Best side-glow fibre optic I've seen
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- Given that these came from a pound shop (UK dollar store) I wasn't expecting too much, even if they did cost a bit more than a pound. But when I tried one out it had the linear consistency of electroluminescent wire, but with an LED source.
The resistor on the PCB is strange. Almost like a design error, unless it's intended as some sort of fuse if the chip fails. It really feels like it was supposed to limit the LED current.
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#ElectronicsCreators
3:15 I was thinking that was the smallest and most oddly placed connector I'd ever seen, and wondering what it was for until you grabbed it and I realized it wasn't part of the photo.
I thought the same! 🤣
Me too
same here
I thought damn, why would they put a miniature of the usb thing itself there.... oh 🤣
Wow. I'm impressed with how even the illumination is. If you saw this at a glance, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's EL.
I had one of these cables for almost a year now, they start to fade in random spots after like 5-6 months
And the type-c end self-destructs both the cable and the phone's port
Indeed! I had a similar cable that used elwire. The noise and interference from the little inverter made it too annoying to use.
I have the blue one and it throws off a lot of light. Used it last week during a power outage and it provided enough illumination to avoid tripping over anything in an open plan area of 63 square metres. I was impressed with it.
In the 80s, this is what I thought computer cables would look like in the future.
I'd love to see a server room with all the data cables and distribution panels doing that effect. Different speeds for amount of traffic in each cable?
So did many SF set decorators :)
"We don't bother with turning on the lights, because the cabling does fine"
Tron
@@tncorgi92 that's a neat idea
I have one similar, but it also somewhat indicates charge percentage. The more charge it feeds, the faster it goes. Near the end it gets pretty slow, and then stops, and after a few seconds just turns off completely. I've never been able to find another one, but it's super pretty _and_ useful at the same time. I want another one. :(
Please let me know when you find one, that sounds SUPER useful.
I made a video about one of those. It was electroluminescent.
Had one of those too, in green. But being EL wire it was pretty terribly faded after about a year, and then I trashed it by jamming it in a phone that was full of concrete dust
That is a nice effect. Sometimes I just buy these cheap USB light-up leads and use them as festive decorations plugged into a USB socket on the TV or whatever.
I was thinking the same, ie. using them as just decorative lights.
I'd get a headache staring at it for loo long. Would look great if static though or a slow brightness change.
I like it. "Watch your eyes". That is the most interesting, and correct sentences I ever heard.
Honestly, that "broken" chip at the end with the 3 flashing LEDs would make a pretty decent Star Trek medical device as is XD
Once again, I do this once in a while, but I just have to say again, your videos are fantastic! Your presentation, the subjects.. all of it, just awesome! ❤
I've been binge watching big Clive videos, I have no idea what any of it means, but I can't stop watching.
omg same
I remember seeing a similar style of cable for for the old iPhones and iPads. They were nowhere near as bright back then but the 'flow' rate changed depending on the amount of current draw, fast when first charging, slow or static when the device was almost full.
Those were electroluminescent and fantastic...but I've not been able to find them in years
@@grayrabbit2211 I've seen a few on AliExpress not too long ago but they're definitely a lot harder to find these days. As you mentioned, the ones I saw on AliExpress are still using EL for the flowing effect even though some use the term 'Dynamic LED'.
@@grayrabbit2211 I have one as well. After only a few days it stopped working properly - it shuts off the light show after a few seconds now
Yep yep yep, came here to say that. Mine's only lightly used and so still working! (It's the one I keep in the car for the maybe-once-a-year emergency charging need.) ^_^
I love you watching you faff around with chewy plastic
The red cable might have lower current by switching the three LEDs "ON" with a shorter duty cycle. Red LEDs are lower voltage than blue so they may have had to reduce the higher current by reducing the ON duty cycle. Thanks, Clive.
I'm probably going to end up opening the red one.
@@bigclivedotcomif you open the red one, check two things I'm curious about.
Does the top ferule contain a mirror to reflect the light back down the fiber? And i suspect the white strand has the same refractive index as the fiber, where they touch the 100% internal reflexion of the fiber will disappear leading to the even light dissapation.
