Faulty illuminated sandscape frame (with schematic)
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- Опубликовано: 23 апр 2024
- Note that if this unit is plugged into a USB power supply while batteries are fitted, there is a risk of non rechargeable cells exploding. YAY! The unit was pumping about 500mA into a set of non rechargeable cells and almost 800mA into a rechargeable set, which will fry them quite quickly and possibly cause them to vent.
I recommend disconnecting the battery holder.
This product is quite interesting just for the frame and the LED diffuser. It could be used on its own with your choice of LED tape as a custom mood light.
This one was faulty when it arrived, with one section of LED tape not showing the warm white. Easy fix though. The wire was very thin, so I'm surprised the others didn't pop off too.
The diffuser material is a bit too long, so it could be trimmed a bit. I noticed that both sides hadn't been seated properly all round, so there's a bit of finishing to do if you get one.
A search on eBay for "sandscape" will find these effects. Shop around, as there is a wide price difference for the same units. Some listings call them quicksand art.
If using a syringe to adjust the water or air ratio, it's important to use a thin pointed hypodermic needle, as it has to push through the silicon sealant between the glass. Adjustments are a delicate juggle of removing air or water and then topping up again with the opposite. Over pressurising risks damaging the glass or seal. The instructions with the unit suggest using sterile water, but I'm inclined to use a touch of disinfectant to avoid "stuff" growing between the glass layers.
Shaking the frame will break larger bubbles into smaller ones, but sometimes bigger bubbles work better.
It's possible this effect was discovered as a happy accident, with someone putting sand between two layers of glass and then adding water to slow its movement down, then seeing the effect of the bubbles. It appears the inventor may be William Tabar who patented the idea in 1985. The first ones were made in Salt Lake City, Utah.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of RUclips's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
#ElectronicsCreators 
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I will forever see that squiggly burn mark on your bench from a hot staple. I love those sandscapes.
I'm going to see now all the time 😅😅
Yeah same
so that’s what that is lol
I remember these in seaside gift places and 'gadget shops' in the late 80s / early 90s, along with 'magic eye' pictures, dancing flowers and those liquid motion bubble things with luridly-coloured oil in them. Teenage memory unlocked! Haven't seen any of the above in years.
The 80s versions didn't have lighting though. Just the sand picture part.
This LED lit version seems like a very Chinese upgrade.
@@tin2001 that is true. In the 80s we'd have been blown away with some of the things that can be done cheaply and easily with LEDs today.
Those dancing flowers (the original ones) go for a fortune now.
It could make a nice model Stargate with some addressable LED strips for effect an a microcontroller in the base.
That whole movie is free on YT somewhere its still awesome
Indeed.
Hell yes. Great idea
@@snufftherooster93 🤨
@@snufftherooster93 I see what you did there! 😂
Nothing better than taking a screwdriver to something malfunctioning, Good Morning Sir!
Look under any hedge in any suburban park, and there are any number of syringes with needles available to stick into as many stately nannies as you like.
I was given a rectangular one of these in the late 80s. It had black and white sand with blue water. I used to watch it for hours, truly beautiful. I didn't get a needle with mine either, but my girlfriend at the time was a nurse 😏. Unfortunately, it didn't travel well and ended up as a blue, black and white mess in the bottom of a packing box. Would have loved to have had led illumination on mine.
"Let's keep taking things apart...", classic Clive in a phrase!
These sandscape type things have been around forever - I had one as a kid in the 70s. That one was just a handheld panel around the size and shape of a serving plate, no lights, no liquid either. It relied on the tendency of whatever the "sand" was (something far closer to a powder, really) to cake itself in place when it settled, requiring a nontrivial amount of time (or kinetic assistance, ahem) to break free bit by bit and fall down when flipped again.
They had a resurgence in popularity in the US in the 90s.
I haven’t seen a sandscape frame in a long time. Now I must get one. Thank you Clive 😊
I keep getting work lights you wear on your head with that strobe chip; superhelpful when someone wants some light haha
So that's where my worlights have gone to. 🤔
These are on some bike lights... utterly irritating, and not "code" in many countries.
So many people use the flashing feature on their bikes.i guess they think it makes them even more visible but it just makes you want to run them off the road because of it. So annoying and they're the only ones who don't see it
@@jussikuusela7345
I only use the strobe function for one thing on my bike... When some arsehole, usually in a taxi, is coming the other way with their high beams and various LED light bars all turned on. They usually get the point pretty quick 😂
@@tin2001 LOL that one I can relate to.
