Clive said "It's not too bright for technical reasons". And i immediately thought "all the available power is used to try to kill the user, isn't it?".
..Yike!! It could reach the situation where the manufacturers are designing things specifically for him to strip down-- and zap him in the process. ...A bit like the Zus-40 anti withdrawal device that vapourised our bomb disposal chaps all those years ago..
+AgentTasmania He's already made a deal that if he dies while shooting a video it'll still get uploaded. Not sure how that's going to work out though...
Brother Ralphie has been instructed to upload any post mortem videos after prying the phone out of Clive's cold dead hands. They both care about the viewers.
Scott Harrison I think "Death by Disco" sums things up nicely! As someone born in the early 70s I still find myself wondering what they were thinking -- bell bottoms and scratchy, itchy, polyester clothing with ridiculous collars, but at least they seemed happy!
11:22 "... slight mains output issue." Ya, you would only end up slightly 6 feet under. Family and friends would only be slightly sad and slightly cry at your funeral.
Everybody, or at least most, people in countries which use proper power supply of 220-240VAC has had or will have an electrical shock. Vast majority survive.
I'm gonna be honest pretty much all the technical talk goes over my head. However I do enjoy you taking stuff apart and listening to you explain even if I don't fully understand.
Disco Death Dalek!Even after being repaired its not up to scratch. Modify this thin, Clive. This one. Make it right. Put a lithium battery and a good charger in it and have that porta-disco that everybody will want! Color changing leds in the middle and lower sections, maybe in the disco light part as well. If it cannot survive as a real thing then perhaps give it life as something wonderful and absurd instead? I know I have the extra parts so I'm 100% certain that you do as well, Clive.Save that Dalek!Save that Dalek!Dave the Dalek!
Lithium Ion (or Lithium Polymer) would probably work a bit better, although the 2.5V cut off voltage will be a bit low for the LEDs. Though if you use a TP4056 charging module with a micro-USB input (which therefore gets rid of the mains derived input), which includes overcharge/overdischarge etc, then it would be safer, and if you then used a boost converter, you'd get the 5V required for the USB (plus the LEDs would be brighter).
"Adverse health effects", that's a very polite way of saying "involuntarily crap your pants and die"... :P Probably would be safer to repurpose this with a USB charging system, so long as the USB charger isn't also plug-in death... :P
There's a 70s station here in middle Tennessee that plays a lot of disco. Sad because the rest of their music is really pretty good, but you can't leave the station on for more than 15 minutes without getting bombarded with Bee Gees or Donna Summer.
In those Chinese factories, sometimes the products will have a sticker that says "QC passed" even if it has glaring flaws like this death light. That's because QC stands for *quantity* control.
Well, maybe the disco light does have a use. In CPR class, we're taught to sing "Staying Alive" is the right rhythm for chest compressions. So this would be the perfect mood light for the first responder trying to revived the hapless user who touched it while charging.
I bought one of the gold solar rechargable lanterns the charging cord doesn't really fit in us sockets and I will never use it. The battery recharges enough during the day by sitting it in the sun that I have never ran it dead while camping. It's a great light if you don't charge it by the charge cable that should never be plugged into any outlet
Modify the thing to charge via micro USB and it should be fine. The solar panels are limited by the fact that 2 of the strips are wasted by blocking diodes. Therefore, the batteries will never fully charge via the solar panels.
It really makes me wonder why they didn't just include a double ended USB type A charging cable and leave all of the mains circuitry right out. It would save time, cost in production and make the product much safer without needing to use fake CE markings. It's not like people don't already have plenty of USB adapters to plug it into to charge. Alternatively, they could have included a cheap USB lipo charging/protection board with power bank function and upgraded the unit to use standard lipo cells in common sizes and it would have greater selling points since they could use the pads for one USB charging port to run the LEDs at a regulated voltage with proper resistors and the other USB charging port to charge a device safely.
The good chinese electrical engineers are busy designing useful things. The college dropouts who don't understand the issue of putting 120/240 V through the USB port design defective camping lanterns to flog to foreigners lol.
