Name: A look inside a USB ioniser. @bigclivedotcom
Uploaded: 2026-09-23T08:17:00-05:00
Duration: 8 min 17 s
Description: A look inside a USB ioniser.

A look inside a USB ioniser.

bigclivedotcom 2026-09-23 | A look inside a USB ioniser.

Brake fluid moisture tester (with schematic)

bigclivedotcom 2024-10-20 | Your car's braking system uses hydraulic pressure to activate the pistons that push the brake pads against the rotors. It's important that the fluid is routinely checked for progressive moisture absorption, as the fluid is usually glycol based and very hygroscopic.

Water contamination of the glycol can result in a lower boiling point and liberation of bubbles of gas in use. That gas is more compressible than liquid, so it can make the brakes less effective.

This tester can be dipped into the brake fluid reservoir to give an instant indication of the fluid's condition, by measuring its electrical conductivity.

This unit used very different circuitry than I was expecting. It took a surprising amount of time to reverse engineer it. The unit claims to be suitable for DOT3, 4 and 5 brake fluid, although DOT 5 is actually oil based. I wonder if they mean DOT5.1 which is glycol based.

On closer examination, the markings on the side are a measurement scale in mm. Maybe to indicate depth in the liquid.

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Power tool battery level indicator for 5 cell packs

bigclivedotcom 2024-10-18 | Although intended for power tools, this module will also be useful for equipment with 5-cell lithium battery packs, commonly referred to as 18V batteries or sometimes 21V batteries.

The circuitry is very basic, with just four LEDs with resistors and zener diodes in series with them so they light at vague thresholds, and a small MOSFET with simple timer circuit to hold the display lit for a few seconds after the button is released.

For a specialist application you could swap the zener diodes for custom thresholds.

As supplied, the LEDs light up at the following thresholds:-

1 = 2.5V and above. It just has a resistor in series with the LED.
2 = 17.5V and above. That equates to an individual cell voltage of 3.5V. (10-20% charge)
3 = 18V and above. That equates to an individual cell voltage of 3.6V (30-40% charge)
4 = 19.3V and above. That equates to an individual cell voltage of 3.9V. (75% and above)

Because the voltage across the zener and LED will vary with current, there is a slight ramp of intensity with voltage at each threshold.

These modules are compatible with some generic Chinese power tool batteries, but in some cases the blanking plate where they go is actually moulded into the plastic.

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Simple USB LED panel for adding light anywhere

bigclivedotcom 2024-10-16 | This is quite a handy little panel. It would be perfect for adding a splash of light in the back of equipment where a spare USB connection was available, or with a spare charger as a power source.

Even the biggest panel has a fairly low power rating of 2.5W. But that still provides a useful level of light. The LEDs are also being used well within the current rating, and the resistors are not being stressed either.

The style of the PCB also means it could be retrofitted into an outdoor floodlight casing for off-grid applications where a low level floodlight is needed.

If you choose to solder wires directly to the panel, it will need preheated first to make soldering easier, as it is an aluminium core PCB.

I got this from AliExpress for about $1. It was part of their "choice" range that gives free shipping when the goods total is above $10.

Here's the listing I got it from, but note that you can usually find other sellers if this one hikes the price up.
aliexpress.com/item/1005006401939984.html
Note that when they say "8 pcs" they mean the number of LEDs and not the number of complete PCBs you will receive.

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Inside a Chinese aroma atomising unit

bigclivedotcom 2024-10-14 | A fairly attractive variant on the chemical air aromatizers often called air fresheners. More suited to masking bad odours than getting rid of the base problem. This one has a very futuristic design and pleasingly minimal control PCB.

The best bit of the listing was when it said the unit could be used to "impress your friends and make them smell very good when they visit."

As with the high profile Air Wick units, this one also has an oil based excipient (carrier) for the aroma chemicals. The base for these seems to be related to low odour kerosene.

The method of dispersion is ultrasonic atomisation via a lithium cell powered drive circuit and piezo atomising disk. The unit can be recharged with a micro USB cable, and has a few modes with different time delays between each burst of aroma, or the ill advised continuous mode.

This is exactly what I was talking about when I said that the Chinese manufacturers would make their version of the Air Wick Mist with an absolutely minimalist design. I doubt you could get more minimalist than this.

When it arrived the aroma bottle had a cap and foil seal, but the wick was supplied separately. The neck of the bottle did not fit into the unit at all until it had been filed down in size to fit.

