I have been a follower of your channel for about six months and can’t get enough of your videos.Please keep the videos coming, you have inspired me to get back in to electronics and tinkering after too many years away.Awesome respect to you Sir.
One modification, using the battery and charge circuit from the Poundland Power Pod "disposable" battery booster, adds a slightly bigger capacity battery and adds charge protection... :)
There is another version of this sold by Dollarama here in Canada. $4 CND. But it has AA battery holder. It is really good to modify it and convert it to whatever you like.
Hi Clive, I have a lamp from -what I think- the same manufacturer. It works on 3 AA batteries and does NOT have the innoying dim feature. Instead you can hold the capacitive touch somewhat longer and it dims. It even remembers your dim setting after shutting off and works amazingly long on batteries only. No charging built in though it has a USB power plug. (Great nightlight in case of power outage!) The leds are very small but also fairly bright.
I wonder if the brand name is iZoom. I have one (that works like what you describe) I use to light my keyboard during late nights when I don't need to light up the whole room. Both that one and a similar model that works exactly like the one in the video came from American Science & Surplus (sciplus.com). They both even have that 'War of the Worlds"-alien look.
Clive, I'm sorry to say that on this occasion you have got it wrong! We follow your work with much scrutiny. You missed part of that circuit! In the clip at (9:05) you say there would be no way to make it work! The VCC exits the USB and goes to D1, however, there is a track that then goes under the diode up to PIN 4 of charge controller. The circuit is designed for a Microchip MCP73831/2. After said part, a resistor and some hot air and paste we have a working charge managed version! Basically as a side note. what has happened here is you got what looks like the cut down version. We have now removed the diode as it is not needed! MCP set to 150mah and it is able to also run and charge the battery at the same time!
I bought two of these two years back and fitted them with large lithium cells almost straight away. It's a dodgy lamp, but it works. Mine doesn't have a 3-step light level, instead it just changes slowly and you stop pushing the touch button at the intensity you want.
I have on of these lights, it was doing the job of a desk light so it was constantly powered. After the video I opened it up and there was this tiny, much smaller then Clives, puffer battery. I will replace it with something with internal management and return it to service. Thanks Clive.
I have bought a lamp with the exact same function, just a bit different design from China. It had a 400mAh Lead Acid battery (directly hooked to USB, no diodes, nothing), changed the battery for a 18650 and (of course) put one of those TP4056 Lithium Battery Chargers with protection in it. Really nice "natural" light colour, really neat and handy light! (AFTER modification :D)
I assume it's the price. A 12V 100Ah car battery is also lead acid, but costs a mere 60-120€/$/etc. If if was Lithium Ion, it'd be more expensive than some cars themselves do cost D: But at least in the case of my lamp there was another reason: After putting in a 2600mAh 18650, the base became lighter and now it is more prone to tipping over than it was with the lead acid battery. (but still: cost is of course the main reason, it's cheapo chines after all :D)
@@8bpspfreak2I have something similar to that: folding lamp with a lead acid battery and capacitive dropper, and a three position swich. And it was supposed to light for like 15 hours on lower brightness with that puny around 900mAh battery. So I modded it, desoldered almost everything from pcb, leaving only switch. I "repurposed" that pcb as a holder for TP4056 + DW01 module and two small 350mA driver chips, with some diodes for selecting one or both chips (they can be used in parallel), and three 18650's. Now I have 16 hour light output without dropping on brightness intensity. Great! That lamp looks like this: images.sklepy24.pl/26159607/981/medium/tiross-ts-53-lampka-biurkowa-wielofunkcyjna-30-led.jpg
This look like the perfect kit for building your own timber base with a bit of heft and a better battery. Would make great 'hand made' crissy presents.
And there's me adding sheet steel to objects to add weight to them like a pleb. Cutting thin plates with shears and gluing them in. Then again that is definitely the cheapest way to go about it. Lead is only 40% denser, but if you use pellets, you lose the advantage because of packing density, and i don't have a source for sheet. Bismuth a bit useless at 25%. DU about 140%, which is remarkable.
DU is indeed remarkable. It was used as the keel on a super-yacht a few years ago. I cannot find any on eBay. It is a quite toxic heavy metal, even without the slight depletion-depleted radioactivity.
They probably assumed that a diode will always cause a 0.7V voltage drop hence the battery will not charge beyond 4.3V from a 5V supply, and 4.3V isn't terribly bad for a Li-ion cell. Unfortunately the 0.7V drop is only valid if the diode draws sufficient current. I'm not sure what will actually happen but both possible scenarios are bad in different ways. If the battery draws less current as it becomes charged, the drop across the diode will keep dropping and the cell will eventually reach 5V which is bad. The other possibility is that the cell cannot go much above 4.3V. In that case it will keep drawing current even when it is fully charged, which will also cause damage.
Hey this is a very relevant observation, i had the beginnings of a very similar thought but you thought it more or less to completion. I don't really think full 5V (0V diode drop) can EVER be reached via a diode, no matter how small the current, as the battery will also keep consuming and thermally dissipating a bit, as does the touch controller, but there certainly is a marked decrease in voltage drop at very low currents, which makes diode charger unsuitable in general and especially with a diode drop this borderline, besides being input voltage dependent and 5.25V being a valid USB voltage.
