bigclive

Crappy button station.

Unlike the majority of the industrial control components from eBay, this is a bit lacklustre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI6VeSiDPKQ

It feels crunchy when you press the buttons and the quality of the contacts is rather poor.

Clone of a Wago product that Wago don't even sell?

I'm guessing that Wago's design department might not be too thrilled that the Chinese cloners have extended their range with a very useful 3-pole flex/cable joiner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP86SxqP7I8

I can't find any reference to an original matching Wago product, although it doesn't help that the Internet is saturated with Wago references and pictures of their standard stock.

Is this a...

Banggood security issue? (Not a video.)

While ordering a couple of items from banggood on 27th May I noticed that in my order history a transaction had been made by someone called Luca Ruggier in Malta.

I immediately changed my password for a nice complex secure one and contacted bangood about it.

I just looked again and on the 30th another order has been placed by Luca (if that's even a real person)

Both were paid by Freepay (never used it).

I wonder if this is a software blip at banggood showing other user...

Rambly neon fairy light string build with Q&A.

This turned out really good.  It's also unexpectedly good timing, because I discovered that the humble neon indicator is 100 years old this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MZYo-WcZRs

This is a long 1 hour rambly video making up a string of mains voltage neon fairy lights while answering some questions I got asked in the last live stream I did.

I took the Hopi to bits.

I finally took the Hopi meter to bits, and it's actually more sophisticated than I was expecting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HQGXZU2d4I

There's a secret button I didn't know about and a very specialist chip inside that gives the unit a lot of credibility.

Washing machine door interlock.

I wonder how long it took to refine the design of this mechanism to this level.  It incorporates an electrically actuated lock, a safety switch and a time delay into one very cleverly designed assembly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIm7q_U3UEM

At first I couldn't work out how the switch mechanism was actually actuated, but I worked it out and added it as an extra bit at the end of the video...

Fixing an Internet connected socket.

This is quite a neat device.  It's a remote control socket that can be switched via an app or via built-in control options.

https://youtu.be/bTgH2N7Dr0M

The best option is the one that detects that a connection to the 'net has been lost and turns off briefly to reboot the system.

Radar version of the transformer light.

Robots in disguise again.  This time with the added benefit of a microwave movement sensor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuw3GsR22TA

The unit will re-trigger for 20 seconds each time it detects movement.

Pompous 9 LED head-light.

I decided to get one of the most ridiculous looking LED head mounting lights I could find.

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

Current draw in the different modes is noted in the video description.

Bubble wand with interesting mech.

I got one of these bubble wands a while ago to see how their no-spill bubble generator worked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvQtl3ciGcA

It turns out to be quite an interesting mechanism compared to the usual rotating drum/disk of wands.

Failed RCD/GFI in electric car charge pillar.

This appears to be a common problem in some car charging pillars.  Oddly it also affects the same pole on the single phase versions too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vGmcdisUr8

One of the most interesting things about this breaker is that it is a type A leakage detector that is designed to trip with AC and pulsing DC faults as might be found when a failure occurs in an electric car's charg...

Cheap power bank with interesting circuitry.

I got this in full expectation that the stated capacity of 2600mAh was a load of crap, which it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GXdXsIJPGs

On a plus note it has the simplest power bank circuitry I've seen with low quiescent current of only 11uA.

The downside of that is that the unit goes to sleep if the connected load is too low.  It also glitches the output every second or so to se...

Inside a 125A DC circuit breaker.

This started off looking like a very ordinary circuit breaker inside.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ntxqTEqyM

Then right at the end I spotted the secret feature that deals with the DC arc.

Live stream imminent midnight Friday 17th (BST / GMT+1)

If all goes to plan I'll be live streaming from Glasgow at midnight Friday 17th BST / GSM+1 or about 20 minutes after you get this message if it is delivered instantly.

Poundland LED neon ornaments. (Very good.)

Back in Glasgow - and one of the things I spotted while browsing in Poundland was these neon-style LED frames.  (£5 each)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b30T7lbAF_Q

The construction is extremely neat with very diffused light over the whole surface.  The units use a set of two AA cells for quite  long run time, and the LEDs seem well matched so the intensity reduces in an even manne...

In Glasgow.