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Naomi Wus Nukit 222nm sterilising excimer light

bigclivedotcom 2024-10-11 | This is not a sponsored video. I feel it's important that people should know about this evolving technology, and Naomi is working on making it affordable.

During the pandemic YouTuber Naomi Wu presented plans for traditional mercury vapour based UVC sterilising lights with a special housing, to sterilise air in a room without exposing the occupants to the 254nm UVC light.

With the evolution and availability of the new era 222nm excimer lamps, Naomi has gone on to design a full product designed to be easy and convenient to deploy in populated areas like medical practices, waiting rooms, retail environments, food preparation areas and live events.

The special feature of the 222nm wavelength is that it is long enough to deactivate viral and bacterial air contaminants, but short enough not to pass through the outer layer of dead skin or the tear-layer of humans. That means that it is currently considered safe to use in occupied areas.

The filter on the front of the light seems to specifically pass 222nm. Without it there is a very slight hump in the spectral output at around 237nm. The filter attenuates that completely.

Excimer is an abbreviation of Excited-Dimer, where a dimer is the joining of two molecules. In the case of the excimer lamps the molecules are encouraged to bond temporarily in a plasma discharge, and when they revert back to their non-excited state they emit a photon of light at a specific wavelength determined by the chemistry. In this case it's molecules of Krypton and Chlorine that form brief molecules of Krypton-Chloride (KrCl), before reverting back and emitting 222nm photons in the process.

The process of creating the plasma is very similar to dielectric barrier ozone generators. By coupling to the gasses capacitively the lamp also avoids contaminating the gasses with the electrode materials.

Note that the unit uses 500mA at 12V (6W) but has a generously rated 12W power supply that runs cool.

This technology looks like it may be valuable in medical, care, travel or social environments to limit the spread of pathogens.

Here's a link to Naomi's pleasingly-named online shop:-
cybernightmarket.com/products/nukit-lantern-far-uvc-light

Inside a 3D printing pen

bigclivedotcom 2024-10-09 | There's probably a legitimate use for these things. But I'm not sure what it is yet.

You plug it into a suitably rated (2A) USB power supply, load standard PLA filament and can then doodle with a stream of molten plastic.

The circuitry is VERY cost optimised with the buttons and LEDs most likely being multiplexed on the same pins as the LCD display. But other than that it contains what you'd expect. An H-bridge motor driver, MOSFET for the heater and a voltage regulator for the microcontroller.

I started doing a full reverse engineering on this, but after my sharp meter probe had slipped off a microscopic resistor connection for the 50th time I stopped.

This thing is surprisingly well made for the cost. It has a custom ceramic heater tip and a robust metal filament drive system.

Sorry for the lack of schematic. This video came too close to another that had taken three evenings to reverse engineer, and I just wasn't in the mood for a cryptic multiplexing system with LEDs, LCD display, buttons and analogue sensing all multiplexed onto a low pin-count microcontroller.

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Teardown of a firework bulb - with schematic

bigclivedotcom 2024-10-07 | It's 11 years since I first looked at a very expensive Calex branded version of this bulb. At that time they were using a capacitive dropper and had all the LEDs in series.

I was expecting it to be the same, or maybe a linear regulator. But it's not. And the LED wiring arrangement is different too. Probably to make manufacturing simpler, allow a wider voltage range and also allow for the same LED structure to be adapted to different sized bulbs.

These bulbs are now available at a much lower cost online, and in a wide range of colours including warm, cold and golden white, blue, ice blue, green, yellow, red, pink and purple.

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Programming a common remote cloning button

bigclivedotcom 2024-10-07 | This is a classic cloning button intended for low security fixed code remote controls. It will not work with vehicle code-hopping remotes and must also be the same frequency as the remote you are cloning.

To use it, click the button four times, holding the button continuously after the fourth press. After several seconds the remote will start flashing its LED and then a few seconds later it will go static.
At that point release the button, and then pair your existing remote by holding them next to each other and pressing and holding both remote's buttons at the same time.
The cloning button will blink randomly and then go static. At that point it should now operate as the original remote.

inside an optical trackball

bigclivedotcom 2024-10-05 | Having looked inside an odd analogue trackball, I decided it would be interesting to take my optical trackball apart and see what it looked like inside.
I have always preferred using a trackball instead of a mouse, as it stays in one position on the bench and is perfect for designing PCBs and other CAD applications.

This unit is quite old. I'd guess that modern ones will have the amazing mass produced single chip sensor and processor arrangement inside, and probably a different style of ball, as this one looks quite complex with its pattern of embedded dots that don't wear off.