"They probably assumed that a diode will always cause a 0.7V voltage drop hence the battery will not charge beyond 4.3V from a 5V supply," The problem in not all power supplies hit 5v, the Anker USB bank I have outputs 5.3v. Although, looking online that M1 diode seems to have a forward drop of 1.1v.
4.3V wont blow the cell up, but it will make the chemistry degrade very quickly if it isnt one of those new ultra pure chemistries. it definitely isnt...
Make the diode a Zener [ turned the other way around of course] and the voltage could be limited to a constant value less than the 5 volts from the USB supply.
I got one of those type lights however mine took 3 AAA batteries. I hat AAA batteries so I installed a small cell like that, then used the little charging/protection adapters you can get off eBay. The one I have has the magnifying glass with a circle of LED'S to light up what you are looking at. I use it sometimes when I need that extra magnification for my soldering jobs. Conversion of these things is really kind of fun I have done others using old phone batteries or batteries from old PDA'S that I used to play around with in years gone by.
I'm a drone photographer and it's hilarious to watch people in the drone community freak out about Lipo and treat their batteries so carefully, yet we're surrounded by dodgy electronics like this.
like smart-phones...... which is a funny name for them, since taking away said "smart" device leaves most looking stupid and dumber than a box of rocks.....
Depends on the battery technology. Drone batteries are very high current output whereas the cell in this lamp probably has a higher internal resistance.
my first thought as well, although my first exposure to the war of the worlds movie was from the 80's movie Explorers. So, I think of the dream sequence.
I know this is weird, but I had that movie's scenes stuck in my head for 12 years and never got to know the name of the movie itself. Thank you so much!
Before the "Smart" phones took over, I was into those cheap tablets, I ordered broken ones for a very cheap price, and tried to build up one working out of two or three. This left me with tons of old lithium flat cells of various sizes and shapes, add to that, I have gone through dozens of old laptops that I have torn down, and tore apart the batteries for the cells, giving me dozens of old 18650's and most recently, a strange little square cell about three times as thick as the one you found in that lamp with tons of power, that was contained in a small battery pack from an old tablet that worked on WIndows 2000. Amazingly only two of the 8 cells in that one were dead, the rest took a full charge and seem to be working great, I have yet to attach them to my tester to run a full test to find the power available in them. Looking at that lamp, I think I have a cell that would nearly full the base, not to thick, and it is a single cell so the voltage would be proper, man that lamp could work for days on that cell without needing a charge. Perfect for use in my RV, if I ever get to travel in her again. Mom is going into a nursing home tomorrow, she is still going strong, but can't seem to keep from falling now, so needs the attention. Lots of work ahead of me today, so thanks for the great video, I shall indeed look at that light in earnest. when I get a chance.
@@Useaname Thanks, she has been in the home now for quite some time. They found the problem and have her on meds to control the falling, but at 93 years, she has decided to stay in the home. She loves it there with all her old friends, and says the food is wonderful, as is the care. We are in the process of now selling off her property for her so she will no longer have the taxes, insurance and utilities, so if anyone needs a nice 2 bedroom home in northern South Dakota, let me know.
I bought one at Dollarama in Ontario for $4.00 Canadian. My model uses 3AA batteries (I use rechargeable AAs) rather than an internal Lithium rechargeable through USB. I imagine replacing the internal battery with a resistor and connecting a power bank using USB would remove the threat of Lithium battery combustion and vastly extend the length of time it produces light. My battery bank allows use while charging so when I see those lights again I will pick up a few and convert them. Add some velcro or magnetic strip to the underside will add to their usefulness.
I can't say I would mind having to go through the intensity levels to turn the lamp off, if that means that I don't need to recite some special incantation to keep the darn thing lit like it should be. I understand that if someone wants to make something cheap by having only a single button on it, making that single button scroll through the various settings is the most straightforward way to do it. I like straightforward!
It looks like one of those Li-Ion cells used inside the white shell for the Nokia 3310/3330 (minus the little protection PCB) . I've had those batteries bulge and split the 2 halves of the white plastic shell apart, revealing the cell (looking exactly like the one in this video, size and everything) and the little protection PCB that usually isn't protective at all on the cheapo replacements. As for the 250mAh ... If this was measured it via one of those inline USB gadgets logging the charge etc. it might be way off. None of these in-line charge monitor gadgets that I've tried has been accurate if the charge current is fairly low. For phones that charge at 1 amp or more they're usually OK and show mostly realistic numbers, for something charging at less than 500mA they will read ridiculously low capacity numbers (or sometimes no capacity at all) as if they're unable to measure it properly
Clive, poundland have a lamp, it's a white ball like thing on a magnetic base and it's very bright. Runs on 3 x AAAs. I can send one if you're interested.
250 mAh is way small for a cell phone battery. Even old-ass batteries get more than that. I have a 500W ebike that I power with an array of 120 used/discarded phone batteries (10S 10~13P). Even the smallest one (a 700 mAh battery from a 2004 Sony Ericsson K300i) gets more than 500 mAh. That's Fukushima quality, baby! (no seriously, the cell has SONY FUKUSHIMA printed on it)
The controller may be an ATtiny202 or 402. Power pins match and the capacitor is on the reset pin which has an internal pull-up. The ATtiny has got capacitive touch channels and PWM peripherals.
Clive, you mention a transistor but I don't see a transistor in the PCB or on the schematic? There must be a transistor that's switching the leds but where is it?
