As Andrew dice clay said regarding diets, “it’s not a video tape, it’s not an audio tape, it’s duct tape. You put it over your mouth so the fuckn Twinkies don’t get in.”
Aussie sense of humor I expect, but I think I burst my spleen I laughed so hard when you got bit! I'm thinking to myself as you reach for a tool to pry the thing open "don't let it be an uninsulated screwdriver..." Sure enough - SMACK! Oh my sides
My mom has what I suspect is something like this, an AC current "smoother". It's supposed to absorb the ripples in AC current in your house to prevent the EM waves from affecting you. I bet the Chinese saw the specs for the "name-brand" one, and thought Hell we can build that cheaper, and get sales no matter what words we put on the box!
It saves you on your power bill by removing access to the lower outlet. Can't use power out of that outlet now. SAVINGS! You also can't use power if your house burns down.
Ah damn, they got the boxes wrong at the factory again. That's not the electric-saving box, that's the indoor surprise fire starter. It's meant to test your houses smoke detectors at 3 am while you're away.
There's finally a REASON for your smoke detector to go off at 3AM. The perfect compliment to the unreliable First Alert smoke/CO detectors your local jurisdiction probably mandates you have.
one good energy saver is to keep your cable box plugged into a power strip with a switch and when you are not watching tv turn of that strips power. because that box use a ton of power even if turned off normally. best unplugged when not in use...
When I was a kid, my dad MacGyvered a capacitor from a ~3' x 2' sheet of glass with tinfoil on both sides...all held safely in a vertical orientation via 2x4 pine off-cuts. It was part of a Tesla coil he built to make 6" bolts of lightning. I had a fun childhood.
Many years ago my old man picked up one of these at a home show and he had it mounted to the houses main panel. Good thing that one came in a metal box, because within a couple years that cap failed and it was burning hot for god knows how long. The only reason I checked for him was because the electric bills were getting crazy high. I love my old man but he's so gullible he'd probably buy that that Chinese canned air.
We had a capacitor explode in an outdoor wall light at work. It blew the cover some twenty feet away and made the room on the other side of the wall smell like burnt plastic.
It's like the death plugs (double male-ended cable) so they can plug in a generator (or now the huge power banks) into their house, but don't turn off their main breaker, so it back feeds the transformer, giving the lineman a spicy 2400/7200/19900V-ish (but super low current) at the line side of the transformer and along the deenergized distribution lines. Probably not going to kill them, but it'll be very much like that homemade capacitor in this piece of crap.
If you're talking about the 'fruit fly catchers', those things actually work. Sticky pad and a blue light seems to be irresistible to many little flyers.
@@jimchesnutt7879 That's not what he's talking about as he said ultrasonic bug repeller and not fruit fly trap. Search ultrasonic bug repeller to see what he's talking about. They have been around since the 90s. Also, the best fruit fly trap is a little glass of apple cider vinegar with a drop of dish soap in it.
@@jimchesnutt7879 nah, it's supposed to be a supersonic or ultrasonic frequency generator that repels mice and etc. Much like Rodent Sheriff, the peppermint spray, if it does work it doesn't for very long.
This is why your boss tells you to wear your electrical safety gear when you open a panel even a low voltage one...because you will open a capacitor with a chainsaw and poke at the innards with a un-insulated chunk of metal and still not think it's your fault you got popped.
Since the cap barked back it was a big dollar unit with a real cap. Ave, when measuring a cap disconnected from the mains, it helps to have your meter on DC and not AC. HAHAHA, I knew it was gonna bite him after he measured on AC volts, got nothing, and convinced himself the cap was a fake. Murphy's law, don't ya' know. zztt Glorious.
Honestly you gotta admire the brilliance in its simplicity and cost effectiveness even if it is manufactured trash. It even had an unexpected built-in anti-tamper feature.
Manufactured trash. Great term for such a device. Imagine, there is a factory in China turning these things out by the ton. What does this magnificent little device do? Nothing at all. It is manufactured trash. What a wonderful time to be alive.
Well at least yours actually HAD a capacitor in that potted box! I ordered an identical unit (but with non-compliant UK 3 pin arrangement) to tear apart, and there was nothing else buried in that potting resin than the cut ends of the two black wires!
I remember one of these from when I was a kid. I accidentally cracked one open and all the saved electricity leaked and spilled out. My parents never let me near any appliances for months after that.
Chinglish, or Chinadian, or even Japanenglish has been, over the decades, a source of belly shaking laughter. In the 1960s I used to work on imported motorcycles. The manuals are *HILARIOUS!!* Thanks for the video!
@@5thelementcannabisproduction I'm from the Eastern Townships. Restaurant order: "I'll have two egg, side by each and a pair of toast!" Best wishes to you!
I'm sure you've seen Big Clive do a teardown of these "products"... but I have to admit I was surprised to see that there's better engineering done on the cardboard box than what was inside of it.
