Wearable LED pixel with my own shady charger. 

Sadly we are left to imagine what BigClive would have looked like at a Scottish rave dancing to Born Slippy covered in blue LED's :o)

I'm starting to understand why Clive know so much about chinese deathtrap electronics design...

BigClive is to electrical tinkering and fettling what Bob Ross was to painting - completely engrossing nuggets of sensory stimulating audio visual heaven. NO I have not a clue about electronics but YES I feel compelled to watch. Clive's close-miked voice massages weary ears and completes the soothing package - bliss. Thanks for inviting us into your brilliant life.

I understand Clives obsession with LED's. Electronics back in the day were so dull, I added LED's to everything! I remember the amazing days when the white LED was available at my local shop for £1.00 ...One fucking pound for one LED. Amazing times man! I still love neons but LED's changed my life too man.

"It won't kill you", now that should be a new British electrical safety mark for approved products post-EU divorce, it just has a nice ring to it... :P

I have a niece who is a ghost hunter (a bit on the strange side - to say the least!) I have been making her some toys for ghost hunting, some of them from projects you have shown us over the past few years. This appears to be one that would work as an ID for members of her group, only with red LED's so they can find one another when the lights are out, but not ruin their night vision. Great little project I would never have thought about on my own. Thanks so much, you are constantly keeping my rapidly aging 67 year old brain active by allowing me to learn something new nearly every day.

As a child I have made a "safer" version of this charger. Battery negative goes directly to earth and battery positive goes to live via a 100k resistor and a 1N4007 diode.

I really like seeing these old projects BigClive has made, I wish I could be that cool :)

That shady charger gets me all excited!

Don't know quite why, but it reminds me of the dodgy 'Mains Failure Warning Device' I built in 1972 or 3, which was a neon oscillator driving a loudspeaker, running from a large electrolytic capacitor, and activated by an imbalanced voltage in a resistive bridge circuit. All encased in a Tupperware sandwich box. Ahem. Looked at it about 15 years later and cringed at how risky and inflammable the thing might have been, connected to the 240V AC supply 24/7. It was loud though, despite having no amplification; audible throughout the house. Thanks Clive.

I had lots of laughs, Clive. Thanks. I made totally useless, but rich in Leds projects too. Those were the days.

Agreed! Adding more LEDs is quite the noble gesture in these parts.

LEDs are never pointless, Clive, come on. They have always been and always will be COOL!!! I remember a car audio geek friend who thought it fantastic that I made him something that had a blue LED back in the day.

Hey Clive; any chance of you doing a video explaining all the different types of batteries? Obvoiusly the lithium ones are newer technology and have advantages, mainly capacity? over the old NiCd ones but they also have disadvantages in terms of safety, or at least that is how I understand it to be. What about NiMH and whats the deal with Lion vs Lipol? Such a big subject now. Can you demistify for us all? Many thanks.

I remember in college around 1989 people were still trying to figure out the combination of elements to create a blue LED. When they did finally start coming out the movie Lost in Space had blue LEDs all over the costumes of the cast.

I have a fascination with LEDs and always seem to put more than is necessary in my projects.

I love how... early 00's the design is... everything translucent and blue

Pretty cool wee project.

Always interesting to see your old stuff Clive.

I hung a blue LED on my chest; as was the style at the time....

I think it's a beautifully made creation, not an abomination at all!

Hard hat: LED possibly on your mind. 😎

This is still cool. Also you should give the “automatic flamethrower” another go! I really wanna see that.

I've heard that some are rethinking that "safety first" thing as it inhibits invention. Imagine a better world where you can build a cyclotron in your basement like the old days!

"Or it might have shoved the battery pack straight through my brain... nice!"

I remember when blue LEDs came out in 1995. It was so radical, anyone who was into playing around with Blinky lights just had to get their hands on some. I actually wrote to nichia, the company that first invented them, and got a few free samples! Or maybe it was Cree... It was one of those two companies that sent me some. I wonder if I still have the little anti-static bag they came in?

I thought he wasn't going to show it off plugged into the wall. then he did!

Thanks Clive, another worthwhile video.

When it was? 10 quid for one blue led. A bit pricey but I would not cry if it could keep blue leds from being used to blind people in consumer electronics.

