making the compunurse update faster

maxim · 09-03-2003, 03:43 PM

i just bought one from a local pc store for $15, but the thing only updates every 3 seconds. i want at least 1sec intervals. is there a reason for such a long update period? i opened the thing and as i expected there is a quartz(?) crystal in there. now i cant check the frequency that it puts out or anything like that. my idea to make it update faster was to change for a higher freq crystal, but i dont know which one will be 3 times faster than whatever i have stock. any thoughts on this?

bigben2k · 09-03-2003, 04:10 PM

That's a tough one.

I have a similar probe (got it from SVC). I had a chance to crack it open, but the circuitry was very similar to a cheap wrist watch (chip encapsulated in a black "wax", with a small metallic cylinder on the side).

I suppose that you could swap out the crystal (metal can) for something with a higher frequency, but the results might be unpredictable. The circuit might not be able to handle the higher clock, the bit rate might be thrown off, ... Also, the probe may not be spec'ed for the faster response time.

Worth a shot. I'd try it, if I had time.

maxim · 09-03-2003, 04:33 PM

the only problem i have is measuring, or at least comparing, the frequencies. now if i only had that fluke with a built in oscilloscope like my father does

im gonna see what they got at radio shack here, maybe buy some diff crystals and try them out. the only problem i see is the one with the chip not being able to update 3 times faster. i dont see how the actual probe would affect it, as it is just a thermistor, and if i understand correctly the chip just reads the resistance every 3sec. the probe itself is not digital, but analog, and has a continuous curve of resistance vs. time. but of course, correct me if im wrong.

winewood · 09-03-2003, 05:24 PM

Is it the single, dual or advance? They make 3 diff kind of products. Just wondering, so if you find out the answer I can mod mine as well.

Zhentar · 09-03-2003, 08:59 PM

I have the dual myself... and aside from update, I have a different mod I'd like to try- a F/C switch. I know this is possible... because when I opened up the box it was in after the drive from denver, it was sitting on F! I said WTF and pulled out the battery and it was back on C, and now I want to figure out how it changed

winewood · 09-03-2003, 09:04 PM

The F/C mod is a soldiering job on some paths to change it, I know on the single compunurse it would be easy to put a switch in.. Unless the factory has an easy fix to jumper the path at powerup and make it operate in that mode.... however, I thought the battery has a plastic clip separating the battery from the contacts.. so maybe someone found a different way without the manual change? :shrug:

starbuck3733t · 09-04-2003, 08:08 AM

if its a discrete crystal I think one might also have to switch out the resistor and capacitor to make it resonate again. The whole thing has to be tweaked for proper resonance, IIRC.

Zhentar · 09-04-2003, 10:04 AM

any details on which connections? I look around in there but didn't see anything.

winewood · 09-04-2003, 12:02 PM

Link to mod

bigben2k · 09-04-2003, 12:10 PM

Nice link winewood!

My circuit is exactly that. I'll have to check the model # on the PCB.

BRB.

[edit]: nope, mine's different. There's a couple of numbers though:

(printed)
"AS4054"
and

(etched)
"TEC041B
TER
3"

There's 10 SMT components, but no cylinder. There's a couple of jump points, so I guess it might be possible to change from deg C to deg F.

MMZ_TimeLord · 09-04-2003, 12:57 PM

Yay... mine too... I will have to check the pad layout and see. I would LOVE to put a switch on this so I could use it.

I tried to get my panel, which contains two of these little units, to run on the 3.3V output off my mobo. It works, but the extra 0.3V makes the displays darker and unreadable at certain angles.

I will see if I can get a way to bring that down to 3V even so it's like two batteries in series. Right now that's how I have them wired... series. i.e. (+) --- DOC1 --- DOC2 --- (-)

Zhentar · 09-04-2003, 06:39 PM

great! Now your gonna make me do a power mod in addition to a switch....

Zhentar · 09-05-2003, 08:55 AM

opened mine up today... wish I still had my conductive pen; it would make randomly bridging connections easier

It doesn't look too promising though

maxim · 09-05-2003, 11:24 AM

considering we, or at least I

, dont know anything about the chip and how fast it works, i assumed the crystal is 1/3Hz and i'd then want a 1Hz quartz to make it uptdate 3 times faster. the more i think about it, the less sense it makes

anyway, i cant find any crystals with low freq like that.

so the only reasonable way to improve this thing would be to first measure what the freq of the stock crystal is. a lot of people here have mad lab equipment at their disposal, anyone care to test the quartz?

starbuck3733t, got any links explaining how to use crystal in circuits?