The CE logo on the box is formatted correctly, but it's not on the device. The C, if turned into a circle, should intersect with the left of the E. Now, I've seen legit devices lose the space between them, but in general, manufacturers are careful about this, because they actually paid for the certification, which comes with instructions. When I was in Afghanistan, contractors were installing cheap Chinese electronic fluorescent ballasts that were catching on fire. Since the QC Passed label clearly can't be trusted, I began requiring UL- or CE-certified ballasts manufactured in North America or Europe. The contractors found European-style ballasts made in Turkey with the CE logo on them. They seemed light years higher quality than the junk they were previously installing (and I had hands-on experience with German ballasts), so I accepted them. No more ballast-caused fires.
@@MazeFrameI think followers of AvE tend to run in similar circles on RU-vid - who else does everyone follow in case I'm missing any salient satirists ?
@@colinwilson210 DiodeGoneWild "Power Factor Saver (energy saving box scam evolution)", that one has even better capacitor. Overall his series on phone charges are proper good.
When I was a teen my dad ordered some chinesium emergency kits for the family to keep in their vehicles. As the combination radio/flashlight/alarm/battery pack/can opener/compass instructions and features list said, "emergence helpful". Been in my vocabulary ever since.
I inherited one of those from my grandfather, probably 90s vintage. I think I saved the crappy hex keys and tossed the rest of it, though the hex keys were kind of bendy and malleable. I think he must have held onto it because someone gifted it to him. The flashlight portion was ridiculously huge but put out next to no light. I don't remember what else was included with it, but it may well have had a mini claw hammer in there somewhere for those times when you need to drive a nail into someone else's gas tank for quick access.
Dang man... that capacitor had you so distracted someone else was able to sneak in and crap in your pants... lol. In all honesty, that was interesting.
Dude, Supa Spanner was intentional and was a huge hit when it came out in the 80s in Australia. We got one for my old man for father's day, and it survived and was useful where none of the horrid no-name excuses for spanners we could afford did. These days I can afford known brands of combination spanner which are far superior, but that Supa Spanner still brings back fuzzy memories of successfully removing seized bolts.
The second you plugged it in, my refrigerator started buzzing all the way over here in New England. Powerful magic in that phase correcting cap. Almost wet myself laughing when the cap discharged. We used to charge up caps in high school electronics class back in the 70s and leave them on the bench for each other.
I'm sure the 1.43 million Sarcastic Subscribers had a outburst of Laughter at the 9:36 mark, birds of the same feathers seem to F**k around together on each other's expense............
The capacitor was charged via the high value resistors, but the led's dropped the voltage when you meaasured after unplugging, the capacitor would be very slowly discharged via the led's, but there was enough in the capacitor when you broke in, Best way to save money is not to buy it ;)
@sparkyprojects That's not exactly what happens in an AC circuit. Unfortunately Ave did not trace the schematic so we don't know exactly how it was wired. The thing is, a capacitor in an AC circuit does not exactly "charge up" as the voltage across the cap is constantly changing, going negative and positive, the phase leading the AC cycle. So, when you disconnect it from the AC, there will be a residual voltage on the cap. It could be negative or positive and the voltage level will be determined by the exact moment in the AC cycle when the power was disconnected. So, the voltage could be a litlle or a lot or even nothing. Having said that, if the capacitor happened to be wired in series with the LEDs then they could have been acting as diodes and the capacitor could have been charged to a particular DC level as high as 1.4 times the RMS mains voltage. Probably less because of the resistors in the circuit. The discharge time in such a scenario would be totally dependent on the configuration and the resistor values.
That label on the device is NOT a "CE Mark" used in EU, but "China Export" label, which pretty much quarantees that the device will not have any EU wide conformity requirements. The one on the packaging seems to be "CE Mark".
That's some quality chinese junk there. I got friends that buy from wish and temu because the stuff is safe it's UL listed. My printer can print UL listed also. I can't wait for homeowners insurance to go up do to all the crap that's slipped by and into peoples homes.
Glad you managed to give yourself a tickle, I managed to find a power supply with a good quality capacitor and I didn't realise no discharge resistors - after 14 hours sitting that was still dramatic!
I popped myself good on the capacitor from the back of the tube on an old CRT monitor when I was but a young lad. Knocked me on my ass and numbed my arm for a good bit and the poor screwdriver I was poking around with was no longer usable since the discharge cause an arc strike that melted the end off the tool.
+1 point to Evil for "capaciting" Arduino. I suppose I may have that backwards. Is anyone able to confirm wether Arduino is referring to the subject at hand, or our mini-chainsaw welding protagonist?
In defense of Supa Spanner, Supa has been slang for super for a while. I could see an English speaking company doing that just for the alliteration. Or an English speaking employee of a Chinese company being unusually clever.
