Most people probably don't realise that the Scottish army used to have their own ration pack.
It's probably just as well it's not in widespread use.
2020-01-14 06:38:44 +0000 UTC View Post
I made this slightly rough video while travelling. I forgot about it because I had got back to my usual bench and ploughed straight into new stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO6sgHMBNyw
Should I release this? Maybe keep it in reserve for if I get so engrossed in a project I fall behind with videos?
2020-01-13 17:10:29 +0000 UTC View PostI'm just testing some new network stuff and will be doing a short live stream to see how it goes. It's happening right now on the BigCliveLive channel:-
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClIzWmVzGPm2zhNT2XZ-Rkw
2020-01-12 22:58:45 +0000 UTC View Post
By request. Zapping a cheese with its wax sleeve still on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvmTFBQLHGU
2020-01-12 03:29:52 +0000 UTC View Post
This will probably be a Patreon-only video. It's just a quick one showing how I got a nice thumbnail pic by prodding the cheese mid cheez-o-cution.
2020-01-12 03:14:23 +0000 UTC View Post
By popular request, a full fat Babybel getting zapped at 240V.
More smoke. Yellow smoke!
2020-01-12 01:34:24 +0000 UTC View Post
This video contains mild profanity and one small explosion.
It turns out that when you light the hydrogen and oxygen being liberated from a chemical ration heater it does indeed go boom and also keeps burning because it's making its own fuel. That's why I suddenly squeezed the pack and folded the end after the test.
2020-01-10 08:07:52 +0000 UTC View Post
If I have to be honest, these are not as bright as the picture shows, but not bad in a dark room.
It's two styles of custom 3D printed lights with a closed tube that allows a neon lamp and resistor (or two resistors) to be potted into resin. That kinda makes them weatherproof, although the work of trying to pot them was made harder because I didn't use a disposable syringe to inject the resin. It was also tricky to keep the lamps in position while the resin cured.
The ...
2020-01-08 23:59:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Having looked at a safe version of this style of illuminated output smoke machine sold by a prominent UK supplier, I thought it would be good to look at a totally non compliant one sold from a Chinese warehouse in the UK.
It fully demonstrates the safety changes that were so important in the one from the high profile UK supplier.
2020-01-08 21:17:42 +0000 UTC View Post
This is a new twist on an old style of DIY LED lamp. Thanks to the use of a script based CAD system I've also included the file for the 3D printed adaptor in the video description on YouTube, so you can theoretically copy, paste and print one of the base adaptors yourself.
The end result is very solid and looks pretty good.
2020-01-05 19:24:18 +0000 UTC View Post
This machine came from a UK supplier and it's interesting because it's compliant with local electrical regulations.
You can also get them from other suppliers around the world, and also on eBay, but not always electrically safe versions.
2020-01-03 20:28:11 +0000 UTC View Post
I've got to admit that the design of this heater isn't too bad. It does have a couple of layers of thermal protection, but I'm pretty sure that to be UK compliant it might need a single shot thermal fuse as a last resort.
Other than that, it's not a bad design. The PTC based heater module looks like a standard component and everything else has been fitted optimally in the ...
2020-01-02 00:44:38 +0000 UTC View PostIf all goes to plan there will be an MBC live stream on new years eve 31st DEC 2019 at around 9pm UK time.
(Just search for "what is the time in Britain".)
It will be on the new BigCliveLive channel.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BigCliveLive
2019-12-30 08:38:04 +0000 UTC View Post
You wouldn't think a fatty cheese would be so conductive, but it turns out they put on quite a show.
The whole house stinks of burnt cheese now, and not in a nice toasted cheese way.
2019-12-29 23:24:05 +0000 UTC View PostA bit late, but I was hoping to get my brother to do a live stream with me on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or boxing day. But I just couldn't persuade him to do it.
2019-12-27 01:42:48 +0000 UTC View Post
These were sent by Noah. I think they're from Walmart, which is odd, since ASDA in the UK is part of the Walmart group and often shares the same products and brands. But I didn't see similar lights in the UK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwoRUh7g2Fc
The ribbon style is very odd. I wonder if it's an attempt to make a continuous string that is very easy to mass produce in the sam...