I've just been reminded that lighting for a machine shop, or anywhere with rotating machinery, shouldn't strobe. Is that something you could cover sometime?
Interesting, I own one of these from 3 years ago. Different PCB, has a screw in the LED defuser plate, does not have divots above the LEDs in the mold. And it has a mold to hod the battery in the middle with a steal bar to weigh down the base. Also charged with USB to a DC barrel connection, not micro USB. It’s hard to tell, maybe yours is a smaller version of mine so it doesn’t need the weight? I thought I checked the cell, when I bought it, but I hacked again to be sure and mine is also a metal encased cell but it does have the protection circuit on the battery. But at first look I thigh it was the same one. Either they cut costs over the years, or a few different one are being manufactured differently. Exactly why I take things a;art when I buy them, you never know from the outside what you really get.
This type of capacitive sensor is extremely simple, you can do it with only a microcontroller and no extra parts. I've done it in the past with an Arduino, and depending on how sensitive you make your code, it can sense your presence from quite far away. A lot of fun to play around with. So that chip on there might well be a generic microcontroller (probably some chinese one they can get for next to nothing in bulk)
Believe it or not this was actually quite expensive - I bought 2 of 'em from my local cheap shop for £1.99 each (almost identical). The LED's give off a very harsh light but colouring the transparent LED cover with a permanent marker makes them quite nice (I used red but the light kinda comes out orange). The BIG problem with them is that they fall over if you glance in their direction - I'm going to fill the basses with something heavy when I get round to it. For £1.99 they are not bad :)
I guess it might be a cool project to find a proper charging chip for the battery and hack the PCB so it runs properly. I am pretty certain I just yesterday came across an almost identical setup inside a bluetooth USB mono speaker from Aldi. If that is the case I may try and do the same as I think it has been damaging the lithium battery for the same reason and giving less and less run time between recharges because of it.
Could be something like an AT-tiny13 as an uC as it has PWM and it is possible to get an capacitiv button working. Also if it seems if you remove the diod you can enable the battery protection if populated - but hard to tell on my screen.
No, i'm not aware of any uC that can sink 300mA of current, i doubt it can even be done. It has to be a special purpose chip. It's not an ATTiny for numerous other reasons too.
I have one of these, very similar model. Would it be best to just entirely remove the battery and run it off a usb charger? This is what I do anyway, I don't care about the battery operation...
4.4V might be ok for a high voltage lithium cell. I would only operate that thing on a fireproof surface though. Or rather, I wouldn't operate that thing. Since I have a 3D printer, I'm only interested in those gadgets for inspiration. One could get one of those charging modules from ebay and slap that in to make it safe. Some 5V zener diodes and a 6V solar panel also make a good addition when you have said charging module inside. Simple to make, simple to fix and rather cheap.
I would just buy one of those 2 Amp lithium chargers, a LiIon protection board, put 2 NRC18650B into this thing and wire it all up. Then this would be really nice. How is the color rendering of the LEDs?
Does it turn off with a long press? I found this from my bicycle light and it's just waaaay better than cycling through all the stupidly arbitrary but compulsory blinky hell modes.
I thought the same, it’s a little secret a lot of lights I’ve had hold, aswell as some of them even respond to a double click! Alas, Clive says no in this instance. Badly designed all round really, then.
i have a similar version however i think you missed the chip has low Voltage cutoff protection and it charges slowly ~45ma to right around 4.16v mine can fit 2x 18650 and with 4000mah from 2 CGR18650A (laptop pull) on LOW i get ~100 hours and on HIGH i get ~20 not finished testing the light will dim below 3v but will turn off at ~2.75v
It’s identical to a battery version I purchased from poundstretchers about a year ago but mine takes aaa cells that is a touch pad to bright/dim on/off I paid about £7.00 for it at the time.
I actually bought an LED light in Canada from the dollar store that looks exactly like that one except it's not rechargeable, it has a battery compartment for 4 AAs in the bottom and no USB port.
We sell one like this at jaycar here in australia, it's got a 500mah battery and a large clip on the underside to clamp onto a desk with a body that's half the width. Id assume it's the proper one with all the circuitry and healthy battery inside it though considering its about 12 USD
Clive, interesting video, but I started hoping for a firey desk-scarring lithium cell teardown event with smoudering chaos :) You expressed interest in the polarity of the cell connections, surely curiousity should rule.
are those really recycled old phone batteries? if so, are they likely tested to see if they even hold a charge? one part of me feels that you're getting cheated in a way by getting a used cell, but the other part feels that if it works then recycling them is a good use for things like this. i just wonder how long they would work for..
I have a similar model (mine has a clamp) and it works just fine for me. It has an charge indicator that changes from red to green. When I see the green light, I just unplug it!
@@bigclivedotcom I sure hope so! BTW, I love your videos, you explain so much. Though sometimes, it's downright scary what is in the cheaper goods! Keep the videos coming - I have become a much more careful E-Bay consumer thanks to your work! Will we be seeing a repeat appearance of Fannie Flambeau anytime soon? It was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Perhaps something with unintentionally exploding fairy lights? Thanks!
