bigclive

Making a super-simple NiMh charger.

I cobbled this very simple charger up to charge 5 small NiMh cells at once.  The circuit is not really suitable for lithium cells as it will constantly trickle current.

Air freshener interbreeding with "incident".

Ever had a product that doesn't quite do what you want it to do?  I decided to make a custom air freshener unit that is somewhat more subtle than the ones that just pump aroma into the air all the time.  i did this by transplanting the electronics from one unit into another.  And everything was going so well until...

Video addition as suggested.

You guys were right.  the video wasn't complete without me opening that cell to see what was inside.  Skip to about 3:50 to see the extra footage.

The electrolyte is quite caustic.  When I washed my hands it felt like sodium hydroxide in that it had turned the oil in my skin into a soapy substance.

Bogus battery capacities on eBay.

I got the urge to hunt down some fake things on eBay, and was almost disappointed that they weren't quoting much higher capacities for these particular cells.

Not the safest kitchen appliance.

This little green USB blender is very much like the other pink one I looked at.  But with a rather undesirable feature involving a sharp rotary blade.

I should add that I really quite like the original pink USB charged blender.  It works quite well for making slushies out of frozen fruit, sugar syrup and water.  ...

Fixing a large salvaged LED emergency light.

Taking apart and fixing up an LED based (240 LEDs!) emergency backed light.

A fan heater for your table light.

A handy fan heater that plugs into any convenient lamp holder for instant warmth from the wiring.

A non-electronic diversion.

I like to throw something random into the mix from time to time, so here's a fun "vintage" device that is still readily available from places like eBay.

Very simple illuminated switch locator.

This is a commercial product designed to help you locate a switch in a dark room by making a surrounding bezel glow dimly.  It's rather predictably a bit minimalist. 

RGB lamp with distinctive circuitry.

This is another of the things that Michal sent from Poland for our technical pleasure.

This is a weird one.

It's one of those bizarre products on eBay that doesn't really have a purpose.  But the circuitry design suggests that the person who designed it is actually quite clever in discrete circuitry design.

Lamp teardown and conversion.

It's a while since I took a small lamp to bits, so here's a teardown, analysis and conversion.

Mr Bun-bun's tragic Easter.

I just discovered something really annoying while making this video.  I filmed the explosion at a friend's house in a more remote "explosion friendly" location, but it was so remote that my phone switched up to full RF power to communicate with 4G network and generated audible data noise on the microphone.  And the stu...

Electronic Pulsestarter fluorescent tube starter.

A look at the circuitry used to light traditional fluorescent lights with a clean single shot strike as opposed to the traditional flickering starters.

Random street light conversion.

I thought it would be quite fun to convert a street light to a grow light.  Not because I actually want to grow any plants, but because it's a nice colour.  This light is from Ynaan on eBay, but is the 20W version of the light as opposed to the 30W version I already looked at.  I was expecting the cases to be the ...

Yeah, another video. (I'm on a roll.)

I'm recording quite a few videos at the moment, so here's another.

A more affordable rechargeable keychain flashlight.

Despite being cheap, this unit is nicely presented and designed.

If you guys want one I'd recommend buying it now before I release the video, as they don't seem to be widely listed.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/282037456053

Total teardown of a flexible LED filament lamp.

This was a very destructive video that took a surprisingly long time to make.  I had a thoroughly enjoyable time reverse engineering this lamps relatively simple driver with an odd twist that is probably intended to make it dimmer-compatible by providing a continuous low current load for the whole mains cycle.  The LED...

Cheap eBay heater mat.

The construction of these things is quite interesting, although the half millimetre thickness is slightly squirmy for a mains voltage device.

A look inside the Nitecore Tip.

Another requested video.  Taking a look at the bigger sibling of the Nitecore Tube.

Say hello to the UK's Carnival Clubs.

This video was inspired by Ben Golden who is a member of a British carnival club.   He asked if he could send me a lamp they were considering using as replacements for the existing tungsten lamps which are being phased out by eco-regulations.  You'd think that swapping to LED would make wiring simpler and allow th...

A look at a pyrotechnic "robotic".

This is the type of device I used to blow up the table lamp in a previous video.

It emits a loud crack and a shower of sparks to emulate an electrical malfunction.

LED lamp explodes.

I don't always do troll / clickbait videos.  But when I do I may use explosives.

Exploration of a cheap Chinese industrial limit switch.

I like the cheap industrial components from China.  They are ideal for low-risk prototyping or personal projects.

Yet another LED street light.

I do like the generic Chinese street lights on eBay, and they seem to be getting more stylish as time goes on.  This one seems to have a properly designed glass lens to spread the light in a rectangular pattern to follow the shape of a road.

Last driverless LED experiment. (Probably)

One more requested test on adding smoothing to the driverless LED.   This version puts a lot less stress on the current regulating chips.

Make trash-chocolate FAST.

Another very dubious recipe.  I strongly recommend this one, since it's super-easy and fast with very tasty results.

Driverless LED experiments.

As requested, the addition of a smoothing capacitor to the driverless LED, plus a dielectric test on it's substrate.

St Patrick's day creation.

I decided to do a project for St Patrick's day with green LEDs.

And also confess to some slight technical misdemeanors of the past.

This video was spontaeneously recorded at short notice, so It'll be uploaded for general viewing very soon.  (Owing to the fact that it is now St Patrick's day here.)

Total teardown of a driverless LED.

These new driverless LEDs are getting very common because they are cheap.  So here's what one looks like inside.