Inside a flame effect humidifier (with schematic) 

It emulates a burning toaster quite well, if you are looking for that kind of thing

Gotta love the idea of Clive just disassembling random interesting electronics when staying over at someone's place

I like it. Definitely worth retrofitting into an old toaster.

Imagine the panic in an office. Build into toaster, but electrically disconnect the power cord in the toaster. Set this up to run from a battery. Plug toaster in at office and set it going. Someone sees it, panics, turns off toaster, still keeps going, unplugs toaster, still keeps going, runs out screaming. 🤣😆🤓

A great hack for this would be to replace the LEDs with those “flickering flame” LEDs, I think it would improve the effect

with our current energy prices we probably gonna have to sit around one of these this winter and just imagine that it is warm inside the house, unless the water freeze in the device that is

Thank you for yet another well presented and informative video BC. It should be noted that all ultrasonic atomisers should be operated using pure distilled water. This is because tap water contains dissolved minerals and these will end up as a fine dust floating in the air when the water droplets evaporate. This will result in a fine dust being deposited on surfaces in the room and more importantly being inhaled. Rain water should not be used either as it invariably contains bacteria which will also end up suspended in the air and therefore can also be inhaled.

Using RGB LEDs would have been cool, so they could have flickering red/orange or throw some yellow/green into the blue occasionally.

I would just like to clarify what the 5k1 resistors do. They simply say that this is a power sink and it is trying to connect. This causes the 5V to turn on. Because there is no Power Delivery protocol function included then the current that will be supplied will be either 3A, 1.5A or 'default current' which is a more vague and smaller current. This depends purely on what the Source is able to supply. If it isn't connected to a Type-C USB port, but a Type-A, then that will be switched on all the time (at 5V) and it will once again supply whatever current it can.

"You've seen this working. Now, let's not see it not working. One moment please."

This would be a great prank device! Having losing my house to a fire about a decade ago, I still find the humor of life. Kind of have to nowadays.

Definitely worth retrofitting into mains distribution panels for the casual enjoyment of the installer.

It kind of looks like a CGI fire. Very interesting to see. A bit weird, but interesting 👍

That white resist takes a lot of the fun out of the reverse-engineering process! 😖 I feel your pain! 😊

Adding petrol instead of water _really_ gives a nice touch.

You should get a commission on these. I'm sure I am not the only person to order one after watching this video. I love it. Relaxing, soothing, mesmerizing. I like it so much I'll wait till it quits before I take it to bits. Cheers!

I used to travel from hotel to hotel doing my job and I ALWAYS traveled with a humidifier. Without one, I would get bloody noses and headaches. We always control our humidity no matter the time of year. It's a quality of life issue.

Watching Clive's videos is like watching a car race. You don't want the driver to get hurt, but somewhere deep inside in a dark place you hope a crash occurs giving you excitement. We can only hope that one of these days one of these Chinese plastic devices will actual burst into flames.

Sadly in my area our humidity runs pretty much 90% and up during the summer so I really couldn't use one...but I do like the look...really neat :)

Great video! Looks so simple at first glance but turns out to be really interesting! Whenever Clive says "One moment. please" I feel an urge to pause and go make a cup of coffee to not rush him in hope he can figure out as much as possible of it. XD

There was a very fancy fireplace in a hotel I stayed in once that used this effect, I actually thought it was a real fire at first glance. The whole 'fire' was built in a fish tank essentially under the chimney presumably to keep the environment nice and still and stopping the outside getting dripping wet.

Hey Clive, It would be really nice to see some waveforms of this interesting circuits. Can you get a scope on it and show to us. I love your explanations of the circuits and it would be a benefit to watch at the voltages and currents.

Awesome Video big clive

Great video thanks Clive

I can just imagine Clive staying at a hotel pulling all the devices apart to see how they work 😅

This one looks nice Clive love one

I really like that one. Very Weird! Invite a guest over, put that thing in the dining room (not the kitchen, but maybe near some curtains) and then suddenly shout and point at it.

This reminds me of the essential oil diffuser that my grandma bought a few years ago. Not very good at raising the room's moisture though. It's the same principle as your "fireplace humidifier", a small fan and a ultrasonic atomizer. The water capacity is about 130 mililiters and it runs off a 24V 500 mA power adapter. Using it during this hot and this time dry summer showed me that it can run for approximately 6 to 8 hours on a full water tank. And of course it has LEDs as well, only white ones though. It's called Dome and is sold under the brand Pranarom.

As much as I love my bathtub toaster for those extra bad days, this sure improves the ascetic.

I appreciate clives hands. random scrapes and cuts. Stained fingers, and short nails. Looks like my hands on any given day. And they are always different in every video.

It's professional video about the flame humidifier in RU-vid which I have spent much time to see,it can effect flame and add essential oils to make room good smell,nice gifts for Christmas and New year!😘😘

Thanks Clive

Thank Clive I thought we were looking at magic smoke at 1st then a toaster.

