Busy hands | Disquiet mind

Jabra REVO Wireless headphones ear cushion replacement

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 21:43:20 GMT

A strange thing happens, when you accidentally find yourself in possession of a piece of tech that is so well designed and built that it gathers a dedicated following.

Let's talk about the Jabra REVO Wireless headphones, from 2013, and long since discontinued. Reviews would describe them as bass-heavy (derogatory), and expensive for the features, but to me they were damn near perfect.

( Why I love these headphones )

Let me introduce you to my second pair. Hinges still intact, but ear cushions disintegrating. Here we return to the dedicated user base of these headphones, which is not limited to just me, because there are still third-parties selling replacement ear cushions on ebay, 12 years later. I've never actually replaced the ear cushions before, but it turned out to be really easy.

( Replacing ear cushions )

Before we snap the new cushions in place, there is another problem to look at. On bluetooth there is no audio in the left ear. ifixit says this is a known fault with the slightly newer Jabra MOVE headphones, but seeing as I have it here perhaps it is common across models. So let's take it apart.

( Partial disassembly )

After reassembling I am delighted to have the bluetooth on my headphones working fully again, even if I have no idea how it was fixed.

(But isn't the bluetooth version really old? Yes, it is. They don't work with my five year old computer. But they do still work with my phone, and my mp3 player. Which is good, because the newer bluetooth earplugs don't. I need to keep these tightly coupled devices working together for as long as possible.)

I now also have fuzzy ear cushions that won't shed little pieces of black fabric all over my face. A great success.

Jabra REVO headphones with replacement ear cushions
Photo by chebe

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Olympus Pen E-P1 disassembly, and full spectrum modification

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 23:34:14 GMT

The Olympus Pen E-P1 is 16 years old this year. So is my personal one. A first gen micro-four-thirds camera, it's specs don't compete nowadays, but I've always loved holding and using this camera. There is something really satisfying about it. Especially paired with a pancake lens. When I upgraded to a newer, fancier camera, I just couldn't part with the E-P1. I've had the vague intention of converting it to become a full-spectrum camera for almost as long as I've had it. Ever since reading about how that is a thing that actually exists, and that it's an easier process with the mirrorless cameras, because you don't need to recalibrate the focus afterwards. Guess what. I've finally gotten around to doing it.

Front photo of an Olympus Pen E-P1
Photo by chebe

Firstly, what is a full spectrum camera? Basically, digital cameras are sensitive to more wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum than human eyes are. This makes their images look wrong, so the manufacturers put a filter (the hot mirror) in the cameras to remove the unwanted ultraviolet and infrared 'noise'. (Early mobile phone cameras didn't have this, back when you could use them to see if the LED on your remote controls lit up when you pressed a button.) But you can get some very interesting photos without this limitation.

And it seems a lot of people agree with me, because multiple businesses have started up to provide these conversions, and filters. Which makes things a whole lot easier for me. Now I can just buy the correct specific replacement glass for my camera from places like;

Kolari internal filters for DIY
Life Pixel internal filters for DIY

There is however a bit of a problem with the age of my camera. It has fallen out of the memory of the internet. I can no longer find the guides I had seen before. I did find Life Pixels E-P3 conversion tutorial, but the E-P3 is not exactly the same as the E-P1. I dug through some old forum links, and found Digital-Photography.pls E-P1/E-P2 conversion on The Way Back Machine. It has some good pointers, and high resolution images, but also a lot of 'like usual', 'like last time', and 'check my previous tutorials' (which also don't explain). Nonetheless, armed with both tutorials, I dived in, figured it out, and recorded the whole thing. What follows are (found footage) stills of my adventure. To make it easier for whomever follows. At their own peril.

Required tools

- Phillips head screwdriver, mine was size 1.4x40mm,
- Thin tweezers,
- Air blower,
- Soldering iron,
- Anti-static and safety precautions.

If changing the hot mirror, you'll need;
- the replacement glass,
- glass cleaning cloth.

Preparation

Remove the lens, battery, sd card, and hot shoe protector.

Case Disassembly

( Details )

Body Disassembly

( Details )

Hot Mirror Assembly Disassembly

( Details )

Re-assembly

Do everything in reverse.

Result

If everything goes well the camera will look just like it did before. Except for when you look at the hot mirror without a lens in place. With the original hot mirror you see the light filtering appearing as colour, typically red. With the clear glass that colour is gone.

