bigclive

Skeleton shaver teardown

To be fair, this made short work of completely shaving my head.  A task complicated by my very dense and fine hair that feels closer to fur than hair.

But that circuitry is squirmily minimalist.  I'm not sure if the chip has a dedicated charge control section built in, or if it's using software and unusual techniques to control the charging of the lithium cell.

But it works, and it works well while also managing to look very stylish and being much easier to clean than a ...

Patreon stream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0lDmuXET4

Simple scavenged component project

This is just a fun, but still very useful, project that uses scavenged components to create a backup "comfort" light source for use in very dark areas or during power outages.  There's no circuit board and really just a diode and resistor, neither of which is critical.

You could make one from two failed solar garden lights if their solar panels and batteries were still in reasonable condition.  The extreme efficiency of LEDs at low current levels mean the circuit will provide ...

Bigger Sansi ceramic lamp

This was a real beast to get apart.  I thought the screws on the front were going to release everything, but there are a significant number of plastic sections that clip tightly together.

I cobbled together a simple mains driver to show the LEDs in one module glowing at low level so we could count them and see the internal construction.

Once again, I ordered one, but two turned up!  I don't know if this is an ordering glitch or some weird promotional stunt.

2023-03-07 00:13:44 +0000 UTC View Post

Furr Bear

For those who knew Furr from the live stream chat, I've just received the news that he passed away peacefully this evening.

It's an MBC stream this week

Here's a link to the weekend stream:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVWwFGANJYc

Patreon stream link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fXV0tVIEOs

Heavy ceramic substrate LED lamp

An odd find on eBay.  It's a lamp that uses a thick and heavy ceramic PCB for the LEDs to suck the heat away from them quickly for convection air cooling.

It was unrealistically cheap for what it is, making me wonder if it was a listing error or stock being dumped.  But further examination of the listings from the same seller suggest that they are encouraging sales for eBay visibility and then nudging the prices up based on demand.

Here's a link to the sellers UK eBay sh...

Moonshine vs Sodastream

The first rule of moonshine club is...

This is the next drinks carbonation video, although I'm not sure I'd class undiluted moonshine as a drink.  More a pandemic-grade sanitiser or PCB cleaner.

The results were very interesting though.  There was even a bit of cryogenic fog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yArcH80PiP4

Unusual refrigerant diverter valve

A rather interesting device that allows liquid refrigerant to be diverted to either, both or none of the outlet ports.

in the near future I may be testing to see whether YouTube prioritises videos with mid-run video adverts.    If I do, I will strategically position the advert at the "One moment please" bit.  I've a sneaky feeling that YouTube will push videos with adverts above ones without for profit reasons.

2023-03-01 01:40:14 +0000 UTC View Post

Mercedes Benz light

I'm not sure that Mercedes would be too keen to actually endorse this product.

I did learn something new about the particular driver chip in this unit when I tried to hack it.  One variable affects another variable, so I'd guess that tuning the driver to a specific product may involve a a bit of experimentation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKmtR6GCglQ

Weekend stream

Here's the link to the weekend stream:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o29D98xHJ1Q

Weird eBay light

What do we do with all these spare microcontroller pins?  We'll just add loads of extra LEDs with a single resistor for them all as a feature.

Not a bad little light.  Strange police-mode that might cause issues if used in a public area.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJWl1E1VoGw

Patreon live stream link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yprg6ievg2o

Very unusual rechargeable UVC light

The most pleasing thing about this light is the use of a modern LED driver chip to run a vintage mercury discharge lamp.

The circuitry has some strange features, and one very shady one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myJqyR9YVhQ

New and exotic Chinese factory tool

I've seen these being used in small lamp factories in China where they assemble the lamps manually.

It's a specialist crimping tool that uses ten spikes to crimp the metal cap onto the plastic lamp bases.

Needless to say there will be custom lamp making videos now.

I've included a link to the seller in the YouTube description.  They have lots of interesting stuff including lamp kits.

h...

Uncharitable Nokero clone

I made a video about the original Nokero light about two years ago, and unfortunately may have caused them supply issues by releasing it during the pandemic.

I deliberately avoided making a video about this unscrupulous clone, but since they seem harder to get now that they can't cash in on the publicity surrounding the real thing, they seem to be harder to find now.

I think Nokero may be on hiatus at the moment due to supply difficulties, so I wouldn't recommend trying to buy one...

Weekend stream link

Here's the link to the weekend stream:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON-HFIdlJ3E

Impressive light sensitive pigment

After testing the UV detection card I took a look online for the UV sensitive colour changing pigment it used, and found that you can buy it as a bare pigment powder.

I think the rather dramatic warnings on the packet reflect the fact that the supplier I used is clearly aimed at industrial level paint finishes, so the powder is probably safe for mild home project exposure.    But don't eat or snort it, or rub it in your eyes.

Even a tiny amount in resin gives a very...

Quiet Patreon Stream

Here's the link for the quiet Patreon stream.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJsJ97bypM4

Releasing video early

I'm probably going to jump the recent exploding ioniser video to the front of the queue and release it tonight.  I kinda want to see the reactions.

I made a "short"

No literally...  A short about a short.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ni0F-_NZge0

More fake products that apparently explode

This video turned out slightly more exciting than I expected.

It started off as testing two more fake ionisers, but one had a very special extra feature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENFxBLoQjIM

Weekend Stream

Here's the link to the weekend stream:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVvkclcoZ_o

Really good side glow fibre optic

For a product like this from a pound shop, I wasn't expecting the linearity of the light along the length to be so good.  It seems to be really well engineered side glow fibre optic.

The circuitry is simple, but has an oddity.  Possibly a mistake?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xXKv-QXrxk

Patreon stream link

Here's the link to the quiet Patreon stream:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLjJ8SvT3yM

Huge Poundland lamp autopsy

There's only one thing better than a Poundland lamp and that's a very dead one for our exploration.

The circuitry in this is actually quite weird, and with a mystery component that I can't identify.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6pelnttC88

Testing a UV/UVC test card

Just a quick video to show the two modes of this card in operation.

It's designed to give a visual indication that your UV source is emitting roughly in the right spectrum.  The test method for both types of UV is different.

The card can also be used to test things like glasses for their ability to block UVC.  Quite handy when experimenting with germicidal lamps.

https://www.youtube.com...

Inside a Wago connector and a clone

Although I've featured Wago terminals and their clones in the past, I've never really explored the internal mechanism in detail.

I have now.  And the clone was actually surprisingly good.

Reassembling the clone was easy, but the Wago did not go together again, as it has lots of loose and very stiff spring contacts that all need hooked under a common strip simultaneously.

https://www.youtube....

Rogue keychain power bank

Having quite enjoyed exploring some other keychain power banks I thought I'd check out some other ones from eBay.

Let's just say that this one has a disappointing feature, and it's very fortunate that my Ruideng USB tester apparently has reverse polarity protection!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fVt1PG4uXE