Currently having a lot of building work and "camping" out in one room, at night it's like an assault course getting past all the obstacles, so I've scattered a few ebay and aldi pir controlled 6 and 10 LED lamps about the place. No rechargeable types but all are incredibly sensitive. Rechargeables terrify me after watching clive and his tin of doom ... I bought a selection of charge/discharge protection boards for pennies on fleabay. I'm still a fan of "ordinary" cells
Rechargeable cells are perfectly safe if not severely damaged. If you're without power right now I'd strongly recommend a head torch as a very convenient lightsource at night.
#@@bigclivedotcom Headlamp not a bad idea for evening when hands full of brew and bikkies, the PIRs do add a certain something to a journey. Swanning round with lights automatically following you does add something. At 60+ "getting about" is actually a euphemism for going for a pee. At 3am I've usually waited to the last second so need to make the journey quickly, hunting down headgear isn't always an option.
A chunky battery would also give it some weight and make it more stable . I bought something similar but with an 18650 battery inside , very wobbly so i got some Plasticine and put that in the base , worked a charm
On the topic of USB protection, last night I read an article about a 13 year old in China that needed surgery because he had cut the connector off the end of a USB cable and ran it up in his urethra where it curled in to a knot inside him. It was an Apple style cord, but I don't know if that is a factor.
I have actually just modified it with a protected phone battery. Charge current started at about 600mA for a discharged cell and cut off properly at full charge.
My mother has one of these, mounted on the underside of her kitchen cabinet above the sink. It's hooked up to a similarly dodgy 5V charger so it wouldn't run down. So you're saying that the cell is kept at a constant 4.4V, and could light the entire kitchen on fire anytime? That is... reassuring 🙃
Clive, love your channel. Just wondering how I could send you things for you to take a look at. I live in Malaysia but I often go to Shenzhen on business. I always go to the Electronics market and I don't mind sending on a couple of the things I come across.
I love cheap lamps of this type. They provide very nice modding possibilities. Just replace the stock board with a cheapo powerbank board, use a normal switch, fill case with old phone cells and presto, a base-heavy and long lasting usb light.
I have several old phone batteries and 18650s knocking about (from an old laptop battery), they're literally no use to me as I'll probably just end up blowing a finger off - are they any use to you?
The Range in London rd Glasgow do something similar to this for £6. 2 rows of 7 LEDs in the head also has slider off switch (unfortunately underneath) to stop it discharging .1200mAh LION. 2W on max power it's pretty bright and quite useful.
Easily removable cells from phones (as long as they're more or less legitimate cells from more or less legitimate phones) always have protection. Consider this, they have exposed + and - contacts, so if you were to accidentally short them i.e. by putting the battery into the pocket with your keys or a tinfoil wrapper from a candy, the resulting fire would not exactly be regulation compliant. Or someone puts it into a wrong phone or under a weird angle, those kinds of things. Permanently installed cells may need to have their top dismantled to see whether there's terminals going right into the cell body or whether there's a protection board attached in between. Or elsewhere Clive suggested attaching them to a constant current supply with current monitoring, putting a bit of current into them at the top of their charge, and seeing whether the charge current rapidly shuts off once termination voltage somewhere between 4.2-4.35V is reached. These protection chips like DW01 exhibit 3 functions, they turn off the battery when it's about to be overcharged, or overdischarged (below 3.0V), or when current drawn is too high (short circuit protection) and you could hypothetically test either of these functions, though testing short circuit protecton is only fine when it's actually present, othewise ill advised :D Overdischarge via a suitably high current limiting resistance should work too, you should see the current (or alternatively voltage across discharge resistance) abruptly drop to 0 somewhere around 2.9-3.1V if protection IC is present.
They usually do, but it's not guaranteed. The only way to test is to charge them up while monitoring current and voltage and see if the current drops to zero as the cell voltage is around 4.2V to 4.25V.
It might be an interesting project to try to incorporate a DW01-P charge/discharge protection IC into this. BigClive probably has a few DW01's laying about his work bench somewhere. ;)
What's the point of a 1-ohm resistor? A resistor in that position is used to limit the current through the LEDs, but V=IR, so if R=1, then it seems like the resistor would have no effect.
That's because (from maths) I=V/R, so if R is close to 0 (as wires tend to be), then the current will be close to infinity, which causes the LEDs to be sad. The thing I don't get is that if the resistor is 1ohm, the current should be about 4A, which is still way too high, so either the wires are so thin they form a significant resistance, or the PWM is limiting the current enough for nothing to blow up, or BC misread the resistor value.
@@danya023 3.7V - 3V = 0.7V / 1Ohm = 0.7A and probably internal battery resistance about 0.5Ohm, so, the resulting current will be about 0.5A (excluding internal switch IC resistance and wires resistance)
These LEDs have forward voltage of approximately 3V. Assuming 4.2V operating voltage, the resistor drops 1.2V to make up the difference between voltage drop across the LEDs and the supply rail. For 1.0 Ohm across 1.2V, the current is 1.2A. Unfortunately it means the resistor dissipates 1.44W, at which i give it a few hours of life at most. Actually for higher current, the forward voltage of LEDs increases slightly, which probably would put the current right around 1.1A. This is still too high, as you can't run more than about 700mA through this LED panel, certainly not. Preferably more like 300-500, depends. There's a possibility that the ESR of the battery and the resistance of the leads and the on-resistance of the control MOSFET were all designed into the system to help manage the current. I kinda doubt that the ESR of this battery is anywhere under 1 Ohm, if it's a sufficiently shitty one, but perhaps it still needed a little extra resistance. What if though that the touch control chip actually actively monitors and limits the current? Then the resistor is merely there to help get some heat off the die, it doesn't actually do anything to affect the current. But even 1 Ohm can be a pretty good contributor. Unfortunately there's no datasheet since chip is very anonymous.