The biggest surprise in this unit was that the sensing chip did not look directly at the ball surface. The lens was coupled to a prism arrangement that deflected the image 90 degrees. I wonder if that was to facilitate easier mounting of the infrared LEDs, or maybe just repurposing an existing optical assembly from a mouse, where the sensor was mounted vertically on a PCB.

Once I had cleaned and reassembled this unit it worked absolutely fine as it had before.

There are quite a few different trackball devices available online, mostly quite expensive compared to a mouse input device. It appears that you can buy replacement balls for prominent models on AliExpress.

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High voltage LED tester with VERY clever circuitry (and hidden features)

bigclivedotcom 2024-10-03 | It literally took me three evenings to reverse engineer this unit. The circuitry is very complex, but also very well designed. Unlike the previous horrifically dangerous unit I looked at, this one has the outputs isolated from the incoming mains supply. It's still 300V though, so can still give an odd DC zap if you get complacent with it.

The soft start is very simple, but very neat. The regulator chip that limits the current through the LEDs is very impressive in that it can handle a short circuit as standard.

There were two extra features I was unaware of. A low voltage mode for finding polarity of LEDs without risking damage to them, and a higher current mode that steps up from the standard 20mA current to 50mA after about 10 seconds when you are testing higher voltage LED arrays.

There are lots of clever quirks in the circuitry that were quite enjoyable to decipher. Especially the way the main power supply chip is actually an LED driver being used with an opto-isolated feedback hack on its overvoltage protection pin, normally used for detecting an open circuit load.

I did test the other unit, and it too has the 18V feature selected in the same way. But it doesn't have the higher current mode.

To toggle between the 300V and 18V modes you hold the leads together until the display flashes bars.

Very clever design. Both frustrating and a treat to reverse engineer.

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ALDIs 400mm (16) inflatable glowing aqua orb - with schematic

bigclivedotcom 2024-10-01 | When I bought this I knew the remote control light puck was going to be small. It seems to be a common thing with these devices. But the ball itself can accommodate a custom light and power supply, so it can be made better. Perhaps even modified to have a remote solar panel.

The circuitry did throw up a couple of surprises though. Notably the LED that was completely upside down.

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Inside a LIDL insect zapper - with schematic

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-29 | Not completely what I was expecting. I thought there might be a traditional electronic ballast for the tube, and while there is, it is somewhat simpler than I thought it would be. The zappy bit lacks the zest normally found in the eBay versions, and the manual is basically just warnings not to open the unit or let children play with it, so they may have tamed it down for that reason.

Interesting ballast though, and while the zapper section took longer than expected to reverse engineer, it is fairly conventional.

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Elevator with no car door

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-28 | A very old lift that seems to have been partially modernised judging by the smooth takeoff and deceleration, and a little hint of an inverter whistle when moving.

This is at an old seaside accommodation with a long history. My friend who lives here says the elevator has never broken down in all the time he's been here. That's probably because it's not a "modern" one.

The last time I was in an elevator with no car door was when I was a very young kid, at the first library in East Kilbride.

Interesting LED flame shape bulbs - with schematic

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-27 | I added these to an order from AliExpress to check out how they looked and what the circuitry was like.

The circuitry isn't too bad, with an unusual control chip.
My only real issue is that they have done the common thing of pushing the intensity to the max, when this type of bulb seems more suited to low level decorative use. The LED filament in the simpler shape bulb did have quite a strong band of blue light from the LED chips under the phosphor.

Here's the listing I ordered the bulbs from, but note that I also ordered a star which had a section of LEDs out in it, so the quality isn't guaranteed. The listing may act as a springboard to other similar sellers.
aliexpress.com/item/1005003357188330.html

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You cant even turn this unit off

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-25 | Aside from the very odd translation in the listing for this light, it appears that the extra cost-cut version has been stripped back to such a bare minimum that it has stability issues.

That's a big issue, since they have skimped to the point of removing the on/off switch, so the unit is active from the point it's assembled at the factory. When this one arrived its battery had been seriously over-discharged due to it turning on and off repeatedly while in its box.

Theoretically the box should block the PIR sensor from seeing movement completely, but I think it has created a situation where the sensor chips gain goes so high that it starts being affected by low level ambient electrical noise. It's not helped by the fact that there is no current limiting resistor for the LEDs, so the controller chip may be having thermal issues too, and the way its power is routed via the high current LED path also adds instability because the voltage will spike upwards when the LEDs turn off.

I tried the following things to try and solve the oversensitivity problem.