@@bigclivedotcom Please check if the fiber has a retro reflector on the other end helping a better uniform glow.
@@bigclivedotcom A little disapointing you didnt chose to destroy the pink one right away.
@@bigclivedotcom red one probably has the resistor on the negative side of the chip so it's actually doing something lol
I bought a pack of 2 of these about 2 years ago, one is all green, and the other is red, green, blue. They have both been plugged in 24/7 since then. The intensity has gone down slightly on both of them, and one LED has failed in the all green one. They have lasted much longer than any E.L. cable I've owned, and kept their brightness much longer also.
Beautiful cables. It would've been interesting to see the waveforms on an oscilloscope 👁
Great Video
Try swapping the resistor out? Maybe it's being used to configure current limiting or the speed of the strobing?
I wonder if you could put a current shunt on the 5v rail and measure it with a tiny micro-then use the LEDs to show how much current is being drawn by plugged-in devices? This definitely has possibilities for use beyond just being pretty.
"the speed of the strobing" was my first thought...
I bought one that did the exact same thing. Very useful. I could tell if it was almost done by looking across the room
@@jjhack3r That sounds really useful. How do you search for something like that?
I wonder what'll happen if it's used for a 9v "quickcharge" or similar phone and supply?
@@Tim_Small Since QC2, Quick Charge has supported up to 20v. Everything since QC3+, though, has included cable detection.
Could be spectacular if you plugged in a QC3.0 device and it happily turned things up to 12v@3A.
I liked the first lighted cable you reviewed, as it only lights while charging; so I use it all the time. I bought one of this style with the 3 types of connections; but tossed it in the drawer because it’s annoying to see it always on if plugged into a usb supply. Thanks for showing us what’s inside Clive I had no idea. The people who had to polish fiber before terminating it would freak out at the thought of seeing one heated and mushed as a termination method.
Except that the polished fiber isn't plastic, but rather a type of glass. I have a polishing kit for it upstairs.
That's rather pretty. I'm the sort of person who DOESN'T want my keyboard / mouse / etc to light up as I find it distracting but a couple of my grandkids would LOVE this product.
I've got a handful of these cables, and they provide a nice indicator when something is done charging, as the lights go out. However, I really didn't think these were LED-based. I always thought they had the electro-luminescent wires for illumination. As Clive stated, for side-glow, that's really some remarkable performance!
I have a few of these. They really are great and BRIGHT. Mine have a tri tip with USB-C, Micro-USB, and Apple. I may just buy a few more as they are bright enough for emergency light and pull near nothing. Ran one off my 40,000mAh pack and it lost only 5% over 3 days (~72 hours) and lit the room enough that in a blackout would be enough to get by.
Just a little useless information for you Clive, those little lenses on the end of the fiber can be made very easily and they do seem to concentrate the light into the fiber aperture. All you need to do to make one, is to bring the cut end of the fiber towards a hot soldering iron from below, pointing the fiber straight up. watch carefully as the lens forms, depending on the iron, maybe a few seconds. Do not allow the fiber end to touch the iron, you are just using the radiated heat. If you try this with the fiber not pointing up, the lens will still form but will form at an angle due to gravity. Give it a try, it works very well! I only wish this could be used on communication fibers to help with coupling into those.
"I'll show you in a moment these in the dark...." 0:07 (ish)
Oh Clive I never thought you'd offer!
@1:56 "This may be about to cause carnage...uh I think this is about to cause carnage...mmm...this is causing carnage" 😂🤣🤣
I’ve a tri-colour example plugged into to my Modular Synth..
It provides a nice contrast to all the other blinking/flashing LEDs..
Bathe the whole area with a cheap LED/Laser “Party Lite”
and it’s a better light show than some venues..
And 1 month later I bought a few as gifts to friends :D thanks for letting me know these work.
Go feature the "cut & fix" usb cables.. No light sadly but... quite the item.
And Let's Explore...
You always make it fun, Clive! 😁
Your the best
My confidence is growing because of your RUclips
Thank you so much ❤
The phrase “mystery chip” made the song Ride Captain Ride stick in my head…
I was convinced that you'd reveal it was actually EL wire. That even illumination has quite exciting potential.
