Hello this comment was deleted on another video by "Biig Cliive" 10 minutes after being posted.... Someone absolutely has something to hide: Hey are you paid by Amazon to make these videos? Because there are just as many dangerous products on Amazon, if not more... But you only have 2 token videos with Amazon in the title... In which one of the product is harmless and the other was recalled... Where as I lost count with the amount of eBay focused titles you have. Also I can't imagine that eBay would do nothing if you called them up and told them that a product you purchased from a seller exploded or caught on fire or it electrocuted you...This leads me to believe you don't really try to do anything about it. There is something extremely suspect and dishonest about the way you present this. The fact that you always refer to it as "eBay is selling this" and "no quality control on eBay"... Instead of "a seller on eBay is selling this" or "why isn't eBay banning this seller" is not incidental. In another video about the Dalek Death Lamp or whatever... You talk about reporting the item but then go through all the drop down options and you say you aren't sure which one to select... Almost like you have no clue what can be done... When you know for a FACT that you would have to call them directly if the drop down options do not apply. Which you would do if you truly cared. I have no problem believing these products are dangerous... But I really don't think you actually care at all.
I very rarely delete messages, and don't recall deleting your previous one. Perhaps RUclips filtered it. I have no intention of being an unpaid safety officer for a selling platform that gives low priority to doing that job themselves. Perhaps YOU could try phoning them and reporting the thousands of dangerous and fraudulent items on their platform. Best of luck in that.
Pin of shame. :) tbh if you have one of the item listing links and have a ebay account it’s really easy to message ebay on their customer service portal. They have great customer service but I stopped using the website over privacy concerns. If you told them about the item maybe they could start banning the listings where the product is dangerous. I’m sure the manufacturer and the sellers didn’t know these had these design flaws. :)
Google doesn’t even have a customer service line, you’d probably have more luck calling Disney to talk to Ariel than trying to get customer service from google. :)
it's likely it started as a fairly standard, safe circuit, but was stripped down over the course of development. considering the intelligence of people who makes these, I'd reckon they just didn't think of taking off the obvious part they could save on
It’s almost like the electrical / electronics engineer designed a portion of the main circuit whilst taking shots and eventually they became so wasted that they had to go home but because they were on a short schedule someone decided to put in a pre designed system. Or seriously the engineer didn’t care, maybe under tight budgets and their job was on the line as the superordinates of the company demanded it because they thought it would be a good thing, maybe it’s a last minute decision, possibly the electrical engineer was misinformed and they assumed everything would be double insulated. So many theories.
Cell phone deaths are common here in Thailand where they sell 60 Baht (0.5 USD) chargers, but the media never goes beyond naming the brand of the phone and implying the phone was to blame. I hate Apple with a passion because of their intentionally unrepairable nature, but no one has ever been electrocuted by an iPhone, it's the charger. I hope the UK media is a little more thorough and accurate when these deaths happen, which is inevitable with products such as that. Thanks for another great video.
And it was Apple that started the trend of selling phones without chargers, (apparently, it allows a slimmer, greener box) requiring customers to buy them separately. I remember when, in the early 1970s, my father bought our family's first cassette recorder, a Philips N-2205. It came with a microphone, patch cord, external speaker plug, mains cord, batteries, a blank Philips C-60 cassette, and a multilingual user manual. Everything you needed to use the product right out of the box. Nowadays, when you buy something, the accessories are often sold separately.
Considering all that empty space inside and the fact that a 5v insulated power supply nowaday is literally dirt cheap, this product is simply outrageous.
The problem is that people prefer to buy a thing that is one buck cheaper creating a vicious circle for natural selection of bad products. The consumer is to blame too. I avoid any of those products that have batteries inside them, they are mostly crap with batteries that die forever shortly and sometimes dangerous crap with dangerous power sources or incendiary batteries. I treat any seller in AliExpress as a potential scammer, I disassembly even multimeters I bought to see if the promised 2000V isolation is really good. Some products are very good but many...(the multimeter I bought was really good by the way). The first bad smell is a cheap product.
I'd guess they made absolutely s@#tloads of these years and years ago and they're still selling off old stock. The people selling it probably have no idea how dangerous they are since they almost certainly aren't the ones who made it by this point. You'd hope they'd care enough if someone told them though, but unlikely to be the case
@@agranero6I completely disagree that the customer had any responsibility in this. The state has a duty to enforce minimum safety rules for commercial products intended for domestic use.
@@cyan_oxy6734 And how does the state enforce their standards on products that the consumer purchases and ships directly from another country, like China? Should they x-ray and disassemble and reverse-engineer every single electronic component that comes through the shipping ports? Should they demand a CE certification for every single product imported - who would track that, how would they track that? It's very easy to demand solutions and lay blame upon the government - much harder to fund and implement them.
I went out and bought the disco version of this after seeing the BigClive video on it! It works quite nicely, and I don't use the USB for charging anything (especially knowing it is live when plugged in).
As well as reporting dangerous products, they ought to have an option to report sellers listing stuff in the UK that aren't fitted with the legally required 3 pin plug
@@sinephase The scary thing is, even reputable sellers over here don't care. I got an indeshit branded tumble dryer from i think currys about 10 years ago... The plug has no kite-marks, has no fuse and the earth prong is plastic. Yes plastic, on a mostly metal appliance! Also the cable is only 0.75mm which for something with a heating element seems awfully risky!
I saw these advertised on Gumtree the guy had 3 or 4 he had sold one, I sent him a link to your original video, he said that he’s going to cancel the advert and contact the person who purchased one from him and he said thanks, probably saved him a court case Thanks Clive 😊
The problem is that even if you could hold the likes of eBay or Amazon accountable for selling dangerous products, you cant do anything about all the crap being sold though increasingly popular Chinese marketplaces like AliExpress, Wish or Temu.
I don't think that's the solution to this issue. People are still going to buy these products through stores like Aliexpress, Temu, Wish or whatever. The only way to counteract this stuff is strict import regulations and even then you might have some passing through. But as with everything in life: You need to control that, otherwise it won't work out either. So probably the best advice is: If you're buying something which plugs into the mains or/and has lithium ion batteries, you may not want to safe money by importing them from China but rather buy these products domestically from a reputable brand or seller.
And yet I can’t even sell my ultra-perfectionist refurbished hi-fi products as such because I don’t sell enough to meet the threshold for approval. The system is broken; what a surprise.
The last refurb thing I bought from eBay was an Anker battery bank that was obviously only used not refurbished because of how dirty it was. I messaged asking if they could assure me that it was thoroughly tested and they advised me to test if it works. So I returned it, of course. And this is after the refurbished rule change.
@@zeruty I guess eBay think so little of their customers that they assume people are too stupid to distinguish between manufacturer and seller refurbished, as it used to be. Obviously the only logical solution was to make it pay to play (or threshold of sales to play), so now it's only the bigger companies, who are apparently able to simply tick the refurbished option on every crappy worn out product they list.
Look at the view counts. About 50k, about 120k for a large view count, 160k is an outlier, after 2 months. So only 1 in 20 subscribers watch although to be fair some you tubers report only half their views are from subscribers, so 1 in 40 subscribers maybe with the remainder not subscribing whether regular viewers or just browsing. Even if all 1M watch, that's just 1M people out of say 2000M adults in the Western hemisphere of working age. Do you think it's likely that 1 in 2000 people in the Western hemisphere are employed by ebay *and* that their job is a management role where they can make a change?
@@igrim4777And on top of all of that, what are the odds that an eBay employee watching this will either be in a position to do anything about it or *want* to do anything about it?
@@igrim4777 It's still a pretty good number - and it doesn't have to be anyone senior - just someone with a brain who can pass it up the chain. Also, anyone with an eBay VeRO account has a direct link to the right people at eBay to report this sort of thing.
So if i wanna sell or buy a device that doesn't comply with modern standards, i simply shouldn't have the option? I doubt ebay would make a difference between new china crap and older retro tech.
This is something that is supposed to be safe. You are supposed to be able to charge a USB device while the device is being powered/charged from the mains. If you buy/sell a device that is dangerous and could cause death, then good luck to you trying to defend that to a dead person's family. Vintage lights with really thin wiring could cause fires, and your insurance probably won't cover it. But I get your point about vintage kit, but even they wouldn't kick out 240v to the connected device, which if you were grounded, would give you an electric shock.
@@AubsUK Manual review would solve this and there'd be no point for this argument. An old and dangerous item you are selling to a buyer with full knowledge of its danger is different from a modern item that the buyer doesn't know is dangerous. Including in the listing prominent disclaimers about its danger/pre-recall state or whatever will differentiate it from listings purporting to be safe, so if both listings get reported only the one masquerading as safe gets taken down.
