It took me around 10 minutes today after receiving battery powered ionizer with mail to open it up and found why charging current was so low. 5 minute later and one 2k resistor less in stock I was happy to see 500mAh charging, put damn thing away because I don't need it right now (or at all)....but that inner peace :)
I have been watching your videos for close to 2 years now. I have slowly googled the electrical circut terms, and then again when I couldn't remember. As well as trying to keep up with the math, I have luckily always loved math so that came easier than not, I have been slowly getting the concepts down about current flow and circuit logic. I recently caved and forced myself to get a nodemcu 8266, a pi pico, then eventually a mega. With leds, and simple things so far as circuts go, but pushing the code. But today, I looked at the circut board and started to see the diagram before you drew it. I understood what the purpose of curtain components was better than before, and things just clicked. Obviously not perfectly, but more so than before. I can't thank you enough for your diligence and dedication to your craft. I appreciate it.
very cool. I love electronics so much. lately ive been constantly nostalgic for it. I will die making attempting a career out of it. I wish I knew how better. U do not have scope? get scope. even an old one. omg i had a beautifull 600Mhz 6G samples with amber CRT and i broke the crt trying to repair. a grown man cried that day. I still do not know how to read gradicuel and do the math. noone ever says how in scope howto videos like wtf? (edit) nvrmnd i just figured it out, now i can probably figure a dirty formula. noone told me time was also metric.
I've been getting into MCU coding, too. Dave's Garage, the channel of Dave Plummer from MS, has a playlist for his LED stuff with ESP32. I found it really helpful, and in the end it links to his 'Night Driver' code for running RGB Leds, which has got some very cool effects to use as a basis for projects.
Thanks so much BigClive! Videos like these are so helpful, in fact, the thing that led me to this channel was your past video about the deadly camping light, I had just purchased it and was watching reviews. I saw your video and was horrified. That thing has probably burned peoples homes down. So I watch every video just to be aware of these sketchy products. They even fill batteries with sand and put them in powerbanks. Thanks Clive, you possibly saved me from burning down my home.
Funny to see this video highlighted. I'm working on a fogger for my daughters Hermit Crab habitat to raise the humidity. It was good to see you working with one.
@@olsmokey Strictly speaking it's not. The distinction is that energy is stored in the core as opposed to being coupled through it. Technically a flyback transformer isn't a transformer either.
@@Palmit_ I'm probably just being way too pedantic at this point. It is an inductor because it's being used to store energy. It's quite commonly called a transformer even though it's not primarily being used as one. The distinction is important in the operation of this circuit. The load is quite complex (essentially voltage dependent capacitor) and while some direct coupling is occurring most of the energy is transferred as a result of inductive flyback. This circuit would boost the voltage even without the turns ratio which is probably what I should have said to begin with.
Thanks for all you do. One additional point on your circuit analysis. I believe the capacitance of the piezoelectric material and the inductance of the transformer secondary winding form a parallel resonate circuit. Giving an additional increase in voltage when driven at the resonate frequency of 110khz. Typically these piezoelectric nebulizers are drive to 80 to120vpp. If you use a dvm (set to AC) across the piezoelectric device you can determine if this is the case. Doug Lewis
In my 1970s childhood if you had a model railway and you wanted the engines to produce scale "steam" there was an unsatisfactory system for having them emit electrically produced smoke instead by using a heating element in oil. You can see it in early episodes of the Thomas the Tank Engine TV series. These clouds of microdroplets look a lot more like steam, and would be 100% safe, non-toxic and easy to refill. I wonder if anyone has fitted them to a model engine?
There is a steam engine made by Brio number 33884 for the wooden train tracks. Sadly the atomizer module is quite small and the steam effect is also very minimal. I like the idea though and considering it runs on two AAA batteries and has to power a motor for propulsion it is a good toy.
Yes! One or two inventive model Railway enthusiasts were doing this last year and Hornby is working on this device for their latest not yet released ‘smoke fitted’ LNER P2 Locomotive
Wow Clive, you really do have a video for every topic. I was wondering if there would be a way to lock the control board onto one mode, possibly just with a jumper over the ICU. Would this be possible? Thanks
At 6:30, possibly the LC resonance amplifies the effect by another factor of Q if the piezo's capacitance is tuned to match the coils' inductance -- self plus mutual.
Thank you for this incredibly informative video! I'd never seen videos whit this kind of schematics. I appreciate the time and effort you put into creating such valuable content. Keep up the fantastic work!
I *was* going to check you out first but I didn't think you'd done one of these beasties! I didn't realise there were any holes until I'd broken mine :/ It baffled me how the juice got through but I'm now hoping to buy one of these modules to fix my Airwick Mis V1 ! Many thanks!
Wow I'm actually picking up more and more learning from your videos for my hobby. You are the man! Thank's again for the reply to my silly question lol Very Interesting Video!! A quite odd little piece of machinery in a way.
I have used these for a couple of years now they work quite well, unfortunately they tend to self destruct necessitating in a repair or replacement ( usually the piezo) as I run them with a few drops of Zaflora added to humidify the air with a fragrance but the liquid tends to contaminate and bung up the piezo. Cheap enough to replace though.
Fun to see! I recently got, free after rebate at a hardware store, four little USB-rechargable, 1oz ultrasonic humidifiers. (Figured even if it's terrible as a humidifier, it's a lipo and charge circuit for free) Other cheap humidifiers have also been on sale recently. Somebody must have made too many of the little atomizer parts... Might have to disassemble one of the four, see how similar they are to yours. It does put out a pretty sizable mist.
