bigclive

Inside the Aldi-Ferrex cordless glue gun

It turns out that it's quite an interesting device.  The circuitry is very much in keeping with Aldi and Lidl tools, with a fairly intelligent design.  It's unusual that they didn't use a standard lithium charge chip though.

https:...

Weekend stream link

Here's the link to the weekend stream:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1XpRq14Ca4

Patreon stream link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zJ3uK99r1Q

Tiny little meteor-shower light modules

These are kinda cute.  Basically super-miniaturised meteor lights based on a microcontroller and flip-chip LEDs under phosphor (or clear gel for the blue ones.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35I6QV_Une0

Flickery 2-wire dusk sensor teardown

A very basic dusk sensor supplied with a bulkhead light from a prominent UK trade supplier (Toolstation).  It is so minimalist that it has slight stability issues at the transition from on to off.

https://youtu.be/-I-XQdFWmIQ

Most streamlined street light I've seen

I've not finished editing the description for this video.  I thought I'd drop it early, since it's such a radical twist on integration.

The main chips involved in the control are optimised for simplicity and an amazingly good power factor (current to voltage relationship).

One notable mistake is that I implie...

Interesting push-in wire splice

The American theme on the packaging is unexpected.  This company sells lookalike Wago style connectors, plus this pleasingly minimalist inline splice for joining solid core or stiff-strand wires.

It works quite well, and the use of the copper contact bar does suggest it will have a low resistance.

2024-01-21 17:39:46 +0000 UTC View Post

Weekend stream link

Here's the link to the weekend stream:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ho2jqeu-fE

Quiet Patreon Stream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcj23VGphI0

Fixing a dead nebula spaceman

A dead unit sent by Christopher for our exploration.  It came from Temu and they refunded for the faulty unit without any problem.

This version has an entirely different optical system in it, which is quite cool, and while it's not as bright as the other unit, it has hackability.

2024-01-18 04:19:04 +0000 UTC View Post

Experiments with a big purple LED

Technically speaking they refer to this LED as being ultraviolet, but it's more at the deep violet end of the spectrum.  Very useful though, especially when tamed down to enhance the lifespan of the LED chips.

That's what this video is about.  A very easy way to reduce the power dissipation of the LED modules ...

Unusual rechargeable dehumidifier

By far the most unusual part of this rather neat product is the heater.  It is a very odd twist on standard technology, that allows greater heat transfer to the air.

The silica-gel cartridges seem to dry quite quickly for reuse due to the combination of heat and a low flow of air to drive the moisture out.

2024-01-15 06:51:46 +0000 UTC View Post

Weekend stream link

Here's the link to the weekend stream:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us23RVu4rPo

Police camera and radar jammer scam

I wonder how many people have bought these and then driven with reckless abandon in the naive belief that they are invisible to cameras and traps.

That could get very expensive in a matter of hours.  Not even fines you could contest either - "I though my car was invisible."

2024-01-12 01:31:19 +0000 UTC View Post

Quiet Patreon live stream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6Rlf9b2EbE

USB LIR2032 button cell charger

A very minimalist USB powered charger for the rechargeable version of the 2032 lithium button cells.

The circuitry is as expected, except for one mysterious resistor.  I wonder if it's for stability due to the unusually low charging current.

htt...

Fixing Twinkly addressable bulbs

The Twinkly system is an expensive, but unique system of LED strings that can be installed and then pixel-mapped with a phone camera.

Kip Hakes sent me some dead PCBs from a string of festoon style bulbs that had an issue with water ingress.

https://...

More complex than expected

I thought I'd take one of these apart, thinking the circuitry was going to be very minimalist.  I thought it might be a chip, transistor and protection diode, but it really goes to town on noise suppression and overload protection.

https://youtu.be/qT...

Weekend stream link

Here's the link to the weekend stream:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhTS3wMd0zs

Quiet Patreon Stream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2YCTrEESMY

Using the XH-M452 temp/humidity module

This is one of those very handy little modules stocked by all the usual suspects.  It's cheap and very versatile, since it can control heating or cooling and humidifying or dehumidifying.

A lot of the magic is in the remote sensor, with the microcontroller mainly just polling it for data and displaying it.

2024-01-04 03:59:11 +0000 UTC View Post

Fairy light or condom?

My own (parametric) version of the Mega Mini Light looks a bit too much like a condom for comfort.

The current script lets you choose the tubular body length and diameter, then fills in the rest itself.  It also lets you choose the wall thickness for something more robust than one printed using vase mode.

Spy camera detector

This is a rather net version of the classic device used for locating hidden cameras in accommodation or other locations.

It relies on retro-reflection from optical systems to show their location and allow further investigation.

https://youtu.be/J5cti...

New years eve stream

Note that this stream is one hour later than normal and will continue until the dawn of 2024 UK time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngO29lUP4tI

Everlasting pencil

And now for something completely different.  I couldn't resist adding these to a temu order (not a sponsor) to see how well they worked.

The results are "pastel", but better than expected, and may find artistic use.

It was definitely a much better result than the really crap probe multimeter I got in the same...

Weekend stream link

Here's the link to the weekend stream:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tv3nwXJgt0

Universal air conditioner repair module

This module is intended for simple fan, filter and evaporative cooling units and not compressor based ones.  It basically replaces all the electronics to restore operation to units where the electronic circuitry has failed.

https://youtu.be/x01eYOO236...

This week's Patreon stream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl697qo6RJY

One last piece of extreme Xmas tat

These are the crappiest lights I've found on eBay so far.  The controller felt so flimsy that I squeezed it and it disintegrated before I'd even started making the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRoSSl0v1CE

Seasons greetings

The traditional Xmas-day video, but now filmed as a vertical short.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ITSH7jAzHpo