I added a 5.6 ohm resistor in series with the LEDs. Still false triggered.
I added a 22uF capacitor in parallel with the existing decoupling cap. Still false triggered.
I broke the positive track shared with the LED circuit and ran a direct link. Still false triggered.

The one thing that did seem to solve the problem was to put the unit on charge while in the box, suggesting that the battery voltage fluctuation and recovery when the LEDs turn off may have been an issue. That suggests that the cell impedance might be high because of the low capacity.
The charger was able to provide a more stable voltage under load.

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Inside a Poundland bubble bear

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-23 | They may just be kids (or adults) toys, but some of the bubble blowing machines are very clever.

It makes me think that there might be someone whose full time job is designing mechanisms for these things.

This one is very neat. It has a motor with the fan on one end and the other end geared to turn a peristaltic pump and also a wiper arm. The pump uses rotating rollers to squeeze liquid through a tube to a port in the bubble producing section, and the arm then wipes that around the perimeter to create a film that the air then blows into bubbles.

Because the feed and drain tubes are sealed into the bubble fluid reservoir, and because some of the fluid is being blown out as bubbles, there is a net difference that results in the drain tube pulling the excess liquid back down into the reservoir.

The bubble fluid is mainly water with a small percentage of surfactant and a tiny amount of a thickening agent to make the bubbles stronger.

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Marj vs rotary farting ninja

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-22 | We agreed that Marj (one of our followspot operators) could push her channel if it was done with a farting ninja glued on top of a rotating insect repeller.

You can find her channel at:-
youtube.com/@Diariesofa20something

Devious child-proof trickery

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-22 | A very devious, but clever way to allow a bottle to be screwed into a vaporiser, but prevent it being taken out again. It appears that this is a child-proof feature associated with other versions of this plug supplied with insecticide.

Inside a LIDL under-counter light strip

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-22 | Although this looks like a bar with four separate lights, it's just one PCB and driver with the equivalent of one LED bulb spread over four positions.

Eco grass roofs are a terrible idea

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-22 | Initially it might seem a nice idea to have grass growing on the roof of a building so it blends into nature better. But there are so many drawbacks. Aside from the hazard it poses to the people who may have to go up on the roof to prevent the grass and weeds growing out of control, you have the weight, invasive nature of some roots, difficulty in repairing it when it starts leaking and then there are the seagulls or other birds....

Being above the ground, safe from most predators, the roof is the perfect place for birds to nest and raise their offspring. In the case of seagulls that involves offspring that scream at high pitch almost continuously and their parents who often burst into loud rhythmic squawking during the night.

This was the first accommodation where I literally had to wear earplugs every single night to get sleep, but also slept intermittently because I was worried about sleeping in due to not hearing the alarm. So I would wake up regularly to check the time.

I'm not sure if it was the thick grass roof or not, but the heat was stifling all the time with no heaters on. That meant the windows had to be open to let fresh air in and try to cool the place. That also let all the sound of screaming birds in too.

I wonder if the architect who came up with this idea ever found out what a terrible idea it was. Let's just stick to a roof full of solar panels in the future if you want to be "eco".

Quick shout out to the super friendly and helpful staff at this particular accommodation. They were great.

Farting ninja vs 240V from a different angle

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-22 | We blew up a battery operated farting ninja toy with 240V. The farting sounds afterwards are from the one next to the one we blew up (which doesn't fart any more.)

Farting Ninja meets its maker with 240V

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-21 | We've had a few of these "farting ninja" toys positioned around the job. They detect changes in ambient light levels and make one of several farting noises.

I got this one just to blow up for our amusement. It took two goes (I'd left the power switch off the first time.)

The farting noises before and after internal detonation are coming from the purple one next to the pink one.

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Farting ninja versus 240V aftermath

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-21 | A look at the remnants of the insides of a farting ninja after it has been connected to 240V.

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Inside a weird vintage analogue trackball

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-19 | A trackball is like an inverted mouse. You scroll about on your screen by rolling the ball about with your hand. The best types have a patterned ball that is free to spin in front of an optical movement sensor. (I use a Kensington trackball.)

This one is very different from the normal type with optical encoders, because it was designed to work with an existing analogue gaming input to what I would guess was a PC's 15 pin game/MIDI port.
It was probably intended for games like Missile Command by Atari (which used an optical system in the arcade machines.)

I got this one many decades ago as surplus stock, and I get the feeling it had not proven a success in the area it was aimed at, which I think was gaming. The meshing tolerance of the cogwheels is probably a big factor here. Too tight and they could cause the ball to slip on the rollers, too loose and they wouldn't mesh properly. Unfortunately it looks like they may have gone a bit too loose on the tolerance.
Keep in mind that this was an era where they didn't have the same precision 3D modelling CAD we have now.

