Reminds me of the "Dragon detector" from a Terry pratchett book... A piece of wood on a metal stick. When the wood burns away, you have found your Dragon...
@@blackcountryme Don't diss the patented CMOT Dibbler's anti dragon detector, bit like his anti burn cream guaranteed to protect you against dragon's fire, a full refund on application if it fails to stop you being incinerated.
I got a similar light awhile back that came with that same charger. It also included a cigarette charger for the car. Opening that revealed nothing but a single resistor.
Which is why the resistor 15:54 might indeed stop the battery from actually catching fire, but chances are that your lithium cell had some charge-limiting circuitry on the end.
@@HighestRank I highly doubt most lithium cells have a protection circuit in the end. So the battery will be over charged. Best case the cell is overcharged and ruined, worst case the flashlight catch on fire and burns your house down.
Wow. I've bought lights with those chargers. One of them did consistently destroy 18650 cells. I didn't test it for voltage, because I ended up using a stand-alone charger for the cell. Thanks for this video. I really enjoy all your videos!
i have that same charger but its slightly bigger has a red led and outputs the same voltage and has a similar circuit it was used to charge 4 Ni-Mh batteries in series (4.8 volts)
Maybe... But for 6v lead-acid the charger should have an output of at least 6.8 up to 7.1 volts instead of the 6.6 or 6.7v or somehow in that range... It's not dangerous to have less voltage but the battery will charge only about 95%
I still have my old mini MAG-Light that was given to me by my troops on the 5th anniversary of my being promoted to Chief of Police. She is the brightest little flashlight I ever had and after nearly 30 years, 10 of them on my duty belt, still works like a new light, if you keep good batteries in her. Of course no LED on this guy but a micro Krypton bulb. The little light came with a nylon holster to ride with me night and day on the PD, and saw hundreds of hours of use. The spare bulb still resides in the battery cap, where it came with the light from the factory. A well made product, made for police use, can indeed last a lifetime, perhaps 2 as I plan on passing it on to my youngest grandson who tells me that his dream is to follow in Grandpa's footsteps and become a police officer. I hope there is still a job for him when he graduates college with his Criminal Justice Degree and Peace Officers License.
If you're striking sub-$30 territory on ANY kind of tactical flashlight, it's usually because the manufacturer cut corners on device safety, overall quality, or both. My fave was an Ultrafire C8 I got off eBay that lived up to its name in the first 5 minutes out of the box. Lesson well learned. Stuck to Solarforce/Manker/Lumintop after that and never had any regrets.
I've been taking apart every single el Cheapo 240 V to "USB" PSUs and 3 V - 12 V wall chargers and the differences between them all is vast with price having very little to do with the quality of the circuitry. It's very interesting stuff and I need to do more of this reverse engineering myself to get a better handle on what is good, what is OK, and what should never made it past QAQC. Need to get one of those power meter gizmos you've got too, Clive, as the whole power factor thing is fascinating.
3 things to take away: 1. You don't want high voltage on anything you can touch, and this one puts the high voltage and low voltage parts super close together. 2. You always want some circuitry to charge and protect batteries. This doesn't have that. 3. Whoever designed the adapter made the assumption that the Zener Diode is perfect and would thus cap the voltage at 3.3V. They were wrong, and either never tested it, or just don't care that it's horribly out of spec.
@@misterhat5823 At lot of Ebay reviews are written pretty much the moment the package arrived, and it shows. And the 80 character limit certainly doesn't help if you have a serious complaint, either.
@@rolfs2165 well if you got a problem with the product you got, don't write it in your feedback, do it in a message to the seller instead, that is much better because the seller will most likely never see your complaint because of the large number of feedback, unless you can't get contact with the seller then do it in the feedback
I really like how clearly you explain things, but at the same time you can manage to find something positive to say about most of the things you take apart! It really makes what you say feel more objective and realistic to me!
Even if the charger you got was 4.2V, since the cell is unprotected, I'd still be concerned with A] the cell's longevity if it was left plugged in past a full charge and B] killing the sell from over-discharging since the LED probably will stay lit to some degree below the cell's safe minimum voltage, so you might think "I can keep using it" Although, at that price... It might not be a terrible idea to just get a little BMS board, add it in there, and maybe install a larger capacity cell recovered from a laptop battery or something.
I think I'll pass on purchasing one of these !. I value my life and property, thanks for the as always awesome help and information. Respect "Big Man" keep them coming.
Probably fine if you always charge it on something non flammable, and don't leave it charging while you're away or asleep. (My phone is the only thing I will charge while asleep)
The torch is fine.. it's the charger that's the problem. You simply create a USB based charger using a charge control circuit for 3.7 volt lithium batteries.
Would be interesting to turn the light on with it plugged in a see how things operate, Maybe look at it under the thermal imaging camera. Great video as always
It would have been great to switch the ammeter to AC current and see how much avalanche current was escaping past the mod and lighting the red LED with reverse polarity.
in presence of virus blue LED sacrifices itself, causing adapter power to go full and gently disinfect all living-thing by internationally recognized as effective autoclave environment.
Great video Clive. Thanks for the warning! I guessed wrong on the dangerous part of it , once I saw the gold trim I was expecting it to be live once the charger was plugged in. But now I'll be super cautious when buying any electrical items from ebay . I usually only by low voltage stuff for this very reason. I was wondering if Clive could do an experiment with the "explosion containment pie dish" by leaving the torch on the charger and see how long it goes before catching fire..??
Some Li cells have an overcharge circuit built in under the + contact. You don't see it unless you remove the heat shrink of the cell. I don't know about the cell in question, though. On the other hand, the charger shouldn't call itself a 4.2V charger, while spitting out 6.7V, even under load.