Some 30 years back I was an enthusiastic cyclist, although I had no fancy-schmancy lightweight bike nor mutha-luvin 27 combination sprocket set... a very standard bike fitted with a 2/3 to original back sprocket and a 3 speed Sachs gearset. Top gearing was 2,25 to original, low was 0,75. Fast to switch, super reliable. About the fastest "bollocks squisher" in town. I also fit on a 12V NiCad battery, 35W halogen spotlight as a "high beam", and after getting flashed by a few angry motorists, a switch to drop to a modified bike headlight, 5W/12V bulb.
Boy did I have light for the unlit side roads in the midwinter. Even planned a stepup transformer and rectifier for the dynamo to recharge on the trip, but gave that up as the 10 Ah battery was plenty to go with after all.
I must admit, that I prefer more the nostalgic snow globes with the dioramas inside. Thank you Clive!
We need a video of the slow sand thingy doing its biznis
ok never mind, found lots on youtube
@jmcarp0 you don't have to dust youtube👍
10:33 anxiety relief, I thought we‘d never get to see the dunescapes forming. Fear is the mind-killer.
I too was so worried
love the DUNE reference. love DUNE oh and BIGCLIVE 😂🤣
I was fascinated by those being sold on the streets of Poland when I was a kid/teen. Now I'll put one on my list.
(10:33) Dune directed by BigClive 😂
I might get one of these and try putting a small motor timed with an Arduino to flip it like every day...or even every few hours...just to keep the patterns changing...could be fun :)
I wondered if you could also have a wall mounted one with three rollers to rotate it every so often. Maybe even over-rotate and then go back to spread the bubbles out evenly.
My favourite type of your videos - fix it videos. I'd love you to do more if the opportunity arises please :)
in a way it's depressing to think that the once mighty microchip has fallen to the lowly task of powering tat.
Even worse it being disposable despite still being alive. Got few one time e-vapes with displays turned into flashlight that outlives it's brethen tenfolds._
@@DJResR420 Those free Vape batteries are great.
@@mrwoodandmrtin I know, I have hundreds of it salvaged filling several coffer jars._
Now I know what to get everyone for Christmas this year!
Love sand scape art looks very nice and easily modified thanks Clive 😊
That is friggin amazing and its a new landscape every time
That's an incomplete video, Clive. You missed to show the sand falling down on this round sand picture. Mezmerizing effect, but still one of those toys you look at it once or twice and then forget about it. At least from my experience
The round one is quite slow and much less consistent than the rectangular one.
A cool version of the "bubble sort".
Its got a really stylish art deco look to it.
That diffuser is very effective.
1920's style for the 2020's workshop.
Really nice sand pictures. They remind me of Mars or the fictional planet Dune. Interesting how the sand dribbles down between the bubbles. (A bit like Baby with a milkshake. Lol)
As long as you don't have photosensitive epilepsy or the like I imagine that the strobe effect would make the slow movement of the sand coming down more interesting to watch, as it would highlight the movement if in a dim environment and the strobing was at a good timing.
I know what you mean, it it froze the motion to give a proper strobe effect. (Like those water drops suspended in the air.) But I fear it wouldn't be effective unless it was in complete darkness. And I bet the flashes need some kind of calibration of their speed not provided by the generic flashing.
Great job Clive, interesting.
Guinness are breathing a sigh of relief here Big Clive as you have moved away from their shambolic surge device
Ah, sandscape pictures - I had one in the late '90s. No light though, just a rectangular frame.
Very visually soothing 😊
Project suggestion: A reimagined gadget like this from yesteryear's with some of today's tech that actually improves it.
"fumblesome" - just learned a new word
Thanks Clive. Think I know what my next LED project will be. A couple of rescued lion cells, slow colour changing leds. Maybe a fish tank bubbler too.
An under appreciated art form, thx Clive. Ps - could be an opportunity to use the time-lapse mode for the slower frames. 😀👍
Thank goodness. Your schematic, is not as wonky, as the circuit board.
I had a rectangular one back in the day. The very fine sand ended up setting like concrete.
I think a timer motor would work on that. Halfway through the cycle, flip it back. Cool anyway. Thank you, keep working.
Been a long time since I played with one of them sand art things, has to be at least the 1990s since I last saw one too, and those were more like the 2nd one you had there, in a rectangular frame often with the grey sand, still mesmerising to watch though... :D
I love when the fault reveals itself to me. 😂
Never heard of these before. I immediately thought of a friend who would love this sort of thing. Then I looked up the cost of getting one of them delivered, and decided that I didn't actually like her THAT much.