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How I used to steal Internet connectivity

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-17 | Sorry for the autofocus hunting, I had been recording "on the go" previously and forgot it was enabled.

This is the long range antenna I used to take with me while travelling with work. It was rare to find accommodation with included Internet access at that time, and a mobile connection was absolutely not viable in that era. So I used to scan the neighbourhood for Internet cafes and sneak onto their network at night. I did also go to the same cafes during the day - partly to get the password, but also to give them business with coffee and cake to make me feel better about using their connection at night. It was just used for collecting email, minimal browsing and collecting the latest posts from newsgroups and mailing lists with Demon's Turnpike software. (That's how long ago it was.)

Huge shout out to Demon Internet for making Internet access viable in the early days.

Demon were the victim of a professional troll and the greedy legal system trying to find a way to make cash from this new fangled Internet thing. The troll routinely provoked reactions on mailing lists and then demanded that Demon take down all the messages he didn't like. He then sued them when they refused, and won a significant settlement. These days that would be recognised as a serious misuse of the legal system and a very poor decision by the naive judge and jury on that case, who clearly had no understanding of the Internet.
It was probably a major factor in Demon's downfall. Another example of how the profit-motivated legal system has become a massive burden on society and technological progress.

In my opinion Demon Internet were one of the most important things that happened in UK Internet history.

Thankfully, these days work accommodation and the work sites themselves have high speed connections as standard, and mobile connectivity is also very viable.

The antenna itself? That's RF voodoo. At the frequencies involved (2.4GHz) all usual electrical rules go out the window. The design of antennas like this is a specialist area of the electronic industry.
I'll make a wild guess that it's a form of dipole antenna optimised to one wavelength or a division thereof.

I'm expecting the RF experts to weigh in on the comment section and talk RF rocket science.

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Inside an Xpel vaporiser with clever childproof feature

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-15 | I initially thought the clever bottle locking feature was to prevent people from refilling it. But I've now found out that they do a different version with a bottle of prallethrin based insecticide, and the design is effectively a childproof lock on the bottle to stop kids drinking the contents. They do actually tell you to push the bottle in hard to unscrew it, as I showed.

Interestingly, the bottle style is very similar to Indian mosquito plugs that I've looked at before.

These units use a lemongrass and eucalyptus oil to act as a deterrent to flying insects. I'm not sure how effective that is versus a transfluthrin vaporiser. The use of the phrase "holistic remedy" is a bit suspicious. It implies it is intended to be used alongside other products, but may not be effective on its own.

The design of the fixed output heater block is quite neat. It's odd to see a custom ceramic heater like that.

Let me know if you've used one of these, and how effective it was.

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Total teardown of an ASDA air fryer

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-13 | I bought a cheap air fryer from ASDA to take apart for our entertainment. And also to see if it had any interesting components inside that could find other uses.

It's actually full of useful parts for specific projects.

The construction and airflow was different to what I was expecting.

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Crystal lithium recycling (read the description)

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-13 | Reclaiming the lithium cell from a crystal brand device.

Always be aware that lithium cells have very high energy storage. Take extra care to avoid damaging or shorting out these useful cylindrical pouch cells. They should be stored in a suitable rack, or individually bagged to avoid shorting them out.

These can usually be recharged using a suitable lithium cell charge module set for around 500mA.

You do this entirely at your own risk. The technically inclined will find many uses for these rugged little lithium cells.

Openscad is a very interesting piece of open source software that lets you create 3D objects with a raw scripting language, allowing complex results from very tight code.
The openscad software can be downloaded here:-
openscad.org

The script for the battery tray is included at the bottom of this description. You literally just copy and paste it into the text box of openscad to adjust it as desired, and create your own custom STL file for your 3D printing system.

The six variables you can adjust are:-
Width - The number of battery cups wide.
Height - The number of battery cups high.
Depth - The depth of the battery cups.
Diameter - The internal diameter of the cups - slightly wider than your battery.
Thickness - The thickness of the cup walls.
Base - The thickness of the base.

When adjusting the values, be careful not to remove the "=" and ";" as they are part of the script.
To see your changes quickly, press the box with two arrows.
To build the final object press the box with an hourglass in it.
To save your custom STL file press STL. (After building with the hourglass button.)

The STL file can then be used with your preferred slicer (I use Cura) to make the gcode file for your choice of 3D printer.