I'm currently in Glasgow looking for worthy technical tat.  Videos will resume shortly.

German chocolate and USB vapourisers.

This video happened spontaneously late at night.

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

It's quite interesting.  Particularly the way one of the units heats the pad.

By popular request. A decepticon LED light.

This light has to have one of the most stylish heatsinks about.  It does make you ponder whether the LED lighting industry could get more creative with its heatsinks and make them equally artistic.

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

This light also packs a decent punch in light output and can be "shaped" (they call it deformed!) to aim light in specific directions.

I ...

Destroying a tight black pussy.

Let's see what YouTube makes of THAT title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiRqJ40a1Ak

It turned out to be quite an interesting tight black pussy, since it is possibly one of the most combustible power banks I've ever seen.

Evolution of a grow light and glitchy camera.

I've featured a similar LED floodlight module in the past that was based on white LEDs, but this one has a few differences and may well be an interesting direction for use in indoor plant growing.  I'm not an expert in such things, so by all means let me know what your own thoughts are on what is effectively a cheap disposable LED floodlight module.

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

...

Possible live stream.

I'm always wary of advertising live streams since there are variables that can prevent it happening.  But tonight at around 8-ish UK-time (currently GMT+1) the MBC will probably do a live stream with the Presto hot dogger.

How microwave movement sensors work.

When I first came across these modules I was perplexed at their simplicity and use of a standard PIR (Passive Infrared Sensor) chip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf19hc9PtcE

It turns out that the design is very close to the old FM microtransmitter circuits, but with the inductor and capacitor components  implemented as PCB tracks to give stable high frequency operation.  It's very clev...

Competition time. ENTER ON THIS PATREON PAGE.

Enter the Patreon part of this competition right here on this Patreon page.  It's easier for me to contact you here.

If you feel confident in having a go with a simple surface mount kit build then enter by typing "peanut" or "no peanut" (that'll make more sense when you view the video) in the comments section on THIS page.

(But also feel free to enter on the YouTube page as well.)

Having finally stopped tweaking the PCB design and actually had a test batch made, it's ti...

Sweet-sweet smoky goodness.

This is one of those projects that just kinda happens.  My house currently smells like a firework factory explosion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-96io8Rk-e8

It's a very simple project to make little bits of paper that smoulder until they are completely burned while giving off a plume of sweet caramel scented smoke.

We're sponsoring the local youth rugby team.

Just letting you all know that we're sponsoring the local youth rugby team in Ramsey.

The shirts are the exact same brand and style as the adult rugby team with the same logo on the front because I think it's important that the kids feel that they're part of the same team.

This picture was taken at the Isle of Man ferry terminal as they head across to compete with UK teams.

Mosquito killer with interesting circuitry.

Another mosquito killer from India.  This one has a fan.

https://youtu.be/L49oHi_v07c

The fan circuitry is quite interesting because of the way it is bypassed electronically when the fan is not in use.

Is this too rambly?

I filmed this at about 4am, which is never a good idea.  Is it too rambly?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMS60qvcOiw

I wonder whether it would have been better having a dedicated short video just covering the types of boxes used for switches and sockets, and then a more detailed one on the lighting circuit.

Vintage UK fuse-box with rewireable fuses.

Apparently it's not that common to have fuses that can be rewired.  But it's still common here in the UK in older houses that have these panels.

https://youtu.be/0L0p5Rk7hZU

The downside is that it's easy to defeat the overcurrent protection by using the wrong size of wire.

You can still get cards or rolls of fuse wire for these panels.

Cordless kettle style base.

The curse of a slow Isle of Man Internet connection has struck again with an excruciatingly slow 4G upload speed, so here's a short video while the intended longer video (just 20 minutes long!) takes several hours to upload.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t2HYLSmwfc

This is an interesting component available from eBay.  I'm not sure how easy it would be to use it in a project.  It would...

A close look at overhead lines.

A look at two different styles of overhead line.

https://youtu.be/8JFfXZt7QoI

Traditional bare copper and new insulated bundled cables.  Including a demo of how a cable is terminated onto the new bundled cable and then a removal and inspection of the terminated joint to see how well it worked.

Yes I did throw a smutty double entendre into the YouTube video title.