They're not too expensive from eBay.
I wish they'd stop making LED room lamps with the bike headlight strobe "feature". Flashy bastards!
ILY Clive ❤️
Thanks.
I bought some of that LED tape for my 3d printer. I have it running off from where the 12v fan is. Works fine but when it gets to temp and the printers maintaining the heater temp. It flickers. I assume it needs a capacitor. Been also meaning to put some inside of my PC for case illumination. Just with a fuse, switch and maybe a pot or resistor for the brightness.
Oh please, show us the slow version of the sandscape developing!
We'll patiently wait for 20 min or use it as a screensaver. 😉
Should have still showed us!!.... I can't be the only one who feels violated and dirty after being just left hanging like that....cheers.
"Fumblesome" what a fantastic word! 🙂
Yes they do have specialized tools in the Factory to get these assembled, they are called "Tiny Little Asian Fingers"!
Nice thing i should get one of thoose!
There need to be some fast and easy way to get rid of that flash mode in all those devices... Slap capacitor to smooth that strobe effect enough to be less annoying? Cut pin or resistor? 😅
That would be cooler with some RGBw addressable LED's in it. With a remote control , RGB addressables are always cool, especially with a good program. A fire or flame program would be really cool.. especially with blues greens and purple flames!
Much prefer the uniform color sand to the black and white, which reminds me of the coating you used to get on snow in the UK when I was young.
Mesmerizing
10:35 There's a webtoy very similar to how these work (maybe where it got the inspiration from?) where you hold the mouse button down and it drops sand, and every time you let go and click again it drops a slightly different colour, so you can make these kinds of images with it.
If these were manufactured today it would be unicorn-puke RGB, rose gold sand and just the strobe-effect.
Add a layer of clear glass sand. Arrange the LEDs to be able to shine into the sand. Use RGB LEDs. Now, different colors of light shine through the glass layers.
That looks like it will be very easy to retrofit to have a 19650 cell in there, with the shorting track cut, and a simple DW01 board on the cell, and a resistor of around 2R2, or just take one of the 3R9 resistors off and use it there, to limit charge current. Plug in and you charge the cell, DW01 provides protection and the resistor current limit. Yes not the best, but you at least do not have to buy lots of batteries, and you can easily use it as a room mood light as well
51k views after just 2 days wow they love you
A definite open circuit
i had completely forgotten that these things even existed. i'd never seen them with a light attached. leds hadnt been invented when i last saw one. 10:40, it reminds me of the mandelbrot set. i might see if there are any youtube videos of these sandscapes.
These were.huge in the late 70s and early 80s
Nice little display thingy. But why both USB powered and battery holders, tho?. Still a nice lamp display thing.🤔
Replace those AA cells with a nice rechargeable cell or two, there seems to be plenty of space for it.
I would make my sand picture, but replace it with some wierd stuff like rotten meat, Bovril and other crap; then I can watch it decay and go manky. It would be sealed up. I did an experiment where I had a rotten piece of bacon in a tank and left it to go off for a month, and it was yellow after that! I liked doing experiments like that. Shaking shampoo bottles after putting salt in it or whatever! I have done some really nasty science experiments for fun over the years, like trying to create the nastiest smell possible for instance.
Sands of time they say, I bet the art will last longer than the LEDs though, I wonder how the sand would look with a deeper blue LED mixed with UV light
Awesome!
What gets me about those strobing chips is how many of them end up in bicycle headlights, and how frequently I'll encounter someone cycling in the dark with it set to strobe. There's no way that's useful and it's potentially dangerous. Thankfully my particular kind of epilepsy doesn't seem sensitive to strobe lights (although I still find them irritating), but if a photosensitive person were to walk past those cyclists it could lead to a medical emergency!
What is the liquid, a mineral oil perhaps? Be interesting if you could add something fluorescent into it and some near uv leds too make it glow at night, changing the desert dunes into a nuclear wasteland
It's usually sterile water.
@@bigclivedotcom I'd hope it's sterile 🙈
@@bigclivedotcom still means it's more likely flurosin would mix 😅
@@phonotical I remember my uncle in the late 90s had one that was with black and "hot magenta" aggregates, never thought about using a black light on it.