This is clearly an unprotected cell: the protected ones always have a far more normal positive terminal like you usually see on consumer NiMh batteries and such. At least, I have never seen a protected cell with a flat top. I think they do that to prevent people mixing unprotected cells with protected ones, as protected cells are longer.
That suspiciously looks like this 5VDC/500mA "Travel charger HB-001" I got with a HDMI splitter that bleeds from one of the prongs to the output so that you would need to check which way to plug it to the wall in order to not get zapped from the mains. The worst thing is that it boasts the Class II symbol ⧈ despite clearly failing to meet that.
The main problem I see with the mod is that when the red LED burns out, the optocoupler stops limiting current altogether, and the switching primary runs amok. That’s probably why they used a diode, and I would bet that it’s a design/type which failure mode is partial to shorting rather than open.
As many years as I've been watching Clive's channel, it still amazes me how close they come to making a decent product, but then shoot it in the balls with last-second, penny-pinching stupidity, e.g that "charger," or the complete lack of charge controls on the flashlight PCB. Is china where all terrible EE students go after college?
There's a lot of stuff on this channel where do you do have to ask "Are you doing this on purpose or are you just mega stupid". The best example would be that bloody awful green USB blender deathtrap which on the whole wasn't too different to the good pink one apart from the idiotic bits.
It's likely the people who put the torch together with the charger aren't the same people. Probably got a bulk deal on bith chargers and torches and put them together
The voltage across a 3.3 volt zener will vary considerably with current. With the LED modification 28mA of LED current would kill the LED quickly. Two LEDs in parallel might last more than five minutes. It would be interesting to make a follow up video of the original charger with the original zener charging the torch (placed in the explosion containment pie dish) to see if all the smoke and flame escape when it's overcharged.
I have an LED work light, not a cheap chinese one, and the charger has an unpluggalble usb cable, so you can just plug it in any 5v usb port and overcharge the battery... The charging circuit is in the charger supplied with the worklight.
I vape and I've seen people who don't know the dangers of those cells until it's too late, most of the time I have no clue what your saying but god damn it do you make it fun.
i have to say i am glad you have made and continue to create videos and put it on youtube, the pink calculator is the kinda thing that keeps me coming back
When I come across one of these that my relatives bring for me to fix, especially the lead acid ones, I gut the insides and install a holder with 3 AA or AAA batteries. Lasts a lot of time and eliminates the risk.
I'm new to this channel and Clive and watching as many of his Vids as possible. I wish I had a teacher like him at school,he makes complicated stuff very interesting. I'm not at all electronically minded.
Don't know why they bother with a mains power supply, just stick a tp4056 circuit in there and a microusb port. It's cheaper, and will protect and correctly charge the battery. I guess it's no fun if things don't go bang or spontaneously combust.
I ensure faulty/dodgy wall warts can never be used again by "adjusting" them by applying a club hammer at high velocity to them - they appear to rearrange themselves into an unusable state quite rapidly. (Just don't get hands/fingers/feet in the way of the hammer)
I am kind of liking the crisp edged beige boxes with the black outline print of the item inside. Seems to be how the Chinese are packaging their assorted tech/gadget items.
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It looks like charging circuit for regular gel-acid battery flashlight. I had one with similar circuit and actually something like 9 such LEDs. It's quite nice and had built in charger although it did not use any rectifier besides simple diode - charging was done in pulses.
Now I'm glad I threw that charger away. I had an identical looking one (except with US plugs) that I got with a cheap Chinese video upscaler I was using with a couple of old game consoles. The thing would get far warmer than any charger reasonably should when I had it plugged in, and I made sure to unplug it every time I was done using it just in case it decided to explode. I wound up pitching them years ago when I upgraded to a more expensive (and Western-made) upscaler that complies with American electric standards, and now I'm glad I did.
I think the current is so high because they got lazy and left the resistor out for the optoisolator. Normally there would be _two_ resistors. One for the zener to bias it even when the optoisolator is not conducting, and a second to limit the current thru the IR LED to keep the optoisolator within the range of its current transfer function. If you have a peek at the datasheet, the optoisolator has a peak response in its transfer function of 600% at 5 mA. www.farnell.com/datasheets/73758.pdf. See page 6. After that it tanks if you keep pushing it. In this case, its running at about 18 mA, so what may be happening is that its sailing right past that point due to oscillations or instability and settling WAY off the map on its transfer function once theres enough current being rammed thru it to allow the PSU to regulate.
Good video as always. I was rather shocked when my China made cheapish ethernet hub has what looks like exactly that power supply. Fortunately upon closer examination the supply is quite different, whilst it sports the same black plastic case, with euro plug and exactly the same pcb board inside it has more components including 2 ICs on the underside, same sized transfomer and only 1 red LED. It has (i thinkit is 330uF) eletrolytic capacitor, some diodes, resistors and an opto coupler at the top. Also they have cut out the PCB in the space provided for AC/DC side separation. So this case and pcb are just mass produced generics which different chinese manufacturer use. My supply measures a steady 5.32 volt without load . Nothin wrong with the router , I later discovered the strange network behaviour where everything dies was actually the Sky broadband router which likes to reboot itself at 1am at random days presumably after doing some kind of updates. (The reason I have to use an ethernet switch is Sky only provides 2 Ethernet ports on their newer type broadband routers.)