I still want to know who said to themselves: You know, I've got my tent, a splendid view of nature, perfect weather, a star filled sky, a warm campfire, crappy food warmed or scorched by my fire, a great beer in hand, and the most amazing significant other. And you know what this situation most calls for? A disco light for my tent -- THAT is what would complete this most perfect picture! Granted I would probably drag my radio gear along with me, but I can not imagine ever needing a disco light for such an occasion!
I think I'll buy one of these and do a LiPo conversion. I'll obviously get rid of the capacitive dropper right out of the box and replace it with a micro USB LiPo charger/protection board.
Good idea. I'm going to do one of those too, shove a TP4056 onto the input (with protection) and whack a great big LiPo or 18650 Li-Ion into the top. I could even keep the solar panel, if I get one with a panel on it. That'll do it.
Clive you could build a fire around the disco light with it strapped to a stake in the middle whilst playing disco inferno. A great alternative to poor old guy on November the 5th. A little melodramatic but fitting for a potential killer.
I believe that it goes something like this: -On the side that has the capacitive dropper, the circuit was designed with a certain current draw in mind, and thus they were able to regulate the voltage by limiting the current. As long as the load is there, the voltage will be regulated, and as you only need to power up the LEDs and the battery, you don't really more than 5, 6V. This is fine for the electronics of the lamp. -On the side that doesn't have a capacitive dropper, the voltage goes straight from the mains through the bridge rectifier. Given that this camping light is fed with AC, on the positive half of the sine wave nothing would happen (regarding electrical shocks) on the ground /negative / 0V side of the USB plug. However, on the negative half of the sine wave, current would flow from mains side to the ground / negative / 0V side of the USB plug. On an ideal, forward biased diode (considering conventional current flow), you'd only get current flow from the anode to the cathode, i.e., when the voltage potential is higher on the anode than it is on the cathode. If USB ground / 0V / negative side is connected to the diode's anode (inside the bridge rectifier), and the mains fed voltage is on the cathode, then the potential on USB ground would be 0V, while on the mains side it would be, on worst case scenario (on the negative half of the side wave), a peak of -320V. Given this, current would flow from mains to the USB connector, and with little to no series resistance (no capacitive dropper on this portion of the circuit!), you would effectively have mains voltage present at the USB connector, which is tied (either on the light or the phone side) to the "0V" pin of the USB port. Effectively, the ground of the USB port would be referenced to mains voltage, and if you were touching your phone on an exposed metal surface, you would too. If you were touching the floor or something with your bare feet, you're allowing current to flow from mains to earth, using you as the wire... aka getting zapped in the process. I'm sorry I needed to write such a big text to try and explain such a thing, it was not my intention. Wait for someone that can convey the idea in a better way, and correct any mistakes I've made (which I'm sure there are).
Capacitive droppers limit the current to the rest of the circuitry, the resulting voltage across this circuitry is due to the difference in the relative impedance between that of the capacitor and the rest of the circuitry. In the case of this lamp, it's mostly the battery. But if you touch the right part (or wrong part depending on how you look at it), mains current can flow via a diode to you to and then to earth (ground). The diode will drop the voltage only by about 0.65V to 1V. So you get more or less the full mains voltage.
God you learn some scary shit on this channel. I found myself on a live feed yesterday explaining to someone why I thought using a voltage regulator to enable him to power a 4.6v board with a 9v battery would probably be better than him using a resistor (as it would be less likely to sap battery life or fry the board), and I've never even done it myself! Watching Uncle Clive and reading the comments gets into your brain!!
It's because there are two difference points of reference. The LEDs only see the low voltage across the NiCd battery, but the entire circuit is floating at 240V above ground. The LEDs don't see this because they don't have a ground connection, but you very probably do (via your feet and the floor, or by touching a water tap, or heating radiator etc.)
This is a prime candidate to improve its function. Add one of the taser stun modules so it can give a proper shock and then give it to your coworker Vince.
All I can think of now is Disco Daleks screeching the lyrics to disco and dance hits. HAVE YOU HEEEEARD... ABOUT THE NEW DANCE CRAAAAAAZE? LISTEN TO US... I'M SURE YOU'LL BE A-MAAAAAZED.