@@dashcamandy2242 something to make it stand out a bit, might be interesting, or if you can get some slow flow thing going on it might look nice moving about
No shortage of hypodermics on the streets of Glasgow. Ramsey isn't too far behind.
i like your screwdriver
12:20 you probably bend the silicone(?) backwards towards the inside of the circle, line up both sides next to each other, and push it downwards into the slot
I bet watching the factory workers do this though is like magic and they're basically just a machine doing multiple of these per minute
They should make one of these for Dune with spice in it. Wait yours literally looks like that. Hmmm missed marketing opportunity for them then.
I'm not sure how transparent / thin the sand is, and whether the light from the back ring can get through, but it would probably look more interesting if the rings were different colours (ex., cyan and orange).
Welp, I know what I'm spending money on next...
I saw your note about batteries in the holder being fed power directly when plugged into USB -- you could probably add a switch to select battery or USB, right? If you wanted to be able to use either and not have to remember to remove batteries, lol
I have not seen these sand picrure thingies in any sort of stores for decades. I have one from my childhud of late 90-s, with the very same black recktangular frame that was shown here.
On a side note, the bubles are complietly un necesary, in my expirience, when I had to fill it up because of how it dried out in 2 decades.
Hi bigclive 🙂
What kinda solder do you use in your work, do you use lead free or leaded ?
In your professional opinion which is best ?
Thanks
I use lead based for most things as it is the best for repairs and prototypes.
If you want it slower, shake to make lots of small bubbles. Then allow it to settle for a few moments before flipping.
Big Clive how can a dead AA or other batteries get more charge if you knock them around a bit I mean dent them all round the side of the battery?
It may just agitate the internal chemistry to expose fresh material.
Wonder how good they'd be for a hardware random number generator. Since the patent expired, Cloudflare famously takes a photograph of 100 lava lamps, known as a lavarand, and uses that for their random number generation. Would need a motor to rotate it after taking a photo.
Tom Scott did a video on that I believe
I would like to see a timelaps (or maybe even without speeding it up) of the slow sand ring thing from this video :)
I wonder if the flashing is supposed to induce a "slow motion" effect akin to a strobe light.
yeah i own actual neon signs....but.... i would never sell a client one, i'll suggest led "neon" every time
Please post a video of the sandscape frame operating. Thank you!
I can't remember some of the things I've done either 😂
What kind of camera do you use Clive? 😊
Moto G7 power.
@bigclivedotcom Thank you sir (:
I have one of these where it lost a lot of its water and no longer works; I wasn't aware you could use a syringe to fill it back up with water
My enquiring mind wants to know what happens when the "switch to negative" option is chosen. I'm guessing a different sequence of flashing (maybe where they hid the SO SO mode).
I had one in the early '90s...no lighting, just a frame you rotate by hand mounted on a frame. Whatever that liquid was eventually evaporated out...
I somehow would have expected the last mode to be flashing SOS... xD
For battery use 3 cells with current limiting resistors.
Great video, as usual.
I have a broken dimmable Linkind GU10 LED spotlight that died after three months of usage. Would you be interested in a post mortem? I could send it together with a working example. It's hard to find good quality dimmable ones if you don't stick to brands like Philips, so maybe this could be useful for others to also avoid the "bad" brands.
What soldering iron/s do you recommend, Clive?
It depends on what you're soldering. For most bench soldering a very standard iron will do. I use a generic Chinese Hakko clone.
How often do we see Zeners bypassed on power boards??? FREQUENTLY!
pity you did not film the soldering!
We would still like to see a video of it working even if it is slow
So the batteries are in parallel with the USB supply ?
Maybe that bypassed diode is supposed to be there to prevent that happening and they made the PCB wrong ?
It is supposed to be in series. More data in the description.
Like sands through the hourglass.
Somehow, this sandscape looks like a BEC (Bose-Einstein Condensate) from isotopic pure Chinesium (Symbol: CE, atomic number -14, atomic mass: (12.3+4i)u, melting point: random).
I had a cheap sandscape a long while ago. It had a green hue. After a while somehow the water evaporated from it. So more and more air was present until it didn't function anymore.
That's why they should come with a syringe to inject more air.
@@bigclivedotcomor water in my case.
😎👍
with that bypassed diode I predict leaking batteries if they're installed and you use the USB cable.
The nanny state!
Could you imagine junkies buying these in bulk JUST to get the syringe. Lol
Or taking the syringe out and then returning the product for a refund.
Try buying a Kinder egg in the USA while you’re picking up a gun from Walmart! 😂
@@Blinkerd00d If you treat hypodermic needles like drugs the addicts hoard them, share them, and spread HIV and hepatitis, all the time harming diabetics who have a legitimate need.
If you just give them the damn needles they throw them in the bushes. You can't win.