I used to steal the transformers from these shoddy power supplies, because they are almost never impregnated so can be rewound easily. The same goes for the chokes in cheap CFLs, but some of those use an E core with a shorter middle stem for air gap. Some uses one gap-less and one gapped half E-core, but if you have two identical lamps of this type, you can still make a gap-less core easily out of the two. The absolute cheapest CFLs use gap-less E-core with thick paper spacers between the two outer stems of the E core halves to make an air gap. Those are the best for re-purposing, eg. I wound the output transformer of my ESR meter on one of those.
All the impedance calculators tools are natively in kicad under Tools -> Calculator Tools -> TransLine. No need to use websites such as those on PCBWay.
The diode on the charger changes colour, its red while charging, turns green when charged. What you havnt mentioned is those chargers and adaptors are not well connected, and stand out and can be broken apart easily. Wish app on droid sells quite a few similar products.
The mixture of horrific and terrific that you get all in one, when you buy this stuff, really affects the cromulence. Finding results on Russian websites? You may have to explain that us sometime, it's intriguing? Regards, South Africa.
It should have been supplied with one of those homefire batteries. It would have certainly lived up to its name if someone left it on charge for too long.
I feel like we've seen dodgier DC adaptors on the channel. Am I right in thinking that the adaptor itself isn't actually all that bad, all things considered, but the problem is that it is being used for the wrong purpose entirely? The real problem is that there is no protection for the lithium cell and they've decided to use an off-the-shelf cheapo DC adapter instead of anything remotely resembling a lithium ion cell charger.
Hattmannen Nilsson - oh never mind the insufficient clearance on the PCB between mains side and the low voltage side circuitry. Or the lack of a fuse, no inrush limiting and only half-wave rectification. And I bet the insulation in that dinky transformer is not very good either...
Mark 1024MAK there’s a rather big-large output resistor, so inrush current isn’t so much of a problem, and having an actual optocoupler for feedback practically makes high transformer isolation less of a concern, though the others which I’ve seen disassembled had pretty decent construction.
I had an old Pifco rechargeable tungsten torch which had a wall mounted cradle which trickle charged the ni-cad batteries and when the power was cut the light would light. The good old days lol.
Ordered the headband torch about a year ago, it also had no protection or anything inside apart from the power switch. Had to add a power bank board to it, also soldered led directly to the cell (output from the board is 5v, and led only needs 4) now at least there is no risk to overcharge battery, only to discharge it all the way down. Also replaced the charger it came with.
Wow, A Good oldie is back in. Yes, That Uni-T is still the one I use allso very often when measuring things. Nowedays, it has even surpassed my Dynatek 9045 Full Size meter in its use.
So good except the charger, it looks like. A video of fixing the design flaws with the charger (Or designing a whole new one) I think would be a pretty cool and educational video
The adapter is also illegal for its dimensions. UK mains plugs, by law, have to be a certain minimum size to prevent accidental shock if you reach 'behind' the plug when pulling it out. The geometry of this adapter, with its live and neutral so close to the outside edge, makes this another shoddy product.
I'm still learning electronics, so please do correct me if I'm wrong, but @ 9:00 min the way you attached that variable resistor to the circuit was in parallel with the meter. Wouldn't that slightly decrease the total resistance which explains why the voltage increased slightly.
That charger looks dangerously similar to the one that came with my cheap chinese/aliexpress 4x 18650 portable LED work light. The lights actually do take 4x 18650 cells since you have to insert your own batteries, and the lights are actually super bright, but the charger does the same thing in terms of turning the charger LED on when it's plugged into the light only. I'm glad I stopped using the included chargers and bought USB powered chargers to charge the lights in my vehicle... even if they're unsafe, the most they can do is apply 5v, but the USB chargers seem to be built better than the included mains charger.
the schematic in 1600, were the opto isolator arrows pointing the wrong way? they were pointing out like an led were they not? Regardless of anything though, a great insight into electronic power management, thanks again Clive
1:09 I think it is more the depiction of what happens when the mains run through your system (after you made the deadly mistake of picking it up while plugged in)
I have a similar torch, but because of the dire shucko/type-G adapter they included, I never use the provided charger. Phew - dodged a ballet. Mine has a button-top cell and I pop it out and use the desk charger which is much smarter.
What a shambles. I’ve come across similar torches and chargers. One of which exploded. Sold by Coopers of Stortford. I had a right go at them when I inspected the charger. Very, very poor HV to LV isolation and dire charging regulation. Torch half decent so resorted to separate 18650 charger.
Well, if you really want to use this torch, you could easily keep the charging lead when binning the charger and solder the lead to a TP4056 module with micro USB input. So you could charge the cell in a safe way via micro USB.
I would use that charger for something else but I imagine the output to be very dirty. Maybe as a 6V battery charger. I bought a camo camping flashlight that had 110VAC pop out prongs on it. I ended up removing that because I saw your death lantern video with 230VAC at the USB port and just adding in a short USB plug onto it.
There is a very high quality Chinese torch supplier - called Lighting Ever or LE. They have standards and are making some OEM torches for people like Duracell too. A bit like Hisense in electronics, the Chinese companies with integrity are great value and quality.
Hi Clive, saw an interesting German LED spiral spotlight projector lamp which has no earth and is all aluminium - made by a company called "Coocnh" on Amazon, £10. Edit: well looks like you did a vid on it three years ago!
alumilium looking casing a mains adapter, yes i love it!
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Great video as always! I'm wondering, where did you get this variable resistor? It seems really useful for testing power adapters, is it just a potentiometer in cool casing? I'd love to know where you can buy one :)
Bartłomiej Zieliński These cool gadgets have been available fro electronic hobby stores for many years . Often called resistor substitution wheel , It consists of a set of low tolerance resistors connected via rotary switch, not a pot
Clive took it apart in on of his previous videos. From what I recall, it's just a load of resistors, on a shim of circuit board material, and some contacts, most likely similar to the ones on a cheap multimeter.
