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Inside a slightly bizarre car to "mains" adaptor.
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- Опубліковано 21 кві 2016
- I'm not sure what to make of this. It's technically intriguing but I'm struggling to work out its purpose other than possibly being for running older plug-in power supplies for equipment that doesn't use a standard USB style connector.
The device also has a very badly implemented USB port that is powered from a small linear regulator that is going to struggle at anything more than a few tens of milliamps on 12V and less on 24V.
The mains socket on the front actually puts out DC at a voltage that floats between about 90V to 200V+, so is only suited to universal switchmode power supplies that already convert the incoming mains to DC. It won't drive a capacitive dropper style lamp or an adaptor with a traditional transformer.
A particular oddity about the high voltage section is that it has a 100K resistor and LED across the main smoothing capacitor that can see in excess of 200V. It may be doubling up as a crude regulation load to stop the voltage peaking too high and also to help rapidly discharge the capacitor when the power is turned off. But the eighth watt resistor will be dissipating almost half a watt on a light load and will probably smoke quite quickly.
If you enjoy this channel you can help support it with a dollar for coffee, cookies and questionable electronic devices at / bigclive
It is like a technical school first year assignment. "Design a circuit that converts 12VDC to something that resembles mains power." It doesn't have to be usable, you pass if you can see 200+ volts on a volt meter...
usb separators accept anything from 100v to 250v
Yeah, like "Create something that ressembles 120 V from a 230 V +/- 10% supply". Wired two 60 W incandescent bulbs into a plain and simple voltage divider so we could measure something like 116-117 V under real-world conditions.
@@Ragnar8504 This same circuit was in some old hobbyist books back in the day, using the same TIP31 transistor as a "120V AC inverter" using a low voltage transformer wired up backwards with its secondary as the primary. Its almost as though the copied it directly and made it a "product".
@@mysock351C They definitely do that. Seen a voltage reagulator in cheap hand vacuum NiMH battery charger which was exact copy of circuit from DIY electronic book from eighties :)
@@punker4Real Not all.
I bought one of those. It instantly went pop and emitted a quite pleasant burning smell.
Me to lol
+Julian Ilett Pleasant?
+Julian Ilett use it as an ecig :D
+Julian Ilett So it was really a mislabeled in-car firework?
That's how you should complain back to the manufacturer about it. I got a chinese red rear bike LED / dual LASER LEDs light off amazon the other day that had the circuitboard anode had broken off. I complained, fixed it, and now I own 3 of them total since I had bought one through a faster manufacturer/seller when one took forever to get here.
Quality then?
Clive you need an octopus for an assistant.
Ordered octopus in restaurant last night it took 4 hours the waiter said it kept turning the gas off
All the people saying "I have one of these and it puts out 120v/240v AC"... you don't have one of these, you have a proper inverter LOL
Yep
I have one shaped like that BUT ITS MADE BY A TRUSTED BRAND!!!!!!
+TheChipmunk2008 Even still those "AC" types are a modified sine wave and still can kill certain devices. I have one made by Black and Decker that plugs into a car lighter socket and it fried an LED strip lamp almost instantly.
I have repaired the lamp and it works fine now but there are things you cannot plug into non pure sire wave inverters. Anything with an induction winding for example, electric motors, wall warts, all are bad news and can cause a fire
+SpeakerLover1000#EPIC You probably mean to say it was BRANDED with a trusted brand. Maybe by the brand itself or maybe by a forger. Please note the difference between brand names and manufacturers.
pretty sure Black and Decker isn't a reliable brand, at least it isn't for my family.
Chinese production is lot like "Aperture Science" - We Do What We Must, Because We Can.
*And sell it cheaper than anyone else so eventually someone will buy it XD
+Евгений Фуко
"We're just throwing science at the wall to see what sticks."
+Евгений Фуко For the good of all of them.
Except the ones who are electrocuted.
But there's no sense crying
over every mistake.
You just keep on reducing the cost
And the science gets done
And you get a bad shock
Thanks to people who are
Still alive
The pie is fake.
+RFC3514 the pie is a fake
That will nicely smoke any device connected to the "mains socket" with a transformer. Then again, the thing itself will probably go up in smoke first.
I literally only understand about 5% of what he's talking about but its still extremely interesting to watch.
11:41 "It's just an odd little thing they've just made because they could." . . . classic Clive.