I recommend making a single test cup (1X1) to test sizes before making a bigger tray of them.
You can also just choose a width and height of 1 to make a single large cup for other purposes.

Here's the openscad script. Copy and paste the text below into openscad to use it.

//Custom battery tray - bigclivedotcom
$fn=50;
//You can adjust these variables.
width=4; //number of horizontal cups
height=4; //number of vertical cups
depth=10; //internal depth of cups
diameter=15; //diameter of cylinder AA=15 AAA=11
thickness=1; //thickness of wall
base=1; //thickness of cup bases
//don't adjust stuff below here
columns=width-1;
rows=height-1;
wall=thickness*2;
dia=diameter+thickness;
cup=depth+base;
difference(){
union(){
//main body
for (x=[0:columns]){
for (y=[0:rows]){
translate([x*dia,y*dia,0])
cylinder(h=cup,d=diameter+wall);
}
}
}
//hollow cores
for (x=[0:columns]){
for (y=[0:rows]){
translate([x*dia,y*dia,base])
cylinder(h=cup,d=diameter);
}
}
}

PAR16 birdie theatre light.

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-12 | These little lights are used for concealed small area illumination on theatrical sets or in designer lighting applications.

Pre-show sound and projection tests

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-12 | Testing of the audio system, lighting and projection on the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo

Collecting Titan Tubes from performers

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-12 | My colleague Tim collects the RF controlled Titan light tubes from the dancers after the Highland Rave act at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

Excess foam in your laundry?

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-11 | This is probably the only good use for fabric conditioner (which coats your laundry equipment in a horrible sticky wax inside).

It's great for getting rid of excessive foam in your clothes washing machine when the wrong detergent is used. Like when you decide to try using dishwashing soap. Or the clothing is contaminated by industrial chemicals.

Inside a hover-ball

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-11 | A look inside a hover ball that glides across the floor like a hovercraft.

Inside a hover ball

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-11 | Quite a simple, but interesting device. This is a ball-themed puck that slides across the ground on a bed of air like a hovercraft.

The circuitry isn't complex, but the physical construction is quite interesting.

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Not all DJs are live

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-10 | Just some fun with a DJ riser that we were putting some LED lighting on. (It was controlled wirelessly on the lighting network.)

Want to see it being used during the show? Yes it is being faked...
youtu.be/9cVTzCYmk2U?si=0DG7b6NHhlXtAmjs&t=2293

Not all DJ's are actually "live". Even the highest profile DJs and talented music producers may be miming to their pre recorded mix at a major event to make sure it's perfect. Just like many singers will lip-sync to their own track to ensure good quality audio. (It's hard to match studio grade audio in a live environment.)

If you watch the DJs at big events you will see them overcompensating, by dramatically tweaking and adjusting knobs continuously, when in reality they would only be making small adjustments during an actual live event.

When the DJ is a famous fashion celebrity with no mixing skills, the real audio control and replay is usually done off-stage by a technician.

This DJ booth is for a live show where all the music really is performed live by musicians. But the DJ in this booth will be acting. It's a mobile centrepiece to add some character to the stage in amongst the musicians and dancers.

Home bargains solar security light is better than the junk on eBay

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-10 | I think this is the first time I've been near a UK chain called Home Bargains. They had some very interesting garden lighting stuff.

I was expecting this to have the very common circuitry found in eBay and amazon products, but it turns out to have much better circuitry inside.

Not sure why I was looking for the dusk sensor when it was almost certainly going to be the solar panel. The unit seems to have just an on-state and off-state. When on it lights at a low level at dusk, but brightens when it senses movement.

It's also notable that they recommend bringing the light in and storing it in a warm dry place in winter to avoid the liability of lithium cells being charged at sub-zero temperatures.

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Taking the cranes lift for a spin

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-09 | A ride and spin in the built in lift/elevator on our crane.

Quite a height and slightly disconcerting when the single wire rope lift clunks over each of the telescoping sections of its track.

Orbeez can be dehydrated by brine

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-08 | High water absorption polymer balls (sometimes referred to as the brand Orbeez) are beads of sodium polyacrylate that absorb huge amounts of water.

While experimenting with getting neutral buoyancy for a moving flow of balls in a heated bottle, I discovered that adding salt to the water actually resulted in the balls being dehydrated again.

I wonder if this effect has any practical engineering application.

Inside LIDLs four light bar (with schematic)

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-08 | This is a good example of a product being optimised for mass production to keep the price low.

It works fine as a light, but you can't change the "bulbs" so when one of the many LEDs inside fails, the whole thing will go to landfill. At least this light has a plug and socket so you don't have to physically wire in a new fixture when it fails.