Many thanks for demystifying. Out of interest, a scope reading of a similar device showed 152v p/p at the piezo. Conversely a home brew using 555 and 12 v supply gave about 50v p/p so less effective.
I have one of those cool vapor humidifiers and it was on but the little atomizer disc that makes the vapor had a collection of bubbles on it. I stuck my finger on it to agitate the bubble off and boy thats a sensation I don't think I want to feel again. I wonder just how dangerous that was? Could it cause fluid in my finger to make captivate bubbles? It sort of felt like a shock you would get from those electric muscle stimulators. Sometimes I can still feel the tingles from it but I have a feeling its just my mind remembering the sensation as I'm writing this.
I once took apart an old mains-powered ultrasound humidifier. Got the parts in my hackable stuff bin and will probably use them for an experimental ultrasound cleaner project. And again, the way you pronounce "schematic" is so remarkable - I love it :) Cute calculator too!
Extend the wires, seal the back of the transducer with silicone, then dangle it submerged in a plexi water tank. The sound beam remains tight for at least 50cm. You can "see" the hotspot by using a liquid-crystal sheet (color-change sheet.) I've never tried sticking my finger in. Danger of internal burns! Focus it with a lens made of rubber or LDPE (perhaps 3D print an acoustic zoom-lens assembly.) The few-watts beam can melt thin plastic, such as plastic forks and spoons. A thin plastic cup full of air, inserted into the beam in water, will char and smoulder briefly before the hotspot melts through. Bounce the beam from a mirror (glass or metal slab,) and if spaced on a node, will create visible standing waves which trap bubbles in little flat disk-shapes.
A while back I wondered if it would be possible to atomize fuel, like Diesel or kerosine, using these modules to make it flamable like a whoofler. Never tried it though.
I made a video about that. If you search my videos for kerosene you should find it. The aroma versions of these do seem to use a light oil like kerosene as a carrier.
@@bigclivedotcom thanks Clive, found it. I'm subscribed to your channel for years now, but can't remember having seen it. Ah well, old age, I suppose. 🙂
Might be worthwhile looking up babbington atomisers. Jet of compressed air through a tiny hole. Over that hole flows the fuel. Best the air jet doesn't have much thickness fuel to flow through. Usually done by flowing fuel over curved surface like a door knob... But I found can also be achieved done by aiming a jet of fuel to near hole... Watch how water flowing out of tap in to Bath is very thin near where jet hits Bath, and then has what's called a hydraulic jump a certain distance Away. On my channel there's a video of an experiment I did with burning veg oil by this method. It does start to go wrong fairly as oil was escaping, getting hot, and then windscreen washer pump moving the oil died ... But until that happened, much of the oil was burning with a blue flame.
Also oil mists can *sometimes* be awkward to ignite if the air fuel ratio is off. with. Early on I'd tried spraying a mist towards a diesel glow plug that had been on long enough for it to glow red hot(12V 1ohm resistance... 144W heater?) , and all that happened was horrible smell of half burnt oil, and glow plug started cooling down rapidly. . NB Could submerge the glow plug in water and it was able to continue glowing. Also tried spark ignition... But car coil I was using wasn't able to dump enough energy to get the oil mist lit.
Thanks. Another interesting dissection. That microcontroller seems to be in a lot of cheap consumer electronics, assuming it's a mass produced "trade secret" (probably well known amongst Chinese engineers).
I wonder if it's mechanically symmetrical ...or instead, if submerged entirely, would it behave as a fluid-pump? Ah, that would only happen if the misting process stops working when the disk is reversed (if, say, the tiny holes were all cone-shaped. It wouldn't be unexpected.) Otherwise, this might be standard "nebulizer" physics, where pistoning of an air/liquid interface causes spontaneous growth of microscopic Faraday surface-waves, and the tips of the waves launch tiny droplets. The macro version is seen with a science museum's "Chinese Spouting Bowl," where the bell-like oscillation of a water-filled heavy brass bowl causes a vertical shower: spurting-tips of Faraday waves. Oscillating wine glasses full of liquid do similar, but usually the amplitude of the surface-waves is too small to produce droplets, and instead all we see are the patterns of tiny Faraday surface-waves. Playlist of nebulizer videos: ua-cam.com/play/PL87F690A21F36FEB3.html
My atomiser failed to work recently due to controller malfunction. The signal pin to switch the FET didn't work. I used arduino nano to generate the signal instead.
I don't know why but the first thing that came to mind when I saw the mist drifting across the oscilloscope screen was "It's Dracula's electronics lab" and I couldn't stop laughing.
Looks like the same thing being used in the hachette Titanic issue 3, many many people complaining that they can it it to smoke, a small amount of members can make it smoke but it's very little coming out of it? Maybe you could look at that when you have time?
My impression is that it is passing the switching transient in to the MOSFET gate, and if the controller gets locked up, you lose the transient, the MOSFET stops firing, and you lose the high frequency pulse train to the inductor.
The processor pinout looks like a PIC10F200. I measured a peak of about 160 volts on the output whilst trying to identify the inductor. Pressing your finger on the output pins without the transducer connected, yields a satisfactory tingle. The circuit also works well for the copper foil type slug repellant.
The lion kingdom made an air conditioner out of 3 of those, automating the button presses. It ended up creating more body odor than cooling during the day, but during the night, it could cool the room down more than it would naturally.
Funnily enough I've ordered this exact same one, the one sold on the Canadian site worked out to £2.54 and 71p postage. Not a bad deal all in all. Very nice to see the video and all the details.