Please plug in a cheap shiitty pink usb charger from china into this thing. The ultimate phone killer
+thingyee1118 And then plug it into a Chinese car
yep.
+Boredness preferably an electric car then you can have a bad charging cable too
+Boredness and then fill the car with chinese gas(aka vegetable oil)
+thingyee1118 And charge a Chinese phone with it (a fancy one, with a TV tuner) :D
Multiple meter-probes stuffed into things like this remind me of my apprenticeship years, when an elastic-band round a match-box provided an excellent 'accidental-short' noise when pulled taught them released. :-)
From the US here, Illinois to be exact. I think its cool as hell that such a popular UA-cam creator like yourself does meetups like this and does them often. I am so glad I recently found your channel!!! Its becoming my absolute favorite!
Thank you Clive and everyone enjoy the meetup! Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it at this time. Next time I am in the UK for work though.....maybe I will get lucky!
Always amazed how a plastic case can be re-used for other products... I bought an identical looking AC Inverter from 12v rated for 75W from Dell in 2006.
I love your videos, you're professional, easy to understand (the accent is fun) and you look like you know exactly what you're doing! Awesome stuff +1 subscribed!
Could you do more teardowns of dodgy car power inverters? I've had some nightmare experiences with those things.
Someone must've thought "if it's so easy to convert 240V to 12V, surely it's a simple matter of reversing the circuitry and you get 12V to 240V. Easy peasy!"
Sadly not everything is reversible.
Obviously you can't take the same exact circuitry and expect to have it work backwards, but your comment implies you cannot convert 12V to 240V. You can easily do so with a different set of circuitry.
(not insulting, just clearing up your comment for future watchers who happen to read the comments.)
Connor Hill I love how civil people are in this guy's comment section. It makes me smile.
when your content fosters people who actually like to think rather than dick arround in the coments thats what you get :D
What are you talking about just use a dc transformer
transformakshon no workee on purr dee cee
It would be great if you filmed some of this in infrared. It would be nice to see which bits are getting hot.
Probabily, everthing, including the plastic.
so your saying it wont power a kettle. Thats a real shame cos i always carry a kettle in the car - i mean who doesn't?
Probably most Americans 🤷, I don't think I've seen many people here in America carrying kettles in their car.🤷
His what is saying that?
I think I've seen either a USB or a 24 V kettle once... maybe both. Took 500 ml of water and boiling that probably takes an hour or so. I definitely remember an ad for a USB-powered "heated mug".
@Heads Mess That poor circuit would melt if you draw 30 A through it.
That reminds me of one of the USB chargers I've used. Apart from being translucent green, it looks a lot like the laptop power supplies of a certain fruit-themed manufacturer with a 12-Volt plug moulded onto it instead of the mains lead or plug. At some point I realised that most of the charger is actually a plain mains AC to USB charger with an IEC C7/8 connector and the whole converter setup is inside the 12 V accessory plug! Now I wonder what that thing actually outputs! It does seem to drive the beefy USB power supply quite happily, charging a phone and driving a bluetooth/FM adaptor at the same time without emitting any "electric" smells.
hi Clive iv been watching you for a while now and when ever I want to buy something electrical I watch you first then buy or not buy thank you for passing on your knowledge not that I get a lot of it lol again thank you for saving me money
It always amazes me the amount of effort that goes into making this crap. Everything from making the PCB to designing and making the mould for the injection moulder.
The only use i found with this thing is that it can charge a 200v electrolytic capacitor :)
Clive, I have no idea what you're talking about 90% of the time, but your videos are always entertaining.
That "Inverter" is a joke and a fire hazard.
that spring and ball barring setup is really quite genius. use of common parts to cut cost.
they obviously still think its the 80s where everyone wants to use their shaver in a car.
But if you live in a car....
At least it has balls...
+Doc Hussey The ball bearings are the nicest bit about it.
+bigclivedotcom I've seen connections that looked like that, but they were always pressed metal. I too was surprised they were actually bearings. That is a bit too "good" for this, honestly.
+Doc Hussey Yes, it’s got balls of steel!
I wonder how big of a resistive load the HV output will drive? I see a very cool use for this if it will handle, say, a 150mA load. Some of the earliest battery powered fluorescent lanterns used two 69V batteries in series to directly drive the fluorescent lamp through a resistive ballast. Those batteries quit being made some 30 years ago, but this, coupled with a 12V battery, could be tucked inside the battery compartment of said lanterns and allow them to run portable again. If it will handle the load...