I have a similar-looking light which also has a clip on the base and an additional on/off switch on the back next to the Micro-USB. It's actually not bright enough for most purposes, so it doesn't have much of a point. Is yours bright?
I have a usb powered version which I converted to a 1w warm white by dint of chopping off most of the head, hot gluing on the bottom of a beer can as a 'reflector' and changing out the resistor. I've used it as a bedside lamp for about two years now without really ever thinking about it again, it works really well now.
hey @bigclivedotcom how often do you find a product you actually like so you upgrade it, ie bluetooth speakers with 4650 mah batteries upgrade from 650mah etc, leds swapped for a dif color(i KNOW you're guilty of this 1)
I’m wondering if the diode provides enough voltage drop to keep the lithium polymer from peril. Perhaps a 1V drop would take the USB to 4.1V. Who knows. 🤔
There are several ways. Capacitance is one of them There's all sorts of RF jiggery-pokery methods but that costs too much for this sort of thing. There's even some stupid ESD sensor ones (basically they are depending on you having a static charge and discharging through the chip). Weird when I first replied BC's post was not there then it turns up a day before mine. Well that's the world wide wait for you.
@@herosstratos I am about 90% certain that is a true story as the smaller DEC computers EG PDP-10 and PDP-11 (as opposed to their VAX 11 range) did get grounding problems after long term use especially after moving them multiple times (which happened a lot).
They are in parallel. They have probably used matched LEDs from the same batch, and the current will be low enough not to cause an issue with slight forward voltage variation.
Clive.....When you say "HOICK" (I don't know how to spell that) . What is the derivative of the phrase. Sureley not based on the driech scottish town of Hawick.
I'm in Canada and I've bought two lights similar to that one, the same but mine take AA batteries instead of being rechargeable. I bought them for $4 at Dollarama(a dollar store) I've been thinking of converting them to USB and sticking a rechargeable battery in them.
Thought about buying one like that (with a clamp instead of a "base"), but probably now won't bother. Are there any "good" rechargeable/battery operated lamps like this that you can clamp to a shelf?
No, it absolutely couldn't. For one, that's relatively expensive, you don't need flash in here. For other, you can only pull 40mA through any given pin before datasheet says that it's likely to explode - really you could probably do a wee bit more, but not by much. That's about 3mA per LED, like, it will light up, you could see it in the darkness, but it won't be actual light that you could read under or anything, not this amount of light. And third, ATTiny pinout has diagonal power, 4/8. Given the power requirements, you don't expect this to be a microcontroller to begin with, because usually power semiconductors and big complex circuits like general purpose processors don't mix very well on same die; you expect this to be a power MOSFET circuit with a hardcoded state machine for the logic function, probably a mass produced special-purpose touch dimming controller.
I have almost that exact same one. I have it plugged into a powered USB hub on my desk. Only issue is that when the hub is off, the light starts powering other components connected in the hub...
Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to simply replace the existing diode with TWO Schottky diodes in series ? Get two diodes that have around 0.3v drop at low current and around 0.5v at high currents and now the battery is unlikely to see more than 4.3v (provided the usb is 5v or thereabouts.. there's some voltage drop on the wires inside at high currents also) MBR1020 , MBR120, MBR130 ... less than 10 cents each in volume
You can't really rely on the USB input being an exact 5V. Some chargers put out over 5.5V. With lithium cells the critical charge voltage requires tenth of a volt accuracy.
I have been a follower of your channel for about six months and can’t get enough of your videos.Please keep the videos coming, you have inspired me to get back in to electronics and tinkering after too many years away.Awesome respect to you Sir.
I Agree :)
One modification, using the battery and charge circuit from the Poundland Power Pod "disposable" battery booster, adds a slightly bigger capacity battery and adds charge protection... :)
It's funny how two shitty products are sometimes just about made for each other!
There is another version of this sold by Dollarama here in Canada. $4 CND. But it has AA battery holder.
It is really good to modify it and convert it to whatever you like.
Hi Clive,
I have a lamp from -what I think- the same manufacturer.
It works on 3 AA batteries and does NOT have the innoying dim feature.
Instead you can hold the capacitive touch somewhat longer and it dims.
It even remembers your dim setting after shutting off and works amazingly long on batteries only.
No charging built in though it has a USB power plug.
(Great nightlight in case of power outage!)
The leds are very small but also fairly bright.
I wonder if the brand name is iZoom. I have one (that works like what you describe) I use to light my keyboard during late nights when I don't need to light up the whole room.
Both that one and a similar model that works exactly like the one in the video came from American Science & Surplus (sciplus.com). They both even have that 'War of the Worlds"-alien look.
Clive, I'm sorry to say that on this occasion you have got it wrong! We follow your work with much scrutiny. You missed part of that circuit! In the clip at (9:05) you say there would be no way to make it work! The VCC exits the USB and goes to D1, however, there is a track that then goes under the diode up to PIN 4 of charge controller. The circuit is designed for a Microchip MCP73831/2. After said part, a resistor and some hot air and paste we have a working charge managed version! Basically as a side note. what has happened here is you got what looks like the cut down version. We have now removed the diode as it is not needed! MCP set to 150mah and it is able to also run and charge the battery at the same time!