2019-12-25 14:37:04 +0000 UTC View Post
After making the Krampus lamp I decided to have a play with openSCAD (a script based CAD package) to see how easy it was to create an adaptor for existing lamp bases to allow the addition of electronic stuff.
It took me less than an hour to get to grips with the scripting and create this 3D adaptor which printed perfectly. I could see myself playing with this software a lot more.
You basically create a solid object out of just three shapes (cube, sphere and cylinder) then cr...
2019-12-24 01:07:39 +0000 UTC View Post
On one hand I could describe this light as dangerous because of the risk of an electric shock from fingering the LED holders or leads. But it does remind me of our olde-worlde Xmas tree from the late 1960's where we had a set of 20 Pifco olive lamps with metal star reflectors which were held in place by the lamp itself, and didn't realise that the rather inadequate plastic insulator rings that separated the metal star from the live base had crumbled and gone over time. So our tree...
2019-12-23 14:18:25 +0000 UTC View Post
I was wondering how electrically conductive pies are.
The apple pie is the clear winner going by the smell in my house of burnt pie.
2019-12-23 00:24:15 +0000 UTC View Post
Time for bed I think. That was a long project where just about everything went wrong, but the result is quite pleasing. It's an LED lamp incorporating foliage and 43 swappable LEDs powered from a mains referenced supply.
I've made these in videos before, but decided to go over the top with this one.
2019-12-22 07:36:01 +0000 UTC View Post
This one seemed to upload quite quickly. It's also using a different recording device, so will sound different.
The seemingly silent hot air pen is just weird. I've still to discover if I can somehow disable the built in audio processing.
2019-12-21 04:46:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Sorry for the lack of output over the last week. You can probably guess why. Having now seen the scar I know that it was somewhat more than the keyhole surgery I was expecting.
The video that is currently uploading will be the first since my operation. It may be a bit abstract. I've not actually seen it yet.
It's about the LED replacements for the humble Xmas candle bridge lamps. And it turned out a lot more interesting than I was expecting. Esp...
2019-12-21 03:28:32 +0000 UTC View Post
I can't really call this a charger because all it does is enable power when it detects a vehicle is connected and then signals to the actual charger in the vehicle how much current can be drawn.
I was heading to hospital early in the morning for a small operation the morning after making this video, so I didn't go as far as I could have on the signalling circuitry, and I may sound a l...
2019-12-17 20:42:12 +0000 UTC View Post
This is one of "those" videos where I had to choose a title and carefully word the description to avoid triggering YouTube's algorithm. But I can say whatever I want here.
The device is a disposable vaping unit called an Aquavape that is pretty much typical of many other devices. It has a prefilled liquid/vaporizer and a rechargeable lithium cell that is used ONCE and then...
2019-12-14 22:01:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Sometimes I get the urge to test a theory at the wrong time. I could have tested this on a string of 10 lights, but decided to try it out on a set of 200 instead.
This is just a short video of a personal project. I doubt it will get released for general viewing.
Maybe if it works and protects the LEDs I'll make a proper video, but it's so time consuming to do that I'...
2019-12-14 00:33:19 +0000 UTC View Post
I started testing a string of LEDs 24/7 over a year ago.
Here's the result of the test now I've replaced them with new ones.
2019-12-13 00:23:50 +0000 UTC View PostIf all goes to plan there will be an MBC live stream tonight 11th DEC 2019 at around 8pm UK time.
(Just search for "what is the time in Britain".)
It will be on the BigCliveLive channel.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BigCliveLive
2019-12-11 18:32:00 +0000 UTC View Post
If I told you that this remote control socket would turn its relay on when the side button was pressed, but would then drop it out again a few seconds later. Could you guess what the fault was before watching the video?
2019-12-11 02:10:54 +0000 UTC View Post
This'll teach me to remember to bring a decent recording device with me.
Back to my usual workbench and filming equipment tomorrow if all goes to plan.
2019-12-09 01:38:23 +0000 UTC View PostIf all goes to plan there will be a live stream tonight 6th DEC 2019 at around 11pm UK time.
(Just search for "what is the time in Scotland".)
It will be on the new BigCliveLive channel.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BigCliveLive
2019-12-06 20:30:21 +0000 UTC View Post