I love this guys voice I'm addicted to this channel 👍
I've installed a 800w Cobra 12to120 inverter in my 2000 Chevy Blazer, as I am a true believer in backup power. But, ive been racking my brain on how to make a useful mini power supply- Was thinking of using this product from the Wish app. Thank you for saving my time and money on this junk. Fascinating!
Its low current is a shame. It would be great to run, say, a blow drier, or an electric deep-fryer in the car.
Mm yes I'm sure the fuse will hold up nicely as you try to pull 150A through it
I use a battery behind the seat. 12v connected to an inverter, inverter to battery charger, automatically turns on and off as the car does keeping the battery charged. Another inverter from battery to whatever you want to run.
Sounds like a charm running a deep fryer in a car while having to hit the brakes.
They only built that whole unit because they had some dodgy ball bearings left from one of their failed engine projects and had to find someplace to use them. lol.
I have this converter for few years. It is not made to power up USB chargers, but other chargers from old time when every device maker had it's own voltage and connector.
Siemens used to have 5.5V and it could not be charged over USB, and old Nokia used 3.7V.
You know here a few years back, whilst going for a walk, I walked past a young man's home, who I knew as a computer customer. He had removed the rear window from his old Buick, and was in the process of putting an old, very large window air conditioner. I just had to stop and ask him how he planned to power that unit. He showed me a device not unlike the one you have in this video. I tried to explain to him that this would never work, but he was convinced that, since the plug would fit (after he had clipped the ground plug off it) then the unit should run, and his old Buick's air conditioner had gone to hell, he was tired of driving back and forth to work in the summer with no air, as it was a 30 mile drive each way, and they weren't using the old window air conditioner anyhow. I made an attempt to explain the idea of watts, and amps but he would have none of it, and went right on putting cardboard alongside the air conditioner, and plastic sheeting over that to seal in the cool air he expected out of his new air conditioned Buick. I walked on and haven't seen him since. I think he moved away, I know he still owed me a hundred bucks for a laptop that he bought off me before the air conditioning incident. Still have his promissory note not that it's worth the paper it was written on.
This can't be real
Really happened, swear to God! Some people are just that stupid.
lulz
oh god why
Jerry Ericsson I live in Florida I do see cars here from time to time with ac window units. I have no idea how they got it work, or if it actually works.
1:54 I KNEW he was going to go eeeeughhhh!
i plugged something like that into my automobile outlet and it got so hot it started melting,I think it wanted to light my cigarette, burn up my car and charge my phone,all at the same time. I generally find that even with a fuse,these things wont blow the fuse before melting enough to ruin them...fail.
Just seeing this video now (2019), your video quality has gone up a lot in those short 3 years!
Since I know China rather well, married to my Chinese wife for several years and doing business with China for the better part of 10 years, I have to agree on your conclusion, they made "because they could". This is in many cases true about Chinese "inventions". I don't know how many times I come across items hwere you have to ask yourself, "Why did they make this? What is it's purpose?". So , yeah right. They made because someone had an idea and they could make it.
Imagine how good the world would be if people with really good ideas had access to that kind of cheap manufacturing ability!
@Liam If that's true, please tell me where I can get a few dozen custom plastic cases moulded for my project for under $50, or a few hundred custom ICs for my project so I don't have to use discrete components, or somewhere that can do pick and place PCB construction including sourcing parts, for maybe a dozen units instead of thousands. All these things and more are still way out of reach for most people. Sure you can still do them, but it costs way more than many people can afford and takes up a considerable amount of time dealing with many different companies e.g. to source parts in small quantities. Even projects with some financial backing still fail because they can't find these services for the few hundred units they want to produce. There's definitely progress being made, but there's still a long way to go before producing your own product becomes cheap and easy.
@@Berkeloid0 At those quantities, you don't use custom molded plastic. Put it in an off-the-shelf case or 3D print your prototype. Likewise, custom ASICs have significant tooling costs.. so in small quantities you just use an FPGA instead if you really have to reduce part count. PCB assembly including parts sourcing is actually pretty easy - there are a number of smaller Chinese shops that will happily do this for you, and jellybean parts are SO cheap when you're paying domestic Chinese prices that it's not a big deal to use discrete components unless you're heavily space constrained.