I bought two of these two years back and fitted them with large lithium cells almost straight away. It's a dodgy lamp, but it works. Mine doesn't have a 3-step light level, instead it just changes slowly and you stop pushing the touch button at the intensity you want.
Your humor does not escape me. That said, you're the best Clive. Simple stuff, explained by a total pro, how do you beat it. Many thanks.
I have on of these lights, it was doing the job of a desk light so it was constantly powered. After the video I opened it up and there was this tiny, much smaller then Clives, puffer battery. I will replace it with something with internal management and return it to service. Thanks Clive.
It wouldn't be worth watching if Clive didn't call it "dodgy."
and... not 'dangerooos' ‼️
@@BPantherPink You're thinking of DiodeGoneWild aren't you?
I love Big Clive "Footery" AWSOME !
I have bought a lamp with the exact same function, just a bit different design from China. It had a 400mAh Lead Acid battery (directly hooked to USB, no diodes, nothing), changed the battery for a 18650 and (of course) put one of those TP4056 Lithium Battery Chargers with protection in it. Really nice "natural" light colour, really neat and handy light! (AFTER modification :D)
I'm seeing a few items appearing with lead acid batteries and no significant charge control.
I assume it's the price. A 12V 100Ah car battery is also lead acid, but costs a mere 60-120€/$/etc. If if was Lithium Ion, it'd be more expensive than some cars themselves do cost D:
But at least in the case of my lamp there was another reason: After putting in a 2600mAh 18650, the base became lighter and now it is more prone to tipping over than it was with the lead acid battery. (but still: cost is of course the main reason, it's cheapo chines after all :D)
@@8bpspfreak2I have something similar to that: folding lamp with a lead acid battery and capacitive dropper, and a three position swich. And it was supposed to light for like 15 hours on lower brightness with that puny around 900mAh battery. So I modded it, desoldered almost everything from pcb, leaving only switch. I "repurposed" that pcb as a holder for TP4056 + DW01 module and two small 350mA driver chips, with some diodes for selecting one or both chips (they can be used in parallel), and three 18650's. Now I have 16 hour light output without dropping on brightness intensity. Great! That lamp looks like this: images.sklepy24.pl/26159607/981/medium/tiross-ts-53-lampka-biurkowa-wielofunkcyjna-30-led.jpg
This look like the perfect kit for building your own timber base with a bit of heft and a better battery. Would make great 'hand made' crissy presents.
A lot of the cheap eBay gadgets are great value just for the parts they contain. Ideal for repurposing.
Shove a chunk of lead or bismuth in the base.
Anybody know where I can get a slab of depleted uranium?
And there's me adding sheet steel to objects to add weight to them like a pleb. Cutting thin plates with shears and gluing them in. Then again that is definitely the cheapest way to go about it. Lead is only 40% denser, but if you use pellets, you lose the advantage because of packing density, and i don't have a source for sheet. Bismuth a bit useless at 25%. DU about 140%, which is remarkable.
DU is indeed remarkable. It was used as the keel on a super-yacht a few years ago. I cannot find any on eBay. It is a quite toxic heavy metal, even without the slight depletion-depleted radioactivity.
They probably assumed that a diode will always cause a 0.7V voltage drop hence the battery will not charge beyond 4.3V from a 5V supply, and 4.3V isn't terribly bad for a Li-ion cell. Unfortunately the 0.7V drop is only valid if the diode draws sufficient current. I'm not sure what will actually happen but both possible scenarios are bad in different ways. If the battery draws less current as it becomes charged, the drop across the diode will keep dropping and the cell will eventually reach 5V which is bad. The other possibility is that the cell cannot go much above 4.3V. In that case it will keep drawing current even when it is fully charged, which will also cause damage.
Hey this is a very relevant observation, i had the beginnings of a very similar thought but you thought it more or less to completion.
I don't really think full 5V (0V diode drop) can EVER be reached via a diode, no matter how small the current, as the battery will also keep consuming and thermally dissipating a bit, as does the touch controller, but there certainly is a marked decrease in voltage drop at very low currents, which makes diode charger unsuitable in general and especially with a diode drop this borderline, besides being input voltage dependent and 5.25V being a valid USB voltage.
and then you buy a new chinesium device and further pollute the earth with yet more plastic chinesium.... vicious cycle of stupidity ;)
"They probably assumed that a diode will always cause a 0.7V voltage drop
hence the battery will not charge beyond 4.3V from a 5V supply,"
The problem in not all power supplies hit 5v, the Anker USB bank I have outputs 5.3v. Although, looking online that M1 diode seems to have a forward drop of 1.1v.
4.3V wont blow the cell up, but it will make the chemistry degrade very quickly if it isnt one of those new ultra pure chemistries.
it definitely isnt...
Make the diode a Zener [ turned the other way around of course] and the voltage could be limited to a constant value less than the 5 volts from the USB supply.
I got one of those type lights however mine took 3 AAA batteries. I hat AAA batteries so I installed a small cell like that, then used the little charging/protection adapters you can get off eBay. The one I have has the magnifying glass with a circle of LED'S to light up what you are looking at. I use it sometimes when I need that extra magnification for my soldering jobs. Conversion of these things is really kind of fun I have done others using old phone batteries or batteries from old PDA'S that I used to play around with in years gone by.