Awesome video! Im trying to make some mushroom grow kits for friends and family and im trying to keep the cost down am much as possible so i can make a bunch of them. Do you think there would be a way to change the duration of the on/off timer of these misters? Id probably want it on like 5% of the time and while it would solve this issue, adding a timer outlet would add too much to the cost... Any ideas of a very cheap module that could be added to this or something? I was thinking maybe something with an arduino nano, but if there is something even cheaper than that it would be awesome. THanks!
The primary voltage is much higher than 5 volts. Basically this is the same as a car's ignition coil (without the capacitor). When the mos fet shortens and opens there will be a spike in the primary coil due to self-induction that will be transformed to the secondary site at a much higher voltage.
That thing looks like it would feed the MOSFET gate +/- 2.5V. Maybe the peaks are higher if it uses a narrower duty-cycle. I’m surprised it’s not a resonant circuit, but I guess the components are constant enough that it was found experimentally to be best at 110kHz so they stuck with that.
My reasoning is that it actually does resonate. The piezo element starts as a capacitor and there is the section of the inductance (or autotransformer, if you like) That forms series resonance. Then the piezo element starts dominating with its mechanical resonance. A series resonance in principle becomes zero impedance, but there is some current limiting happening due to the other coil and if the drive is kept away from the resonance peak, it can run without turning into an effective short circuit. If I had it, I would measure the piezo resonance, probably with a VNA. Or outright with a spectrum analyzer. My Control Systems Analyzer would otherwise be the ideal instrument, but its frequency span is only up to 100 kHz. In any case, I believe the drive is tuned to operate at the lower slope of the piezo resonance curve.
I have something like this in an 18650 battery powered fan with a mister. I put flavored seltzer in mine and whatever flavor I put in it smells like that flavor. I had to take the wick out because it was interfering with the mister and now it's misting up a storm.
Now I'm wondering if there ever were any "vay-ping" (avoiding algorithm here) devices using this principle. Seems way more efficient than the typical heating element. You might consider looking into acquiring an attenuating probe for your scope to prevent killing it with spiky signals.
caaan this transssducer device be used to destttroy the forced government ingect able by applying it immediately to prickpoint? i understand the waaxx is quite fragile. further research indicates science papers who show the spikes following off if applying high freq ultra zonic
03:32 to me it's 5.1k not 510R reading the body. Because normally they put and R or just 510. Which t should be a bit weird due the low voltage/current into the game. But ... up there, there is a 0 more than what's expected. Did you test with a multimeter?
very cool little module. you recently showed one of those piezo atomizers of a Air-wick jobbie. i like to know the number of that MCU, it could be used in a few things i was thinking of.. pity. can always work around it to get the same affect, but having that little MCU would be cool..
What's the capacitance of the piezo element? Waay waaaaaay back, when those Motorola piezo tweeters hit the surplus market, I used something similar but in a tuned circuit. The elements were 0.12uF if I remember correctly. Hitting 'em with 25kHz to keep kids away was pretty easy with a resonant (auto)transformer. Could get 70V sinewaves across those beasties.
Great video! It has helped me understand the circuit very well. I have a problem that I can't seem to solve, and perhaps you can help me. I've bypassed the switch to power the circuit directly through an external relay. My intention is to simulate the smoke release of a miniature car, so I need the circuit to activate immediately when the relay closes and powers the circuit. However, there's an almost two-second delay from when the circuit is powered until the dehumidifier activates. What could be the cause, and how could I fix it? Thanks a lot in advance.
I wonder if soldering across the switch contacts is OK so that a timer can be used to commence atomising. (To mist plants in my greenhouse during the day when the humidity is low).
Hello Clive, literally working on a project involving these rn. If you don't mind, how would I wire a few of their switches together to make all of them go off at once?
If they use a common power supply or have all the negative rails connected, then you should be able to common the buttons on a single switch with this version.
I'm interested in making the right hand side of the circuit, i.e. without the MCU and pushbutton. Most of the components are straight forward, but I'm not clear on how to find the inductor. Is it off-the-shelf or do you purchase a core and wind it by hand?
It would be interesting to know how to make a custom piezoelectric disc or plate of a determined size? What would the fundamental requirements to fulfill and how can one be made that meets local requirements.
You can get a wide range of audio piezo disks. These ones are in a reduced range of sizes due to their specialist nature. You also get thicker high power disks for underwater atomisation.
I wonder if it would change the desirable positive electrical charge of a colloidal silver solution if it was used for atomizing such a solution? I will be very grateful if you can tell me the answer to this question... is the piezo electric surface capeable of charging silver in a solution to a negative change? Thanks!
@@bigclivedotcom any idea how I can figure out the value of this inductor? I'm trying to recreate the schematic for a new pcb design. I'm using a micro to generate the signal and also the same cap and resistor values, but I'm not sure what inductor specs to use.
I need more instructions on how to put make them mist the right way I have tried many things like floating and averythingnbut it always stops after w while because its noch perfectly connected to the fluid
Do you think these could easily be driven with an arduino r3? Im new to the hobby, im also a reptile owner. Recently had 2 expensive misters konk out on me. Realised the atomizers work just fine but the circuitry was fried. Ended up ordering a few similar pieces and wpuld like some help ( if possible) on how i could set this up to be controlled by the arduino r3. Thanks alot !