No, you just fix it yourself or ask for your money back. If you pay pennies, you get cheaply made stuff, your choice. Don't insist the whole world becomes soft.
They had similar to these at the local camping store not long ago and after seeing your original video on it I checked it out. Had the exact same issue and I tried contacting them about the danger and was blown off until I brought one in and asked the manager to touch it. A recall was issued but I still see them around at different stores
The annoying thing is it IS in fact perfectly possible to design a safe version of one of these, even without "shelling out" for a galvanically isolated power supply. All you'd need to do is to is to layout the ports in such a way that a plugged-in figure-of-eight lead occludes the USB port and a plugged in USB lead occludes the power port. It's a technique used fairly frequently for medical devices that connect to the body (like ECG monitors and stuff) because the acceptable leakage current in those is way lower than consumer-grade devices typically allow. Sometimes it's done like that, sometimes a sliding cover is used but the point is you can't have both at the same time. That copper-coated steel power lead, though... I really feel like we're charting new depths of Chinesium quality.
My in-laws bought one of these way before they were internet famous. When I saw what was inside my hair stood up and I converted it to usb charging only with a tp4056 module. Theirs had an 18650 with the capacitive dropper across it directly with only a resistor to limit the current. It also had a disco light on top instead of the solar cell.
I have one of these, it's the disco version as you suggest, but my disco version has the standard 3.6V Ni-MH cells. Ideally it needs a TP4056 and a decent capacity Li-Ion cell.
@@TheSpotify95 think there must be one factory that makes the cases and different other companies assemble them as they see fit. It's the Chinese way :)
I’ve had one of these for about 3 years now and it sits on the windowsill indoors and charges by the solar panel. I have never charged it by the cable nor have I used the usb port. I’m thankful to you for showing this video and it’s time to get rid of it just in case. Thank you.
This was one of the first things I bought off Aliexpress since I needed a cheap camping light. The moment I saw the flimsy power cord I knew I'd never charge it from mains. The solar panel on the top DOES work - the few times I need the light, it works fine and I've had it for 5 years without charging it through mains.
If it's the same as this one (on the inside), the solar panel will never charge the cells as that is physically impossible. If it is connected correctly and a six cell version it will not charge the 3 batteries due to lack of voltage and even if it was a 7 cell it would need direct sunlight ... Even if the voltage was sufficient, it will also not have sufficient current to even get to C/40 (about 20ma) which is the recommended maintenance current. My guess is yours has alkaline batteries like this one which will last for days at the current required for this thing to work and have some but relatively little self-discharge.
@@NoNameForNoneMore likely it was one of the genuine original OEM death Daleks with NiMh cells. If I recall, they did work and do recharge via the solar panel, but very slowly. Here with the collapse of Chinese manufacturing it’s probably some mom and pop place that copied them, making it even worse, and started churning them out to fill some orders. Impressive, but in a really bad way.
@@userPrehistoricman It does have solar cells at the top that look similar. Since I haven't recharged it ...ever ... and used it now and then, it must get its juice somewhere else unless it was fully charged and holds a really long charge.
@@redavatarClive was suggesting the batteries might be single use batteries not rechargeable at all. They contain enough energy to last long enough to make you think it's working. Then when they run out you just throw the whole thing away.
I remember all too well how my hand grabbed onto a lamp while getting a mains shock, I couldn't open my hand so I literally threw the lamp across the room and out of my hands. It was straight across the heart, the current going from my left hand that was touching the plug and the body of the lamp in my right hand. I fell to the ground afterwards and just sort of whimpered on the floor for a minute or two before I was able to get myself back up. I had a very sore chest for several weeks. Close call. My dad laughed it off and said "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Thanks, Dad.
With electricity, there is no immunity, nor is there any accumulated resistance (no pun) with time, shocks, etc. It just hurts/kills you. Always remember that.
Im pretty sure your dad said that as a coping mechanism to try and downplay just how close of a call that was. I say this because I could see myself doing that for that exact reason. Love your dad - he's the only one you got, and one day he wont be here.
@@LegendaryCollektor He did love me very much, it was just his way of putting some levity into it. He didn't say it immediately after it happened, only when I told him what happened later. Sadly he passed away a couple of years ago of cancer and I miss him very much.
I remember getting the disco variant just after Clive mentioned them on his videos. I may well get another one, if they are still for sale, at some point in the future...
The visual styling of the lamp is almost identical to a battery powered camping lamp I got at a local 'big box' store. The major differences are as follows, no lamp in the base (That space is used for three 'AAA' batteries which are supplied with the unit.), no solar panel, no facility for external power to be connected and no USB port. It's seems like the makers of these 'Death Dalek' lights took an effective product and made it dangerous in their drive to add features.
It’s shocking these are still available, the manufacturers should have gone to ground by now. Well done for unearthing this though and explaining it so well 🙂
Russian Roulette seems a very apt description for this product. Having suffered a bad electric shock in my teens, of which I could not let go, it seems absurd that these products are still available on eBay. I remember the original post Clive did, and still they sell these iffy items. Good post, thank you 👍
You know what's gotten a little harder to find are the "baby-cutor" electrode water heaters, as you demonstrated a few years ago. Perhaps that's not a bad thing, in the grand scheme, but I always like being able to purchase potentially-lethal consumer goods on a whim. 🤪
@@bigclivedotcom Those batteries with the odd voltage may be Ni-Zn rechargeables, they have a standard voltage of 1.6 volts, about 1.9 volts at full charge.
The reason why it is so dangerous is because it uses a capacitive dropper as a power supply. When a capacitive power supply is powered, either positive or negative will be live. Whoever designed must had never gotten a nice zap so they kept making more.
Yes, I saw this exact same thing in the local store as well. They are very cheap and suspicious, and I know it is quite dangerous. But for some people who know electronic (like me) could modify it to be a safe device. We can change it to use lipo battery instead of ni-mh battery, and combined it with the TP4056 charging module. And use USB type C input jack for charging, instead of connecting direct AC line to the device. So it will be safe to use.
At that point it seems like it would be cheaper to just get the remaining parts and make the casing to assemble your entirely self assembled modular torch yourself - perhaps cheap out a tiny bit and just 3d print that case so it doesn't cost much if any more than making this garbage safe. Probably get a better torch/lantern out of it too...
If the option for the particular type of listing report doesn't exist you would have to contact customer support and either talk or chat with someone to report the listing. You usually have to jump through a few hoops to get an actual person. I really hate this era of companies making it ridiculously difficult to get a real person. Not everything can be done via a website or chat bot. I really miss the days of dialing a phone number and having a person answer instead of "Press 1 for this and Press 2 for that.
They've hampered this even further than before, as now they don't even include a smoothing capacitor on the output of the diode bridge! The rest of the light is just as i remember them, with the live USB output, so really you only want to be using the case and LEDs, removing the mains inlet, using a TP4056 with Li-Ion cell, and connecting the solar panel as an additional input.
eBay as a business doesn't care about stuff like this until it becomes a high profile media story. Even then, it's rare for them to ever get involved because they have that "we're just a venue" mantra. Source: I used to work there.
I would really like to see a video of you testing these dangerous mains cables. For educational purposes, it could be quite interesting to see cables of various thicknesses and materials being subjected to loads up to 13 A to visually see exactly why these cables are so dangerous.
These look disturbingly similar to a "Camping Lamp" found in Australia's Bunnings - no mains charge or USB port though, but would be interesting to pull apart and see how similar it is.
Yes! That’s exactly what I was thinking, here in Texas USA you can find them at Walmart, Harbor Freight, and I’m sure many other retailers. I’ve got like 3 or 4 just cause they were cheap and convenient… I might reconsider that.
When I was young they sold millions of table radios. The chassis was connected to one side of the power line which meant you had a fifty, fifty chance of it being live. Your only protection was a thin cardboard back which could fall off after a while.
@@interestingoldthings4889yeah and people had more sense not to play a radio in the bathroom. We didn't have GFI outlets then and no one got killed. Besides the only danger would be if the blocking capacitor failed then came along polarized plugs. Problem solved. As for the all American five radios they had plastic enclosures so no metal would be exposed . Only a moron would get shocked on these radios if they decide to install a headphone jack and had ground going to the jack. I got more shocks out of a transformer set because I didn't wear gloves working on these antiques. Especially when the set was unplugged. The capacitors still had juice in them. No fault in the design. Fault in the person working on them. 73
@@ronb6182It's called survivorship bias. No reason not to be safe and design electronics that won't kill people who don't know any better or have any reason to.
@@ronb6182 It was very easy to get a shock, as said, the backs come off easy. The knobs also came off easily, leaving a live exposed shaft. Even worse, many (at least, in europe) doubled as receiver amps for record players. The connectors were exposed and not isolated. A child putting their fingers in would get blown sky high.