Come on you gotta give them credit, if you install one of these on every outlet, you will indeed save power..... Mostly because you'll be blocked from plugging anything else in, IF YOU CAN'T USE THE OUTLETS YOU CAN'T USE POWER...LMAO
I looked it up on Bill's internet search box. Summarized by Bing AI Pros ✔Saves money on electricity bill ✔Non-slip base ✔Easy to use ✔Sharpens knives effectively Cons ✖Not effective for all knives ✖May catch fire
It blocks you from plugging anything else hence the energy savings. 30,000 gigawatts, china is awesome! You should ALWAYS discharge caps, A-L-W-A-Y-S!!!
Hey partner, I'd love to see the copper hammer or maybe just the swingin bit come back. I'm a newbie machinist and I think it's be a great addition to the US Generali 😉
We all enjoy the fun, especially the Electroboom tribute :-) but these things can kill people. Remember that when your politicians tell you that removing "unnecessary" regulation is great...
Thank you for taking the time to educate about the kinds of dangerous nonsense out there in your usual extremely entertaining style. I've been a huge fan of yours since you were doing Arduino stuff.
The basic speculation of the electricity-saved box is to let the customers have the stable work electric voltage and prolong the lifespan of using the electric appliances. To offer the accurate and stable work electric voltage for loading,promote the quality of the power supply. Reducing the electric appliances getting fever,Prolonging the lifespan of the electric appliances, reducing the maintain cost. Promoting the power factor, can save the fee of adjusting the interest rate of the power supply for the mobile electricity charges can also attain the significant effect that lower. To increase the capacity of using the system equipment can retard the pressure of the switch or circuit convenient installing and using .Save electricity ,save money for customers every minute every second after installing. Guide to use:plug the electricity-saved box in to any sockets at home, According to the electric appliances' quantity and loading carry, can use one or several stanzas electric appliances, can immediately attain the electricity-saved effect. Simple operation, no need maintenance, no need pay attention, After installing, however develop the effect
That's a normal film and foil capacitor. It's probably low value, maybe 0.1-1uF, so it's fairly high impedance at 60hz. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the main current limiter for the LED's. It will hold charge, but it has AC voltage across it in use, so the DC value across it will vary depending on what point in the wave you unplug it, with an average value of 0.
@@BigBenAdv to me it looks about the size of a 0.1u 250 VAC capacitor as a guess. If so, it would have an impedance of 20k ish ohms at 60 hz, which is about the right value to drop 120 volts down to normal LED type current around 4-5mA. None of the resistors are really the right value to light the LED's and simultaneously not catch fire. I think the phony baloney idea is that the cap smooths the mains AC and while it's "doing" that the waste current lights the LED's so you know it's "working".
@@NanClaymore Sounds about right. Haven't really looked into the circuit connections. Either way, these things are an absolute waste of materials and really just contributing to waste/ carbon generation.
It does what it says, it's an energy saving device, meaning number one it doesn't use shit for electricity and 2 it prevents you from using both plugs! Fucking geniuses! 😆 🤣 😂 😹
received my tiny axe today, look forward to the next tiny tool installment. anyone have any ideas what would go with the tiny swing press and axe?@@arduinoversusevil2025
Let's say, in an alternate universe, that this is a well-engineered, well-made product that works exactly like it's supposed to. How does plugging this in to one of my outlets lower my power bill?
hey i just acquired an older festool sander for pennies on the dollar, however turns out it doesn't work. Instead of sending it in for repair i thought maybe it would be a good donation to the BOLTR cause. let me know if interested
I looked into these back in the late 90s and/or early 2000s. Of course everybody explained how they worked slightly different but that is essentially their intent. I think the claim was that motors and modern electronics cause your power feed to go out of phase and these corrected that. The idea was that even if your power company didn't charge for power factor, that the peak in the wave form was off effectively creating a lower working voltage level causing devices to use more amperage for the same amount of work. This/these types of things supposedly corrected for that. Back then, you could find large units that connected directly to the fuse panel like you would install a breaker and run another circuit- excep it was just a block of capacitors bolted to the wall. I never could tell if they actually did anything special. My boss swore his units saved him a bunch of money. But he also swapped out 2 or 3 1970ish window air-conditioning units and electric baseboard heaters for a modern 2000ish central air with heat pump. I tried one and never noticed anything different in my electric bill.
Lol my dad had one of these and insisted I use one. He ordered me one and I rolled my eyes... he's a smart guy but sometimes he doesn't do enough research.
I have a similarly odd device just begging to be plugged in. It is marked Electro Spec Milwaukee WI, it is cylindrical about the size of a thread spool. There are the plug prongs at the bottom, one is marked N the other marked P. Ontop there is a push button, I assume it's momentary, it doesn't stay in position. Then on the side is a lable that says, Test Simulator - Refer tonoperator manual for operating instructions - CAUTION After charging do not touch plug terminals while pressing test button. I'm not sure what the thing is supposed to test and I don't have an instruction manual. So I've been hesitant to plug it into the wall. Also, it's very lightweight, the cylindrical part is a strong cardboard while the top and bottom caps are plastic.