The effect of this is pretty cool looking. I have absolutely zero need for a humidifier in the Pacific Northwest, but it looks cool lol

As I sit here in Tennessee with nearly 100% humidity I don’t think I need one. Thank goodness for air conditioning. ⚡️⚡️⚡️Have a great day.

Interesting. It does actually look like a flame, but not a natural one. More like one of those decorative gas jets you sometimes see in the outside dinning area of a fancy restaurant.

Lol from the thumbnail I thought, "Oh dear Big Clive has set fire to his toaster" xD

Reminds me of when Barry Lewis ran a US-sourced 120v "Grilled cheese" toaster on 240v, it looked about the same effect too, only with actual flames and smoke... :P

I don't think I would use the USB ports on my laptop. 2 amps with some noise feedback ( some to the sense lines) from the piezoelectric load switching. Filter caps need a resistance to filter effectively. A cheap mains powered USB supply would be OK. I am wary of things powered from USB as they can be sold without any safety testing or meeting any code requirements.

What an excellent device for making your house even more damp than it already is!

Oh. A humidifier that doesn't look like UFO. I'd say neat solution but fact that exit port is not symmetrical kills my enthusiasm for it. All in all it was pleasure to understand what is going on inside :)

What a cool effect.

That looks cool. It appears to be missing the "empty tank" switch and circuit. Good luck. 👍

i like how people comented on this video 7 days before it was even published. We are just not patient enough to wait for you to publish a video

Sneak in late at night and put one in the kitchen, where the toaster sits, then ask if anyone smells burning.

Honestly, if I saw that on someone's kitchen bench in that flame orange colour, I would probably have thrown it in the sink and unplugged it. And possibly in that order 😬

@0:07 "Long time no see great aunt Gertrude! Before we catch up I noticed the most fascinating device in your kitchen. Mind if I pop it open and reverse engineer the PCB real quick?"

Neat unit, been looking for a humidifier as the the AC has dried the house out!

I prefer the humidifier that looks like a giant capacitor, letting out smoke.

I've recently seen an artificial fireplace with a similar effect and wondered if you could explain the magic behind it. I think with this video, you just did so. Thank you!

I thought you were fooling us again. Its basically a red hot anxiety machine. If I saw that on my grandma's counter under the cabinets I'd jump to the rescue and save the place from burning down before I'd realised I've only splashed water on myself instead.

This channel is the definition of "SHOW ME THE SChEMATICS !"

Pretty sure the cap on the low side of the FET is there to help stabilise the startup process. At power on the cap is not charged, so the ESR of the cap will effectively be in parallel with the 0.33ohm resistor, which causes the apparent current sense resistance to drop, so the MCU detects a lower current than is actually being drawn. As the capacitor charges it will approach the voltage at the MOSFET source pin, so less and less current will flow through the cap, raising the apparent current sense resistance back up to near 0.33ohm. Without the capacitor I suspect that the circuit would tend to lock up or oscillate at startup, e.g. due to inrush current on the other caps and resonances in the piezo circuit.

It looks like a toaster in which the bread has caught fire.

They are a nice effect. Also some really good molud making design. Ust shove the screwdiver in harder, that always works well 🤷‍♂🤣grea video 2x👍

I concur. It does look like a burning toaster (my Dad preferred toast that set off the smoke alarm. Occasionally, flames ensued!😳) By the way, it looks like Clive's been working pretty hard. I hope he gets a chance to let his hands heal before the next outdoor job (Christmas lights, I assume).

Just became a patron, after you hearted my comment I just had to.

Thats a very strong shaped circuit board 👌

“possibly for feng shui?” lmfao 🤣

Wow! Such effect! Very flame. So mist. ^_^

Isn't it a bit psychologically counter-productive to make an humidifier looks like it produces flames ?

The 2K resistor is there to load the output down. Without it, the output's open circuit voltage will rise until clamped by the 24V zener.

It would be amazing to see you engineer something like this from the ground up and build it.

This is the Firetoaster!

Watching this brought me out of being groggy from last night's sleep :p

Hi clive , fall city wa says you are so loved. Love ya big boy. G

Biggest RU-vidr in the Isle of Man

That is quite an interesting device. The thing you see that you didn't even knew it existed, haha.

Me: realizes it has a fan... Me: buys the whole thing just for the fan part....….

Thanks, quick question, what's the magnification factor of that little loupe you use?

Could do with some of your flame-flickering LEDs. Might want to steer away from the blue flame though... I hear natural gas is causing aneurysms among energy officials. 👍

I really like your videos keep it up, I’d like you to recommend a battery or capacitor or something to watch arcs with and If I touch it I won’t die

Any thought about what frequency that transducer is being pulsed with?

Nice, a while ago I turned one of these into a holographic o screen

I saw these advertised on tiktok and on internet. I always wondered what was inside of these and what circuitry they used

Really enjoyed your stream. Can you tell me the make/manufacture, where I can get one. Many thanks.