I wonder if something like this could be used in Cosplay applications where you want wisps of smoke to issue forth from parts of the costume. Particularly as you can use just water without needing to add glycol or similar. Gonna have to experiment with this :D
Meticulous. Very interesting. We received a variant of that device for Christmas from our niece. It is filled with water and a few drops of essential oil and then it is plugged into a USB power supply. Hey presto, water vapour and ensuing stink is emitted from the slot in the top cover. Good to know how it works
I'd be keen to test the secondary winding inductance and Piezo's capacitances' natural resonance frequency. Perhaps the stock coil is +/- 2 turns off of the best inductance? P.S. Was the primary the inner coil winding?
Sir I am from India I am not engineer on 9th technical person please tell me where we connection battery there is 2 one more thing can we increase fog or missed humble request please tell me
Hey Clive, always love the vids. Why do some simple circuits (in the 80s/90s) have blobs over them. I was thinking about melody card etc. What was that about?
It's called COB Chip On Board. Instead of soldering on an integrated circuit in its own package, they bond the bare chip directly to the PCB, put bond wires onto pads and then cover it in black resin to protect it from light. It's still used a lot.
Clive, how are you getting on with those desoldering needles? I got a set but managed to break the two most useful sized ones quickly. I've tried looking for a better quality set but it appears nobody does them.
@@bigclivedotcom I've ordered another set and I think I'm going to pull them from the handles and use epoxy putty to hold them about 5mm deeper. I might experiment with a different handle profile too.
Could one hack this, and place a motion or say a "seat pressure" sensor for schhhhhhhpritzing in certain less than aromatic rooms of the house? If so, would you hack it on the mp connection to zero or directly on the switch already there?
Add the graticules across the wavelength and multiply by the time per graticule to get the total time. Then divide 1 (second) by that time to get the frequency.
Wow, desoldered the parts, that was pretty good I thought. Unwinding the transformer was impressive. Pink calculator.. for that transformer ratio, perhaps round down to 5? If one were to scope it, would a very small cap (parallel, 22 or 100 puff) knock off some of the spiky bits, perhaps as a first look?
Hi Big Clive Dot Com, I want to know whether I could run three piezos on one of these circuits. I want to fill three cubic foot of volume with fog per second. I have 6 modules and was hoping they might be able to power 18 piezos. Alternatively would I need to build some kind of amplifier? Jezz
![12 Head Mist Maker Review [Dyna-Living]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/jekXeBRZnGY/mqdefault.jpg)
Interesting video, hopefully it can calm my urge to dismantle the new Essential Oil Diffuser in the hallway... for now.
do it. it's the law. it'll itch at back of your brain forever if you dont.hehe. look forward to the vid :)
I think I've looked at the water/oil ones in the past, and also the Airwick Mist version.
Control yourself, Control yourself, controller… hmm must see the controller!
It took me around 10 minutes today after receiving battery powered ionizer with mail to open it up and found why charging current was so low. 5 minute later and one 2k resistor less in stock I was happy to see 500mAh charging, put damn thing away because I don't need it right now (or at all)....but that inner peace :)
I don't use any electronic device (except phone) without opening it up and checking what's inside...
I have been watching your videos for close to 2 years now. I have slowly googled the electrical circut terms, and then again when I couldn't remember. As well as trying to keep up with the math, I have luckily always loved math so that came easier than not, I have been slowly getting the concepts down about current flow and circuit logic.
I recently caved and forced myself to get a nodemcu 8266, a pi pico, then eventually a mega. With leds, and simple things so far as circuts go, but pushing the code.
But today, I looked at the circut board and started to see the diagram before you drew it. I understood what the purpose of curtain components was better than before, and things just clicked. Obviously not perfectly, but more so than before.
I can't thank you enough for your diligence and dedication to your craft. I appreciate it.
very cool. I love electronics so much. lately ive been constantly nostalgic for it. I will die making attempting a career out of it. I wish I knew how better. U do not have scope? get scope. even an old one. omg i had a beautifull 600Mhz 6G samples with amber CRT and i broke the crt trying to repair. a grown man cried that day. I still do not know how to read gradicuel and do the math. noone ever says how in scope howto videos like wtf? (edit) nvrmnd i just figured it out, now i can probably figure a dirty formula. noone told me time was also metric.
I 2nd that👉🇬🇧👈
I've been getting into MCU coding, too. Dave's Garage, the channel of Dave Plummer from MS, has a playlist for his LED stuff with ESP32. I found it really helpful, and in the end it links to his 'Night Driver' code for running RGB Leds, which has got some very cool effects to use as a basis for projects.
Thanks so much BigClive! Videos like these are so helpful, in fact, the thing that led me to this channel was your past video about the deadly camping light, I had just purchased it and was watching reviews. I saw your video and was horrified. That thing has probably burned peoples homes down. So I watch every video just to be aware of these sketchy products. They even fill batteries with sand and put them in powerbanks. Thanks Clive, you possibly saved me from burning down my home.
Appreciate the thorough reversing, the sacrifice of that board is not in vain
Funny to see this video highlighted. I'm working on a fogger for my daughters Hermit Crab habitat to raise the humidity. It was good to see you working with one.
Interesting device. It's a tapped inductor as opposed to a transformer. The output is probably much greater than 30V but will depend on the load.
It's an autotransformer.
@@olsmokey Strictly speaking it's not. The distinction is that energy is stored in the core as opposed to being coupled through it. Technically a flyback transformer isn't a transformer either.
confused by the comments and the terminology. is inductor, or no?
@@Palmit_ - inductor, yes. They are discussing the different ways that the magnetic field is used.