@@kyle8952 I never got shocked on a table radio that was transformerless. But I did get shocked with 450 volts DC on my Atwater Kent radio when I was working on it. That was my foolish experience. But they did make neon socket testers which if the neon glowed when touching the chassis with one end and me touching the other probe I knew to reverse the plug. As for chassis being hot the Television sets were another problem. If you had the set turned on and was putting the antenna hookup to the antenna you would not get 120 volts but 250 volts because of the voltage doubler for plate and grid voltage. 73
I actually bought one of these a few days ago for the nostalgia value and because a rechargeable area lantern can be useful during severe weather power outages, which are still common in the Eastern US. Seems most of the new ones toggle between cold white area light and flicker flame now. I'm not sure how everything is connected in these newer ones yet, but I've hoicked out the USB port (I have plenty of compliant USB chargers) and I'll see about replacing the token gesture panel with a 5V one if I can modify the wiring so that it will trickle charge the battery. EDIT: Turns out the battery in mine also has the sus primary cells. (Probably zinc-carbon?) Naughty! I hope they weren't expecting a spanking; they need to go to their room and think about what they did. EDIT2: I have some 2/3AAA NiMH 3S packs on order and will be building up the modified schematic featured in the Double Death Dalek video flying-lead style (basically just a USB lead and the 5V solar panel commoned through diodes to the positive rail with a 4.7 ohm resistor between the USB negative and ground). Should work out just fine, and I now have a wired USB-A socket and a dodgy 400V capacitor that I can find other uses for.
Your video slipped into my star trek marathon. At first I was upset until I saw it was YOUR video and then everything became just fine again. Love the videos Btw your diagram / circuit board explainations are wonderful
7:37 "It's very odd, very strange" - I would rather say "it's a piece of dangerous and useless shit, that shall be banned by any means, and the producer and the seller should be in jail". I mean c'mon, this "thing" is posing a serious threat that CAN KILL YOU! I can understand the producers going cheap on us, but this thing is just on another level of being cheap. Really, some action is needed to be taken here. Thanks Clive for another quality video.
SIR Clive, I have been following you for more than six years and if there is something that I love, it is when you put these ridiculous and dangerous articles of poor quality like the CHINESE ones to the test!!!!!! Thanks for those compelling tests.
Diode X looks like it theoretically is a blocking diode to prevent the green cells from discharging through the solar panel. Solar cells have a relatively low resistance when reverse biased in the dark.
@@deang5622 A battery connected across a dark solar panel will discharge into the solar panel because the dark resistance is fairly low. For efficiency, the blocking diode is usually Schottky diode. If you’ve got solar cells connected in series, the individual solar cells may be paralleled with a diode. The diode and solar cell are connected anode to anode and cathode to cathode such that the diode is reverse biased in light. In a series string, if one solar cell dies or is temporarily in shade, the parallel diode will be forward biased with respect to the rest of the string, thus bypassing the non operational solar cell and allowing current to continue to flow fairly efficiently.
Thanks for the video Clive. Hard to believe that these things are still around! Cheers.
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Not only that, I recently went to the Canary Islands and you perhaps know these Chinese shops which are everywhere there if you‘ve been there (or generally in regions with lots of tourism). Literally 70% of these shops had death-dalek lamps. Didn‘t bother buying one for 16€ though. The other 30% had fake Apple chargers, illegal Baofeng UV-5Rs or dangerous LED strips.
Makes a mockery of the EU forcing British manufacturers to jump through all sorts of hoops to demonstrate that they meet European safety standards since Brexit.
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@@rampak1 I agree, generally there are so many laws implemented trying to scare off local companies from doing business here. Not only against the UK.
My unit had alkaline cells clearly marked "Do not recharge". I discovered this only after a loud bang after one cell ruptured and blew the solar panel right off. This was from only the solar panel doing any charging.
The negative end of the solar panel finds its way to the negative end of the NiMH cells through the bridge rectifier. The positive connection is of course obvious. Thus the solar panel actually can (weakly) charge the cells.
Its a 3 v solar cell going thru two diode junctions before getting to the battery leaving about 1.8 v maybe less because the diode drops will be more than 0.6v with the very light load on them trust me nothing is getting charged even a bit hahaha
Not going to work, even the first ones reviewed (which had 10 sections of solar cell for 5V) wouldn't fully charge Ni-MH cells because once you've gone through two diodes (approx 1.2V total) there's only going to be about 3.8V left to charge the cells up with.
Well, he did say that the diode on the + side is actually a jumper in this version of the circuit (7:08) so only 1 diode drop, leaving roughly 2.4V. Might *slowly partially* charge the (alleged) NiMH cells, or not. Anyhow, I get you guys' point.
This is an ongoing issue when buying from unknown origins. In Australia, they don't manufacture much in the way of anything, particularly electronics. Unfortunately, most people want cheap products and this is the price you pay coupled with governments allowing unsafe products to be sold.
I've never encountered anything like that which charges directly from mains, I would immediately be wary of it, but i wouldn't have considered the USB ground being live
i have one of the safe "mini daleks" that doesn't take any mains going in and just runs off of 3x AA batteries and it's a neat little light, i think i paid $4. it's a surprisingly practical gimmick for a light, it's a shame they made the big ones so dangerous
We had one of these. I still have the outer casing, the solar panel and the LED board for the area light. I used to tinker around with it so much. Seeing how the outer casing is live when plugged in just made me feel so terrified for my life. What if..
My brother was going to buy one of these just after you did the first one, I sent him the video and he ended up going to a proper camping shop and getting something good
As for the mystery diode, my first thought is that perhaps it is a 5.1V zener? This circuit is essentially relying on the batteries to clamp the voltage, but it looks like the voltage regulation on that USB output would be terrible anyway. 4.8V is technically within the USB spec, but the moment the voltage drops even a little, many phones would probably start freaking out and throwing warnings about a bad charger. Possibly even simply turning on one or the other of the lights might pull the voltage down enough to throw USB voltage errors.
The solar psnel can charge the battery through the bridge rectifier thanks to one of the bridge diodes, but needs enough 0.5V cells to overcome that diode drop and X .
It's kinda a nice multipurpose form factor, with room to hack in stuff like larger batteries or a better solar panel. Perhaps there's a video to be made in de-deathing this thing somehow. A 1:1 transformer on the USB port? Driving the USB port off a whole separate boost/buck converter?
If it was mine, I'd probably throw the AC mains plug away and convert it to charge from a regular old 5V DC USB power supply. Wouldn't need the dropper capacitor or the bridge rectifier, and might not even need the diode from the solar cell. Charging directly off a mains supply instead of needing to plug it into a USB supply is just not enough of a benefit to be worth the extra danger. Plus, I have little mains-to-USB power supplies all over the place these days so it isn't like I'm making my life much less convenient by needing to charge off of USB.
I'm (sort of) surprised that one of the mains pins on euro sockets is not ground to where the pin diameters could be different to prevent the hot pin going to the wrong place. Two pin USA plugs are all polarized that way.
I have one that looks very similar to that but does not take household power for recharging. If you unscrew the bottom there is a drop out circular battery holder that takes 3 AA batteries. I think it's a better design in that you don't have to worry about electrocution.
I got a couple of these laying around, in fact I used one during a hurricane, just left it outside during the storm at the end of the porch to give some light and as a reference point after the power went out. Shockingly enough it worked all night, but was filled with water. I thought for sure it was dead and just left it there, to dry out for a few months, then one day tried it again, and it worked. I was amazing. So while these might fry you, they are some pretty good lamps.
I think it's more dangerous to have a mindset like yours. The fact it survived in the weather, or water means nothing. The materials used would not be effected and dried electronics are often always fine. It's just silicone after all. It's all covered in and made out of injection mold plastic so all that got wet, even filled with water, was plastic. The more you learn about electrical potential the more you learn about how often one can die
Re: eBay reporting. I don't know how you solve this problem. If they added a feature for reporting dangerous products then that would completely shut down a lot of vintage vacuum tube equipment and basically anything with a "hot chassis" design, just like this light.
they could just put a big warning on all products that dont meet uk electrical standards. Anyone buying these for their kids seeing that should then be put off enough and not buy it. but anyone buying something with an old vacuum tube more than likely already knows they are risky.
This is unbelevable! Real crap. And that is why we love you Clive, please do these reviews as long as you can, saving one live a year get you in heaven!
I feel like pretty much all rules for electrical safety could stand in the way of buying and importing devices. Be they old or new. Maybe ebay could verify sellers that comply with certain standards... or maybe warn you if a specific product isn't tested for safety. But who would take that risk when aliexpress wouldn't care and list all products as "double safe"?