I'm a drone photographer and it's hilarious to watch people in the drone community freak out about Lipo and treat their batteries so carefully, yet we're surrounded by dodgy electronics like this.
Things that you can not see can not hurt you.
Quite a bit more energy in the cells drones use than in this shit
no metal shield on drone lipos either
like smart-phones...... which is a funny name for them, since taking away said "smart" device leaves most looking stupid and dumber than a box of rocks.....
Depends on the battery technology. Drone batteries are very high current output whereas the cell in this lamp probably has a higher internal resistance.
The design reminds me of the war of the worlds movie.. The lamp looks like the end of a tentacle
my first thought as well, although my first exposure to the war of the worlds movie was from the 80's movie Explorers. So, I think of the dream sequence.
I know this is weird, but I had that movie's scenes stuck in my head for 12 years and never got to know the name of the movie itself. Thank you so much!
Yes, that's it, I had something going on in the back of my head about the shape which I understand now!
I kinda like that about it!
..... I read testicle, Then I wondered if the Aliens had them ?
Before the "Smart" phones took over, I was into those cheap tablets, I ordered broken ones for a very cheap price, and tried to build up one working out of two or three. This left me with tons of old lithium flat cells of various sizes and shapes, add to that, I have gone through dozens of old laptops that I have torn down, and tore apart the batteries for the cells, giving me dozens of old 18650's and most recently, a strange little square cell about three times as thick as the one you found in that lamp with tons of power, that was contained in a small battery pack from an old tablet that worked on WIndows 2000. Amazingly only two of the 8 cells in that one were dead, the rest took a full charge and seem to be working great, I have yet to attach them to my tester to run a full test to find the power available in them. Looking at that lamp, I think I have a cell that would nearly full the base, not to thick, and it is a single cell so the voltage would be proper, man that lamp could work for days on that cell without needing a charge. Perfect for use in my RV, if I ever get to travel in her again. Mom is going into a nursing home tomorrow, she is still going strong, but can't seem to keep from falling now, so needs the attention. Lots of work ahead of me today, so thanks for the great video, I shall indeed look at that light in earnest. when I get a chance.
All the best to your mom.
@@Useaname Thanks, she has been in the home now for quite some time. They found the problem and have her on meds to control the falling, but at 93 years, she has decided to stay in the home. She loves it there with all her old friends, and says the food is wonderful, as is the care. We are in the process of now selling off her property for her so she will no longer have the taxes, insurance and utilities, so if anyone needs a nice 2 bedroom home in northern South Dakota, let me know.
I bought one at Dollarama in Ontario for $4.00 Canadian. My model uses 3AA batteries (I use rechargeable AAs) rather than an internal Lithium rechargeable through USB. I imagine replacing the internal battery with a resistor and connecting a power bank using USB would remove the threat of Lithium battery combustion and vastly extend the length of time it produces light. My battery bank allows use while charging so when I see those lights again I will pick up a few and convert them. Add some velcro or magnetic strip to the underside will add to their usefulness.
Like watching a child opening up a longed-
for present - frantic, shivering with excitement, love it!
I can't say I would mind having to go through the intensity levels to turn the lamp off, if that means that I don't need to recite some special incantation to keep the darn thing lit like it should be. I understand that if someone wants to make something cheap by having only a single button on it, making that single button scroll through the various settings is the most straightforward way to do it. I like straightforward!
It looks like one of those Li-Ion cells used inside the white shell for the Nokia 3310/3330 (minus the little protection PCB)
. I've had those batteries bulge and split the 2 halves of the white plastic shell apart, revealing the cell (looking exactly like the one in this video, size and everything) and the little protection PCB that usually isn't protective at all on the cheapo replacements.
As for the 250mAh ... If this was measured it via one of those inline USB gadgets logging the charge etc. it might be way off. None of these in-line charge monitor gadgets that I've tried has been accurate if the charge current is fairly low. For phones that charge at 1 amp or more they're usually OK and show mostly realistic numbers, for something charging at less than 500mA they will read ridiculously low capacity numbers (or sometimes no capacity at all) as if they're unable to measure it properly
Clive, poundland have a lamp, it's a white ball like thing on a magnetic base and it's very bright. Runs on 3 x AAAs. I can send one if you're interested.
I have one here in the box of pending Poundland stuff.
@@bigclivedotcom Ah cool. Looking forward to it. I didn't know if the IOM branch had them in or not.
I've just watched that video. It's a cool lamp.
Always use protection. Otherwise you can get regrets.
Not to mention certain diseases!
@@WaltonPete like cooties?
@@mhammadalloush5104
As a non-American I'm unsure as to the exact nature of 'cooties' but I've no doubt it's probably quite unpleasant.
250mah at this size? seems like they reusing old phone batterys instead of Recycling it
you expect them to throw away all the battery that were designed for those obsolete phone? non non non mon ami. put them in ALL the cheap product!
That IS recycling them... Taking them from one source and re-purposing it.
most cheapy chinese junk like this is mostly if not completely recycled electronics
technically that is recycling.