@@perelman42 So I stand by my original point - things are getting a lot better very quickly, but we're still not yet at the point where anyone can bang out a commercial-quality product with ease :-) Do you have any links to the Chinese shops that will do parts sourcing and PCB creation/assembly for you? I wasn't aware those existed.
I designed something similar on my final year project at uni. Only AC out. I was limited to 50vAC for health and safety reasons. Effectively it was a buck boost with a sinusoid pwm input and outboard inverter bridge. This was all discrete components before the micro controller use for everything days. My issue was it was going to be Inherently lethal as is that thing.
Nice review :)
My former phone had a USB connector but only for data, i.e. could only be recharged via the propietary plug - so a device like this gadget would've been handy for use in a car, b/c at the time that was my main phone, I wasn't aware of any cigarette lighter or USB adapter for it either (though there may have been).
Actually, really the only things coming to mind are vintage phones or other devices without USB power-in - e.g. a radio if the one in your car's broken oder a portable CD player if you happen to have one anyway and wish to listen to a CD while driving and don't have a drive in the car but also didn't have or didn't want to spend time to rip it onto a USB stick. If the laser & motor don't need a transformer that would be too power consuming or standard reliant (180 V DC!) to be used with this gizmo, that is. I guess even in those cirumstances it would be easier to directly transform the 12 V DC, but a fitting adapter might not be available, so hence the converter.
This is how I discovered many things run properly on 100 volts DC here in Japan, especially any high speed switching supply. Any inductive load do not function as it only creates an electromagnet. In my off grid home every outlet has 3 options (and they are colour coded) 12 VDC - 100 VDC - 100 VAC. You MUST place suppressing capacitors on every thing operating on 100VDC to prevent it from arcing when switched off.
I was just thinking of getting one of those for use as a B+ supply for a 1watt ish tube amp but i guess that it won't be able to sustain that at 200V, so my search continues, so thanks for that vid!
Also what i could think of as a use for this is for older gear, like 2008 vintage dslr only has an ac charger, no way to do usb, so for that it might be quite usefull
I have previously bought two models like this from Walmart in the United States years ago, I use them to plug my cell phone charger into only and both of them aren’t welding themselves to the power outlet in my car and smoking so furiously that I had to pull over. The second time I could not pull it out and it was so hot I abandon the vehicle. Thank God that Nissan cars at the time did not support accessory power with the ignition switch off! Otherwise it would have burned my car to the ground, just charging a phone, actually an old-school iPod… They have the three prong US cable that could really be connected to a toaster oven if someone wanted and it was rated extremely high like 500 W… Thanks for the videos, cheers!
It has no use what so ever, interesting teardown though. 👍🏼
Although the circuit design is clever, the whole thing strikes me as a very bad idea.
I wonder how this thing handles gross overloads or being short circuited?
+uxwbill I imagine by getting very, very hot. Until it melts the insulation of the transformer and creates a dead short on the unfused 12V input. After which the transistor and half the PCB is vaporized with a loud bang and copious amounts of magic smoke. Then you have to rummage around in your car's fusebox to find which fuse has blown and replace it.
Most of them have a fuse loaded with a spring in the cigarette-lighter end.
If you were to unscrew the little ring at the end, the metal tip would fall out (as would the fuse).
+Chris Barbati As for this one, I don't think they even bothered
The loose front cover is lovely with 200V inside, just the thing to nip your fingers while fumbling around in the dark.
I know many of the cheap ones I have got in the US output a very bad square wave instead of sine and with too little load they don't turn on right. Adding an incandescant night light (5-10 watts) seems to help them stay a lot more stable.
Also some switch mode power supplies won't run from them either, especially smart laptop chargers.
Square wave will ruin electronics
I have one of these for use on my rotisserie motor (synchronised motor) when I go camping. It works better than I expected, although the motor really does have a bit of a rattle from the awful modified sine wave, quite bluntly... it does the job!
The usb is unusable, I'll attest to that! 💪
I use one to charge my ebook in the car since the micro-usb connectors become flakey as hell and i haven't have time to wave-solder it back on. the regular 120VAC-12VDC charger still works though so no trip to a guy with skills and more time or me having to delay my own paper work for yet another repair challenge.