I've been told by an engineer recently that one way to implement "cost reductions" in products is to design in unnecessary parts that can be deleted in subsequent designs......
I think you could report this to Underwriters Laboratories or the equivalent agency like CE. I wonder if there are any markings on the device showing anyone had done any testing like UL or CE?
In summary: -Been on the market for 6+ years -Can electrocute you and/or fry your devices -Thin, steel core power cable that will immediately melt/catch fire in event of a malfunction -FAKE rechargable batteries -Topic of multiple entertaining videos
Those big honkin' reddish-brown ones (see 3:11) are usually in the neighborhood of 600V. Suitable for driving the death beams, just not in electrolytic form because it can't be polarized.
Glad to see this video. I had two of these identical lights given to me. I only ever charged them with the provided solar chargers. It takes two days of full sun to get any real good use out of them so I just rotate them out. I wouldn't bother trying to charge a phone.
It's why I will never buy anything remotely electrical from ebay these days. It appears ebay don't care other than to keep getting the sellers fees coming in. If they did care they'd be coming down hard on these sorts of products.
I have one of these exact models it seems. It’s branded “outlite” and I got it as a free gift if I remember correctly. Will be taking it apart later and seeing what I can see. Won’t have time right now or for a few day- it’s also green with black rubber. Seems to have the same led and connector orientation.
Wow, I can't believe they are still making this crap. Absolutely no regards for safety whatsoever... good thing you make these videos to show how dangerous they are
True; but the problem is that 99% of people buying this sort of stuff on eBay don't know about Big Clive's channel or these videos... The authorities, on the other hand, could easily act against eBay but they'd never be able to handle the amount of stuff coming into the country without causing unacceptable delays in deliveries...
I have one that lives on the patio and gets a fair bit of sun. I'm pretty certain it does recharge from the panel, or at least did for a while. Will have to double check. I potted the mains plug ages ago to prevent use.
Sadly I've been unable to find the mini "safe" AA one that I sent you a link to ages ago. I quite liked it, but it took a fall from a roof and exploded into bits of cheap plastic
Here in the US - our two prong mains plug has a wider connector than the other for this very problem. The more narrow prong is hot while the other is neutral.
Big clive your the reason i never buy anything that isnt branded for charging or the like. If someone buys my kids a present for xmas that comes with a charger its straight in the bin.
Oh, another one of these silly things. I love them. They are so ridiculously dangerous. Actually, over the years I've been given two of these. And yes, they're both deadly. But they're also a nice source for batteries and LEDs
Hooking the negative output of the solar panel to the A/C would prevent the battery pack from discharging back through the solar panel eliminating the need for the separate blocking diode.
I used to work for eBay many years ago, not sure how their policies may have changed since that time but their whole deal back then was: "we're just a neutral venue, we don't have firsthand knowledge of the stuff people put up for sale so we can't remove stuff for being potentially dangerous unless there's some kind of recall or the item itself is something we specifically put on a prohibited list." So you can report electrically dangerous items until you're blue in the face and nothing will ever come of it unless it becomes a high profile media story that's featured on multiple news outlets. That's about the only way you can get someone to look at the issue who has more power than just clicking the 'delete' button on your report. If any agent removes one of those auctions incorrectly (and by incorrectly I mean removing it while it doesn't violate any official site policy), the agent has a very high chance of getting in trouble for taking incorrect action.
About solar panel and diode - purpose of diode in series with panel is not to protect it from reverse voltage, but to prevent current leakage. When battery voltage is higher than panels voltage, low current will flow from battery to panel, discharging battery and diode prevents it. Why is it removed then? Well, because there is already one diode in the path of that current - one in bridge rectifier connecting upper input and negative output - it allow current flowing from panel to battery, but prevents opposite direction. That design would allow battery charging, but panel should have higher voltage to be able to charge three cells in series.
Nice one Clive! Looking at the solar cell, its negative end, is connected to the negative side of the battery, via a diode in the bridge rectifier. In theory, it may be able to charge the battery, depending on how much voltage it can produce. Anyway.... yes they should be prohibited goods! Is it as dangerous as a gun? Probably more dangerous!
Yup. The LED will take away about 4mA but the remaining 16mA should be available to charge the batteries. Mind you, 10 hours of sunlight would be only 160mAh so it would take over a week to recharge it fully.
No idea if this would work, but if the seller was in my country (DE), I would approach Customs. It seems this device breaks "certifications" like CE and others, and Customs would be my first try for such import things once they are in my country. But this is all theory, of course. I still "like", how Chinese export their desire of limiting population.
It really surprises me that these still continue to be sold in this configuration, a generic TP4056 charging circuit probably isn't that much to purchase in bulk and most people are probably used to lugging around a 5v USB charger with them for these types of things.
You forgot the path of the solar panel through the rectifier bridge!... Always leave it in front of a well-lit window and you probably won't need to charge it... I've had it for over 2 years and I've never needed to charge it from the socket.
Here in the USA, eBay is being sued for $2 billion for selling EPA violating products like unapproved pesticides and devices that allow diesel vehicles to "roll coal" aka spew black smoke.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
Hello this comment was deleted on another video by "Biig Cliive" 10 minutes after being posted.... Someone absolutely has something to hide: Hey are you paid by Amazon to make these videos? Because there are just as many dangerous products on Amazon, if not more... But you only have 2 token videos with Amazon in the title... In which one of the product is harmless and the other was recalled... Where as I lost count with the amount of eBay focused titles you have.
Also I can't imagine that eBay would do nothing if you called them up and told them that a product you purchased from a seller exploded or caught on fire or it electrocuted you...This leads me to believe you don't really try to do anything about it. There is something extremely suspect and dishonest about the way you present this. The fact that you always refer to it as "eBay is selling this" and "no quality control on eBay"... Instead of "a seller on eBay is selling this" or "why isn't eBay banning this seller" is not incidental.
In another video about the Dalek Death Lamp or whatever... You talk about reporting the item but then go through all the drop down options and you say you aren't sure which one to select... Almost like you have no clue what can be done... When you know for a FACT that you would have to call them directly if the drop down options do not apply. Which you would do if you truly cared. I have no problem believing these products are dangerous... But I really don't think you actually care at all.
I very rarely delete messages, and don't recall deleting your previous one. Perhaps RUclips filtered it.
I have no intention of being an unpaid safety officer for a selling platform that gives low priority to doing that job themselves.
Perhaps YOU could try phoning them and reporting the thousands of dangerous and fraudulent items on their platform. Best of luck in that.
Hello Chang! How's the factory?
Phoning eBay? Really?! I might give Google and PayPal a call when I get a spare 72 hours.
Pin of shame. :) tbh if you have one of the item listing links and have a ebay account it’s really easy to message ebay on their customer service portal. They have great customer service but I stopped using the website over privacy concerns. If you told them about the item maybe they could start banning the listings where the product is dangerous. I’m sure the manufacturer and the sellers didn’t know these had these design flaws. :)
Google doesn’t even have a customer service line, you’d probably have more luck calling Disney to talk to Ariel than trying to get customer service from google. :)
Amazing that they bothered to include a discharge resistor but not to isolate the charging socket from the mains...
China 🇨🇳
it's likely it started as a fairly standard, safe circuit, but was stripped down over the course of development. considering the intelligence of people who makes these, I'd reckon they just didn't think of taking off the obvious part they could save on
My dyson has no discharge, as you get a severe shock if you touch the plug.
It’s almost like the electrical / electronics engineer designed a portion of the main circuit whilst taking shots and eventually they became so wasted that they had to go home but because they were on a short schedule someone decided to put in a pre designed system. Or seriously the engineer didn’t care, maybe under tight budgets and their job was on the line as the superordinates of the company demanded it because they thought it would be a good thing, maybe it’s a last minute decision, possibly the electrical engineer was misinformed and they assumed everything would be double insulated. So many theories.
Resistor is cheap, re-engineering the product is not
Cell phone deaths are common here in Thailand where they sell 60 Baht (0.5 USD) chargers, but the media never goes beyond naming the brand of the phone and implying the phone was to blame. I hate Apple with a passion because of their intentionally unrepairable nature, but no one has ever been electrocuted by an iPhone, it's the charger. I hope the UK media is a little more thorough and accurate when these deaths happen, which is inevitable with products such as that. Thanks for another great video.
You just described why journalism is now known as urinalism. Good job!
And it was Apple that started the trend of selling phones without chargers, (apparently, it allows a slimmer, greener box) requiring customers to buy them separately. I remember when, in the early 1970s, my father bought our family's first cassette recorder, a Philips N-2205. It came with a microphone, patch cord, external speaker plug, mains cord, batteries, a blank Philips C-60 cassette, and a multilingual user manual. Everything you needed to use the product right out of the box. Nowadays, when you buy something, the accessories are often sold separately.