Why does one beyond always remind me of one step beyond by madness 😂
I hear it and i think of nostalgia critic and his top 11s lol
I don't know how to general message. I do know very basic electronics etc household tronics. Just got to say that even though i don't know what your on about I thoroughly enjoy watching your videos and with your sing song voice it just makes a pleasant experience
They're pretty awesome. To us kids from the 70's, that looks like it's from a sci-fi movie!
man, before you nudged it around 3:30, i thought the board was part of the image and it had a really really tiny component there, broke my brain for a spell
DUDE ME TOO. I was staring at it thinking "what the heck is that??"
and then he picked it up and my brain melted for about a second.
Got a good chuckle out of that.
I had some of the older versions of these clive when they first took off years ago. But unlike modern led versions with fiber, the ones I had used thin strands of EL wire. I still have one of the two cables today,these remind me of those cause of the consistency of the light through the whole cable.
I reverse engineered an electroluminescent one in a video a while ago.
Hi Clive, ive had/got on of these for a few years now, a friend gave me it, the only problem i have with it is, its only a charge cable not a data cable, but still working .
Is it fibre optic or _plastic_ optic? 😀
I purchased one each of these for my family when we were going through the 112 day lockdown and curfew here in Melbourne Oz as a way to add a bit of cheer in our lives (I also got some of the cheapy 3W rotating disco lights for the toilets which made me smile each time I visited the throne because I forgot they were there so I was pleasantly surprised each time.
Anyway, a big *THANK YOU* Clive for revealing the secrets of the cable. I did wonder how it was done but not being an electronic or electrical type person despite me wish the opposite, I was not going to deconstruct a cable to see the inner workings because I would have had no far king idea what I was looking at if I had. So I am very appreciative for your magic reveal of the gently opened connector. Now I just have to wonder where all the light went once it reached the Mode C connector at the other end. I imagine it is taking up space on my phone's memory and it's released each time I turn the screen on. So jolly clever of the designer. 👍
i always appreciate your videos...but i appreciate the heads up about turning the lights on even more
It may very well be that it is just the way it shows on video, but it does look very close to electroluminescent glow. Which is kind of neat, as I absolutely adore EL lighting. I could probably do with out the flashing, though it does make for an interesting effect with it wound around the cable like that.
U seem to like the color hot pink I notice....very good
damn! Clive always has the coolest weird stuff!
Hey Clive fans, lets get him to the 1 million subs... imagine the video he would make for that !!
Thanks Clive for another great video. Reminded me that I got a decent bag of fibre optic cables some time ago. Must go experimenting 😂
I have one of these in white, from Dollar Tree from many years ago. I like it, but it's always been unpopular with others because of the flashing.
"Nobody wants to see someone destroying stuff too much." I do believe this is partly why we come here. 😎
I have a few of these cables mine glow red.. it's pretty neat. Thanks for taking it apart so I don't have to
You give it up too quick. At first I was baffled on how it works and I knew you were going to tell us so I stop the video and thought about It. LOL wasn't even close. Darn those fiber optics. Good video you had me there.
Proof imo that material science continues to plod along in the background getting more refined output from the same materials input.
Those look nice. Might have to check them and Poundland out when I'm in London in a few weeks and see how they compare to similar places in the US.
These came from One Beyond.
You sir have grossly underestimated our desire to sit here and watch you destroy stuff.
Nice effect. This would be a feasible replacement for the EL wire since all is needed is an led and resistor (which is efficient) instead of a high-frequency power supply that comes with the high pitch noise baked in. I find that those cheap EL wire drivers tend to overheat and self district. They can be DIY with an ne555 connected to 2 mosfets in a push-pull configuration (pin 3 to mosfet 1 and mosfet 2 is connected to pin 3 through an inverter [not gate] ) connected to a ferrite or centre tap transformer.
The red USB cable draws 32mA because red LEDs should be driven lighter than blue LEDs; overdriving red LEDs result in less brightness and damage.