I'm sure there is a datasheet for the chip, but a quick search found nothing but false promises on datasheet websites. I did find one fuzzy low resolution schematic that did help though.

My eco warrior comment is aimed at the companies using "eco" marketing to sell unserviceable short lived landfill that generates lots of profit. Like LED street lights for instance.

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Arabian in-car incense burner teardown

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-06 | Another gift for our teardown pleasure from Vince the crew-chief, which he picked up while on his regular international travels.

This time it's an in-car incense burner which he bought while working in Qatar.

Quite why you would want this level of incense smoke inside a car is debatable, but nonetheless it works and has a very interesting flat heater.

The initial smoke from the unit before incense had been added, was probably the heat burning off the mica binder.

The heater is quite interesting, with a square of mica with the heating wire wound around it, and sandwiched between two slightly larger mica squares with rivets to hold all three layers together.

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Solar insect trap teardown - with schematic

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-04 | This interesting device came from a store called Home Bargains, near to where I'm currently working. They actually have quite an interesting range of garden lighting and technical devices.

I think the main feature of this is that it's a beer trap which lures bugs in with a sweet yeasty smell. The blue solar powered LED may have some functionality, but it seems more of a gimmick. Especially with such a high inductor value in the boost circuit, which means it will not be bright.

I'd guess the main insects attracted by this trap will be wasps and flies. But I'm not sure if it'll be effective against biting insects that tend to home in on the warm moist carbon dioxide exhaled by humans and other mammals.

The design is fairly nice, and with a bit of extra waterproofing, the solar circuitry should last for a while. It's very hard to remove from the lid though, with very tight clips.

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Inside the new glowing Air Wick mist diffuser

bigclivedotcom 2024-09-02 | A new variant on the Air Wick mist diffuser, that glows brightly as it mists out aroma.

The aroma is based on a very refined low-toxicity oil based carrier (isoparaffin) with highly concentrated aroma chemicals that are either synthesised or refined from natural plant oils. The oil travels up a wick and is atomised into a fine mist by an ultrasonic disk. The mist imparts a strong aroma into the air despite using only a tiny amount of the oil.

While experimenting, I diluted a blend of essential oils with low odour white spirit, and had good aroma results. This was purely experimental, and is not recommended. Even though the quantity atomised is very small, it is still a fine haze of oil in the air.

The circuitry is very similar to the previous version, with a crystal controlled microcontroller or dedicated chip. It allows the setting of various aroma strengths by determining the run time on each aroma time cycle. When turned on it runs for 8 hours and then sleeps for 16 hours to save liquid.

The circuitry uses a boost circuit to create 12V for the atomiser circuit, and interestingly, the control chip is initially powered from the battery directly, but gets powered from the boost circuit while it is active. Possibly to avoid instability due to the battery voltage dropping under load.

The LED placement, reflector and ribbed diffuser gives a strong visual effect.

Note that the oil bottles have a child proof cap on them. To remove the cap you have to press down on it hard while rotating it. Those with a delicate grip strength may need to ask for the assistance of a fried with a harder grip to assist in the initial opening.

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Holographic fly repeller FLICKER ALERT!

bigclivedotcom 2024-08-31 | I bought this device locally. It's a tall cone with a spinning holographic blade on top that seems to deter flies with its movement and colours.

Aside from the case being perfect for an ioniser or other projects, the unit contains a small circuit board with a very simple and intriguing bit of circuitry.

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Inside a LIDL USB rechargeable work light - with schematic

bigclivedotcom 2024-08-29 | Most of these lights are fairly complicated, and have multiple PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) dimming modes. But this one has gone for a very basic approach with just a single intensity and on/off functionality - despite using a microcontroller. That does mean there's no annoying PWM flicker though.

The most interesting feature is that the microcontroller is monitoring the lithium cell voltage independently, and can shut off the 4056-based charging circuit. That means it has double protection against overcharging of the lithium cell, but can also theoretically shut the charge off before 4.2V.
I've not been able to test the charge termination voltage yet, as long work hours mean that it's tricky to do a supervised test of the full charge and discharge cycles.

The easiest hack to do on this light is to snap some of the resistors off the LED panel. I experimentally chopped two of four off and the intensity is still very useful, but the battery run time will be doubled and the LEDs will be running much cooler, which is good for efficiency and lifespan.

It's actually quite a nice little light. It seems to be genuinely weather resilient due to a decent front seal and a rubber cover for the USB C charge port.

