I actual have one of these. The wife doesn't see well in the dark so we have this near the main light switch. She gives it a tap turns the main light off and it gives enough light to move across the room without crashing into anything. Then it turns itself off.. Very useful and tough little gadget!
I only noticed them (In Australia) as I was bored shooing with the wife and looking for anything to break the boredom. I picked one up with the thought "What the hell is this thing". So you may have walked right by them. :)
As soon as I saw egg in the description I was expecting it to be some sort of insertable toy. Still not disappointed though - it's a cool wee thing to have.
Warlock M like American car tires, the first 3 digits are width in 7mm the second are side wall height in 7mm and then run size however the first set of numbers and second set effect eachother.
The weigh inside got me. I'm sure it comes out of a old ford V6 engine, they used them as Rocker supports. I've got a set in the shed lol. Nice to see they've found a use for them.
bum insertion is I guess a possibility... the unit is called a uni-com bobble light, doesn't seem to be listed on rymans website anymore but one of the top links google is a review in the gay times. Probably you don't want those lithium cells getting loose inside your body cavities - viewer discretion is advised.
J3Y is a S8050 NPN transistor used in a lot of cheap Chinese stuff. I actually bought a bag of 500 of these and the S8550 PNP variant. They are actually fairly decent, high power rating if cooled properly and decent spec. I even use them for ghetto audio preamp applications.
So it is regular bipolar transistor. Without a series base resistor the microcontroller could put excessive current into the base when on unless the port is switching between output low for off then reconfigurating as in input where the internal pull up can turn the transistor on.
I saw these in Rymans and my thought was that it's a shame that they don't turn off after a few minutes as they would make a good nightlight for a child's room, when I looked at them again the shop assistant said "they turn themselves off after six minutes " (it doesn't say so on the packaging) I bought one and find it very well made and useful as a nightlight which light up a room for six minutes then turns itself off which saves the batteries.
About the LEDs - you said "I wonder why they need so many?". Probably the same reason as you used so many in your shady LED nightlight charger. More LEDS = better :D
I'd like to leave one by my bedroom door, so I could kick it on my way, staggering, half asleep towards the loo in the middle of the night. That seems much easier than grubbing around in the dark for a light switch which will then blind me. Maybe I could glue some string to it, and pin the other end to the door, so it would trigger just by opening the bedroom door? Room for trial and error.
Dollar Tree now sells a clear, plastic flashing-LED wand that could be used in very naughty ways. The thing is maybe 10" long x 0.5" in diameter & has a nice smooth design w/ rounded ends.
And now I have to build one for my cats except with those tiny vibrator motors out of cell phones instead of LEDs. When the cat touches it it will vibrate as if it's trying to get away, then the cat will smack it and it will vibrate even more! I'm not into those anonymous microprocessors so a 555 timer to shut it off after a few minutes to save the battery should be simple enough.
We bought some of these in the US from Sharper Image to use as night lights that you could easily turn on in the middle of the night. Bought a few. They don't want. They refuse to turn on most times. Won't turn on if you hit them in your hand - you gotta slam them down on a hard surface, sometimes a few times. Not exactly a stealth lighting system fir late night bathroom runs.
Sounds like a waste of batteries. Better build some capacitive dropper boards with a couple of low power LEDs around the house to light up areas near wall sockets. you know, Big Clive style zap-o-matics :)
petti78 They have been available for years for use in halways etc. The light module is either inside the switch or plugs into a dedicated recess on the front. Used to be neon bulbs, now many are LED based,
the metal contacts tarnish, esp on cheap ones, what they used to plate the contacts (sometimes they are brass which tarnishes) or steel coated with something , but many things tarnish or wear off, you can wipe all the contact areas with cillit bang and put a bit of vaseline to protect from tarnish, it can also be the battery contacts too, so have to be thorough, even the bulbs ( if its a bulb type) and the switch, which is usually just a thing that bends a contact , not a real switch
I bought one of these in anodized blue from a store called Bunnings here in Australia for about $5AU some time ago. It's quite bright and my 5 year-old loves smacking it against things to make it light up but it seems far less sensitive than the one you have demonstrated.
bigclivedotcom Greetings Clive! JW's latest post refers to a PNP transistor "designed by Satan for Satanic purposes". Eek! I'm scared now! Is he just perplexed by an unusual configuration, or is he on to something and we need to now put You Tube inside a pentangle of salt?!!
Keith kowalski also solder is rider in Merica, vs solllllder in "brit" there are about 20 words in the English language that are pronounced different. I had no idea til bigclive brought it up. Spelled different as well. But you prolly knew that.
John Cundiss Yes, I remember them. Actually, my wife's nickname from college is "The Weabol" (intentional misspelling). We have one of these weeble lights that my wife uses for late night bathroom runs.
The transistor LED driver won't be an ordinary npn transistor as the microcontroller would be able to put far too much current into its base when on. It could be a mosfet or something similar to a DTC144. The DTC144 is an npn transistor with a built in resistor in series with the base designed for switching applications like this.
Just thought:- They could use an ordinary transistor if the microcontroller port is configured as output low when the LEDs are off then reconfigured as an input with its internal pull up resistor used to switch the transistor on. Probably the cheapest, lowest component count way of doing it if the microcontroller port doesn't have enough current handling capability to drive the LEDs directly.
I suspect something like that. A lot of micro-controllers only have the pull down transistor in their output and a pull up resistor (For example the good old 8051) - so to make the pin an input you just set it high. It looks like the mystery device has pull ups as there is no external pullup for the tilt switch.
