An experiment to see if modern sensitive LEDs are a good substitute for the neon bulb in a classic electrical test screwdriver.
These screwdrivers rely on the person holding them to complete a circuit to ground, so the environment will determine how bright they are.
These buttons have been popularised by channels like Billi Speaks, where a cat pushes random phrase buttons and a lady interprets it to suit her videos. A bit like the paranormal posse.
It's quite nicely integrated though, albeit a bit quiet. Especially with my bassy voice.
I bought a few of these devices many decades ago and ended up wrecking them during my experiments.
It seemed like a good idea to source a NOS (New Old Stock) unit to reverse engineer.
It turns out to be quite sophisticated, although it does have a slight latch-up issue on some power-ups.
Here's the link to the weekend stream:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9WYjQ0O8jY
2023-06-17 02:36:35 +0000 UTC View Post
I fear the bean counters may have struck again and made a poor component choice on a fairly high profile looking controller.
But the best bit of this diagnosis was a weird and inexplicable overheating fault which had a very unexpected cause.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbh02n64QRI
2023-06-15 17:43:55 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm doing a rare main channel live stream. It's largely to try and help Joe from the channel Michigan Heating Guy who has been going through the horror of his son having a leg amputated due to cancer. Joe is the breadwinner for his family and his videos as the story has unfolded have shown the stress it has ...
2023-06-13 02:06:42 +0000 UTC View Post
It's a kettle - a rubber one, which did make me ponder whether it was a good idea to have a floppy rubbery thing full of boiling water. But it does seem quite solid.
The electric aspects are what you'd expect from a grey import - or even a pink import. There's a ground connection, but it was supplied with a ...
2023-06-12 12:45:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the link to the weekend stream:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLGPQsFCUd8
2023-06-10 17:41:38 +0000 UTC View Post
A combi light and fan where I actually paid more to get the obligatory pink one.
Even better - it arrived with a fault pre-loaded.
This device also uses a chip I've never come across before, even if it is a bit squirmy having over 300V across a tiny SOT23 device. It's clever. Quite a lot of circu...
2023-06-10 03:12:11 +0000 UTC View Post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-g7_BY_kQM
2023-06-08 17:38:46 +0000 UTC View Post
I saw this while walking to the gym and decided to film it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiD150yNCvI
2023-06-07 20:46:56 +0000 UTC View Post
I was NOT expecting this screwdriver to have a microcontroller in it.
Given what it does, it might have benefited from some extra software for flashy effects. It really shows that you get microcontrollers in everything these days.
Now I really want to get one of the other type as shown in the listing image.<...
2023-06-06 01:57:17 +0000 UTC View Post
It's a while since I've made a video while drinking wine, and it makes me realise just how much more fun it is.
This circuitry was made more interesting by its very cute cap dropper approach and the fairly complex way of reading a traditional humidity sensor.
A quickie before the weekend live stream.
I was experimenting with a fan that I had removed the humidity sensing controller from (for reverse engineering), and while putting various capacitors in series to try and tame the fan down a bit, it suddenly went into turbo mode. I managed to hit a perfect combo that resu...
2023-06-03 19:27:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the link to the weekend stream:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVHx_JaBxIA
Quite an interesting module, and also quite complex to design.
In hindsight the snubber and unusually large resistor are probably to deal with the high voltage pulse that the module effectively gets from the ballast output.
It has to protect itself against that high voltage spike without attenuating it too much. 2023-06-02 05:18:39 +0000 UTC View Post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8mnjD0N1VI
2023-06-01 18:24:36 +0000 UTC View Post
This is IKEA's smallest USB charger, which has a different shape depending on the type of plug it has.
As you can probably guess, the design is good and even managed to throw in a few surprises.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOJbxhA0...
2023-05-30 22:57:59 +0000 UTC View Post
It's been a very zappy and poppy night, but I got the thing going again. It had a few broken solder joints and a faded vintage capacitor.
This thing really looks the part. It's from the era just before electrically powered domestic appliances started appearing. And at a fairly stiff £9 and 9 shillings...
2023-05-29 04:41:46 +0000 UTC View Post
This was supposed to be a single lamp teardown, but it turned out the pack I got had two different lamps in it. I wonder if people had just randomly taken them out and mixed them up or if someone made themselves a special pack with the other two lamps. Bonus for us, since we get to explore both.
Interesting ...
2023-05-28 04:47:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the link to the weekend stream:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2vvaC1FAg0
2023-05-27 15:52:52 +0000 UTC View Post
This light has the unusual feature of not using the common stripe of LEDs often found in these lights, but has instead gone for something more flame-like in shape.
It only seems to have three channels, although it could theoretically drive all the LEDs individually. The effect is good though, and it suggests that ...
2023-05-27 04:52:21 +0000 UTC View Post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGT1w7QEVc8
2023-05-25 15:26:39 +0000 UTC View Post
I didn't realise how streamlined the design of these lamps/bulbs/globes had become. This one contains a dedicated chip for regulating the current on five separate channels for providing tunable white plus RGB colour mixing..
The power supply PCB is notable for its minimalist design and the WiFi module which has an...
2023-05-24 06:07:37 +0000 UTC View Post
A low voltage and low current means of transferring power to a rotating object. I'm not sure of the original intended application, but the suggestions of robotics and CCTV seem fairly plausible, although I'm not sure I'd trust them for a control or video signal.
The listing suggests they are good for 220V at 2A, b...
2023-05-22 23:17:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the link to the weekend stream:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khqKOfvRL-k
2023-05-20 15:41:23 +0000 UTC View Post
A hybrid video with the first part filmed in Glasgow and the second part at the usual bench.
These things are in the windows of many home-decor shops in Glasgow. I'm quite tempted to 3D print a new base for one that looks a bit more dignified.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vrK74rotwI
2023-05-18 14:15:39 +0000 UTC View Post
Maybe I should have had a rant in this video. The Eurocrats are banning fluorescent tubes this year, but have seemingly turned a blind eye to the LED lamps that are made to fail and the fixtures where you can't even change a lamp any more.
This little module is a classic unit from a signage application. It's...
2023-05-16 01:46:13 +0000 UTC View Post