This happened in Australia too, a young nurse died from a crappy charger she bought online.
How da fuxk do you get electrocuted by 0.5 dollar charger? Are yours plugs made different?
@ceiling_cat because electricity is universal and outlet electricity can and does kill people everyday
Considering all that empty space inside and the fact that a 5v insulated power supply nowaday is literally dirt cheap, this product is simply outrageous.
The problem is that people prefer to buy a thing that is one buck cheaper creating a vicious circle for natural selection of bad products. The consumer is to blame too. I avoid any of those products that have batteries inside them, they are mostly crap with batteries that die forever shortly and sometimes dangerous crap with dangerous power sources or incendiary batteries. I treat any seller in AliExpress as a potential scammer, I disassembly even multimeters I bought to see if the promised 2000V isolation is really good. Some products are very good but many...(the multimeter I bought was really good by the way). The first bad smell is a cheap product.
I'd guess they made absolutely s@#tloads of these years and years ago and they're still selling off old stock. The people selling it probably have no idea how dangerous they are since they almost certainly aren't the ones who made it by this point. You'd hope they'd care enough if someone told them though, but unlikely to be the case
"It's not about the money. It's about sending a message!"
@@agranero6I completely disagree that the customer had any responsibility in this.
The state has a duty to enforce minimum safety rules for commercial products intended for domestic use.
@@cyan_oxy6734 And how does the state enforce their standards on products that the consumer purchases and ships directly from another country, like China?
Should they x-ray and disassemble and reverse-engineer every single electronic component that comes through the shipping ports?
Should they demand a CE certification for every single product imported - who would track that, how would they track that?
It's very easy to demand solutions and lay blame upon the government - much harder to fund and implement them.
Deliberately avoided these because of a previous video of yours. Thanks for putting the word out there!
I went out and bought the disco version of this after seeing the BigClive video on it! It works quite nicely, and I don't use the USB for charging anything (especially knowing it is live when plugged in).
As well as reporting dangerous products, they ought to have an option to report sellers listing stuff in the UK that aren't fitted with the legally required 3 pin plug
they'll just add the third prong but have it connected to nothing anyway LOL
@@sinephase The scary thing is, even reputable sellers over here don't care.
I got an indeshit branded tumble dryer from i think currys about 10 years ago... The plug has no kite-marks, has no fuse and the earth prong is plastic. Yes plastic, on a mostly metal appliance! Also the cable is only 0.75mm which for something with a heating element seems awfully risky!
why are you bothered with it being 0,75mm? it acts as a heater for further drying your clothes an\or your house
@@theoneohmresistor Haha that made me laugh
@@adamholmes91 Don't have anything better to care about?
I saw these advertised on Gumtree the guy had 3 or 4 he had sold one, I sent him a link to your original video, he said that he’s going to cancel the advert and contact the person who purchased one from him and he said thanks, probably saved him a court case
Thanks Clive 😊
Its about time the platforms selling this crap were held accountable.
The problem is that even if you could hold the likes of eBay or Amazon accountable for selling dangerous products, you cant do anything about all the crap being sold though increasingly popular Chinese marketplaces like AliExpress, Wish or Temu.
I've tried dealing with ebay over the years, they simply don't care.
@@shockeye3863 yep, I had a supposed genuine Samsung charger that exploded 1 second after I pluged it in, Not interested
I don't think that's the solution to this issue.
People are still going to buy these products through stores like Aliexpress, Temu, Wish or whatever.
The only way to counteract this stuff is strict import regulations and even then you might have some passing through. But as with everything in life: You need to control that, otherwise it won't work out either.
So probably the best advice is: If you're buying something which plugs into the mains or/and has lithium ion batteries, you may not want to safe money by importing them from China but rather buy these products domestically from a reputable brand or seller.
But i genuinely think i should have the freedom to buy dangerous crap.
The world isn't a bouncy castle ^^
And yet I can’t even sell my ultra-perfectionist refurbished hi-fi products as such because I don’t sell enough to meet the threshold for approval. The system is broken; what a surprise.
Broken by design, both the system and the products.
Pure crapitalisim
@@RichardFraser-y9t Absolutely, the only language they understand is currency!
yah used to sell refurb game consoles until they gated me....
sold a few hundred over the years, never had one come back.
The last refurb thing I bought from eBay was an Anker battery bank that was obviously only used not refurbished because of how dirty it was.
I messaged asking if they could assure me that it was thoroughly tested and they advised me to test if it works. So I returned it, of course.
And this is after the refurbished rule change.
@@zeruty I guess eBay think so little of their customers that they assume people are too stupid to distinguish between manufacturer and seller refurbished, as it used to be. Obviously the only logical solution was to make it pay to play (or threshold of sales to play), so now it's only the bigger companies, who are apparently able to simply tick the refurbished option on every crappy worn out product they list.
With nearly a million subscribers, you'd think one of them would be in a position at eBay to do something about these.
Look at the view counts. About 50k, about 120k for a large view count, 160k is an outlier, after 2 months. So only 1 in 20 subscribers watch although to be fair some you tubers report only half their views are from subscribers, so 1 in 40 subscribers maybe with the remainder not subscribing whether regular viewers or just browsing.
Even if all 1M watch, that's just 1M people out of say 2000M adults in the Western hemisphere of working age. Do you think it's likely that 1 in 2000 people in the Western hemisphere are employed by ebay *and* that their job is a management role where they can make a change?
@@igrim4777And on top of all of that, what are the odds that an eBay employee watching this will either be in a position to do anything about it or *want* to do anything about it?
@@igrim4777 It's still a pretty good number - and it doesn't have to be anyone senior - just someone with a brain who can pass it up the chain. Also, anyone with an eBay VeRO account has a direct link to the right people at eBay to report this sort of thing.
They could, but they don't want to. Because they make money off it.
It's almost as if ebay know & don't care. OH WAIT!
I'd say the best option would be:
Prohibited and restricted items >> Other prohibited or restricted items >> Product Safety / Recalled items
So if i wanna sell or buy a device that doesn't comply with modern standards, i simply shouldn't have the option?
I doubt ebay would make a difference between new china crap and older retro tech.
This is something that is supposed to be safe. You are supposed to be able to charge a USB device while the device is being powered/charged from the mains.
If you buy/sell a device that is dangerous and could cause death, then good luck to you trying to defend that to a dead person's family.
Vintage lights with really thin wiring could cause fires, and your insurance probably won't cover it.
But I get your point about vintage kit, but even they wouldn't kick out 240v to the connected device, which if you were grounded, would give you an electric shock.
@@AubsUK Manual review would solve this and there'd be no point for this argument. An old and dangerous item you are selling to a buyer with full knowledge of its danger is different from a modern item that the buyer doesn't know is dangerous. Including in the listing prominent disclaimers about its danger/pre-recall state or whatever will differentiate it from listings purporting to be safe, so if both listings get reported only the one masquerading as safe gets taken down.
No, you just fix it yourself or ask for your money back. If you pay pennies, you get cheaply made stuff, your choice. Don't insist the whole world becomes soft.
@@chrisakaschulbus4903 Congratulations on making up a reason to get upset... strange hobby in my eyes
They had similar to these at the local camping store not long ago and after seeing your original video on it I checked it out. Had the exact same issue and I tried contacting them about the danger and was blown off until I brought one in and asked the manager to touch it. A recall was issued but I still see them around at different stores
Asking manager to touch it. Actually brilliant 😂
almost frightening how dangerous this thing is and it's concerning how it is still available after you highlighted it's flaws some years ago
Let me know if you see any reports of damage to property or injury because I like my peace 😂
The annoying thing is it IS in fact perfectly possible to design a safe version of one of these, even without "shelling out" for a galvanically isolated power supply. All you'd need to do is to is to layout the ports in such a way that a plugged-in figure-of-eight lead occludes the USB port and a plugged in USB lead occludes the power port. It's a technique used fairly frequently for medical devices that connect to the body (like ECG monitors and stuff) because the acceptable leakage current in those is way lower than consumer-grade devices typically allow. Sometimes it's done like that, sometimes a sliding cover is used but the point is you can't have both at the same time.
That copper-coated steel power lead, though... I really feel like we're charting new depths of Chinesium quality.
My in-laws bought one of these way before they were internet famous. When I saw what was inside my hair stood up and I converted it to usb charging only with a tp4056 module. Theirs had an 18650 with the capacitive dropper across it directly with only a resistor to limit the current. It also had a disco light on top instead of the solar cell.
I have one of these, it's the disco version as you suggest, but my disco version has the standard 3.6V Ni-MH cells. Ideally it needs a TP4056 and a decent capacity Li-Ion cell.