Makes sense. Some microcontrollers would require the data direction register to be changed and then the pull up to be activated every time the output switched. Microcontrollers with pull down transistors only and very limited current source capability would be less cumbersome to use in this case. I'm surprised they used a switching transistor. The mcu has 8 pins so thats 6 port pins, one is used for the vibration switch input so that leaves a potential 5 output pins. Fit the resistor on the anode side of the LEDs then each port could be connected directly to one of the LED cathodes without the need for the transistor.
clicked , fully knowing that somewhere there would be references to arse based insertion, either in the video or in the comments wasn't disappointed :D it does come across as a very handy camping gadget , bit of a bugger it shares the same type of battery used in car key fobs though, (had trouble sourcing them in the past)
baxter22071990 Camping is what came to my mind, too. Looks like it disperses light quite well, which is really a blessing after dark. I'm not entirely sold on the wobbling, but the folks bashing this have clearly not been in the middle of nowhere at night before.
Wow, I didn't know that's what the numbers on a lithium coin cell meant (CR2032= 20mm diameter; 3.2mm thickness), that explains the difference between a CR2032 and a CR2025 (same diameter but the CR2025 is thinner). I have a blue cylindrical light that is similar to that egg one but it has a clear window and a silver button on the bottom and a more rounded one that's black on the ends and has a blue center section with a black rubber button on the end (it's cute but not really practical since you can't turn it on and off one-handed like you can a penlight).
It's not "does this push out", the question is whether it can be pushed back in, and whether it works afterwards. With a sufficiently hard push *anything* can be removed...
Can you have a look at the small solar panel chargers that this year has kept popping up on offer in certain supermarkets? Especially the folding ones, it would interesting to see how efficient and durable you think they would be in the long run
Is the chip pulsing these led's? If not, wouldn't the little 5r1 resistor have to dissipate (6v - 3.3v)/5.1 * 2.7v = 1.4 watts? Surely it's not rated for that.. Or did I just make a silly mistake somewhere?
That would imply that the cells drive the circuit at a full 550 or so mA which is not really going to happen with coin cells. And the chip most certainly PWM controls the brightness. It would have been interesting to scope the PWM frequency and duty cycle tho.
The chip must be using PWM to control them. Otherwise more likely the batteries would go flat in a hurry. The resistor is there just to cap the peak driving current of the LEDs since the batteries can supply short pulses of modest current. Waving the light around would tell for sure (you'll see the strobing). They can probably omit the extra external resistors in other parts of the circuit as the cells have a fairly high impedance. Makes the circuit look deceptively simple when in reality the chip is probably somewhat sophisticated as it can drive the LEDs and respond to the external interrupt pulse from the vibe switch.
Arno nümuss Led-Acid rechargeable would give best balance. Outer surface would then be all plastic due to the acid. By the way, that's why you don't need a permit to buy 100% Sulphurous Acid, not for drain cleaning as some idiot suggested on one of the Tabloid pages.
ROHS would make it hard to import those. A NiFe cell would be interesting to me though, they are supposed to last a long time and have the right voltage to be compatible to the authentic joule thief.
Hi Clive - I have a question ? I once heard that touching the surface's of button cells with your fingers shorts them out ! Apparently the oil and grease on your fingers touching the insulation creates a path so that other particals of dust and crap making a discharge path-have you ever come across this ? Do you think it warrants an investigation !
You can measure the resistance of your finger with a multimeter. Typically in the megaohms range. So yes there is a circuit, but it’s definitely not a short.
Hmm...I'm curious. How do you serve LED eggs? BigClive doesn't mention his LED serving style preference in the video but I would assume he'd order them "taken to bits" style. LOL
I hate it when they use CR2032 batteries, they last next to nothing and they cost 2€ to replace each one. A small Li-po and a mini USB port for charging would be much better.
you can get 4 pack cr2032s at poundland... for a pound. but the bother of changing them out will be too much for most people so the result is the same. bit of a shame cos I like the anodised aluminium on this. for maximum classiness the LEDs could fade up (quick) and down (slow) and the unit could be recharged on an inductive mat/cradle so there's no hole needed in the shell (for better aesthetics and I guess hygiene in 'specialist' applications)
You can buy Varta 2032 dirt cheap on ebay. Bought a 100 pack for $12 to use in tea candle lights. At 10 cents a piece, they last no different than the $4.99 for 1 from the local store.
here in the US we have same except has a push button switch on bottom and it stays on until switched off, ours have standard LED's so I traded them out for the blue (UV wavelength) and made then for ghost hunters LOL or just for fun
surprisingly over-engineered i would mod the sensor so it goes off at the slightest tip, so yo can leave it in a cupboard and it just goes on, or tap it to turn on.
I want one so i can put by my 3d printer to light up the area when i want to unclog the throat rather than trying to !ake my phone balance and fall over doing the same thing
TLC555 has a I_DD of 250uA and is still powerful enough to switch that tiny transistor. Okay, that uC may be more efficient but more expensive. most of these sop8 controllers cost around 1$, the tlc555 (for example) costs just 12 cents.
The NE555 draws around 3mA, TLC555 draws around 250uA, ICM7555 draws around 60uA. Using any of these timers would mean limited battery life even if the egg was never activated. Some microcontrollers have sleep modes that allow them to draw well under 1uA. They can be programmed to wake up and do their thing when an input port changes state (when the vibration switch is activated in this case).
