Here is a scribble drawing i made showing the measurements you should get when testing:

The coils go bad because the varnish swells or lets rust in over the decades or the transistor capicitor units go bad, even if their not being used.

My current repair is a beautiful Omega constellation that gives me 1489 ohms (for the 1.5k ohms reading) which is great! Unfortunately, all the other 3 tests show no ohms and no continuity: so both units are bad.

I've got an entire new old stock (NOS) top plate with coils and gears on its way, but am going to also test some old spare parts from previous repairs I've got laying around. This fix might be free since I know I took off an entire plate from a broken Omega that still hummed but that had other problems. Fingers crossed (will update 11-27-2020) that it works.  Update 11-28-2020: fixed the Omega Constellation!

Left is an old messed up gear train movement, on the right is my Constellation. There are 4 screws to remove this electronic module plate and 3 screws to remove both coils. That was it!

Here is video of it running:

The calendar date doesn't advance? Put a new calendar wheel in!

The wheel with the date on it is HUGE, but has tiny little gear teeth. It's very easy to remove and replace...except if you replace it with a New Old Stock (NOS) part it'll still be a super-fragile, 50 year old piece of plastic. Look on eBay: there is a company in Germany that will ship you out a brand new METAL one. This metal wheel will only work on the 1250 movement (the one that is date ONLY, it doesn't have a day of week on the watch).

There are some Longines brand ones that are for the same movements and they're gold colored! But they may be (50 year old) brittle gold colored plastic, and they're the same price as the new metal ones.

Another issue on some watches is that if a certain area isn't oiled and you pull out the stem a couple gears won't disengage completely; then if you move the hands COUNTER-clockwise it breaks the teeth off and then either the hands won't work or the date wheel won't work or nothing will work. Destruction!

Luckily, the 1255 and 1260 versions that do have the day (and date) have a more robust plastic wheel that is harder to break. Sadly, nobody is manufacturing metal (or plastic) replacements for them at this time.

How to you damage a calendar wheel? You use the quick set feature between around 9pm and 2am. That destroys so many watches from all sorts of manufactures. I've seen (and done it) to Seikos, Omegas, automatics, quartz and tuning fork watches. 

NEVER change date, day or time on ANY BRAND wristwatch between 8pm and 4am!!!! The gears can slowly engage at that time to slowly flip the date/day over at around midnight. Fiddling with the watch can strip these gears.

So, what did I do with (to) a certain Omega Constellation? At around 8:30pm I went to adjust the minute hand slightly, but I accidentally had the 3rd detent (all the way out) instead of just a little on the crown and changed the date instead of minute. The next morning the date had failed to flip over...and this was on a NICE watch that instantly flipped the date # at 11:59 promptly and quickly!

So, did I wreck the date wheel? Well, if it was cracked then I probably couldn't advance it (which I can). If I wore the little tooth down/broke it then it will always fail to advance on that date (from the 23rd to the 24th). So: I ordered a little metal calendar wheel which should arrive from Germany.

I have other spare parts for the 1250 movement, but they're old. Old parts are fine, but old calendar wheels are all brittle.

That's the thing about these movements too: how many of the 31 days' teeth are worn, cracked, broken, bent, etc.? You'd need to disassemble the watch and look with a loupe/microscope to tell on many of the gears, however this one's calander wheel teeth are fairly large (but delicate).

Maybe I just goosed the gears at a bad time and it will sort itself out (I've had watches sort of heal themselves on occasion). The gear that flips the date wheel has a large paddle shark fin type thing on it which looks like it couldn't hurt the gears, but that's the fast set "calander driving wheel", the normal movement is from a hooked lever thing that can destroy the teeth. 

They can work fine but repeatedly stick on certain days/dates. 