We've got "5 Below" shops on this side of pond in the States & one near me. I tend to avoid it because it often leads to frivolous spending, but those cables do look worthy.
I got one of these at the Dollar Tree and kept it in my car. Super useful for when you need to plug in your phone at night.
I wonder what happens if you use it with devices operating Quick Charge or the equivalent with voltages of 9, 12 or even 20V? Perhaps that's where the resistor comes in to play.
We don't know what's inside the plug on the other end of the cable. There might be a circuit board that prevents negotiating for Quick Charge.
Given that the data is intact it's feasible that it might negotiate a higher voltage and blow the circuitry.
Only one way to find out😂
You'd have to have USB-C adaptors on the end wouldn't you? Or does that standard extend to USB-A?
@@LongPeter I've got QC3 chargers with USB-A sockets and QC3 devices with both USB-C and micro USB. It seems any combination is possible, certainly up to 12V.
AHH! The Light!💡 She BURNS!!! 🔥😎
Big Clive Teardown? That's an automatic like.
Neat. I'll keep an eye out for these!
I bought a few of these a while back from Chy-Na and they had the fun feature of stopping the effect once the device was fully charged which gave the impression of ‘pushing in the energy until it was full’. They also had a habit of melting, which was a tad too exciting for me, so I gave up on them.
White LED ones could be nice for ambient lighting, maybe floor or stair lights
Wow fantastic cable love it thanks Clive
You unwound your slinky ! YIKES LOL
That's a classic Ghostbusters line.
Destruction is my favorite bit!
Very cool, I'll have to keep an eye open for these
Thanks for your videos sir
It's "One Below" because the US store has been "Five Below" for years. (Five dollars and less). Now it's 5.55 for a lot of stuff, and higher for others.
I love this guy!
Nice design and it works well.
For the blue cable to draw almost 60mA when only one LED is on at a time with practically nothing going to the controller, each LED is seeing the full supply current while on. These blue LEDs are being driven hard.
If anyone finds this specific side emitting fiber, please let us know!
Thank you, sir, for your very entertaining and interesting teardowns!
Any fiber scratched with sandpaper will emit sideways.
@@nevenpavlovic4448 not that evenly and continuously as that stuff. Best I've ever seen.
I like the chopping stuff up lol 😂
Thank you Clive
I've seen these that have a bit more functionality. The cord animation is relative to the current going through. So as the device completes charging, the animation slows down, then stops when charging is complete.
I have one of these, never been able to find another :( Do you happen to know a manufacturer who still makes these?
@@wombatdk unfortunately no. I had that cable a few years back. It had a much bigger USB dongle than the one Clive has. It stopped working a while back, and I tried to repair it, but getting into it was a destructive process. So in the trash bin it went. Wish it hadn't died so early on, as it was extremely cool!
@@thereare4lights137 hi, did it have 6 small gauge wires inside, like telephone wire?
I had one of these around 8 years ago, I'm sure it was EL rather than LED,
And yes, it stopped working and I dissected it too,
Mine also had the USB stick look and the charge rate animation and I think it was about 6 or 7 quid....back in the days when money was worth something 🤑
@@sofa-lofa4241 yes, as I recall it did, and it was EL wire. Was a pretty nifty looking animation. The wires were extremely fine, which is why I think having EL wire in a constantly moving cable wasn't such a great idea. Probably why they're not around anymore. Mine failed in the typical fashion where it only worked in a certain position, and the moment you moved it, it would stop working. It was a bit of a bugger to get apart too, lol.
1:10, ''watch your eyes, the light is about to come back'' It comes back and is not as bright as the surrounding white youtube page. 🙂
Just to satisfy my own curiosity, I wouldn’t mind a ‘BigCliveCutOut’ channel, that contains raw footage of the stuff that you cut out during the ‘precision opening’ of certain stubborn electronics, just so we can see the brute force and ignorance required to open stuff that is cut from the main video.
Very cool. I have always wondered how this stuff works!
I enjoy you talking while being destructive. Similar to how you build projects while reading comments.