@@TheSpotify95 think there must be one factory that makes the cases and different other companies assemble them as they see fit. It's the Chinese way :)
I’ve had one of these for about 3 years now and it sits on the windowsill indoors and charges by the solar panel. I have never charged it by the cable nor have I used the usb port. I’m thankful to you for showing this video and it’s time to get rid of it just in case. Thank you.
This was one of the first things I bought off Aliexpress since I needed a cheap camping light. The moment I saw the flimsy power cord I knew I'd never charge it from mains. The solar panel on the top DOES work - the few times I need the light, it works fine and I've had it for 5 years without charging it through mains.
Based on the circuit diagram, it should actually work. Does your one have the same tiny solar cells?
If it's the same as this one (on the inside), the solar panel will never charge the cells as that is physically impossible. If it is connected correctly and a six cell version it will not charge the 3 batteries due to lack of voltage and even if it was a 7 cell it would need direct sunlight ... Even if the voltage was sufficient, it will also not have sufficient current to even get to C/40 (about 20ma) which is the recommended maintenance current. My guess is yours has alkaline batteries like this one which will last for days at the current required for this thing to work and have some but relatively little self-discharge.
@@NoNameForNoneMore likely it was one of the genuine original OEM death Daleks with NiMh cells. If I recall, they did work and do recharge via the solar panel, but very slowly. Here with the collapse of Chinese manufacturing it’s probably some mom and pop place that copied them, making it even worse, and started churning them out to fill some orders. Impressive, but in a really bad way.
@@userPrehistoricman It does have solar cells at the top that look similar. Since I haven't recharged it ...ever ... and used it now and then, it must get its juice somewhere else unless it was fully charged and holds a really long charge.
@@redavatarClive was suggesting the batteries might be single use batteries not rechargeable at all. They contain enough energy to last long enough to make you think it's working. Then when they run out you just throw the whole thing away.
Crazy these dangerous things are still being sold. I recall the original "gay dalek" video you first did.
I remember all too well how my hand grabbed onto a lamp while getting a mains shock, I couldn't open my hand so I literally threw the lamp across the room and out of my hands. It was straight across the heart, the current going from my left hand that was touching the plug and the body of the lamp in my right hand. I fell to the ground afterwards and just sort of whimpered on the floor for a minute or two before I was able to get myself back up. I had a very sore chest for several weeks. Close call. My dad laughed it off and said "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Thanks, Dad.
"c'mon, get up, shake it off, stop being a wimp"
With electricity, there is no immunity, nor is there any accumulated resistance (no pun) with time, shocks, etc. It just hurts/kills you. Always remember that.
@@Sam-m1y6d "one flash, and your ash"
Im pretty sure your dad said that as a coping mechanism to try and downplay just how close of a call that was. I say this because I could see myself doing that for that exact reason.
Love your dad - he's the only one you got, and one day he wont be here.
@@LegendaryCollektor He did love me very much, it was just his way of putting some levity into it. He didn't say it immediately after it happened, only when I told him what happened later. Sadly he passed away a couple of years ago of cancer and I miss him very much.
Very nostalgic video. I think a Death Dalek was the first bigclive teardown I watched.
I remember getting the disco variant just after Clive mentioned them on his videos. I may well get another one, if they are still for sale, at some point in the future...
My gay Dalek impression got deleted :^(
_Party! Where is the party‽_
First time I saw Clive he was checking up a dolls skirt and setting fire to her bum! 🤣 Pure Arson!
The visual styling of the lamp is almost identical to a battery powered camping lamp I got at a local 'big box' store. The major differences are as follows, no lamp in the base (That space is used for three 'AAA' batteries which are supplied with the unit.), no solar panel, no facility for external power to be connected and no USB port. It's seems like the makers of these 'Death Dalek' lights took an effective product and made it dangerous in their drive to add features.
It’s shocking these are still available, the manufacturers should have gone to ground by now. Well done for unearthing this though and explaining it so well 🙂
Thank you for your well-grounded comment.
Manufacturers aren't the ones selling them on eBay.
Man I remember seeing these on your channel years ago, I can't believe they're still getting away with making them!
Without any effective enforcement there is no reason for them to care.
Russian Roulette seems a very apt description for this product. Having suffered a bad electric shock in my teens, of which I could not let go, it seems absurd that these products are still available on eBay. I remember the original post Clive did, and still they sell these iffy items. Good post, thank you 👍
You know what's gotten a little harder to find are the "baby-cutor" electrode water heaters, as you demonstrated a few years ago. Perhaps that's not a bad thing, in the grand scheme, but I always like being able to purchase potentially-lethal consumer goods on a whim. 🤪
You can literally get those in any store in my country .-.
Yeah, I'm almost disappointed that they have disappeared from eBay. Fortunately I stocked up.
@@bigclivedotcom
Those batteries with the odd voltage may be Ni-Zn rechargeables, they have a standard voltage of 1.6 volts, about 1.9 volts at full charge.
I bet they're still on AliExpress and the like.
The reason why it is so dangerous is because it uses a capacitive dropper as a power supply. When a capacitive power supply is powered, either positive or negative will be live. Whoever designed must had never gotten a nice zap so they kept making more.
And if the capacitor were to go short-circuit, that would not be nice!
The first video you did on this light was the first video of yours I ever watched, and have been watching ever since! Much love
Yes, I saw this exact same thing in the local store as well. They are very cheap and suspicious, and I know it is quite dangerous. But for some people who know electronic (like me) could modify it to be a safe device. We can change it to use lipo battery instead of ni-mh battery, and combined it with the TP4056 charging module. And use USB type C input jack for charging, instead of connecting direct AC line to the device. So it will be safe to use.
At that point it seems like it would be cheaper to just get the remaining parts and make the casing to assemble your entirely self assembled modular torch yourself - perhaps cheap out a tiny bit and just 3d print that case so it doesn't cost much if any more than making this garbage safe. Probably get a better torch/lantern out of it too...
If the option for the particular type of listing report doesn't exist you would have to contact customer support and either talk or chat with someone to report the listing. You usually have to jump through a few hoops to get an actual person. I really hate this era of companies making it ridiculously difficult to get a real person. Not everything can be done via a website or chat bot. I really miss the days of dialing a phone number and having a person answer instead of "Press 1 for this and Press 2 for that.
They've hampered this even further than before, as now they don't even include a smoothing capacitor on the output of the diode bridge! The rest of the light is just as i remember them, with the live USB output, so really you only want to be using the case and LEDs, removing the mains inlet, using a TP4056 with Li-Ion cell, and connecting the solar panel as an additional input.
I thought you were going to say "aluminium" after saying "copper coated"; couldn't believe my ears when it turned out to be steel!!
Aluminium expensive steel cheap. :)
@@tissuepaper9962
No skin effect. It's 60 Hz not 60MHz.
@@tissuepaper9962Skin-Effekt at 50 Hz is about 9,38mm. I wouldn’t call this significant
I’m surprised the steel strands are copper plated. The number of customers likely checking is close to zero.
Ebay does seem to give every reason but the one you need when reporting something. I hope this comes to ebay's attention.
eBay as a business doesn't care about stuff like this until it becomes a high profile media story. Even then, it's rare for them to ever get involved because they have that "we're just a venue" mantra. Source: I used to work there.
I would really like to see a video of you testing these dangerous mains cables. For educational purposes, it could be quite interesting to see cables of various thicknesses and materials being subjected to loads up to 13 A to visually see exactly why these cables are so dangerous.
That video is made and will be released soon. I tested this cable at 5A.
Very, very dangerous.
Good work Clive alerting people to these death traps.
These look disturbingly similar to a "Camping Lamp" found in Australia's Bunnings - no mains charge or USB port though, but would be interesting to pull apart and see how similar it is.
Yes! That’s exactly what I was thinking, here in Texas USA you can find them at Walmart, Harbor Freight, and I’m sure many other retailers. I’ve got like 3 or 4 just cause they were cheap and convenient… I might reconsider that.
When I was young they sold millions of table radios. The chassis was connected to one side of the power line which meant you had a fifty, fifty chance of it being live. Your only protection was a thin cardboard back which could fall off after a while.
Yep, the ubiquitous "All American Five" tube radios, made by many manufacturers, were like this.
@@interestingoldthings4889yeah and people had more sense not to play a radio in the bathroom. We didn't have GFI outlets then and no one got killed. Besides the only danger would be if the blocking capacitor failed then came along polarized plugs. Problem solved. As for the all American five radios they had plastic enclosures so no metal would be exposed . Only a moron would get shocked on these radios if they decide to install a headphone jack and had ground going to the jack. I got more shocks out of a transformer set because I didn't wear gloves working on these antiques. Especially when the set was unplugged. The capacitors still had juice in them. No fault in the design. Fault in the person working on them. 73
@@ronb6182It's called survivorship bias. No reason not to be safe and design electronics that won't kill people who don't know any better or have any reason to.