Here goes with disassembly: battery out, 4 top plate screws out, pull off top plate, push down on pin to release stem and gear, remove 3 screws and tabs, remove entire movement (what was left of it), flip out two little hinge hooks and pull up on the face/dial to easily pry off hands (photo time on watch before), 3 screws and plate holding wheel comes off, change wheels, put plate back on, RESET THE LITTLE WIRE to the top of the date lever, carefully put all else back.

Note battery corrosion: shame!

With the plate screws off and ready to remove plate that holds in the date wheel:

This is a picture of the back of mine. That is a tiny golf pencil next to it! I put 3 pencil marks on bad teeth. They were worn down from original pyramid (triangle) shape to mesa (trapezoid) shape. What was worse is that they had grooves scartched into their side surfaces from the lever riding over or under them. This thinned them out.

The new metal wheel with strong teeth:

Once reassembled the watch hummed but second hand didn't go. I loosened the 4 screws holding the top plate oscillating module and tightened them slightly under everything meshed and the second started gloriously spinning.

Here it is pinging like an M1 Garand at the date change. It changes when both hands point at the date window, pretty fancy! You'll need the volume up all the way.

Lube/Clean!
Like any watch a TINY dab of Moebius Oil may be needed. Luckily, there aren't too many actual moving parts in a 1250 (compared to some other watches). Also, in some spots grease is called for, usually Molybdene.

Moebius 8000 is old fashioned and $8 a bottle. It lasts 1 year open and 2 sealed. Forget that and get 9xxx oil that is synthetic (but it's like $34 a bottle).

Better yet, try some other brand. I've heard bad things about Anchor oil like 10 years ago but they're still around. Oddly enough it was when people were complaining about a bad batch of Moebius oil gumming things up! Also, pay attention because oil and grease are different in the repair manuals: if you swap them in certain areas you just killed your watch. Most watches need 3 types of lubrication in different places: thin oil, medium oil, and thick grease. 

The second hand goes nuts? Possible fixes:
There is a "friction" part that sometimes has too much friction and needs grease (not oil). Or there is a messed up index gear (or poorly adjusted pawls), which will cause the second hand to spin when setting the time. 

In fact, issues with the indexing mechanisms can make the entire watch run backwards!

Another Omega fixed with new coils and then new metal date wheel from ebay (German seller that makes them):

Not bad, although while I was working Detroit Energy started to replace a woodpecker destroyed utility pole and remove wires from old pole to monstrously huge new pole. Lots of yelling and machinery noises. A very exciting time!

Literally hundreds of woodpecker holes!

Colpitts Oscillator

Colpitts Oscillator

Transistor 2N3904 CBE (C to g31 / B to g32 / E to g33)

C1 = 1uF (Negative stripe goes to negative voltage – other leg goes to j31)

C2 = 33nF (g27-g29)

C3 = 10nF (h29 – h31)

C4 = 47nF (d29 – d31)

C5 = 100nF (h37 – h39)

R1 = 15k (h32 – positive voltage)

R2 = 5.6k (i32 – negative voltage)

R3 = 68 (g36 – negative voltage on other side)

Jumper wires:

e29 – f29

j27 – positive voltage

Negative voltage – other negative voltage

j31 – j37

h33 – h36

c31 – f33

Oscilloscope probe = g39 and ground clip attached to inductor L1’s i27 leg

Shorter jumpers are better because breadboards have parasitic inductance that adds to the inductor’s parameters. I had a few really long jumper wires-when I shortened them the circuit worked.

I think C1 (the electrolytic capacitor) shorts the “Base” (B) of the transistor so that you get an output AC wave. Oscillation = waves = alternating = AC. I forgot to put my oscilloscope on ‘AC’ setting so I was getting weird displays.

This circuit was much harder to get going than anything I’ve put together. Even when my Chua chaotic circuits are misbehaving I still see something sort of cool. This thing is all or nothing.

I have some variable capacitors I’m going to plunk in and play with to see what slight adjustments do to the waveform and frequency.