Zhentar · 09-05-2003, 12:21 PM

one problem is they seem to have covered the chip in glue or something, there's just a round black blob on the board.

joemac · 09-05-2003, 09:57 PM

If any body cares I could post how I moded my compunurse dual to display Fahrenheit. In case you want to know they look like this picture…

Zhentar · 09-05-2003, 10:02 PM

Thats exactly what I'm trying to do, please post it.

joemac · 09-05-2003, 10:08 PM

Ok, I will take pictures and write up the instruction on how to do this. I would have done this sooner But I didn’t think anyone would be interested. When its up I will post the link here.

starbuck3733t · 09-12-2003, 10:59 AM

yeah its a PDF, BUT...

http://www.siriusmicro.com/projects/b1.pdf

joemac · 09-12-2003, 07:44 PM

Is the Compurnurse based on PIC?? If not does any one know what processors they are based on? (I know taking the easy way out )

joemac · 09-15-2003, 02:00 AM

Quote:

Quote by Zhentar
Thats exactly what I'm trying to do, please post it.

Ok here it is it's under Modifications at
aquajoe.com

09-03-2003, 03:43 PM	#1
maxim Cooling Savant Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: VA Tech Posts: 111	making the compunurse update faster i just bought one from a local pc store for $15, but the thing only updates every 3 seconds. i want at least 1sec intervals. is there a reason for such a long update period? i opened the thing and as i expected there is a quartz(?) crystal in there. now i cant check the frequency that it puts out or anything like that. my idea to make it update faster was to change for a higher freq crystal, but i dont know which one will be 3 times faster than whatever i have stock. any thoughts on this?

09-03-2003, 04:10 PM	#2
bigben2k Responsible for 2% of all the posts here. Join Date: May 2002 Location: Texas, U.S.A. Posts: 8,302	That's a tough one. I have a similar probe (got it from SVC). I had a chance to crack it open, but the circuitry was very similar to a cheap wrist watch (chip encapsulated in a black "wax", with a small metallic cylinder on the side). I suppose that you could swap out the crystal (metal can) for something with a higher frequency, but the results might be unpredictable. The circuit might not be able to handle the higher clock, the bit rate might be thrown off, ... Also, the probe may not be spec'ed for the faster response time. Worth a shot. I'd try it, if I had time. __________________ WBTA (Water Block Testing Alliance) Nordic Hardware WC 101

09-03-2003, 05:24 PM	#4
winewood Cooling Savant Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: in my chair Posts: 574	Is it the single, dual or advance? They make 3 diff kind of products. Just wondering, so if you find out the answer I can mod mine as well. __________________ -winewood-

09-03-2003, 09:04 PM	#6
winewood Cooling Savant Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: in my chair Posts: 574	The F/C mod is a soldiering job on some paths to change it, I know on the single compunurse it would be easy to put a switch in.. Unless the factory has an easy fix to jumper the path at powerup and make it operate in that mode.... however, I thought the battery has a plastic clip separating the battery from the contacts.. so maybe someone found a different way without the manual change? :shrug: __________________ -winewood-

09-04-2003, 08:08 AM	#7
starbuck3733t Cooling Savant Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: State College, PA Posts: 338	if its a discrete crystal I think one might also have to switch out the resistor and capacitor to make it resonate again. The whole thing has to be tweaked for proper resonance, IIRC. __________________ Goliath: 3.4E@3.91/Abit IC7, Maze4 (temporarily) + custom splitter to crazy 4-way watercooling parallel loop: X800XT @ 520/1280 + AC Twinplex, AC Twinplex Northbridge, Silenstar Dual HDD Cooler, Eheim1250, '85 econoline van HC + 2x120, 1x120 exhaust - polished aluminum frame panaflo L1As, 2x18GB 10K RPM U160 SCSI, 4GB PC4000. I wanna be BladeRunner when I grow up! Project Goliath - nearing completion.

09-03-2003, 04:33 PM	#3
maxim Cooling Savant Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: VA Tech Posts: 111	the only problem i have is measuring, or at least comparing, the frequencies. now if i only had that fluke with a built in oscilloscope like my father does im gonna see what they got at radio shack here, maybe buy some diff crystals and try them out. the only problem i see is the one with the chip not being able to update 3 times faster. i dont see how the actual probe would affect it, as it is just a thermistor, and if i understand correctly the chip just reads the resistance every 3sec. the probe itself is not digital, but analog, and has a continuous curve of resistance vs. time. but of course, correct me if im wrong.