Oh the irony that your mains socket now has built-in USB chargers. Just plug the battery pack in there without even an extra resistor, and bam! instant 3mA charger :)

Clive your timing is perfect! I literally just got done frying my first attempt at creating a wearable led flasher for my evening runs lol. Sick of being struck by vehicles. Thanks for the inspiration :).

I think that'd make a great project kit! Looks really neat.

Clive, interesting circuit, but you'd never get a job in China making dodgy products, too many components. the crunch comes near the end it's not unsafe. :-)

That's quite ok, I remember that era when men were real men, women were real women, and people put LEDs on things just to indicate that there is an LED on that thing (then several more, just to use at least one of each colour available - bonus points if they were blinking alternately just to indicate nothing in particular)...

That's really kinda cute!

Thanks for the upload! And for showing me how off my monitor's colours are lol

Love your vids, Clive.

I Found a 'Clive' i had not seen! = ] Cool! _and_ Not surprised it Still Works. Oh, the Days of _Parties._ Only said as when Most things were New & So Exciting! I think i get it now, the more One learns . . . I'm so glad i'm a slow learner now. 8 )

I remember the first blue LEDs I got back around '96 were high brightness types around 430nm, making them a really vivid royal blue. All the ones now seem to be a disappointingly washed out 460-470nm. Those older ones also seem to be ferociously ESD sensitive. I only have one working one left. :-/

Used to have a battery powered blue LED I took out with me, and if you hold it under a bottle of Smirnoff Ice or something similar the whole drink glowed blue.

God bless man, honestly very impressive project, inspiring too.

1:30 That gave me such a good laugh. You could relabel the video "How to get touched by BigClive" ... double/triple entendre fully intended!

Not a warm white LED anywhere. Must have been in those far off days when ickystickydickysaurus roamed the earth.

'Proper' electronics :P Uou cant beat a good 5mA tingle. I wised up and bought an isolation transfomer. Less zaps.

Clive Goes clubbing..."For tonight, God is an LED...!"

Great, old projects! Can we expect a full demo of your "tingle-tron" and "Bam-Board" as well please?(please do the bam boards)

I have a heated hoodie that has a logo that glows, and let me tell you, people are still shocked to see something glowing on your clothes. I have at least half a dozen people comment on it every time I wear it.

Oh yeah, tell me about it. I still remember buying blue LEDs in the 90s for $5 a piece. Those were some dark times.

I know jack shit about electricity . But watching your channel helped me make my doomsday weapon thx Clive !

Like the fact that the mains socket you choose to demonstrate has USB charge points built in! Ah progress!

I don't think going into a nightclub with a single LED and Li-Ion batteries on your torso would go down so well nowadays :(

I've got a Maplin catalogue somewhere with blue LEDs listed at £19.99 each I shit you not!! if they ever sold any at that price I don't know.

I told my friends "Do not touch while plugged in." Now I have fewer friends.

Paramedics would have been perplexed if they saw a tiny blue light in your head.

The guys who 'invented' high intensity blue LED's were given a Nobel Prize back in 2014 for dong so, but it wasn't until the turn of the millenium that it was commercially feasible to grow the proper crystals. So I guess this device dates back to the maybe 2000-2003?

Ahhh live exposed pins!

"...or the battery pack would of been pushed right through my brain...niiice." LOL

Clive was making led wearables before Adafruit existed. Neat

With Clives charger, touch the charging pins with one hand and an earthed object with the other and you will definitely get a tingle but it won't kill you. Do the same with a shitty pink Chinese charger. If you are lucky you won't feel anything but there is a fair chance it could kill you.

Clive, you and Naomi Cyborg could do a double piece as she is always dabbling on utube with wearable electronics hehe

Thats awesome , tho now a days you could make wireless battery packet in the pocket for clothing leds with a usb charger

Clive, I know this is a really odd question, but.. what kind of pen do you use while doodling? It looks really smooth and I'd rather like one myself.

I find it quite ironic you showcase it in a socket with USB :D

Very cool, I love the switch back and forth LEDs, and the circuit is great for understanding the zener diode as well as the resistive dropper. My spell checker says I no longer know how to spell, and perhaps it is right, however I am just in the right mood to blame the idiots at Microsoft. That's it, I am going back to Linux.

Our friends in China would have been proud, except there is no fatal shock hazard

Ah, live exposed connections.....lovely.