@@ronb6182 It was very easy to get a shock, as said, the backs come off easy. The knobs also came off easily, leaving a live exposed shaft.
Even worse, many (at least, in europe) doubled as receiver amps for record players. The connectors were exposed and not isolated. A child putting their fingers in would get blown sky high.
@@kyle8952 I never got shocked on a table radio that was transformerless. But I did get shocked with 450 volts DC on my Atwater Kent radio when I was working on it. That was my foolish experience. But they did make neon socket testers which if the neon glowed when touching the chassis with one end and me touching the other probe I knew to reverse the plug. As for chassis being hot the Television sets were another problem. If you had the set turned on and was putting the antenna hookup to the antenna you would not get 120 volts but 250 volts because of the voltage doubler for plate and grid voltage. 73
It’s scary to think eBay platform is used to peddle such dangerous products with seemingly no consequences.
But if you sell any device insinuated to change emissions on a vehicle, you're banned. Instead, just sell miniature electric chairs and you're good.
I actually bought one of these a few days ago for the nostalgia value and because a rechargeable area lantern can be useful during severe weather power outages, which are still common in the Eastern US. Seems most of the new ones toggle between cold white area light and flicker flame now. I'm not sure how everything is connected in these newer ones yet, but I've hoicked out the USB port (I have plenty of compliant USB chargers) and I'll see about replacing the token gesture panel with a 5V one if I can modify the wiring so that it will trickle charge the battery.
EDIT: Turns out the battery in mine also has the sus primary cells. (Probably zinc-carbon?) Naughty! I hope they weren't expecting a spanking; they need to go to their room and think about what they did.
EDIT2: I have some 2/3AAA NiMH 3S packs on order and will be building up the modified schematic featured in the Double Death Dalek video flying-lead style (basically just a USB lead and the 5V solar panel commoned through diodes to the positive rail with a 4.7 ohm resistor between the USB negative and ground). Should work out just fine, and I now have a wired USB-A socket and a dodgy 400V capacitor that I can find other uses for.
Your video slipped into my star trek marathon. At first I was upset until I saw it was YOUR video and then everything became just fine again. Love the videos
Btw your diagram / circuit board explainations are wonderful
7:37 "It's very odd, very strange" - I would rather say "it's a piece of dangerous and useless shit, that shall be banned by any means, and the producer and the seller should be in jail". I mean c'mon, this "thing" is posing a serious threat that CAN KILL YOU! I can understand the producers going cheap on us, but this thing is just on another level of being cheap. Really, some action is needed to be taken here.
Thanks Clive for another quality video.
SIR Clive, I have been following you for more than six years and if there is something that I love, it is when you put these ridiculous and dangerous articles of poor quality like the CHINESE ones to the test!!!!!! Thanks for those compelling tests.
Thank you for this timely reminder as I'm sure with Halloween around the corner many people may be looking for cheap lanterns to go with costumes.
I never have a damn clue what I’m listening to when your videos come on my feed, but boy do I enjoy listening
Basically anything with a 2 pin plug should be double insulated. In this case even the power cable is dangerous.
UK law (Consumer Protection Act) requires products to be "of merchantable quality".
Trade is regulated by the Trading Standards Authority.
Diode X looks like it theoretically is a blocking diode to prevent the green cells from discharging through the solar panel. Solar cells have a relatively low resistance when reverse biased in the dark.
Umm..actually the solar cells themselves are diodes and they generate electricity when reverse biased.
@@deang5622 A battery connected across a dark solar panel will discharge into the solar panel because the dark resistance is fairly low. For efficiency, the blocking diode is usually Schottky diode. If you’ve got solar cells connected in series, the individual solar cells may be paralleled with a diode. The diode and solar cell are connected anode to anode and cathode to cathode such that the diode is reverse biased in light. In a series string, if one solar cell dies or is temporarily in shade, the parallel diode will be forward biased with respect to the rest of the string, thus bypassing the non operational solar cell and allowing current to continue to flow fairly efficiently.
@@wtmayhew I do know all this. I made some PN junctions when I was at university
@@deang5622 OK, good to know.
Thanks for the video Clive. Hard to believe that these things are still around! Cheers.
Not only that, I recently went to the Canary Islands and you perhaps know these Chinese shops which are everywhere there if you‘ve been there (or generally in regions with lots of tourism).
Literally 70% of these shops had death-dalek lamps. Didn‘t bother buying one for 16€ though. The other 30% had fake Apple chargers, illegal Baofeng UV-5Rs or dangerous LED strips.
Makes a mockery of the EU forcing British manufacturers to jump through all sorts of hoops to demonstrate that they meet European safety standards since Brexit.
@@rampak1 I agree, generally there are so many laws implemented trying to scare off local companies from doing business here. Not only against the UK.
My unit had alkaline cells clearly marked "Do not recharge". I discovered this only after a loud bang after one cell ruptured and blew the solar panel right off. This was from only the solar panel doing any charging.
The negative end of the solar panel finds its way to the negative end of the NiMH cells through the bridge rectifier. The positive connection is of course obvious. Thus the solar panel actually can (weakly) charge the cells.
Its a 3 v solar cell going thru two diode junctions before getting to the battery leaving about 1.8 v maybe less because the diode drops will be more than 0.6v with the very light load on them trust me nothing is getting charged even a bit hahaha
Not going to work, even the first ones reviewed (which had 10 sections of solar cell for 5V) wouldn't fully charge Ni-MH cells because once you've gone through two diodes (approx 1.2V total) there's only going to be about 3.8V left to charge the cells up with.
Well, he did say that the diode on the + side is actually a jumper in this version of the circuit (7:08) so only 1 diode drop, leaving roughly 2.4V. Might *slowly partially* charge the (alleged) NiMH cells, or not. Anyhow, I get you guys' point.
@@sootikins how can 2.4 v charge 3.6v nominal voltage 3x nimh cells and how can it light a led
@@davidknightaudio934 A GaAsP red LED lights at
This is an ongoing issue when buying from unknown origins. In Australia, they don't manufacture much in the way of anything, particularly electronics.
Unfortunately, most people want cheap products and this is the price you pay coupled with governments allowing unsafe products to be sold.
I saw the first death Dalek. It looks exactly the same.
Why change the design, since almost everyone who complain is ☠
I've never encountered anything like that which charges directly from mains, I would immediately be wary of it, but i wouldn't have considered the USB ground being live
i have one of the safe "mini daleks" that doesn't take any mains going in and just runs off of 3x AA batteries and it's a neat little light, i think i paid $4. it's a surprisingly practical gimmick for a light, it's a shame they made the big ones so dangerous
We had one of these. I still have the outer casing, the solar panel and the LED board for the area light. I used to tinker around with it so much. Seeing how the outer casing is live when plugged in just made me feel so terrified for my life. What if..
My brother was going to buy one of these just after you did the first one, I sent him the video and he ended up going to a proper camping shop and getting something good
The 230V cable already looks so sketchy, no way I would ever connect this to mains.
As for the mystery diode, my first thought is that perhaps it is a 5.1V zener? This circuit is essentially relying on the batteries to clamp the voltage, but it looks like the voltage regulation on that USB output would be terrible anyway. 4.8V is technically within the USB spec, but the moment the voltage drops even a little, many phones would probably start freaking out and throwing warnings about a bad charger. Possibly even simply turning on one or the other of the lights might pull the voltage down enough to throw USB voltage errors.
This video made me realize that I've been watching your channel for over 6 years.
The solar psnel can charge the battery through the bridge rectifier thanks to one of the bridge diodes, but needs enough 0.5V cells to overcome that diode drop and X .
Came to say just that. Maybe it would charge in near equatorial sunlight.
@@tactileslut -It only charges in China. LOL
absolutely love your content. been here a couple of years now. keep up the good work
It's kinda a nice multipurpose form factor, with room to hack in stuff like larger batteries or a better solar panel. Perhaps there's a video to be made in de-deathing this thing somehow. A 1:1 transformer on the USB port? Driving the USB port off a whole separate boost/buck converter?
USB is DC, so the 1:1 transformer has to be on the input.
If it was mine, I'd probably throw the AC mains plug away and convert it to charge from a regular old 5V DC USB power supply. Wouldn't need the dropper capacitor or the bridge rectifier, and might not even need the diode from the solar cell. Charging directly off a mains supply instead of needing to plug it into a USB supply is just not enough of a benefit to be worth the extra danger. Plus, I have little mains-to-USB power supplies all over the place these days so it isn't like I'm making my life much less convenient by needing to charge off of USB.