09-03-2003, 08:59 PM	#5
Zhentar Cooling Savant Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Madison, WI Posts: 225	I have the dual myself... and aside from update, I have a different mod I'd like to try- a F/C switch. I know this is possible... because when I opened up the box it was in after the drive from denver, it was sitting on F! I said WTF and pulled out the battery and it was back on C, and now I want to figure out how it changed

09-04-2003, 10:04 AM	#8
Zhentar Cooling Savant Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Madison, WI Posts: 225	any details on which connections? I look around in there but didn't see anything.

09-04-2003, 12:02 PM	#9
winewood Cooling Savant Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: in my chair Posts: 574	Link to mod __________________ -winewood-

09-04-2003, 12:10 PM	#10
bigben2k Responsible for 2% of all the posts here. Join Date: May 2002 Location: Texas, U.S.A. Posts: 8,302	Nice link winewood! My circuit is exactly that. I'll have to check the model # on the PCB. BRB. [edit]: nope, mine's different. There's a couple of numbers though: (printed) "AS4054" and (etched) "TEC041B TER 3" There's 10 SMT components, but no cylinder. There's a couple of jump points, so I guess it might be possible to change from deg C to deg F. __________________ WBTA (Water Block Testing Alliance) Nordic Hardware WC 101 Last edited by bigben2k; 09-04-2003 at 12:30 PM.

09-04-2003, 12:57 PM	#11
MMZ_TimeLord Cooling Savant Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: San Mateo, CA, USA, Earth Posts: 433	Yay... mine too... I will have to check the pad layout and see. I would LOVE to put a switch on this so I could use it. I tried to get my panel, which contains two of these little units, to run on the 3.3V output off my mobo. It works, but the extra 0.3V makes the displays darker and unreadable at certain angles. I will see if I can get a way to bring that down to 3V even so it's like two batteries in series. Right now that's how I have them wired... series. i.e. (+) --- DOC1 --- DOC2 --- (-) __________________ MMZ>TimeLord "Oooooooooh... that's gonna leave a mark!"

09-04-2003, 06:39 PM	#12
Zhentar Cooling Savant Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Madison, WI Posts: 225	great! Now your gonna make me do a power mod in addition to a switch....

09-05-2003, 08:55 AM	#13
Zhentar Cooling Savant Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Madison, WI Posts: 225	opened mine up today... wish I still had my conductive pen; it would make randomly bridging connections easier It doesn't look too promising though

09-05-2003, 11:24 AM	#14
maxim Cooling Savant Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: VA Tech Posts: 111	considering we, or at least I, dont know anything about the chip and how fast it works, i assumed the crystal is 1/3Hz and i'd then want a 1Hz quartz to make it uptdate 3 times faster. the more i think about it, the less sense it makes anyway, i cant find any crystals with low freq like that. so the only reasonable way to improve this thing would be to first measure what the freq of the stock crystal is. a lot of people here have mad lab equipment at their disposal, anyone care to test the quartz? starbuck3733t, got any links explaining how to use crystal in circuits?

09-05-2003, 12:21 PM	#15
Zhentar Cooling Savant Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Madison, WI Posts: 225	one problem is they seem to have covered the chip in glue or something, there's just a round black blob on the board.

09-05-2003, 10:02 PM	#17
Zhentar Cooling Savant Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Madison, WI Posts: 225	Thats exactly what I'm trying to do, please post it.

09-05-2003, 10:08 PM	#18
joemac Cooling Savant Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Dallas Posts: 339	Ok, I will take pictures and write up the instruction on how to do this. I would have done this sooner But I didn’t think anyone would be interested. When its up I will post the link here.

09-12-2003, 10:59 AM	#19
starbuck3733t Cooling Savant Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: State College, PA Posts: 338	yeah its a PDF, BUT... http://www.siriusmicro.com/projects/b1.pdf __________________ Goliath: 3.4E@3.91/Abit IC7, Maze4 (temporarily) + custom splitter to crazy 4-way watercooling parallel loop: X800XT @ 520/1280 + AC Twinplex, AC Twinplex Northbridge, Silenstar Dual HDD Cooler, Eheim1250, '85 econoline van HC + 2x120, 1x120 exhaust - polished aluminum frame panaflo L1As, 2x18GB 10K RPM U160 SCSI, 4GB PC4000. I wanna be BladeRunner when I grow up! Project Goliath - nearing completion.

09-12-2003, 07:44 PM	#20
joemac Cooling Savant Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Dallas Posts: 339	Is the Compurnurse based on PIC?? If not does any one know what processors they are based on? (I know taking the easy way out )

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