bigclive

Micro USB spacing.

For Nick Nolte who was asking about the dimensions of the 2-pin micro USB connector I used on the prototype LED coaster.

When I have a component like this I tend to lay it on a 1/10" grid (a standard grid size in electronics) to get a feel for general size and pin/pad spacing.  I'll then do a rough sketch as shown ...

Uh-oh, It's another OBD turbocharger.

In the last OBD video I mentioned that I had ordered another unit based on the picture of the PCB in the listing.  Well here it is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB810U7j77k

This one is pleasing in many ways.  It actu...

Timeguard coolglow nightlight.

This is actually quite a neat little nightlight purely because of the technology it uses to create the light.

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

I think these are discontinued now, so if you want one for your collection of...

Random Patreon snippet.

Just a short video showing typical fruit machines (slot machines) in a British pub going through their advertising sequence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A87IKqrf1U

There's more info in the video description.

Electrolytic pipe failure?

The quiet hiss of water escaping from my plumbing wasn't a good thing to return home to.  A bit of floorboard lifting to narrow down the source of the noise revealed a tiny pinhole in a copper pipe spraying water liberally under the floor.

2019-02-22 05:54:09 +0000 UTC View Post

Real shake light vs Nitecore Tube.

This video sounds a bit boomy because of where I filmed it, and I was trying to be quiet as it was late at night and my neighbours were probably in bed.  I can hear their voices, so I'm sure they can hear mine.

https://www.youtube.com/w...

Inside a vintage disco light.

This "single Derby" light is one of the simplest disco lights of all.  It just projects a flat line of coloured light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60uGMBp0seg

If it is sequenced to the music it is just turned on and off in...

50 Watt or not?

It's a while since I've checked out one of the cheap LED floodlights on eBay so I thought I'd get one and see if they're still using a low voltage array inside or of they've switched to a mains voltage COB with onboard driver.

https://www.yo...

Feeling the suspense....

This seems like a huge threshold that I never even considered reaching.

SMD LED BCDC PCB MKII build.

Building the second version of the LED coaster thing with the corner pillars nudged in a little bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaoeKX1DHa4

Quite a nice PCB to build and it looks pretty good too.

Teleport beacon. (Not a video).

Just to avoid confusion with the other PCB.  This one is the teleport beacon intended to indicate safe materialisation zones.

Can you guess what it is yet? (Not a video).

Slight track loss during processing.  Fine for a prototype though as it's mainly to get a feel for spacing and ease of building.  I always prefer to make a physical prototype or two before getting PCBs manufactured.

China is having its main holiday at the moment, so there's no rush anyway.  I don't like t...

USB rechargeable penlight.

This looks like one of the little penlights doctors use to peer into your orifices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XqxQsWgxv4

It's actually very neat inside.    Much better than I was expecting, and should be fairl...

Hand grip strength tester.

This device is called a hand grip dynamometer and to all intents and purposes it's a weighing scale with a hand grip.   It works quite well, although I can't vouch for its accuracy without a suitable test setup.  (A 100 pound weight).

2019-02-06 02:34:40 +0000 UTC View Post

Jelly baby explosion fail.

A failed attempt to blow up a jelly baby.  I need some better explodey stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jzrf_lljkc

The next generation LED chips?

This fairly standard looking COB array was very interesting to explore.

I specifically bought a blue one (no phosphor) so I could take a closer look at the chips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpF5O0W8Bdg

I've done some ext...

Logo as PCB tracks.

This is an attempt to adapt the channel logo to a PCB compatible format by replicating it as tracks.  It looks a bit weird when you can see all the nodes and arc centre points.

Inside the humble glue gun.

A nice down to earth video showing the super-simple heating system in a hot melt glue gun.  An absolutely cost optimised device due to the high volume used in hobbies and industrial applications.

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

Tonights mini lab explosion.

Well that's made a mess.  Tonight's lab (kitchen) incident involved quite a loud bang, broken glass and a mixture of water and wax loaded with solvent spreading itself over quite a large area.

Can you guess what I was making?  (I really shouldn't get distracted while "accelerated" things are in progress.)

Did I go too far? Mummy-story.

Did I go too far by dropping the Family Guy inspired "period joke" (since seeing that episode I can't say "period furniture" without thinking of it.) and relating my mummy story on the stove fan video?  It was one of lots of similar weird things that happened while me and my brother nursed my fiercely independent mum ove...

Teardown of a heat powered stove fan.

This unit is designed to derive its power from a heat gradient and blow the hot air surrounding the stove into the room.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H7SZO4okXk

Since making the video earlier today I've deduced what all the com...

Wall light with interesting internal design.

When I got this I was expecting it to just have a 1W or 3W LED firing into the side of the plastic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X--Y-pvRgRo

But it turns out it's really quite cleverly designed inside to give all round illuminat...

Stylish work light with interesting circuit.

There are two interesting things about this rather stylish combined work-light and power bank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAoISQaA5jY

The first is the polarity protection and the second is the way they've nudged the voltage to...

Waterproof socket with bonus rant.

I try not to rant much, nut some things really get on my wick.

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

This is a nicely designed socket.  I wonder how many seasons it would last in a location exposed to intense sun and win...

Bogus OBD2 car tuners.

I've featured one of these before, but this time I'm wiser to the stuff going on with the OBD2 port in cars.  (You should find yours.  They're great.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx8fywphQp0

So the first attempt at or...

Free video wall test software.

It turns out that the video wall panel supplied in the Project MC2 "handbag" is a standard module.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dB1w99AwGE

I amused myself by reverse engineering it and then writing a piece of software to do a f...

Full clock kit build.

It's a while since I've built a kit.

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

This kit is reported to have timekeeping issues, which is odd, since it uses a real time clock chip.  I'll get a battery for it and test it.

Another video wall panel test.

Just a bit of fun to see what sort of refresh rate I could achieve using a low end processor generating a pattern in real time as the display is multiplexed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRZ2ECHl5FQ

It looks a lot more colourful...

Rabid quack comments.

Sometimes I get some really rabid comments on my quack product debunking videos.  Do you remember the one where you put your feet in a tub of water with an electrode and it "detoxified" your body by drawing impurities out of you into the water?  It was actually just accelerated corrosion of the electrodes that turne...

Fake-shake LED "eco" light.

There are real versions of this and there are fakes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujio2shR7Lg

The best way to tell is that the fakes are really bright out of the box, whereas the real ones often need shaken for a long time befor...