HOW TO DISABLE FORD PATS ANTI-THEFT SYSTEM KEY CHIP

HOW TO DISABLE FORD PATS ANTI-THEFT SYSTEM KEY CHIP

Ford (and many other) vehicles have a transponder chip inside their physical keys. This is sometimes called PATS or VATS.

This only worked because I had a working key (with a chip transponder in it) that can start my car. I guess it's less "disable" and more "how to make $1.50 copies of my $200 keys that will start my car instead of just unlocking the doors".

A replacement key is around $150-$200 from a dealer, $80 from a locksmith. You can get a blank (with a chip) and use your car to program that blank’s internal transponder IF YOU HAVE TWO OTHER WORKING KEYS WITH TRANSPONDERS IN THEM. One of my keys is now old and the plastic base is cracking so I’m afraid to stick it in the ignition in case if breaks off in there.

I went to the hardware store and got a $1.75 copy key made. It does NOT have a transponder in it, so all it could do was unlock my vehicle’s door. It wouldn’t start the vehicle. I could turn the ignition with it, but not actually make the car start because there was no transponder chip.

If I held my real Ford key touching the cheap copy key in a certain way I could get the cheap copy to actually start my vehicle. It is very awkward to do, and then I’m still carrying around my cheap copy key and my cracked and about to fall apart real key with the transponder.

I could go to a Ford dealer and pay $200 and get a second real key with a transponder—which would then let me get a slightly cheaper uncoded transponder key and use both the real Ford keys to program the third. But I found a cheaper way online and tweaked the bypass method to make it easy. 

It takes less than 10 seconds to install/uninstall.

• All I did was wrap a 6’ long wire around the real Ford key (with the transponder in it).

• I made 10 wraps around the Ford key and secured it with two pieces of tape so it wouldn’t uncoil.

• I then joined the bared wire ends together so that the wire was a loop. For kicks I hit that joint with a dab of solder.

• This gave me a real key with a transponder in it hanging from a loop of wire. I went into my car and wrapped the wire twice around the part of the ignition that spins when you turn the key to start the car.

The wire loops sort of just tucked themselves in and disappeared inside that spinning ignition part. Nice! Then I stuck in my fake copy key (which has no transponder) and the vehicle started right up.

Then I tucked the dangling real Ford key into a space in the dashboard above the steering column because in the column or in the dash beneath the steering column has metal plates and wires that wouldn't let this work due to interference!

My finger is pointing where the key is tucked behind. Everywhere else had interference. I used red wire so it would be visible, I'll probably redo it in black. Although you can't see the red wire from the driver or passenger seat. If you look where the red wire is going on: the key for in there nicely BUT HAD INTERFERENCE SO THE CAR WOULDN'T START... MOVE OUT 3 INCHES HIGHER WHERE MY FINGER IS POINTING AND THE CAR STARTS.

I pushed the key down through the top of thet plastic bezel between the speedometer glass and the top of the steering wheel.

Then I pulled the wires through the rubber gasket that surrounds where the steering wheel column goes into/under that bezel.

Spend $6 and made 3 more fake no transponder keys for backups. Instead of $270 I spent less than $10 and less than 5 minutes on this. The hardest part was finding a wire that was long enough out of my junk bin.

WARNING: I’ve seen a LOT of online tutorials that say you have to disassemble the steering column and/or dashboard. These people look under the steering column and all say the same thing “There are 4 holes, but only 3 have screws in them”. They then say to take out those 3 screws which is WRONG!!! The 4^th hole with no screw is an ignition release!! Jab a screwdriver in there and gently pull out the ignition. Duh! Although, I didn’t take anything apart, I just loop the wire twice around where the spinning ignition part meets the steering column. No need for any screwdrivers.

If you do pop out the ignition from the steering column you can see a round ring that is the antenna to detect the chip inside your real key. Crack open your real key, take out the chip, superglue it on/near that antenna and any old (non-chip) key will work but things inside the column can interfere with the chip as stated before, you could probably jam a screwdriver into the ignition instead of a key and it would start up. 