@@Palmit_ I'm probably just being way too pedantic at this point. It is an inductor because it's being used to store energy. It's quite commonly called a transformer even though it's not primarily being used as one. The distinction is important in the operation of this circuit. The load is quite complex (essentially voltage dependent capacitor) and while some direct coupling is occurring most of the energy is transferred as a result of inductive flyback. This circuit would boost the voltage even without the turns ratio which is probably what I should have said to begin with.
Thanks for all you do.
One additional point on your circuit analysis. I believe the capacitance of the piezoelectric material and the inductance of the transformer secondary winding form a parallel resonate circuit. Giving an additional increase in voltage when driven at the resonate frequency of 110khz. Typically these piezoelectric nebulizers are drive to 80 to120vpp. If you use a dvm (set to AC) across the piezoelectric device you can determine if this is the case.
Doug Lewis
In my 1970s childhood if you had a model railway and you wanted the engines to produce scale "steam" there was an unsatisfactory system for having them emit electrically produced smoke instead by using a heating element in oil. You can see it in early episodes of the Thomas the Tank Engine TV series. These clouds of microdroplets look a lot more like steam, and would be 100% safe, non-toxic and easy to refill. I wonder if anyone has fitted them to a model engine?
Had exactly the same thought myself!
There is a steam engine made by Brio number 33884 for the wooden train tracks. Sadly the atomizer module is quite small and the steam effect is also very minimal. I like the idea though and considering it runs on two AAA batteries and has to power a motor for propulsion it is a good toy.
Yes! One or two inventive model Railway enthusiasts were doing this last year and Hornby is working on this device for their latest not yet released ‘smoke fitted’ LNER P2 Locomotive
Had a nice Lehman model train (LGB G scale) with that oil .. still remember the smell
I just loaded up the train cars with weight till the electronics would let the smoke out. Gave a nice effect, though short, sadly.
Working on a project with piezo atomizers! This was a crazy good shortcut. Thank you very much! Greetings from Munich!
I have quite a few videos with piezo atomiser schematics.
Wow Clive, you really do have a video for every topic. I was wondering if there would be a way to lock the control board onto one mode, possibly just with a jumper over the ICU. Would this be possible? Thanks
The modes in these tend to be hard coded in the software.
At 6:30, possibly the LC resonance amplifies the effect by another factor of Q if the piezo's capacitance is tuned to match the coils' inductance -- self plus mutual.
Thank you for this incredibly informative video! I'd never seen videos whit this kind of schematics. I appreciate the time and effort you put into creating such valuable content. Keep up the fantastic work!
Thank you Clive, especially as you've entertained me but not prompted me to buy multiples of the unit. :)
I *was* going to check you out first but I didn't think you'd done one of these beasties! I didn't realise there were any holes until I'd broken mine :/
It baffled me how the juice got through but I'm now hoping to buy one of these modules to fix my Airwick Mis V1 ! Many thanks!
Wow I'm actually picking up more and more learning from your videos for my hobby. You are the man! Thank's again for the reply to my silly question lol Very Interesting Video!! A quite odd little piece of machinery in a way.
I have used these for a couple of years now they work quite well, unfortunately they tend to self destruct necessitating in a repair or replacement ( usually the piezo) as I run them with a few drops of Zaflora added to humidify the air with a fragrance but the liquid tends to contaminate and bung up the piezo. Cheap enough to replace though.
Excelente! I bought one to make a Dragons Breath, do you think it is possible to couple a transistor to the MOSFET to drive some leds?
"Atomiser" is such a fun word - but "Discombobulator" or perhaps "Illudium Q-36 Space Modulator" would have so much more sparkle and pizzazz.
My mate Marvin used to have one of those, it stopped working so he ended up using it to catch the oil drips from his old BSA Motorbike.
Just what you see.
Fun to see! I recently got, free after rebate at a hardware store, four little USB-rechargable, 1oz ultrasonic humidifiers. (Figured even if it's terrible as a humidifier, it's a lipo and charge circuit for free) Other cheap humidifiers have also been on sale recently. Somebody must have made too many of the little atomizer parts... Might have to disassemble one of the four, see how similar they are to yours. It does put out a pretty sizable mist.
I've featured those water mister units in a video.
Many thanks for demystifying. Out of interest, a scope reading of a similar device showed 152v p/p at the piezo. Conversely a home brew using 555 and 12 v supply gave about 50v p/p so less effective.
thanks - I really needed to see that waveform ❤️
Thanks Big Clive - I ordered 10. I'd like to find out if these will be useful for cooling a small room on a hot dry, Australian day.
I have one of those cool vapor humidifiers and it was on but the little atomizer disc that makes the vapor had a collection of bubbles on it. I stuck my finger on it to agitate the bubble off and boy thats a sensation I don't think I want to feel again. I wonder just how dangerous that was? Could it cause fluid in my finger to make captivate bubbles? It sort of felt like a shock you would get from those electric muscle stimulators. Sometimes I can still feel the tingles from it but I have a feeling its just my mind remembering the sensation as I'm writing this.
It can give a very strong sensation. It's highly unlikely there was any damage done to your finger.
I love your video's! Following you for years, keep 'em comming :D
Morning Clive I like atomizer and your videos both go well together
That technique of ac driving a MOSFET is a nice way to prevent run away if the uC locks up as you said.
I once took apart an old mains-powered ultrasound humidifier. Got the parts in my hackable stuff bin and will probably use them for an experimental ultrasound cleaner project.
And again, the way you pronounce "schematic" is so remarkable - I love it :)
Cute calculator too!