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@@richodude2679 Thanks! Searching for "resistor substitution wheel" was exactly what I needed.
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@@nightshadelenar Yes, just found it: ua-cam.com/video/n3joyToqpCc/v-deo.html So simple, yet so useful.
I have a different flashlight but the charger looks exactly the same, so I did the right thing to do: I measured the output of the charger and it's 4.33 volts... maybe they got fixed... or I got a better one.... or they really cheapened out and made it crappy so you could bash poundlands in another great video :-)
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Hey Bigclive when you measured the voltage of the charger using the variable resistor, didn't you effectively measured it directly again? I mean, the VR shouldn't be in-line not in parallel?
A perfect voltmeter has infinite input resistance, so won't load the circuit. To test the output with a load you have to add a low resistance in parallel as Clive did. Infinity + 330 ohms = infinity Infinity in parallel with 330 ohms = 330 ohms
It's still a load across the output of the power supply.
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@@georgeprout42 Ok I think I get it now. Thanks for the explanation. It has to do with the multimeter. But why did the voltage increased? Sorry if the question is dumb.
@ it is a just an unregulated power supply, not a charger. The voltage went up slowly as it was charging a capacitor. A proper li-ion charger would deliver a constant (regulated) voltage and then switch to a constant current. I'm not mentioning numbers as I don't have datasheets in front of me, it's been a few days since I saw exactly what was going on and also I've had beer. It is an example of how NOT to do it 🤷♂️😉
Been a Big fan of your videos for well over 6 months now... I'm ashamed to have noticed I haven't been subscribed to you this whole time! I've Corrected this mistake now at least! XD
100-300 metre range (or 100-300 cm, judging from the text on the back). Hm... either way, I wonder how they prevent it from lighting things closer than 100 *m (or how they stop the light from travelling further). Those are some pretty special photons.
They could have been using the obscure architectural module "M", which is 0.1m. Lens angle seems to be optimized for lighting up stuff 100-300m away. Light intensity may be for 100-300cm.
I could be wrong, but I think you can get an app for your phone that allows it to display the reading from light sensors on the device and you can measure the light output of the flashlight that way
The feedback is all positive because those that would have left a negative review are dead.
Yep, You don't see bad reviews on defective parachutes for the same reason.
That's an odd exception. Typically, it's the positive one that's bad and/or kills you
Reminds me of the "Dragon detector" from a Terry pratchett book... A piece of wood on a metal stick. When the wood burns away, you have found your Dragon...
Lazar Šaronjić don’t punch the tarbaby. You’ll get stuck.
@@blackcountryme Don't diss the patented CMOT Dibbler's anti dragon detector, bit like his anti burn cream guaranteed to protect you against dragon's fire, a full refund on application if it fails to stop you being incinerated.
This is the flashlight they give you in horror games
This deserves more likes
Yes!
??? you mean its the same looking design?
@@Francois_Dupont That it fails somehow after 3 min and you need to charge/change the battery.
@@Francois_Dupont not design but flashlight which will light only 1% of screen (giving rest of it to monsters).
"up to starts at zero" will always get a like from me.
It's like diet plans that say you can lose up to 5 pounds your first week.
"Holds three batteries". It does. Just not at the same time.
Probably a version that takes 3 AAA battteries in a holder that's roughly the same size of an 18650 battery.
Haha yea, probably referring to those AA cartridges you could also use. Three fit inside and make a three cell unit that goes inside like an 18650.
As DiodeGoneWild would put it...
"Siuper dodgeyyyyy"
And danjarooz!
Bloody helllll!
Are you kidding me, guys?!
@Mai Mariarti That cat does not want anyone to see those schematics, always sitting on them.
I am reading that in his voice.
I got a similar light awhile back that came with that same charger. It also included a cigarette charger for the car. Opening that revealed nothing but a single resistor.
Which is why the resistor 15:54 might indeed stop the battery from actually catching fire, but chances are that your lithium cell had some charge-limiting circuitry on the end.
@@HighestRank I highly doubt most lithium cells have a protection circuit in the end. So the battery will be over charged. Best case the cell is overcharged and ruined, worst case the flashlight catch on fire and burns your house down.
Wow. I've bought lights with those chargers. One of them did consistently destroy 18650 cells. I didn't test it for voltage, because I ended up using a stand-alone charger for the cell.
Thanks for this video. I really enjoy all your videos!
That is frightening. Thank god it didn't start a fire the cell being overcharged.
I think this might be their typical lead-acid 6V battery charger.
Probably!
@@jamesslick4790 that make sense!
i have that same charger but its slightly bigger has a red led and outputs the same voltage and has a similar circuit it was used to charge 4 Ni-Mh batteries in series (4.8 volts)
They modified their Lead Acid charger for a penny and used it here didn't they?
Maybe... But for 6v lead-acid the charger should have an output of at least 6.8 up to 7.1 volts instead of the 6.6 or 6.7v or somehow in that range...
It's not dangerous to have less voltage but the battery will charge only about 95%
A beam like that perfect for finding door numbers without lighting up the inside of the wrong house.
lol
I like to scope them out in the daytime to make life easier when its dark lol
I still have my old mini MAG-Light that was given to me by my troops on the 5th anniversary of my being promoted to Chief of Police. She is the brightest little flashlight I ever had and after nearly 30 years, 10 of them on my duty belt, still works like a new light, if you keep good batteries in her. Of course no LED on this guy but a micro Krypton bulb. The little light came with a nylon holster to ride with me night and day on the PD, and saw hundreds of hours of use. The spare bulb still resides in the battery cap, where it came with the light from the factory. A well made product, made for police use, can indeed last a lifetime, perhaps 2 as I plan on passing it on to my youngest grandson who tells me that his dream is to follow in Grandpa's footsteps and become a police officer. I hope there is still a job for him when he graduates college with his Criminal Justice Degree and Peace Officers License.