I just have a 600W pure sine wave inverter sitting in the passenger foot well with a cig plug on it. I plug my 2A 5V charger into that and it only draws about 1.8A at 12V. And no I didn't buy it for that purpose, but it has nothing else to do until we have a power cut.
Ive been watching too much electroboom, i expect a large spark every time you poke something with anything
he is acting
No such thing as too much ElectroBoom! But yeah, Mehdi definitely sets things up to get those sparks and reactions (except when he doesn't, like with the jacob's ladder incident). Both Mehdi and Clive know what they're doing, so they don't (usually) get shocks unexpectedly, though there are always exceptions.
@@camrouxbg the microwave turntable motor makes me piss.
@@realcartoongirl Outstanding observation
This is the kind of things my grandparents would use, because they are the sort who hate and actively avoid learning new things.
After years i finally got them to get mobile phones for safety reasons but the idea of charging a phone from the cigarette adapter just confises them and would rather wait until they get back home to charge their phone than do it in the car, but if they had a normal 3 pin plug in front of them they'd probably be willing to bring the mains charger and plug it in.
+Trakker Atleast they don't believe everything they're told.
+Trakker They just don't see the need in constantly having the phone charged. They lived just fine their whole lives without a cellphone, so why would they care if the battery runs out?
bassl0va They're old and a few years back the car broke down on a road it took 5 hours before another car passed they could flag down for help, and that was before i convinced them to get a phone, so don't be assuming the world is as simple as you think it is.
+Trakker Well atleast they did get a phone after all.
Trakker Yeah, but that same situation happened to many people before mobile phones were invented. May have even happened to them in the past too. People just dealt with it then. Too bad people can't deal with it now, and if their phone dies and they can't check fb or send a snap it's the end of the world...
I remember converters from car battery to 220 VAC. They were huge (I mean 30cm cubed huge) and the leads were clamped on the car battery, not through the cigaret lighter. Didn't work unless the car was running on idle. Which btw. is now illegal in Finland.
I've got one of those North American version of inverter (different brand though)...I used to use it to keep my laptop powered when I did telecom work in the field, worked very well for years and years never gave me an issue with it. I believe it was 100W.
The he handled the circuit, I thought we would have an electroboom moment.
*Loud pop*
-SHITE!
-BOLLOCKS!
I assume the mains outlet is for older chargers that aren't USB.
that's probably it
Haha! That might be the reason
They usually don't work with DC lol haha
Old enough to not be 5V, new enough to be SMPS. That doesn't leave a lot of chargers...
@@XCVGVCX Voltage ain't the only problem! Lots of manufacturers used proprietary connectors and would do various sensing to make sure you were using the right charger. Some Nokia phones would refuse to charge if they didn't detect the right voltage drop at a given current draw, for example. It was pretty much a con to force people into paying $30 for the 'authorized' charger.
That said, while I suppose it could be useful for those kinds of chargers, I doubt it was really the intent; they're either incompetent or pretty much scamming people. You can get a new phone better than any of the ones from that era for under $20, and it's unlikely those old ones would hold much of a charge anymore.
The 78L05 is rated for a maximum input voltage of 20V.
(Yes, different manufacturers have different input voltage ratings for the exact same part number, but the vast majority of 78L05 regulators I've seen were made by Wingshing, and theirs has a maximum input voltage of 20V.)
Deadly little device!
I saw these on flea bay for £1.35 free shipping so I bought 5. Every single one was wired up with the Negative to the center and surprise none of them burned out while I tried to work out why they didnt work. The seller gave me a full refund but the things are crap anyway wont charge a laptop from the mains side and only just powers an led 240v bulb. And more dangerously, when you put a 2 pin plug into it, the prongs short against the usb port.
I thought of buying that thing years ago but thankfully I didn't and just get myself a proper inverter. That thing is just a fire hazard and could probably even kill whatever power adapters are plugged into. The inverter I have right now is still an unknown branded one but it's quite alright and does output a decent waveform (just acceptable), hasn't overheated or burned and is still going for 4 years.
I remember getting these when I was a kid, Granted not that bad but I've had them smell/get hot and even melt when using with a laptop. Store bought things like Wal-Mart etc in the US.
I have a Black and Decker Inverter that is shaped the same as that thing and it also has a USB port in addition to the AC outlet but it's an ACTUAL inverter that converts to actual AC. It's rated at 100 watts at 115 volts. That things appears to be a violation of the principle of making something as cheap as possible but no cheaper.