Extend the wires, seal the back of the transducer with silicone, then dangle it submerged in a plexi water tank. The sound beam remains tight for at least 50cm. You can "see" the hotspot by using a liquid-crystal sheet (color-change sheet.) I've never tried sticking my finger in. Danger of internal burns! Focus it with a lens made of rubber or LDPE (perhaps 3D print an acoustic zoom-lens assembly.) The few-watts beam can melt thin plastic, such as plastic forks and spoons. A thin plastic cup full of air, inserted into the beam in water, will char and smoulder briefly before the hotspot melts through. Bounce the beam from a mirror (glass or metal slab,) and if spaced on a node, will create visible standing waves which trap bubbles in little flat disk-shapes.
A while back I wondered if it would be possible to atomize fuel, like Diesel or kerosine, using these modules to make it flamable like a whoofler. Never tried it though.
I made a video about that. If you search my videos for kerosene you should find it. The aroma versions of these do seem to use a light oil like kerosene as a carrier.
@@bigclivedotcom thanks Clive, found it. I'm subscribed to your channel for years now, but can't remember having seen it. Ah well, old age, I suppose. 🙂
Don't fuel injectors already do this?
Might be worthwhile looking up babbington atomisers.
Jet of compressed air through a tiny hole. Over that hole flows the fuel.
Best the air jet doesn't have much thickness fuel to flow through. Usually done by flowing fuel over curved surface like a door knob... But I found can also be achieved done by aiming a jet of fuel to near hole... Watch how water flowing out of tap in to Bath is very thin near where jet hits Bath, and then has what's called a hydraulic jump a certain distance Away.
On my channel there's a video of an experiment I did with burning veg oil by this method. It does start to go wrong fairly as oil was escaping, getting hot, and then windscreen washer pump moving the oil died ... But until that happened, much of the oil was burning with a blue flame.
Also oil mists can *sometimes* be awkward to ignite if the air fuel ratio is off. with. Early on I'd tried spraying a mist towards a diesel glow plug that had been on long enough for it to glow red hot(12V 1ohm resistance... 144W heater?) , and all that happened was horrible smell of half burnt oil, and glow plug started cooling down rapidly. . NB Could submerge the glow plug in water and it was able to continue glowing.
Also tried spark ignition... But car coil I was using wasn't able to dump enough energy to get the oil mist lit.
Thanks. Another interesting dissection. That microcontroller seems to be in a lot of cheap consumer electronics, assuming it's a mass produced "trade secret" (probably well known amongst Chinese engineers).
I wonder if it's mechanically symmetrical ...or instead, if submerged entirely, would it behave as a fluid-pump? Ah, that would only happen if the misting process stops working when the disk is reversed (if, say, the tiny holes were all cone-shaped. It wouldn't be unexpected.) Otherwise, this might be standard "nebulizer" physics, where pistoning of an air/liquid interface causes spontaneous growth of microscopic Faraday surface-waves, and the tips of the waves launch tiny droplets.
The macro version is seen with a science museum's "Chinese Spouting Bowl," where the bell-like oscillation of a water-filled heavy brass bowl causes a vertical shower: spurting-tips of Faraday waves. Oscillating wine glasses full of liquid do similar, but usually the amplitude of the surface-waves is too small to produce droplets, and instead all we see are the patterns of tiny Faraday surface-waves.
Playlist of nebulizer videos: ua-cam.com/play/PL87F690A21F36FEB3.html
My atomiser failed to work recently due to controller malfunction. The signal pin to switch the FET didn't work. I used arduino nano to generate the signal instead.
I don't know why but the first thing that came to mind when I saw the mist drifting across the oscilloscope screen was "It's Dracula's electronics lab" and I couldn't stop laughing.
Looks like the same thing being used in the hachette Titanic issue 3, many many people complaining that they can it it to smoke, a small amount of members can make it smoke but it's very little coming out of it? Maybe you could look at that when you have time?
Very well explained
I was just looking at these because I'm growing some mushrooms and they need controlled humidity , what a fun coincidence.
You can get humidity control modules on eBay too.
A very good Tuesday morning to you sir
That failsafe cap design is really neat
Cool to see the scope! Thanks BC :)
I think the series capacitor is a clever way to half the gate voltage and limit the drain current.
My impression is that it is passing the switching transient in to the MOSFET gate, and if the controller gets locked up, you lose the transient, the MOSFET stops firing, and you lose the high frequency pulse train to the inductor.
Thanks from Texas Clive
The processor pinout looks like a PIC10F200.
I measured a peak of about 160 volts on the output whilst trying to identify the inductor.
Pressing your finger on the output pins without the transducer connected, yields a satisfactory tingle.
The circuit also works well for the copper foil type slug repellant.
The lion kingdom made an air conditioner out of 3 of those, automating the button presses. It ended up creating more body odor than cooling during the day, but during the night, it could cool the room down more than it would naturally.
Is the lion kingdom a place? What are you talking about?
I was so confused until I looked at his username
Funnily enough I've ordered this exact same one, the one sold on the Canadian site worked out to £2.54 and 71p postage. Not a bad deal all in all. Very nice to see the video and all the details.
I've been doing more tests. The module seems to work down to less than 3V.
Awesome video! Im trying to make some mushroom grow kits for friends and family and im trying to keep the cost down am much as possible so i can make a bunch of them. Do you think there would be a way to change the duration of the on/off timer of these misters? Id probably want it on like 5% of the time and while it would solve this issue, adding a timer outlet would add too much to the cost... Any ideas of a very cheap module that could be added to this or something? I was thinking maybe something with an arduino nano, but if there is something even cheaper than that it would be awesome. THanks!