Or lighting up the inside of the right house with the wrong type of light source.
If you're striking sub-$30 territory on ANY kind of tactical flashlight, it's usually because the manufacturer cut corners on device safety, overall quality, or both. My fave was an Ultrafire C8 I got off eBay that lived up to its name in the first 5 minutes out of the box. Lesson well learned. Stuck to Solarforce/Manker/Lumintop after that and never had any regrets.
I've been taking apart every single el Cheapo 240 V to "USB" PSUs and 3 V - 12 V wall chargers and the differences between them all is vast with price having very little to do with the quality of the circuitry. It's very interesting stuff and I need to do more of this reverse engineering myself to get a better handle on what is good, what is OK, and what should never made it past QAQC.
Need to get one of those power meter gizmos you've got too, Clive, as the whole power factor thing is fascinating.
Ok so I dont understand a lot of what he’s talking about but I find I’m fascinated by these videos!😀
3 things to take away:
1. You don't want high voltage on anything you can touch, and this one puts the high voltage and low voltage parts super close together.
2. You always want some circuitry to charge and protect batteries. This doesn't have that.
3. Whoever designed the adapter made the assumption that the Zener Diode is perfect and would thus cap the voltage at 3.3V. They were wrong, and either never tested it, or just don't care that it's horribly out of spec.
Arthur Moore specifically, no protection circuitry was attached to the battery.
Fire gives light aswell so no complains
It's a torch, after all.
@@andrew_koala2974 and I spose u neva make a mistake
@@andrew_koala2974 oh shut up
Fire? 19:55 not something I’d actually really want to have running all the time.
10:59 "and it's bridged" 😂 😂 😂
People left positive feedback before they recharged the torch and their house burnt down.
So THAT's why they call them torches in the UK!
Or they were fake reviews.
@@misterhat5823 At lot of Ebay reviews are written pretty much the moment the package arrived, and it shows. And the 80 character limit certainly doesn't help if you have a serious complaint, either.
@@rolfs2165 well if you got a problem with the product you got, don't write it in your feedback, do it in a message to the seller instead, that is much better because the seller will most likely never see your complaint because of the large number of feedback, unless you can't get contact with the seller then do it in the feedback
Michael Calvin you have a choice of it catching fire in the UK or flashing unexpectedly in the US.
I really like how clearly you explain things, but at the same time you can manage to find something positive to say about most of the things you take apart! It really makes what you say feel more objective and realistic to me!
ie. 14:51 10V, not a death beam capacitor.
Lol you bridged that charger cap like a champion.👍
"Does not ship to the Isle of Man" about to appear on listing.....
Is it bad that I was actually hoping for a capacitive dropper? Then again I didn't see a deathometer test.
You know Clive means business when the pink calculator comes out! Lol
Even if the charger you got was 4.2V, since the cell is unprotected, I'd still be concerned with A] the cell's longevity if it was left plugged in past a full charge and B] killing the sell from over-discharging since the LED probably will stay lit to some degree below the cell's safe minimum voltage, so you might think "I can keep using it"
Although, at that price... It might not be a terrible idea to just get a little BMS board, add it in there, and maybe install a larger capacity cell recovered from a laptop battery or something.
I can't get over how this man prints out Ebay pages and reads them on camera.
Charming.
Well it's either that or try to look at his laptop. Paper is easier and doesn't deviate half way through looking at it.
I think I'll pass on purchasing one of these !. I value my life and property, thanks for the as always awesome help and information. Respect "Big Man" keep them coming.
Probably fine if you always charge it on something non flammable, and don't leave it charging while you're away or asleep. (My phone is the only thing I will charge while asleep)
The torch is fine.. it's the charger that's the problem. You simply create a USB based charger using a charge control circuit for 3.7 volt lithium batteries.
Would be interesting to turn the light on with it plugged in a see how things operate, Maybe look at it under the thermal imaging camera. Great video as always
It would have been great to switch the ammeter to AC current and see how much avalanche current was escaping past the mod and lighting the red LED with reverse polarity.
Seems like a solid way to buy 18650 batteries. Even comes with a free switch and LED!
Now put a blue led in it and sell it as "germicidal".
in presence of virus blue LED sacrifices itself, causing adapter power to go full and gently disinfect all living-thing by internationally recognized as effective autoclave environment.
I prefer strategic hiking to tactical hiking. Is such a torch still suitable?
It's absolutely unusable.
It works well for insidious hiking.
But what about political hiking or economic hiking?
@@superdupergrover9857 Or hiking up your trousers..
As a torch or as a firelighter?
Great video Clive. Thanks for the warning!
I guessed wrong on the dangerous part of it , once I saw the gold trim I was expecting it to be live once the charger was plugged in. But now I'll be super cautious when buying any electrical items from ebay .
I usually only by low voltage stuff for this very reason.
I was wondering if Clive could do an experiment with the "explosion containment pie dish" by leaving the torch on the charger and see how long it goes before catching fire..??
Some Li cells have an overcharge circuit built in under the + contact. You don't see it unless you remove the heat shrink of the cell. I don't know about the cell in question, though. On the other hand, the charger shouldn't call itself a 4.2V charger, while spitting out 6.7V, even under load.