I have the exact same Black and Decker inverter!
Hey Clive, I think it would be good to make a video every now and then in which you explain what a component of a circuit does, or what simple and commonly used circuits do. For example a "What is a capacitive dropper" video, or a "What is a resistor" video. I know roughly what they do, but you would be able to provide a deeper insight, which I think would add value to the rest of your videos for a lot of people. :)
I have an almost identical looking unit that outputs a real 120 watts that I used regularly with my laptop power supply in the car (these days I'd build a straightforward 20 volt boost supply) but I still have it after more than 15 years and it still works. Fairly sure I got mine from Maplins who, sadly, are no more. Almost certainly made in China, but obviously MUCH better quality than that one!
I have a similar one, which works fine even for notebook power adapters (90W).
Only difference is, that mine is red and black and contains a fan.
5V and 200V adjacent to each other on the circuit board with seemingly minimal separation. That could get fun... 😈
I occasionally use of these to charge a laptop in a car and boat. The problem is that the charge does only initialize if the laptop is off, or if the battery is at 100%. It will not charge when the laptop is running and charging the battery at the same time; the LED goes dead and the whole thing stops working. After about 30 minutes of operation, it gets very hot and I always unplug it then. It's red, not grey as you have. It's a crap, but it works for my purpose.
I can believe they still make those. The design hasn't even changed in 5+ years
+James Wood
It looks like it was designed in the 90's.
I'm sure it's an old reused design. There is an even older version that was only different because it lacked a USB port
You really need some jumpers about 6" long, with mini gator clips on the ends. That way you could clip onto the board and make your test connections out where you'd have a little room to work. I do that and it is very handy.
love your reviews, just wanted to remind you that most automotive apliandes are to be powered at 14.6 and not 12v that will change your output.
14.6v is optimistic, you'll get 12.4ish volts with the motor off and with the motor on you probably still won't get much over 14v
@@caracalfloppa4997 The standard operating window for automotive applications is 13.6 to 14.4 volts, with a target voltage of 14.0, with the engine running. A 12v vehicle battery should hold a standing charge of 12.6v at rest. So 14.6v would actually be considered a fault condition under any circumstances.
Interesting about the heat dissipation on the -05 regulator. Maybe this would warrant the purchase of an IR camera to check for hot spots on future tear downs. :)
Correction ,that is a flyswatter oscillator circuit,the size of the tank circuit inductor/transformer is identical to some old swatters i have,i've been had,should've found this vid first,i wonder if it could be pulse fired and have a cockcroft walton multipier added to make a sort of CDi for my lawn mower.
After seeing this I built a simple self oscillating design using 9 VAC toroidal transformer and two power transistors plus a few other pieces to bias it. The great advantage being that the phones own charger suits best. The risk of a compromise USB charger is it might shortened battery life or charging capacity. From what I know the charging starts as constant current then becomes constant voltage. A compromise charger might just have a resistor and USB 5 V. I think I noticed a battery lost charge capacity when using a cheap USB charger used. It might have halved in just one cycle. I built a few variants of the self oscillator without too many problems. Often called ultra simple inverters.
I've had a similar unit for some time, but I've not yet got around to trying it out. It was an impulse purchase for almost nothing from a charity shop, so I just thought 'what the hell' and paid for it. One day i must try it out.
*sniffsniff* "aaaahhhh, that's the good stuff!"
These are actually very useful when you want to charge your phone and listen to music without any noise getting thru. Yes, it's very inefficient, but it works!
Love to see if a load on the USB port with the unit fed with 24 volts causes the regulator to pop.
I have one of these in my car and it works great. It can power up to 150 watts plugged into the cigarette lighter and with the included battery terminal clamps I can use up to 400 watts! Mine does not output 120 volts but at 100 volts. It is a lot less efficient compared to 120 volts.
Here in the US those are quite common, i personally have a 150w one which does indeed put out 120v at 60Hz. And it will do 150w.
+A. Zak Completely different on the inside. This thing just puts out high voltage DC.
I've had a 240v UK model for years. I used it on my boat and then in my work van. I think it's 300w max and had no complaints from a probable car-boot bargain.
that durable power.