Taking stuff to bits is the perfect excuse to buy more than one, one for the bench, one for play... :P
Hello Clive, nice video as always; I was wandering if you could show us the wonders of SOX lamps. You featured one with the dead led streetlamp, but just scratched the surface without the juicy parts (maybe how the igniter works).
I'll second that!
Rite Big Dude, very nice affect 'wan't some' TFS, GB :)
Very nice
A blue LED drawing the same current as a red LED appears dimmer, hence the higher current draw on the blue cable to achieve the same apparent brightness
I learned with skamatics but these fancy schkeematics are definitely similar
At least the LEDs are only being run on a 1/3 duty cycle. Still naughty but might last longer than we'd think.
But only for a third of the time. So dissipation is averaged. Like a multiplexed LED display.
ooh these look good.
could see this being a good option for shaping into christmastree outlines.
possibly changing 2 of the leds red and green maby multiplex the 3 leds with a 555 timer and run off a 9v batt.
✅💛✅💛✅💛✅💛✅💛✅💛✅
For a moment there I thought you were going to press the multimeter leads to the photo! 🤭
I have actually done that in the past. Some of the PCBs are so small that I wish I could just probe the picture.
Fascinating. I always thought these things were EL wire, and wondered how they fit all the high voltage circuitry inside a USB head. Now I know. They didn't.
There are EL versions. I made a video about one.
I guess the twisting helps spread the light and get it reflected from the cable and escape through the sleeving. Anyway, most of it travels to the very end, seems like, especially since it looks all the way bright.
I had similar cable. Light went dim after month. Now it barely glow at the base of cable and don't get even to other end.
Also even if it's bellow 100mA I remember that my external hdd didn't like it much when I tried to use it with that cable. I blame mostly crappy usb hub for not getting enough power but still other cables didn't had any problems. On side note SSD didn't had any issues.
I think it’s even just because the light leakage put the sides isn’t very significant, so the majority remains in the fibre. I wonder, if you put a reflector at the other end, would the light be able to reflect back and forth, bouncing off the LED? An erbium doped fibre USB cable might be a neat idea.
I have had one of these chase light cable for maybe 6 years now. I've been trying to find a good replacement because mine is dimming really badly. This may be a good one to pick up.
Got one of these a few years back from ' the range' and it's the best £2.50 I've spent in there. Doubles as an effective night light when connected to a decent usb juice bank 👍
That is if you like your nightlight strobing away...
@@Quickened1 🤣 we also get random power cuts.
I also have an impressive range of battery operated led lights. safer than candles.
@@audiocoffee same here... All LED, and many many flashlights...
I once made the mistake of backing Glow Headphones, that used a laser emitter and Corning Fibrance fiber optics. I was lucky enough to at least receive a product, and the glow was amazing, but the audio quality and music-sync effects were abysmal. I wonder if this thing uses the same sort of fiber; I'd love to see how it looks shining a laser pointer through it!
Carnage! I paid my money to see carnage! Now get on with it and give me CARNAGE!!!!
the resistor may come into play if the supply is delivering 9v or higher as modern supplies are capable of depending on the device being charged.
The thickening at the end does not increase light connection. Light funnels don't work due to the optical invariant. It's prolly mechanical
Cheers.
Is it possible that the other end of the cable (micro USB end) might have a reflective surface to help with making the light so evenly distributed along the fiberop?
I was thinking the same thing. Something with a mirror-like finish to bounce back the light.
Quite surprising how nice and even that illumination is along the whole length. I've been browsing side glow fiber, and it's almost all terrible.
With a custom chip, it could have built in resistors or even constant current sinks like the old LM3914 bar/dot driver from the 1980's did.
The LM3914 and its siblings are alive and kicking on eBay.
Pound Land has opened up in Toronto .New and used clothing by the pound and some electronics .not much on the electronics
really love your style and the shi!t you say...reminds me of a whiskey connoisseur, but you are the electronic equvilant!!
Nice optical effect. Great video 2x👍
@@Okurka. I only press the button once. But either way the interaction counts if its UP or DOWN But Thanks for the information.
The ones i took apart were three mini leds with a 6 pin (opamp?) cycling them into 3 fibres under little rubber hoods to keeps them aligned.