This would be great as a nice prank when fitted into an toaster

A very good Monday morning to you all from Wellington Somerset

Has your airbnb host noticed that their small appliances are getting picked off like cattle under a UFO? 😄

Hey, Clive! What is "oodles of current" in SI units, please? 😆 Is that a legitimate supply mode of the USB-C PD specification?

I got 2 of these cos I love the effect, & the possibility of putting some nice cinnamon scent through it for Christmas but, mine are purely orange/warm flame effect... Fingers crossed I can hack the LEDs to change the colour... Mix orange, blue @ red

Don't know if you ever frequented the PLASA show, but some years ago there was a company that did a similar thing of creating a "sheet" of haze then used it as a near invisible projection screen. Find yourself a pico projector and you could do something similar, maybe create a hologram effect.

The big question here is how can I put into one of my top hats for Steampunk fests? I think I'll buy one and give it a go.

Looks like Barry Lewis' American Toastie Maker when he gave it a 240v baptism.

The 5.1k pull down resistors are needed if the device is to operate with a USB-C to USB-C cable. Without those, it will only work with a USB-A to USB-C cable. But it is a bit lazy to do it without proper current sensing, as that is the responsibility of the sink device to check what the host can provide, but if the thing never exceeds 4.5W, it's a reasonable decision to make in skipping it, since even a charger with a 56k pull up will provide 5V/900mA, but it's still not to USB spec.

As always, interesting. Question though. The chamber that contains the circuit board is filled with the water-vapor mist? I take it that won't harm the electronics? And how watertight is the atomizer attachment? What's the risk of the water leaking down into that lower chamber?

I'm holding out for the desktop fire breathing dehumidifier.

looks like the inductor and (capacitive) piezo form resonant circuit that oscillates around the 20 volt rail. The switching threshold of the MCU (Vcc/2 ??) probably determines the current in the inductor and thereby the voltage on the capacitor and amplitude of the waveform. The resonant frequency of the LC must be stable enough that the RC based clock in the MCU can set it.

well my fisrt thoughts were, ol BC.C has burnt the toast!

The things you come up with, Clive ....

I am buying one of these and putting it on the ounter in middle of the night and ging to ask my gf to get me a glass of water just to freak her out LMAO

Nice to see a cheap bit of kit that is not totally ....... well cheap! (if you know what I mean) ;o)

Now for the Big Clive mod of the day. Add a set of 18650 cells and charge controller to make it battery powered.

If you get used to things looking like they're burning when they aren't, when they are, you ignore them and things go downhill from there..😄

1:32 I looked up at just the right moment and briefly thought you might have accidentally left something naughty in the shot on the right there lol. The carpet underneath played perfectly into the illusion of dermally expressed circulatory systems if you know what i mean ;) This thing has a weird design lol, it looks like it's smoking

on the board near the USB input are missing devices could these be for a recitfier and some caps ??

I have just fitted some solar panels on my garage roof with solar chargers, batteries and an off grid inverter in the garage feeding the house via a changeover switch at the incoming supply to the house. I just wanted to pass on my experience in this era of very high cost electricity regarding a few "small loads" I hadn't even included in my calculations for my battery sizing. I have five 10W microwave security lights and was horrified to find they were taking 10W in their off mode whilst simply detecting so these were on 24hrs/365 days a year costing me around 440kWh per year or around £200 a year when we get to a cost of 50p a unit later this year. Ihave disconnected these lights and will now only use them when absolutely required. I also discovered my house alarm was taking 40W constantly so coming to another £160 a year or so. I have removed the batteries from the alarm unit and have added a switch so that I only power it up on leaving the house, it makes a brief racket when I switch it back on until I add the code but that is a small price to pay for saving nearly £160 a year. My streaming devices that are rarely used were adding another 20W or so again for 24hrs a day socosting me another £80 or so. I have now disconnected all of these until they are actually being used. I was wondering if these sorts of hidden aspects to people's bills would be a good subject for one or two of your videos when you get back to base as many people aren't aware of these things due to electricity being relatively cheap until now, I know I wasn't until I wondered where these extra Watt loads were coming from and went hunting them down by switching things on around the house one by one. You could get onto the Scottish news and make people aware that it is no use controlling the big loads when these 24hr loads are being ignored.

Also it's worth noting that my (Well it was my grandma's but now she's gone unfortunately) essential oil diffuser does have low water level detection although it doesn't have any dedicated electrode let alone a float switch to actually tell the water tank is almost empty. When it runs out of water the ultrasonic atomizer and the fan both shut down and the decorative white LEDs switch from steady to flashing for a few seconds to warn you that you have to add water. Then they turn off as well. So how can it do that and does your fireplace humidifier have low water level detection ?

It would be interesting to see how much these tear down items cost to see where your money goes. It's often interesting to find out just how little these things cost when considering the components and work involved with producing them (obviously they don't have to pay an r&d department though 😄)

I like how it's easy to disassemble and reassemble without breaking everything in the process.