This is clearly an unprotected cell: the protected ones always have a far more normal positive terminal like you usually see on consumer NiMh batteries and such. At least, I have never seen a protected cell with a flat top. I think they do that to prevent people mixing unprotected cells with protected ones, as protected cells are longer.
That suspiciously looks like this 5VDC/500mA "Travel charger HB-001" I got with a HDMI splitter that bleeds from one of the prongs to the output so that you would need to check which way to plug it to the wall in order to not get zapped from the mains. The worst thing is that it boasts the Class II symbol ⧈ despite clearly failing to meet that.
The main problem I see with the mod is that when the red LED burns out, the optocoupler stops limiting current altogether, and the switching primary runs amok. That’s probably why they used a diode, and I would bet that it’s a design/type which failure mode is partial to shorting rather than open.
Dodgy electronics? My favourite!
If I need a laugh all I need to type into UA-cam search is "Bigclivedotcom Death" and know I'll get some good dubious electronic videos.
500mAh in an 18650.. You might get more energy density out of a lemon
Dave Micolichek can’t wait till the day when they stuff 18650s inside 21700, with yet more more pulverized SiO2 heatsink-compound.
Good coverage of this issue, I like to have an 18650 designated charger that I can just grab the cells from and use in whatever appliance.
As many years as I've been watching Clive's channel, it still amazes me how close they come to making a decent product, but then shoot it in the balls with last-second, penny-pinching stupidity, e.g that "charger," or the complete lack of charge controls on the flashlight PCB. Is china where all terrible EE students go after college?
There's a lot of stuff on this channel where do you do have to ask "Are you doing this on purpose or are you just mega stupid". The best example would be that bloody awful green USB blender deathtrap which on the whole wasn't too different to the good pink one apart from the idiotic bits.
It's likely the people who put the torch together with the charger aren't the same people. Probably got a bulk deal on bith chargers and torches and put them together
9:16 whoa that calculator is absolutely lurid. i love it
Lurid pink electronics are one of the hallmarks of Big Clive's channel. It's great.
4:40 that purple battery, tho.
The voltage across a 3.3 volt zener will vary considerably with current.
With the LED modification 28mA of LED current would kill the LED quickly. Two LEDs in parallel might last more than five minutes.
It would be interesting to make a follow up video of the original charger with the original zener charging the torch (placed in the explosion containment pie dish) to see if all the smoke and flame escape when it's overcharged.
I have an LED work light, not a cheap chinese one, and the charger has an unpluggalble usb cable, so you can just plug it in any 5v usb port and overcharge the battery... The charging circuit is in the charger supplied with the worklight.
Wow, that's awesome.
I vape and I've seen people who don't know the dangers of those cells until it's too late, most of the time I have no clue what your saying but god damn it do you make it fun.
Ah yes, the classic "up to" sales claim, like "up to 90% off" except there's nothing going for that!
Or "Was £.. now £.. for a limited time" when the non discount price isn't much dearer than the discount.
Yeah, up to 90% off so not _actually_ anywhere near 90%. Usually more like 10%
Send me your email address and I will send you up to 1 millon pounds!
@@zebo-the-fat i will send 5 million ponds
⃠ one molecule of water apiece?
i have to say i am glad you have made and continue to create videos and put it on youtube, the pink calculator is the kinda thing that keeps me coming back
"You're just to good to be true, I can't take my eyes off of you".
When I come across one of these that my relatives bring for me to fix, especially the lead acid ones, I gut the insides and install a holder with 3 AA or AAA batteries. Lasts a lot of time and eliminates the risk.
I'm new to this channel and Clive and watching as many of his Vids as possible.
I wish I had a teacher like him at school,he makes complicated stuff very interesting.
I'm not at all electronically minded.
I love the fact that if you use one of those adapters and there's a issue, the first fuse that blows is the one on your ring main.
Don't know why they bother with a mains power supply, just stick a tp4056 circuit in there and a microusb port. It's cheaper, and will protect and correctly charge the battery. I guess it's no fun if things don't go bang or spontaneously combust.
I ensure faulty/dodgy wall warts can never be used again by "adjusting" them by applying a club hammer at high velocity to them - they appear to rearrange themselves into an unusable state quite rapidly.
(Just don't get hands/fingers/feet in the way of the hammer)
oh god the way he says flashlight is making me moist
this is genuinely a bit... scary... even for China. this is REALLY shoddy
Yes, but it does have UL & CE certification stickers...it must be good stuff with those labels?
Sadly, this is par for the course. They don't care and never have. Not even fused.
No, this is somewhat shoddy by Chinese standards. The death Dalek was *really* shoddy.
@@chuckboyle8456 Ah CE China Export!
it must be a mother-in-law type of gift.
I am kind of liking the crisp edged beige boxes with the black outline print of the item inside. Seems to be how the Chinese are packaging their assorted tech/gadget items.
It looks like charging circuit for regular gel-acid battery flashlight. I had one with similar circuit and actually something like 9 such LEDs. It's quite nice and had built in charger although it did not use any rectifier besides simple diode - charging was done in pulses.
Now I'm glad I threw that charger away. I had an identical looking one (except with US plugs) that I got with a cheap Chinese video upscaler I was using with a couple of old game consoles. The thing would get far warmer than any charger reasonably should when I had it plugged in, and I made sure to unplug it every time I was done using it just in case it decided to explode. I wound up pitching them years ago when I upgraded to a more expensive (and Western-made) upscaler that complies with American electric standards, and now I'm glad I did.
We have a saying in America: "You buy shit, you get shit." Keep up the good work, Clive! Always informative!
