bigclive

Early video release

I'm going to release the ghost repeller light video early, because the recent poll showed that 40% of the people who responded experience the shadow-people effect.

Nice design - shame about the penny pinching

This is so frustrating.  It's a rechargeable lithium powered hand warmer that has literally skimped on one of the most important components.

The circuitry is actually very good, with some interesting twists for reducing pin count and standby power.  But it's like the work of the engineers was destroyed by the ...

Hmmm!

Not a bad price for a 5 million watt laser.  Styropyro would be impressed.

Odd marketing description

In amongst the barrage of marketing emails I got one with some very unusual wording:-

"We, Creality, are not one of but the best manufacturer in the global consumer 3D printer market, and the (Ender， CR，Enclosed，Halot resin type) series are already widely well known in the world, and continuosly c...

Another USEFUL short

Continuing my series of YouTube shorts that are actually useful, here's a 12 second one that includes a 3D script for making a hollow candle flame cover for a 5mm LED.

Also makes an excellent cover for LED strings.

It uses just 1g of plastic and prints in about 5 minutes.

2023-01-02 04:40:05 +0000 UTC View Post

And a proper non-short video.....

An odd video, but actually a very useful one.  This showcases the extreme efficiency of gallium nitride LEDs, and is something I use to help me get much better sleep.

It's also to raise awareness of hypnagogia - the transition between being awake and being asleep, which can be a bit weird for some people.  Pro...

Random quick experiment

Not sure if I should release this as a video.  It's more of a quick experiment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eznbI-4KY0

Hugely technical video crammed into a short

Darn, it's hard to fit much into these pesky shorts, but it appears they are an important part of YouTube that encourages viewing proper videos.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0-YHrfXo8gw

New Year's Eve stream

Same day, same time, but with the MBC and snacks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJne57bLHI0

Aldi battery MKII with full schematics

Even if it does have a mystery chip I decided to reverse engineer the unit completely anyway.  There are 5 pages of schematic and I still haven't identified the chip.

There's also some weird circuitry stuff going on, and the communication circuitry required a revisit to the battery schematics to make a correction t...

Quiet midweek Patreon stream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8KHCPbe0To

Inside the ALDI/Ferrex 20/40V battery charger

Most of the work in this charger is done by a dedicated chip that may be a standard microcontroller with custom numbering.

There are some possible identification clues.  Pins 1 and 3 are 0V and pin 2 is 5V.  The first ten pins of the 20 pin chip may be largely comparator pins, since that side seems to deal wit...

eBay-special UV LED insect zapper

Well I say "UV" but more sort of near-UV and not very high output.  But I suppose an insect might wander in accidentally.   The circuitry is pretty much what I expected for this unit, with a fairly spicy high voltage section (about 1.2kV).

I'm almost tempted to buy the fluorescent tube based version to se...

Slightly anticlimactic LED candle

This video is quite short because there's not a lot to say about the circuitry in this LED candle.  But on a plus note it does actually look very good, should get a long run time and is silent - unlike the dancing flame versions.

Now I just have to find a course of the magic component within.

2022-12-28 04:30:13 +0000 UTC View Post

Even the simplest things.....

This is particularly annoying, and a good example of how many products are made by small companies using standard components without realising how subtle differences can be dangerous.

Perhaps the manufacturer of the plastic adaptor does a specific bayonet cap version without the side tag, but the person who assembled th...

Ralfy 'n' Clive Xmas stream

Ralfy and myself (and maybe kittens if they decide to show up) will hopefully be streaming on Xmas eve UK-time if the local Internet connectivity is good enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVsKvN8wnL4

Another ambient build

Regulars may get deja vu.  I've made many videos on this subject in the past, but it's so enjoyable to do that it's worth doing again.

This is the conversion of a standard set of series connected tungsten lights into LED lights that use so little power that they can be left on 24/7 for home ambience.

They're ...

MBC festive midweek stream link

Here's a link to an MBC midweek stream:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m6_3Z6Pj-o

Ambient neon-lamp build

Inspired by a joke about how glass screw-in fuses look like vintage neon lamps, I decided to make one from scratch using an existing edison screw lamp base.

This project does involve a 3D printed cover (very fast print) which can have its sizes tweaked to suit your own style.  The script is the exact same one as ma...

I remade it with a schematic

Here's the video as it should have been.  I did the full reverse engineering and schematic this time, and the bulk of the circuitry is just to turn the LED on to display charging and discharging.

The first part of the video is the same, as the case was destroyed while opening it.  But at about 5 minutes in it ...

Weekend stream

Weekend stream link:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3CDZlC20t4

Very nice 1W LED filament lamp

After making this video I realised that the seemingly inefficient design of this "240V" lamp may be because it is actually capable of working from 100V to 240V.

The filament has an interesting twist too, as it appears to have 24 points of light, but each is actually two LEDs.  I've tested the lamp on 110V and it wo...

Midweek Patreon stream

Here's the link to this weeks quiet stream:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt9tH-ESGF0

Tiny solar power bank

No schematic with this one due to lack of enthusiasm about what turned out to be VERY retro circuitry.

Literally the whole unit can be done with one chip and a protected cell these days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjr3p1giVgw<...

eBay ultrasonic health bracelet

Is there any end to the delightful quackery on eBay?  In this case it looks like the listing title for a quack product has been copied and used to convert other random products into equally quack products.

Someone somewhere is wearing one of these and feels like they're getting thinner and healthier by the day.

Creepy bible teddy

I've held off on making this video for over a year because this thing just makes me feel uncomfortable.  I'm also very aware that while the power of religion is dwindling in the UK, it is still a huge thing in America, and I know first hand what it's like to live in a very religious family where it was enforced from an e...

Fixing an unusual light

This is a rather unusual decorative light that a friend brought back from India for me a long time ago.  The neon flicker globe never really worked, so I decided to try and fix it, and that fix turned into a significant task.

https://ww...

Weekend stream link

Here's the link to the weekend stream:-

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

Late shift on Aliexpress

I've just spent a very long time trawling Aliexpress for stuff for our entertainment.

I managed to find the following items:-

The original mains speaker-terminal and switch tester I couldn't find on eBay.

An "explosion proof" lamp tester that basically puts a tungsten lamp in series with the connected load s...

Quiet Patreon Stream

Here's a link to the quiet Patreon stream.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCrTmQZkV5I