Ok, but one has to invent the DC transformer first. All jokes aside, one could just replace the psu with the guts of a regular phone charger.
I'm (sort of) surprised that one of the mains pins on euro sockets is not ground to where the pin diameters could be different to prevent the hot pin going to the wrong place. Two pin USA plugs are all polarized that way.
I have one that looks very similar to that but does not take household power for recharging. If you unscrew the bottom there is a drop out circular battery holder that takes 3 AA batteries. I think it's a better design in that you don't have to worry about electrocution.
Wow, feels like yesterday seeing the first dalek video only to realize that I subbed 4 years before that. Cant believe how fast time flew.
I got a couple of these laying around, in fact I used one during a hurricane, just left it outside during the storm at the end of the porch to give some light and as a reference point after the power went out. Shockingly enough it worked all night, but was filled with water. I thought for sure it was dead and just left it there, to dry out for a few months, then one day tried it again, and it worked. I was amazing. So while these might fry you, they are some pretty good lamps.
They actually make a good base for a custom light.
I think it's more dangerous to have a mindset like yours. The fact it survived in the weather, or water means nothing. The materials used would not be effected and dried electronics are often always fine. It's just silicone after all. It's all covered in and made out of injection mold plastic so all that got wet, even filled with water, was plastic.
The more you learn about electrical potential the more you learn about how often one can die
@@djnone8137 Grow a set, the entire world can't be made of Nerf for people like you.
Excellent! I've been hoping for another Dalek video for quite some time.
Re: eBay reporting. I don't know how you solve this problem. If they added a feature for reporting dangerous products then that would completely shut down a lot of vintage vacuum tube equipment and basically anything with a "hot chassis" design, just like this light.
they could just put a big warning on all products that dont meet uk electrical standards.
Anyone buying these for their kids seeing that should then be put off enough and not buy it. but anyone buying something with an old vacuum tube more than likely already knows they are risky.
@@ge2719 exactly my thoughts. allow product but major warning user has to accept.
This is unbelevable! Real crap. And that is why we love you Clive, please do these reviews as long as you can, saving one live a year get you in heaven!
I feel like pretty much all rules for electrical safety could stand in the way of buying and importing devices. Be they old or new.
Maybe ebay could verify sellers that comply with certain standards... or maybe warn you if a specific product isn't tested for safety.
But who would take that risk when aliexpress wouldn't care and list all products as "double safe"?
I've been told by an engineer recently that one way to implement "cost reductions" in products is to design in unnecessary parts that can be deleted in subsequent designs......
I think you could report this to Underwriters Laboratories or the equivalent agency like CE. I wonder if there are any markings on the device showing anyone had done any testing like UL or CE?
CE probably stands for china export😂
In summary:
-Been on the market for 6+ years
-Can electrocute you and/or fry your devices
-Thin, steel core power cable that will immediately melt/catch fire in event of a malfunction
-FAKE rechargable batteries
-Topic of multiple entertaining videos
I wonder if the dropping capacitor even has a sufficient voltage rating...
It's the typical one found in LED lights.
Those big honkin' reddish-brown ones (see 3:11) are usually in the neighborhood of 600V. Suitable for driving the death beams, just not in electrolytic form because it can't be polarized.
Glad to see this video. I had two of these identical lights given to me. I only ever charged them with the provided solar chargers. It takes two days of full sun to get any real good use out of them so I just rotate them out. I wouldn't bother trying to charge a phone.
Exterminate by electrocution! This device should never have happened.
Good comment on the eBay lack of regulation too.
Might sound mean but I love using your videos to fall asleep. They're very relaxing :)
That's fine. A lot of people do that.
It's why I will never buy anything remotely electrical from ebay these days. It appears ebay don't care other than to keep getting the sellers fees coming in. If they did care they'd be coming down hard on these sorts of products.
I have one of these exact models it seems. It’s branded “outlite” and I got it as a free gift if I remember correctly. Will be taking it apart later and seeing what I can see. Won’t have time right now or for a few day- it’s also green with black rubber. Seems to have the same led and connector orientation.
Wow, I can't believe they are still making this crap. Absolutely no regards for safety whatsoever... good thing you make these videos to show how dangerous they are
True; but the problem is that 99% of people buying this sort of stuff on eBay don't know about Big Clive's channel or these videos... The authorities, on the other hand, could easily act against eBay but they'd never be able to handle the amount of stuff coming into the country without causing unacceptable delays in deliveries...
I have one that lives on the patio and gets a fair bit of sun. I'm pretty certain it does recharge from the panel, or at least did for a while. Will have to double check. I potted the mains plug ages ago to prevent use.
The early ones did at a slow rate.
I have a similar cheap light, same housing, but it doesn't have USB plugs in it, and only takes AA batteries.
That's much safer and better.
Wow my jaw dropped when the bulb lit up. I went "oh f no". Thank you for spreading awareness!
Time to buy one hehe
Sadly I've been unable to find the mini "safe" AA one that I sent you a link to ages ago. I quite liked it, but it took a fall from a roof and exploded into bits of cheap plastic
that's a good way to go, exploding into confetti
Here in the US - our two prong mains plug has a wider connector than the other for this very problem.
The more narrow prong is hot while the other is neutral.
Big clive your the reason i never buy anything that isnt branded for charging or the like. If someone buys my kids a present for xmas that comes with a charger its straight in the bin.
This proves I know absolutely nothing about electricity
It's never too late to learn.
Oh, another one of these silly things. I love them. They are so ridiculously dangerous.
Actually, over the years I've been given two of these. And yes, they're both deadly. But they're also a nice source for batteries and LEDs
Just be aware that the batteries in this one were not actually rechargeable.
Hooking the negative output of the solar panel to the A/C would prevent the battery pack from discharging back through the solar panel eliminating the need for the separate blocking diode.
I used to work for eBay many years ago, not sure how their policies may have changed since that time but their whole deal back then was: "we're just a neutral venue, we don't have firsthand knowledge of the stuff people put up for sale so we can't remove stuff for being potentially dangerous unless there's some kind of recall or the item itself is something we specifically put on a prohibited list."
So you can report electrically dangerous items until you're blue in the face and nothing will ever come of it unless it becomes a high profile media story that's featured on multiple news outlets. That's about the only way you can get someone to look at the issue who has more power than just clicking the 'delete' button on your report. If any agent removes one of those auctions incorrectly (and by incorrectly I mean removing it while it doesn't violate any official site policy), the agent has a very high chance of getting in trouble for taking incorrect action.
About solar panel and diode - purpose of diode in series with panel is not to protect it from reverse voltage, but to prevent current leakage. When battery voltage is higher than panels voltage, low current will flow from battery to panel, discharging battery and diode prevents it. Why is it removed then? Well, because there is already one diode in the path of that current - one in bridge rectifier connecting upper input and negative output - it allow current flowing from panel to battery, but prevents opposite direction. That design would allow battery charging, but panel should have higher voltage to be able to charge three cells in series.
Nice one Clive!
Looking at the solar cell, its negative end, is connected to the negative side of the battery, via a diode in the bridge rectifier.
In theory, it may be able to charge the battery, depending on how much voltage it can produce.
Anyway.... yes they should be prohibited goods! Is it as dangerous as a gun? Probably more dangerous!
Yup. The LED will take away about 4mA but the remaining 16mA should be available to charge the batteries. Mind you, 10 hours of sunlight would be only 160mAh so it would take over a week to recharge it fully.
I agree. I scanned through the comments to see if anyone already said this, and found yours!
It would have to put out more than 3V though...
Thanks for taking the time to dissect this!
No idea if this would work, but if the seller was in my country (DE), I would approach Customs. It seems this device breaks "certifications" like CE and others, and Customs would be my first try for such import things once they are in my country. But this is all theory, of course. I still "like", how Chinese export their desire of limiting population.
It really surprises me that these still continue to be sold in this configuration, a generic TP4056 charging circuit probably isn't that much to purchase in bulk and most people are probably used to lugging around a 5v USB charger with them for these types of things.
People may not be able to let go of their phone? They must have sold millions of these around the country......
You forgot the path of the solar panel through the rectifier bridge!...
Always leave it in front of a well-lit window and you probably won't need to charge it... I've had it for over 2 years and I've never needed to charge it from the socket.
That is insanely dangerous. Mind boggling.
Those Daleks are getting crafty. They make cheap stuff so we can EXTERMINATE ourselves.
Here in the USA, eBay is being sued for $2 billion for selling EPA violating products like unapproved pesticides and devices that allow diesel vehicles to "roll coal" aka spew black smoke.
Frivolous shakedown lawsuit
@@ghostmantagshome-er6pb Guilty of something?
I don't really have much respect for the EPA. They use bad science to justify their opinions.