I think the current is so high because they got lazy and left the resistor out for the optoisolator. Normally there would be _two_ resistors. One for the zener to bias it even when the optoisolator is not conducting, and a second to limit the current thru the IR LED to keep the optoisolator within the range of its current transfer function. If you have a peek at the datasheet, the optoisolator has a peak response in its transfer function of 600% at 5 mA. www.farnell.com/datasheets/73758.pdf. See page 6. After that it tanks if you keep pushing it. In this case, its running at about 18 mA, so what may be happening is that its sailing right past that point due to oscillations or instability and settling WAY off the map on its transfer function once theres enough current being rammed thru it to allow the PSU to regulate.
Check if there has bms in the tip. These connectors are often use with usb connector for standart phone 5V charger, seller could make a mistake.
Very neat circuit analysis there. It helped me to understand switching PS better
Good video as always. I was rather shocked when my China made cheapish ethernet hub has what looks like exactly that power supply. Fortunately upon closer examination the supply is quite different, whilst it sports the same black plastic case, with euro plug and exactly the same pcb board inside it has more components including 2 ICs on the underside, same sized transfomer and only 1 red LED. It has (i thinkit is 330uF) eletrolytic capacitor, some diodes, resistors and an opto coupler at the top. Also they have cut out the PCB in the space provided for AC/DC side separation. So this case and pcb are just mass produced generics which different chinese manufacturer use. My supply measures a steady 5.32 volt without load .
Nothin wrong with the router , I later discovered the strange network behaviour where everything dies was actually the Sky broadband router which likes to reboot itself at 1am at random days presumably after doing some kind of updates.
(The reason I have to use an ethernet switch is Sky only provides 2 Ethernet ports on their newer type broadband routers.)
I used to steal the transformers from these shoddy power supplies, because they are almost never impregnated so can be rewound easily. The same goes for the chokes in cheap CFLs, but some of those use an E core with a shorter middle stem for air gap. Some uses one gap-less and one gapped half E-core, but if you have two identical lamps of this type, you can still make a gap-less core easily out of the two. The absolute cheapest CFLs use gap-less E-core with thick paper spacers between the two outer stems of the E core halves to make an air gap. Those are the best for re-purposing, eg. I wound the output transformer of my ESR meter on one of those.
That calculator is hurting my eyes😂
All the impedance calculators tools are natively in kicad under Tools -> Calculator Tools -> TransLine. No need to use websites such as those on PCBWay.
The diode on the charger changes colour, its red while charging, turns green when charged. What you havnt mentioned is those chargers and adaptors are not well connected, and stand out and can be broken apart easily. Wish app on droid sells quite a few similar products.
The mixture of horrific and terrific that you get all in one, when you buy this stuff, really affects the cromulence.
Finding results on Russian websites?
You may have to explain that us sometime, it's intriguing?
Regards, South Africa.
It should have been supplied with one of those homefire batteries. It would have certainly lived up to its name if someone left it on charge for too long.
I feel like we've seen dodgier DC adaptors on the channel.
Am I right in thinking that the adaptor itself isn't actually all that bad, all things considered, but the problem is that it is being used for the wrong purpose entirely?
The real problem is that there is no protection for the lithium cell and they've decided to use an off-the-shelf cheapo DC adapter instead of anything remotely resembling a lithium ion cell charger.
Hattmannen Nilsson - oh never mind the insufficient clearance on the PCB between mains side and the low voltage side circuitry. Or the lack of a fuse, no inrush limiting and only half-wave rectification. And I bet the insulation in that dinky transformer is not very good either...
Mark 1024MAK there’s a rather big-large output resistor, so inrush current isn’t so much of a problem, and having an actual optocoupler for feedback practically makes high transformer isolation less of a concern, though the others which I’ve seen disassembled had pretty decent construction.
I had an old Pifco rechargeable tungsten torch which had a wall mounted cradle which trickle charged the ni-cad batteries and when the power was cut the light would light. The good old days lol.
I had a similar pifco torch.
GAH! Had to close my eyes when you pulled that calculator out! You need a warning for that...
I love the way that came apart.
I am American. We always hold our flashlights vertically with a clenched fist.
I see the Death-dapter has been up-graded to two outputs. YEA!
Ordered the headband torch about a year ago, it also had no protection or anything inside apart from the power switch. Had to add a power bank board to it, also soldered led directly to the cell (output from the board is 5v, and led only needs 4) now at least there is no risk to overcharge battery, only to discharge it all the way down. Also replaced the charger it came with.
That variable resistor is nice .
Wow, A Good oldie is back in. Yes, That Uni-T is still the one I use allso very often when measuring things. Nowedays, it has even surpassed my Dynatek 9045 Full Size meter in its use.
Would love to see a vid on LEP torches.
I know they are pricey but they look fantastic
So good except the charger, it looks like. A video of fixing the design flaws with the charger (Or designing a whole new one) I think would be a pretty cool and educational video
Did Clive just say "death beam capacitor" at 12:52?
yeah i'd like to know what that means, too!
They're the special capacitors used by 5G.
I'm surprised this comment isn't higher up the page...
Or how about 1:02 "Fleshlight" reference 🤣🤣🤣
The adapter is also illegal for its dimensions. UK mains plugs, by law, have to be a certain minimum size to prevent accidental shock if you reach 'behind' the plug when pulling it out. The geometry of this adapter, with its live and neutral so close to the outside edge, makes this another shoddy product.
I actually found a rather safe deathdaptor. It has hatches over the plugs that won't open unless both pins are engaged.
