User:Gamerpaddy

About

YouTube: gamerpaddy YouTube Channel
Email: gamerpaddyschannel at gmail dot com
OSHW Repository: gamerpaddy open source hardware lab

Biography

I grew up in germany where every once in a while people would put their broken and unused household electronics on the streets for disposal. I picked up whatever I could, took it apart and tried to understand how it worked.

Over the years that turned from just taking things apart into actually fixing and reverse engineering them. I built myself an electronics workshop and gathered knowledge from whatever I had on hand or access to, learning by doing and from the resources available on the internet. That eventually led to designing and manufacturing things myself, a few of which ended up helping other people too.

I am a full supporter of the right to repair movement and contribute through work, knowledge and helping others where I can.

Projects

Yamaha EBike Battery Dongle

Starting in 2016 I worked on an emulator module to use third-party lithium-ion batteries on Yamaha powered e-bikes. The module emulates the datastream of a healthy battery and sends it to the Yamaha PW series engine, allowing any power source in the 10-cell lithium-ion voltage range (27-42V) to be used in place of the original battery.

Through this work most of the Yamaha battery communication protocol was figured out, which let people extend their range with DIY batteries and repair their failed originals, which made up 30-50% of the cost of a new e-bike. Discussion and findings were shared in the german pedelec forums [1].

More information on the Yamaha EBike Battery Dongle wiki page.

Topping PA5 Amplifier D01 Replacement Module

In 2023 I worked on a replacement module to help people repair their failed Topping PA5 Class-D Amplifiers, as documented in the audiosciencereview forums [2].

The original units had a manufacturing flaw where potting compound used to protect the pre-amplifier module from being copied would expand and contract during thermal cycling, eventually cracking solder joints and taking the whole amplifier with it. I depotted the original module, reverse engineered it, and rebuilt it with a more efficient layout for cheaper manufacturing. It has since been built and used by people all over the world with none of the replacements failing so far. In some countries warranty claims were not a viable option due to the product being shipped from overseas, making a DIY fix the only practical solution.

More information on the Topping PA5 wiki page.

GE Medical Flashpad Digital X-ray Detector

I got hold of a GE Flashpad, a 2048x2048 digital radiography image sensor originally used in GE Optima 220AMX mobile X-ray units. These show up on the used market mostly in unknown or broken condition.

I tore it down, documented the hardware and spent time reverse engineering the URP/PDAP communication protocol it uses over Ethernet. I got to the point where the detector can be fully identified over the network, scripts can be downloaded and executed, and a acquisition run can be driven from a custom host implementation without any GE software involved.

More information on the GE Medical Flashpad Digital Xray Detector wiki page.