Better than whats on the shelf..

Clive mate those people touching your shirt in the club, they didn't happen to be wide eyed and reaching for the lasers did they?

Would there have been some sort of Hi-NRG music playing in these clubs?

Nightclub attendance and knowledge of industrial brothels. What secret life does Clive have?

Big Clive in a nightclub!

There is NO SUCH THING as too many LEDs!! Superfluous? Blasphemy! ;-)

Thanks for Sharing :-) Interesting stoff :-)

i made a little pp3 nicad/mimh charger some years ago using similar idea but 2 10k 2w resistors, that definitely could give you a good whack if you touched the contacts 😱

That truly is an abomination. Can I have one?

11:00 That would have made you the second youtuber who got superpowers from messing around with unsafe technology.

Neen. Neeun. I could just listen to a loop of Clive pronouncing neon.

Nice, if ya do make some (for sale) id like a couple, or a kit to put together, would be quite nice. Either way. If ya don't where would a guy get the plug, Merica style, what for plugging them into 110v

hOW ABOUT A COMP[ARE OF THE LED over time..the changes, and Brightness...and prices..

How long would the LED stay on once the battery was fully charged?

USB charger=safe? What about if you use one of those special pink Chinese ones made famous in song and story?

1:20 - "...people staring at it, then coming up and actually touching the shirt 'cause they couldn't work out what it was..." If they didn't ask before touching you that takes some courage seeing how tall & intimidating you look. :)

Question: When you have 3 batteries in series like that, won't the one in the middle discharge?

Clive, this is unrelated to this video, but I was wondering what soldering iron and bench power supply you would recommend to someone who is just getting into electronics, what was your first? I don't have much money to spend and it seems like any cheap power supply is unreliable... Do you know of any specific irons or PSUs to look for?

Hope the ICRC never sees this video - they'd sue over that red plus sign on a white label on the battery pack.

Can you please make another version of wearable IR LED?

Now I want to play with zener diodes.

I've never been this early to a bigclive video before guess I better make a joke I couldn't think of one

Dodgy projects are quite pleasing -- if you live to tell the tale

"Let's take a look at my abomination" 😄😅

So, when exactly did you build that? I mean, the first time I ever saw a blue LED, Stateside, was around late 1994.

Clive, thanks for enlightening us again. Two things - Where did you get the plastic plug style housing? And perhaps people were prodding your illuminated blue LED in a club because they were off their tits on ecstasy! Incidentally, do you have a treasure trove of hidden Clive made tech shoved away somewhere?

I think we were all just more easily pleased back in those days! I remember when I bought what might have been one of the first blue LEDs in Birmingham, and everyone I shew it to being suitably impressed ..... It was painful on the wallet, and next to the price in the Maplin catalogue it even said "THIS IS NOT A MISPRINT" ..... but I reckon if I'd charged people 10p a go to see it lit up, it would soon have paid for itself ..... I used it for awhile in a project I built, an I/O port for a ZX Spectrum that must have had a poor connection somewhere on the edge connector, because it used to reset the machine if you so much as brothe on it ..... then when I scrapped that after one too many crashes, the blue LED was one of the parts I retrieved for use in another project ..... in fact I still have it, in a disco light sequence chaser I built -- it's part of the front panel display so I can see from behind the decks, which bulbs should be lit or not. It has opto-isolated inputs allowing the lamps to be switched by a computer (back in the days of Centronics printer ports, anyway) and some nice chunky triacs good for 10 amps, so it's still useful. Agree that a USB charger woukd be the way to go if you were building one of these wearable pixels today. Clive has given the Poundland ones favourable reviews on this here channel, and you couldn't get a neon night light any cheaper than that anyway. You could just have a strip of breadboard with a row of Molex plugs, wired to a USB lead with the "phone" end cut off (that's the plug that usually breaks, anyway, so you may well have one already .....)

Looking good is always a good reason to use excessive LED's

What year did you make this?

NICE

No matter how pointless, you can never have enough LEDs.

Clive, when is the RGB version of your schematics coming out -- would it help if I sent you a pack of coloured pens?

Clive, if you weren't repurposing an old USB charger, how would you design the circuit now?

Very nice. On the very end shot at 11:59 I see you have 13 amp sockets with built in USB chargers. Is there a particular brand you use and would recommend?