Big Clives catchphrase " I quite like that, yes I do quite like that " AWESOME
I use a similar one to this (albeit smaller) for charging my phillishave while im in the car. It has no usb but its rated 100v 15 watts, it runs the phillishave charger and charges it about the same rate as using it in the wall.. had it a few years now, was free.
Very interesting big Clive.
Hah, I have that same screwdriver! They're pretty nifty if I do say so myself (and I do).
+Andrew Kovnat Me too. Mine was free as an promotion for something. I guess their ad didn't work on me.
Good to see you just stuffing wires into high voltage equipment and not wussing out with all that soldering and insulating nonsense like Julian. 👍
Wow. My car has a 230 volt, 50 Hz AC socket that works perfectly fine and doesn't drop any voltage under load (it only works up to 180 watts though, in the US they go up to 400 watts).
I can't imagine they use very expensive materials to get that to work. I also had a Duracell transformer than converted the 12 v socket to mains AC (2 sockets + 2 USB ports I believe), and it worked very well, while the transformer and everything didn't take up much room either. Would run 230 V lamps fine while camping, but could only supply 150 watts I believe.
Luckily (or perhaps unluckily) for these hacks who make these devices 7800 series regulators typically have an internal thermal regulator meaning it's basically impossible to overload them.
very odd, I have an AC inverter about the same size as that, ratted at 75w but the max I have used it at is 60 w l just can't see the point of it, most phones and tablets use a USB lead to charge and a 12 volt USB adapter is much smaller and probably costs less than that. would it even power a laptop charger??
I have a really old one that claims to be 150w. I believe it though, I've charged my hoverboard (120w or so) with no problem. Even has a little fan that kicks on. It looks very similar to that one, but definitely different.
That is indeed a very odd device.
my guess for the wall outlet plug there is for the older people who still have phones that dont have a usb connector for it. i remember those being quite popular around my area for quite some time. but they were much better quality im assuming. if i remember correctly the usb was 500mA and the output was rated for 9 watts on the ac plug i think.....
I've got a mains car inverter. It's bigger than that 10watts lamp, but has enough power for two gaming laptops which are really power hungry.
How many times have you had to call roadside assistance because you ran out of electricity?
+Akaishi none
+Akaishi If the engines running and your alternator works, you've got at least 50A at 12V to play with.
I was half expecting it to be a relay and a transformer.
Its a 110V AC inverter for usa mains chargers.
I have a Ring brand 240 V ac inverter that can easily power a laptop from 12V DC.
It maybe a Chinese student project !!
great video -thanks Clive
Hi Clive.
I get how the USB +5v is generated, but you didn't say much about how the 240v circuit topology works. Is that really a 'transformer'? It certainly looks like one but it still *could* be a simple inductor operating in a buck converter configuration. A single switching element PLUS a transformer points to this being a flyback converter - these can, but aren't often used in a stepdown circuit. Odd.
Yup. A DC output from a half wave configured rectifier - this circuit isn't a true 'inverter as the transformer output is (most likely) a series of same polarity DC pulses. Whilst the output cap will smooth the pulse train a bit, is the diode really necessary, at all? And, if this circuit DID have inverter action - in other words producing some sort of 'ac' - then half wave rectification would be extraordinarily wasteful, you'd substitute a diode bridge at very little additional cost.
This nominal 240v DC output bothers me. Yes, most switching regulator phone chargers should be able to work on both ac AND dc input but I've pulled apart plenty of units which were step down transformer LINEAR PSU type - and those will NOT work on DC input. In fact, leaving 240v DC connected to the transformer primary will cause rapid heating (purely resistive loss) because there's no inductive 'back emf'/Lenz effect at DC. It's wrong to assume ALL phone chargers are operating as 'switch mode'; when output power is low, a linear PSU is the better option on cost grounds.
Thanks for the video. I always find them interesting.
I have one like that but mine has a fan. It converts 12 volts to 240 volts and the USB puts out 1 amp. Portable but incredibly useful. I wouldn't use them for any sensitive equipment though.
I bought a rechargeable LED light in the Philippines a few years ago that also has a radio and 240v outlet for charging mobile phones.
+Del Lawrence They sure like to combine as much stuff as they can
I want that adapter, just for the case. Because the case looks like something straight out of the late 80s / early 90s xD
Wow. Car power plug to mains to phone charger. Is it just me, or is this the most insane concept since the deadly shower head?