I have 2 of those (but version with solar panel instead of that globe) solar panel could provide max 3V (for 3xAAA batteries it is just not enough) and USB was connected directly to battery But its power was okay, so i drill-modified it and now there sits 2x 18650 3450mAh LG cell with USB charging and 2A USB out.
I bought a cheap flashlight that had a mains plug so I removed the AC plug and wired in a USB lead because I watch your videos of these crazy death contraptions and I don't trust them.
Yay, bigclive is home! The other backgrounds have been a bit strange to get used to, the past few weeks I've seen almost every one of your videos, be sad to have caught up😂 would you ever do a q and a video again?
I now have a 4G internet connection on the Isle of Man, but it's capped, so I'm going to have to be cautious about using it for streaming. It's also not been fully tested for streaming ability and has a slight tendency to lose connection with the 'net.
Clive, I'm listening to this video thru the exact same lantern but now they've added a dang fine Bluetooth speaker and a..... functional solar panel. Plus worlds dodgiest "wall cord" and great engrish box. Love the vids do a proper colab with Stuart plz. Thanks in advance
I'll do it one day. Buy one of these, switch it to Lithium Ion and have it as USB derived instead of via the mains, as it then gets rid of the capacitive dropper and the live USB.
Got that lamp with out disco ball and check it out ..it was ok. So i got the only two made on Tuesday when every one wasn't hungover from rice wine or made in another garage than one you got
Both Clive and Diode have tested various different types of these. They all have the same problem - a capacitive dropper doesn't isolate the output from mains, and with a USB port being there, you can touch the USB and reference yourself to 240V AC. Hence, risk of electric shock and death.
I got one of these recently and the blue LED seems so much happier than the one in this video. I guess that blue LED wasn't very happy with being driven the way it was. Note that I have got rid of the cheapo Euro plug that came with it (excruciatingly thin wire! thankfully it takes a standard 2 pin connector) and I plan to modify it before I get a "murder on the dancefloor" moment :p
The CE label: “Trust me, I’m certified... no no no, there’s no screw under here you don’t need to take the unit apart to see if I’m a fake cert, WHICH I’M CERTAINLY NOT!”
Do you ever get Poundland or similar company contacting you about your product reviews and what do you do if you find dangerous/faulty products that are still on general sale for the numpty consumer.
I just did a quick Google search for "solar camping lights" and the death-dalek was about the tenth product listed... There's also another version, it looks a bit different, doubt the circuitry has any substantial changes though...
I think in some forgotten department of the PLA section O "oh fluck we done it again" they sit and design as many ways to accidentally to kill off as many capitalised swine without raising suspicion.
So the light bulb probe between the USB ground and neutral.... is it safer to go USB ground to power point earth (assuming no RCD or similar)? Would accidentally getting live/active instead of neutral blow you/it up?
These seem fairly safe compared to the Chinese water heater. The one that runs mains power through the water. They are an accident waiting to happen and the sad thing is it won't really be an accident.
Fix it more! Do a video on you fixing it proper! The most sensible thing to do is just replacing the AC connector with a DC barrel connector and use it instead. That or use USB for charging. Get a usb battery charger and booster and put that in it. Then just use an external usb charger with mains isolation.
Only use a capacitive dropper if nobody can touch the voltage. Treat the output voltage of a capacitive dropper as if it was 230V, because it probably is.
It's almost as if these designs call for proper isolated supplies like in typical power bricks yet they cut costs by using the capacitor dropper instead. Not sure why they can't be charged by a standard USB supply, why bother with mains at all? Safety would then depend on the power brick used. I have a cheap disco light that runs off mains, yet even it has an isolated supply inside despite not having any external USB connections.
I don't ever really see these kind of things in the US! I've seen a few videos now where cheap USB chargers (or failed USB chargers) put mains voltage right to the USB. Is this a case of me just being ignorant? Or does the US have stricter regulations?
So is this light 5v input or 240v or do you mean if the 5volt charger goes up the spout and passes 240v through it then the light becomes live with 240v? Wasn't really that well explained lol
240V input via the mains power cord, USB output should be 5V but is just the battery voltage (3.6V), however there is a direct path between the input and the USB output, so when charging from mains, the USB is live at 240V AC