The best part: just yank on the wire and unloop it from around the ignition and it’s disconnected. It still works as a regular key; and because I didn't go crazy with the electrical tape holding the 10 loops around the key together it still (barely) fits in the ignition.

WARNING: if this is on the vehicle it’s reading the transponder from the real Ford key. If I  try to start the vehicle with another real Ford key (because I finally found a spare) the car won’t start supposedly, however my real key and my fake keys all work. Just don't test all your keys in quick succession because you'll put the car into key code program mode. The antitheft system will see BOTH keys and get confused. 

One real key with this setup tucked into the UPPER dash + a second real key at a relatives house for safe keeping + a bunch of cheap $1.50 copies.

This works with induction (coils of wire). There are very similar devices on Amazon for $10 but they want you to tap them into the 12volt system of the car for some reason. My way doesn’t physically connect to the vehicle’s electronics in any way. I just looped it around the real key 10 times and the spinning part of the ignition twice. Worked the first time and every time after that. Both ends of the wire have to touch each other or it won’t work—they have to be a loop. I wonder: if I put a simple on/off switch in the loop would it act as a kill switch? I think it would! That’s a future project.

I’m doing this for fun, the Blue Book Value of my vehicle is less than $3000 and it’s 18 years old so…I’m not terribly worried about theft. What would be the odds that a car thief would say “Hmmm…that vehicle over there came from the factory with anti-theft key chip transponders but I have this psychic sense that the owner did that famous antitheft defeat thing. I think I’ll smash the window and try and jiggle a screwdriver around in the ignition for a while trying to start it on the one in a zillion odds he did that.”

Things I used:

• A working Ford key with build in chip transponder that starts the vehicle by itself.

• Cheap $1.50 hardware store copy that will unlock the doors and allow you to spin and try and start the vehicle, but won’t let the vehicle actually start (just a bunch of bells and blinking lights on the dash).

• 6 to 8 feet of thin wire that has rubber insulation on it (so I don’t short out anything when tucking it in to the ignition 

• Knife/wire stripper to remove insulation at both ends of the wire.

• Two pieces of duct tape or electrical tape to hold the 10 loops around the real key together

• For kicks I soldered the ends together, but I could have just twisted them together and taped it up.

The people at the hardware store were like “we can’t copy a car key with a fancy chip in it…because our crappy $2 copy has no chip inside, it’s just a key…BUT we can make a cheap copy that will still unlock your door in case you lock your real key inside. That way you can keep the cheap copy in your wallet! It will also turn inside your ignition in case you want to unlock your steering column/wheels to get a tow truck ride.”

I was like, oh, OK I don't want to argue. Then I did this trick and it’s all good.

My car is 18 years old and I don’t have theft insurance on it anymore (saving like $400 a year) so it’s all good. I’ve heard some car companies won’t pay out if your car gets stolen because you left the key inside. If that were the case I’d tuck the real Ford key way deeper into the interior somewhere deep, possibly using a longer wire…or I’d pop the little rectangular hatch open on the real Ford key and slide out the chip, which is tiny and even easier to conceal. Maybe even superglue that tiny chip onto the spinning part of the ignition so it's always there. Plus, it’s not a “key” left in the ignition either way. I dunno.

TO the left is my real, from the factory Ford key with the chip transponder in it. The wire is wrapped 10 times around it and the wraps are held in place with some black electricians tape.

The bare ends of the wire are just twisted together. The wire is now in a "loop" with no breaks in it.

To the right is the part I just wrap twice around the spinning ignition thingy that you turn to start the car. Just two or three loops around.

In the center is the tiny, light, thin $1.50 cheap fake copy key. It has no chip inside of it. Normally it will only unlock my doors and it will also try to start my engine but fails because the antitheft kicks in. 

Wrap, wrap around the ignition; tuck the real key into the upper dash (or let it hang loose). Good to start!

My next project might be to remove the transponder chip from the real key and superglue it to the turning part of the ignition. No wires.