Deathbeam capacitor 😂😂
I'm still learning electronics, so please do correct me if I'm wrong, but @ 9:00 min the way you attached that variable resistor to the circuit was in parallel with the meter. Wouldn't that slightly decrease the total resistance which explains why the voltage increased slightly.
That charger looks dangerously similar to the one that came with my cheap chinese/aliexpress 4x 18650 portable LED work light. The lights actually do take 4x 18650 cells since you have to insert your own batteries, and the lights are actually super bright, but the charger does the same thing in terms of turning the charger LED on when it's plugged into the light only. I'm glad I stopped using the included chargers and bought USB powered chargers to charge the lights in my vehicle... even if they're unsafe, the most they can do is apply 5v, but the USB chargers seem to be built better than the included mains charger.
the schematic in 1600, were the opto isolator arrows pointing the wrong way? they were pointing out like an led were they not?
Regardless of anything though, a great insight into electronic power management, thanks again Clive
1:09 I think it is more the depiction of what happens when the mains run through your system (after you made the deadly mistake of picking it up while plugged in)
I have a similar torch, but because of the dire shucko/type-G adapter they included, I never use the provided charger. Phew - dodged a ballet. Mine has a button-top cell and I pop it out and use the desk charger which is much smarter.
What a shambles. I’ve come across similar torches and chargers. One of which exploded. Sold by Coopers of Stortford. I had a right go at them when I inspected the charger. Very, very poor HV to LV isolation and dire charging regulation. Torch half decent so resorted to separate 18650 charger.
Well, if you really want to use this torch, you could easily keep the charging lead when binning the charger and solder the lead to a TP4056 module with micro USB input. So you could charge the cell in a safe way via micro USB.
Was it just a badly out of spec Zener? Out of spec Zeners are not unusual even in the US.
I would use that charger for something else but I imagine the output to be very dirty. Maybe as a 6V battery charger. I bought a camo camping flashlight that had 110VAC pop out prongs on it. I ended up removing that because I saw your death lantern video with 230VAC at the USB port and just adding in a short USB plug onto it.
There is a very high quality Chinese torch supplier - called Lighting Ever or LE.
They have standards and are making some OEM torches for people like Duracell too.
A bit like Hisense in electronics, the Chinese companies with integrity are great value and quality.
Hi Clive, saw an interesting German LED spiral spotlight projector lamp which has no earth and is all aluminium - made by a company called "Coocnh" on Amazon, £10.
Edit: well looks like you did a vid on it three years ago!
alumilium looking casing a mains adapter, yes i love it!
Great video as always! I'm wondering, where did you get this variable resistor? It seems really useful for testing power adapters, is it just a potentiometer in cool casing? I'd love to know where you can buy one :)
Bartłomiej Zieliński These cool gadgets have been available fro electronic hobby stores for many years . Often called resistor substitution wheel , It consists of a set of low tolerance resistors connected via rotary switch, not a pot
Clive took it apart in on of his previous videos. From what I recall, it's just a load of resistors, on a shim of circuit board material, and some contacts, most likely similar to the ones on a cheap multimeter.
@@richodude2679 Thanks! Searching for "resistor substitution wheel" was exactly what I needed.
@@nightshadelenar Yes, just found it: ua-cam.com/video/n3joyToqpCc/v-deo.html
So simple, yet so useful.
For summarising things;
If user uses another charger it will be BANG!
If user uses the charger it will still be BANG!
Am I right Clive?
I have a different flashlight but the charger looks exactly the same, so I did the right thing to do: I measured the output of the charger and it's 4.33 volts... maybe they got fixed... or I got a better one.... or they really cheapened out and made it crappy so you could bash poundlands in another great video :-)
Hey Bigclive when you measured the voltage of the charger using the variable resistor, didn't you effectively measured it directly again? I mean, the VR shouldn't be in-line not in parallel?
He was trying to put a resistive load on the charger and see if the voltage decreased
A perfect voltmeter has infinite input resistance, so won't load the circuit. To test the output with a load you have to add a low resistance in parallel as Clive did.
Infinity + 330 ohms = infinity
Infinity in parallel with 330 ohms = 330 ohms
It's still a load across the output of the power supply.
@@georgeprout42 Ok I think I get it now. Thanks for the explanation. It has to do with the multimeter. But why did the voltage increased? Sorry if the question is dumb.
@ it is a just an unregulated power supply, not a charger. The voltage went up slowly as it was charging a capacitor. A proper li-ion charger would deliver a constant (regulated) voltage and then switch to a constant current. I'm not mentioning numbers as I don't have datasheets in front of me, it's been a few days since I saw exactly what was going on and also I've had beer. It is an example of how NOT to do it 🤷♂️😉
Been a Big fan of your videos for well over 6 months now... I'm ashamed to have noticed I haven't been subscribed to you this whole time! I've Corrected this mistake now at least! XD
100-300 metre range (or 100-300 cm, judging from the text on the back). Hm... either way, I wonder how they prevent it from lighting things closer than 100 *m (or how they stop the light from travelling further). Those are some pretty special photons.
Says in huge letters on the front side: 100-300 M.
In smaller letters on the back humbly clarifies: 100-300 cm…
Specs in China are whatever you want them to be.
100-300 M is how far you can see when the fire starts ;-)
@@myofficegoes65 it's a torch, after all!
They could have been using the obscure architectural module "M", which is 0.1m. Lens angle seems to be optimized for lighting up stuff 100-300m away. Light intensity may be for 100-300cm.
I could be wrong, but I think you can get an app for your phone that allows it to display the reading from light sensors on the device and you can measure the light output of the flashlight that way
You do, but accuracy is not usually good so they're only useful for comparing light sources.
love the pink calculator