It may be viable to add another parallel 18650 cell, but I've not tested that. Although the cell inside is labelled as being 2200mAh, I've run several charge discharge cycles and the input charge is only around 1000mAh. That suggests that a good upgrade might be to use a better cell.
It seems odd that the cell is seemingly lower capacity than stated. Especially for a LIDL product.
I'll be taking it back to my lab soon for a proper capacity test.

With suitable preheating equipment you could swap the LEDs for other colours if desired for garden lighting.

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Inside a Pifco surge protected extension (good circuitry)

bigclivedotcom 2024-08-27 | A look at the surge suppression module inside a Pifco extension.

Pifco is a classic British electrical brand that used to make things like vibratory massage devices and Christmas lights. I'm not sure who owns the brand now.

The design of the module in this is good. It has signs that the person who designed it was aiming for good electrical separation, and it does use a gas discharge tube for extra isolation on the earth/ground connection, and has decent MOVs (Metal Oxide Varistors) or VDRs (Voltage Dependent Resistors.)

It also has a sensible power/protection indicator that should last a long time.

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Taking apart Vinces Cambodian rechargeable flashlight

bigclivedotcom 2024-08-25 | Vince the crew chief routinely travels around the world working on events. While in Cambodia he bought this rechargeable flashlight for us to take apart.

The circuitry is very minimalist but still allows a rechargeable battery to be charged directly from the mains via slide out plug prongs.

The use of a miniature lead acid battery (the acid is usually soaked into a fibre in these), means that charging can be implemented as a basic trickle charger, with the battery venting the electrolyte slowly as gas at the end of the charge cycle. For this reason they recommend charging the flashlight for less than 15 hours. If left charging continuously, the lead acid cell would gradually lose all its electrolyte as gas and go high impedance, with the simple charging circuit putting out a higher and higher voltage.

Sealed lead acid batteries are also very prone to damage through electrode sulphation when over-discharged, so they recommend charging the unit as soon as possible if the LEDs go dim, and topping the charge up every two months when not in use.

The instructions also warn against using the flashlight while charging as "Otherwise it would burn the electric stuff and elements."

The very simple charge circuit means that this unit will also charge on 120V, albeit at a lower current.

They claim a run time of 48 hours when fully charged, but in reality the light will start bright and rapidly get much dimmer. After 48 hours of use it will be a very dull glow at best.

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Inside a Sainsburys dimmable LED bulb

bigclivedotcom 2024-08-23 | The circuitry in dimmable LED bulbs is much more complex than non dimmable ones, because they have to interpret the chopped up sinewave as an intensity.
The modern bulbs like this one do it by using a current regulator to charge the main capacitor, so that the duty cycle of the sinewave affects the voltage the capacitor charges to.

In this case, an extra auto adjusting component has been added that then scales the LED current down to match the reduced charging of the main capacitor by detecting excessive ripple current.

I'm not sure what the chip in this circuit actually is. It has a code that suggests it is batch marked for a bulb manufacturer.

My apologies for the sound and filming background. I'm trying to make content in different work-accommodation that has no good "studio" area.

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Farting Ninja vs 240V in slow-mo

bigclivedotcom 2024-08-23 | We had some of these farting ninja toys in our workshop and decided to test one's resilience to 240V AC.

Bubble whistling (just a bit of silliness at work)

bigclivedotcom 2024-08-22 | Before anyone asks, I'm neither whistling or blowing bubbles. It's all from a little musical bubble machine.

Customising Poundlands biggest solar globe (great base for projects)

bigclivedotcom 2024-08-21 | One of the best bits about this product is the large diffused globe with matching base. Aside from customising the colour and intensity, it could be adapted to make a simple USB powered night light, or even a glowing pendant light with an alternative power source.

I've included an openscad script at the bottom of this description. It can be used to create a base for this light to allow it to sit on a windowsill or table.
The script has variables that can be adjusted to make it suitable for many other things too.

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//Poundland big solar globe base
//You can adjust the following four sizes
basedia=75; //Diameter of base
base=2; //Thickness of base
pildia=21; //Diameter of pillar
height=50; //Total height
//do not adjust anything below here
$fn=100;
difference(){
union(){
//base
cylinder(h=base,d=basedia);
//globe stem
cylinder(h=height,d=pildia);
//strengthening taper
translate([0,0,base])
cylinder(h=2,d1=pildia+4,d2=pildia);
}
//hollow centre
//for closed base, change -1 to base
translate([0,0,-1])
cylinder(h=height+2,d=pildia-2.4);
}