It's controlled by the microcontrollers software. You could use a humidity module and an atomiser.
I got one in my garage that, i believe, is 240v three-phase but it's designed to remove cutting oil from brass and has heaters
Awesome big Clive
I just finished my intergalactic supercomputer 96 LEDs. I just need to print a 3D frame for it. Love your videos
just received those 2 weeks ago... they are awesome...
The primary voltage is much higher than 5 volts.
Basically this is the same as a car's ignition coil (without the capacitor).
When the mos fet shortens and opens there will be a spike in the primary coil due to self-induction that will be transformed to the secondary site at a much higher voltage.
I would buy this just for the effect. Modern manufacturing is quite impressive.
That thing looks like it would feed the MOSFET gate +/- 2.5V. Maybe the peaks are higher if it uses a narrower duty-cycle. I’m surprised it’s not a resonant circuit, but I guess the components are constant enough that it was found experimentally to be best at 110kHz so they stuck with that.
My reasoning is that it actually does resonate. The piezo element starts as a capacitor and there is the section of the inductance (or autotransformer, if you like) That forms series resonance. Then the piezo element starts dominating with its mechanical resonance. A series resonance in principle becomes zero impedance, but there is some current limiting happening due to the other coil and if the drive is kept away from the resonance peak, it can run without turning into an effective short circuit. If I had it, I would measure the piezo resonance, probably with a VNA. Or outright with a spectrum analyzer. My Control Systems Analyzer would otherwise be the ideal instrument, but its frequency span is only up to 100 kHz. In any case, I believe the drive is tuned to operate at the lower slope of the piezo resonance curve.
I have something like this in an 18650 battery powered fan with a mister. I put flavored seltzer in mine and whatever flavor I put in it smells like that flavor. I had to take the wick out because it was interfering with the mister and now it's misting up a storm.
thanks. Clear and professional.
Now I'm wondering if there ever were any "vay-ping" (avoiding algorithm here) devices using this principle. Seems way more efficient than the typical heating element.
You might consider looking into acquiring an attenuating probe for your scope to prevent killing it with spiky signals.
I'm afraid the ultrasonics used will eventually make all your teeth crack.
They will be nice and clean but cracked.
@@marklatimer7333 Ah, well, in the real world everything is a compromise. ;>)
There were, but the heated version is simpler, cheaper and more reliable.
caaan this transssducer device be used to destttroy the forced government ingect able by applying it immediately to prickpoint? i understand the waaxx is quite fragile. further research indicates science papers who show the spikes following off if applying high freq ultra zonic
@@esecallum Not effectively. But if you cut your arm off fast enough the ingect won't have time to reach the rest of your body.
03:32 to me it's 5.1k not 510R reading the body. Because normally they put and R or just 510. Which t should be a bit weird due the low voltage/current into the game. But ... up there, there is a 0 more than what's expected. Did you test with a multimeter?
Thank you, this is going in a model train 👏
very cool little module. you recently showed one of those piezo atomizers of a Air-wick jobbie. i like to know the number of that MCU, it could be used in a few things i was thinking of.. pity. can always work around it to get the same affect, but having that little MCU would be cool..
What's the capacitance of the piezo element?
Waay waaaaaay back, when those Motorola piezo tweeters hit the surplus market, I used something similar but in a tuned circuit. The elements were 0.12uF if I remember correctly. Hitting 'em with 25kHz to keep kids away was pretty easy with a resonant (auto)transformer. Could get 70V sinewaves across those beasties.
Great video! It has helped me understand the circuit very well. I have a problem that I can't seem to solve, and perhaps you can help me. I've bypassed the switch to power the circuit directly through an external relay. My intention is to simulate the smoke release of a miniature car, so I need the circuit to activate immediately when the relay closes and powers the circuit. However, there's an almost two-second delay from when the circuit is powered until the dehumidifier activates. What could be the cause, and how could I fix it? Thanks a lot in advance.
I wonder if soldering across the switch contacts is OK so that a timer can be used to commence atomising. (To mist plants in my greenhouse during the day when the humidity is low).
This brings back memories of your smoking pink ring video...
Very interesting. Just ordered a couple to play with :-)
Those enlarged photos, genius LOL
Clive do you keep all these pictures and schematics .... where :) ????
Technically speaking the images are on Google drive and the schematics are in notepads.
Somehow I expected that there is some feedback from the piezo to find exact resonance frequency on fly...
Hello Clive, literally working on a project involving these rn. If you don't mind, how would I wire a few of their switches together to make all of them go off at once?
If they use a common power supply or have all the negative rails connected, then you should be able to common the buttons on a single switch with this version.
I'm interested in making the right hand side of the circuit, i.e. without the MCU and pushbutton. Most of the components are straight forward, but I'm not clear on how to find the inductor. Is it off-the-shelf or do you purchase a core and wind it by hand?
It would be interesting to know how to make a custom piezoelectric disc or plate of a determined size? What would the fundamental requirements to fulfill and how can one be made that meets local requirements.
You can get a wide range of audio piezo disks. These ones are in a reduced range of sizes due to their specialist nature. You also get thicker high power disks for underwater atomisation.
I wonder if it would change the desirable positive electrical charge of a colloidal silver solution if it was used for atomizing such a solution? I will be very grateful if you can tell me the answer to this question... is the piezo electric surface capeable of charging silver in a solution to a negative change? Thanks!
Hello, how to turn off and on that module using relay? Thank you
Mine just came in lol. Perfect timing!
@BigCliveDotCom, 07:05 an isolated secondary, I think NOT, it’s an auto transformer!