( Before and After )

Many hours after removing that first screw I was relieved to have my camera still working, and displaying very interesting colours. Green plants are orange. A sunny day is light orange. An overcast sky is reddish-orange. A snow filled sky is very pink. The evening sky is much brighter. And that's just with natural light. Candles burn purple-red. Does it really matter if I have two washers/spacers left over and no idea where they came from? *cough*

The next step for me is to get some external filters to see what else the world holds for my camera. And possibly some external (safe) UV/IR light sources, for more forensic explorations.

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Gizmo Furby, when it all falls apart at the last moment

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 21:03:45 GMT

When we last left Gizmo they were moving and speaking. But I still wanted to wire up some of the original sensors. So I, eventually, dusted everything off and got started.

I found, like my pi radio, I couldn't even boot up the pi, so I had to install Raspbian from scratch, and give Gizmo back all their functionality. I also discovered that in the meantime the Speaker pHAT board has been retired, but the library is still up on github.

Then I could get on with the new work. Only two of the buttons remained, so I followed some tutorials on push buttons for raspberry pi and wired up the tongue button and belly button, with resistors.

The space between a Furbys eyes contains an IR transmitter, IR receiver, and photoresistor, but I only wanted to use the photoresistor, so I followed a tutorial on light sensors for raspberry pi and wired it up with a capacitor on a mini Lilypad protoboard, because apparently raspberry pis don't have analog input read?!

Then I shortened all the wires so they would fit inside Gizmo's shell, and trimmed various sticky-out bits on the inside of the carapace. Removed the back pet button lever, and widened the hole, to make room for the power cables to the raspberry pi and the motor shield. Squished all the bits and pieces inside the carapace, screwed everything up tight again. And finally, re-skinned Gizmo.

( Photos )

Gizmo re-skinned, front
Photo by chebe

I got set up to take footage of the new Gizmo, and demonstrate how I am the real monster, when I noticed that Gizmo would speak, but no longer moved. Witness for yourself.

I despaired. I re-opened Gizmo again. Noticed a strange chemical smell. I disassembled and rebuilt the gear mechanism itself, three times, in case there were bits of thread or plastic lodged somewhere. Another wire to the motor broke off (most of the original wires broke at some point during the build) and I resoldered it. Then I tried to test my work, and found that once again the raspberry pi wouldn't boot. I went back over my photos, followed the links from the first post to other peoples documentation on what the insides should be like in case I messed something up. And then I noticed it. Gizmo's left eyelashes are partially melted. Gizmo's left eye is where the original motor lives. Combined with the chemical smell, I realised something is very broken. Whether it's the motor itself, or the worryingly attached capacitors, I don't know. Maybe at some point I will conduct an autopsy and try to salvage parts. But right now I'm just feeling very dispirited. I'm sorry Gizmo, it almost worked.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

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Gizmo Furby, beautiful on the inside

Sat, 02 Dec 2017 00:43:50 GMT

Inspired by Furlexa I decided to finish dismantling my Gizmo (a friend of Furby) with a view to upgrading it to a Raspberry Pi, and maybe play around with a sound/voice interface. Not to work with Amazon, but rather because I never did get that Teddy Ruxpin I always wanted. *wistful sigh*

Gizmo (1999) and their friend Furby (1998) are basically the same creature, apart from the outer skin and eye appearance. So the process for disassembling is mostly the same.

Except, Gizmo has larger ears (the 'bones' having two holes). To support this there are ear casings on top of the carapace/shell, screwed together. So when taking the carapace apart there are the four screws found in a regular Furby, but also a fifth screw in the ear casings. After removing the screw the ear casings come away in two parts. You must remove the ear casings to get at the fourth/head screw.
( Carapace pictures )

There are also two rubber sheathed wires that act as arm supports screwed onto the carapace. But these don't do anything and aren't connected to anything, so you can leave them attached to the carapace as you remove it.

Otherwise the only difference I noticed was that my wires are different colours from any description I could find. Which is not as many as there should have been because many of the links are now dead. In the hopes of making this easier for other people here are some detailed pictured with wires labelled.

( Wiring pictures )

( Removing circuit board pictures )

References
(At least the ones that aren't yet dead links.)
Furlexa
Furby Autopsy
Anatomy of the Furby
Furby Brain Surgery
Furby Hacking

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

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