The disk is only across the secondary section. But technically yes, it's an auto transformer.
@@bigclivedotcom any idea how I can figure out the value of this inductor? I'm trying to recreate the schematic for a new pcb design. I'm using a micro to generate the signal and also the same cap and resistor values, but I'm not sure what inductor specs to use.
@@rickyjohnson1965 You could test with a suitable component tester, or break one and count the windings.
So...how does it vape? Did you try putting nic salt fluid on the wick?
What happened to the Keysight scope?
It's still here. As used recently for scoping the wireless LED coil.
I need more instructions on how to put make them mist the right way I have tried many things like floating and averythingnbut it always stops after w while because its noch perfectly connected to the fluid
I'm never 100% sure with things that contain a transformer, but should this circuit have a flyback diode on the primary coil to protect the MOSFET?
The point of the circuit is to fly the current to the other "leg" to produce high voltage for the piezo.
Do you think these could easily be driven with an arduino r3? Im new to the hobby, im also a reptile owner. Recently had 2 expensive misters konk out on me. Realised the atomizers work just fine but the circuitry was fried. Ended up ordering a few similar pieces and wpuld like some help ( if possible) on how i could set this up to be controlled by the arduino r3. Thanks alot !
I wonder if something like this could be used in Cosplay applications where you want wisps of smoke to issue forth from parts of the costume. Particularly as you can use just water without needing to add glycol or similar.
Gonna have to experiment with this :D
Meticulous. Very interesting. We received a variant of that device for Christmas from our niece. It is filled with water and a few drops of essential oil and then it is plugged into a USB power supply. Hey presto, water vapour and ensuing stink is emitted from the slot in the top cover. Good to know how it works
I'd be keen to test the secondary winding inductance and Piezo's capacitances' natural resonance frequency.
Perhaps the stock coil is +/- 2 turns off of the best inductance?
P.S. Was the primary the inner coil winding?
The primary was the inner coil.
@@bigclivedotcom Thanks for the reply and its as it should be. I really wonder is it exactly on maximum "Q" frequency ever?
Oh nice! I have one of these to play with.
is it possible to disable the button? i want it to be automatic can you please tell me how to do it?
Hey, I have that oscilloscope too!
I'll have to add one of these mist generators to a robot sometime, might make a nice prank.
is there any benchmark on the max water output of the piezo?
It may depend on the way it's used.
One of these was in the lastest build your own titanic in 1000 parts magazine release for smoke generation in the funnels
Sir I am from India I am not engineer on 9th technical person please tell me where we connection battery there is 2 one more thing can we increase fog or missed humble request please tell me
It can run from a USB power bank, but does not produce a lot of mist.
I want to run with two pencil cell 1 Mini Nano motor pump one fog to missed forger for my project
I fried the op-amp buffer of one of my scopes with a mini generator trying to see it's wave form.
The output to the disks is quite spiky and high voltage.
Hey Clive, always love the vids. Why do some simple circuits (in the 80s/90s) have blobs over them. I was thinking about melody card etc. What was that about?
It's called COB Chip On Board. Instead of soldering on an integrated circuit in its own package, they bond the bare chip directly to the PCB, put bond wires onto pads and then cover it in black resin to protect it from light. It's still used a lot.
Is the capacitor and pull-down resistor on the output of the MCU also acting as a high-pass filter? it could explain the unusual values.
Yes, it make spikes from pulses and halves the voltage, so that there is less current but more di/dt on the inductor and more voltage across it.
I tried to make one myself, it just made the crystal material dissolve into the water
If you're worried about spikes when probing, use a resistor?
I imssed this 9 days ago! 😱 Well I see it now ❤ Very clever littl devices makes a nice steam effect.
I'm guessing it was open early for patreons
@@DanOutdoorsUK I am a patreon, 🤣👍👍
Clive, how are you getting on with those desoldering needles? I got a set but managed to break the two most useful sized ones quickly. I've tried looking for a better quality set but it appears nobody does them.
I use them from time to time. Only really when there are multiple pins that need to be cleared on a single component.
@@bigclivedotcom I've ordered another set and I think I'm going to pull them from the handles and use epoxy putty to hold them about 5mm deeper. I might experiment with a different handle profile too.
Could one hack this, and place a motion or say a "seat pressure" sensor for schhhhhhhpritzing in certain less than aromatic rooms of the house? If so, would you hack it on the mp connection to zero or directly on the switch already there?
how is that o-scope gradicule/division conversion math done? i have been trying to discover for a while now. nobody on youtube explains how.
Add the graticules across the wavelength and multiply by the time per graticule to get the total time. Then divide 1 (second) by that time to get the frequency.
Have you tried one under (below) goods yet lol
Wow, desoldered the parts, that was pretty good I thought. Unwinding the transformer was impressive. Pink calculator.. for that transformer ratio, perhaps round down to 5? If one were to scope it, would a very small cap (parallel, 22 or 100 puff) knock off some of the spiky bits, perhaps as a first look?
Great job bless you
Hi Big Clive Dot Com, I want to know whether I could run three piezos on one of these circuits. I want to fill three cubic foot of volume with fog per second. I have 6 modules and was hoping they might be able to power 18 piezos. Alternatively would I need to build some kind of amplifier? Jezz
You might be better with a pond fogger.
Thanks. I'll see what I can find, but it needs to run on 12vdc.
Does this three-legged coil have a special name? please help
It's effectively a custom wound transformer.
could this be used to wick up and atomise the liquid from glass stink bomb vials, would it be counted as chemical weapon?