250 mAh is way small for a cell phone battery. Even old-ass batteries get more than that. I have a 500W ebike that I power with an array of 120 used/discarded phone batteries (10S 10~13P). Even the smallest one (a 700 mAh battery from a 2004 Sony Ericsson K300i) gets more than 500 mAh. That's Fukushima quality, baby! (no seriously, the cell has SONY FUKUSHIMA printed on it)
The controller may be an ATtiny202 or 402. Power pins match and the capacitor is on the reset pin which has an internal pull-up. The ATtiny has got capacitive touch channels and PWM peripherals.
Clive, you mention a transistor but I don't see a transistor in the PCB or on the schematic? There must be a transistor that's switching the leds but where is it?
I've just been reminded that lighting for a machine shop, or anywhere with rotating machinery, shouldn't strobe. Is that something you could cover sometime?
Interesting, I own one of these from 3 years ago. Different PCB, has a screw in the LED defuser plate, does not have divots above the LEDs in the mold. And it has a mold to hod the battery in the middle with a steal bar to weigh down the base. Also charged with USB to a DC barrel connection, not micro USB. It’s hard to tell, maybe yours is a smaller version of mine so it doesn’t need the weight? I thought I checked the cell, when I bought it, but I hacked again to be sure and mine is also a metal encased cell but it does have the protection circuit on the battery. But at first look I thigh it was the same one. Either they cut costs over the years, or a few different one are being manufactured differently. Exactly why I take things a;art when I buy them, you never know from the outside what you really get.
This type of capacitive sensor is extremely simple, you can do it with only a microcontroller and no extra parts. I've done it in the past with an Arduino, and depending on how sensitive you make your code, it can sense your presence from quite far away. A lot of fun to play around with.
So that chip on there might well be a generic microcontroller (probably some chinese one they can get for next to nothing in bulk)
I have seen some micro usb chargers that output 4.2v I wonder if that is what came with that light to charge?
It's a standard micro USB socket on it.
@@bigclivedotcom then indeed dodgy.
Believe it or not this was actually quite expensive - I bought 2 of 'em from my local cheap shop for £1.99 each (almost identical). The LED's give off a very harsh light but colouring the transparent LED cover with a permanent marker makes them quite nice (I used red but the light kinda comes out orange). The BIG problem with them is that they fall over if you glance in their direction - I'm going to fill the basses with something heavy when I get round to it. For £1.99 they are not bad :)
How does that thing stay upright? Stick a big weight in the base along with the new batt
I guess it might be a cool project to find a proper charging chip for the battery and hack the PCB so it runs properly. I am pretty certain I just yesterday came across an almost identical setup inside a bluetooth USB mono speaker from Aldi. If that is the case I may try and do the same as I think it has been damaging the lithium battery for the same reason and giving less and less run time between recharges because of it.
One of those Poundland power pods would do nicely inside, 500mah with the charge mod :)
Could be something like an AT-tiny13 as an uC as it has PWM and it is possible to get an capacitiv button working.
Also if it seems if you remove the diod you can enable the battery protection if populated - but hard to tell on my screen.
The Attiny13 has earth on pin 4, probably an ultra cheap one time programmable microcontroller.
No, i'm not aware of any uC that can sink 300mA of current, i doubt it can even be done. It has to be a special purpose chip. It's not an ATTiny for numerous other reasons too.
@@SianaGearz No, you are right, it wouldn't work to use a uC, not one I can think of anyhow.
clive how long do these batteries last, charge and discharge, with them being cheap
I have one of these, very similar model. Would it be best to just entirely remove the battery and run it off a usb charger? This is what I do anyway, I don't care about the battery operation...
That actually sounds like a very reasonable mod!
Sounds like a good idea.
Just put in some weight so at least it can stand stable.
@@Landogarner83 Mine came with a clip to attach to surfaces, so that isn't a problem with my model at least.
4.4V might be ok for a high voltage lithium cell. I would only operate that thing on a fireproof surface though. Or rather, I wouldn't operate that thing. Since I have a 3D printer, I'm only interested in those gadgets for inspiration. One could get one of those charging modules from ebay and slap that in to make it safe. Some 5V zener diodes and a 6V solar panel also make a good addition when you have said charging module inside. Simple to make, simple to fix and rather cheap.
I don't think you should Hawick the feet off. I think you should Selkirk them off.
This joke works for anyone in the old Border TV region.
I have no idea why i found this hilarious, these words mean nothing to me. :D
hawick is a stupid city
I would just buy one of those 2 Amp lithium chargers, a LiIon protection board, put 2 NRC18650B into this thing and wire it all up. Then this would be really nice. How is the color rendering of the LEDs?
you can always put in a segment of a led strip or maybe some sort of COB
@@izimsi In that case, I could make my own lamp. :D
Does it turn off with a long press? I found this from my bicycle light and it's just waaaay better than cycling through all the stupidly arbitrary but compulsory blinky hell modes.
I just checked. It doesn't do that.
I thought the same, it’s a little secret a lot of lights I’ve had hold, aswell as some of them even respond to a double click! Alas, Clive says no in this instance. Badly designed all round really, then.
I find a lot of switches work that way.
You should include a link to the product, I've had a great modification idea for a couple of these
We had two fail for us, too. Not sure if it was overcharging, they started to flicker erratically and get dim
i have a similar version however i think you missed the chip has low Voltage cutoff protection and it charges slowly ~45ma to right around 4.16v
mine can fit 2x 18650 and with 4000mah from 2 CGR18650A (laptop pull) on LOW i get ~100 hours and on HIGH i get ~20 not finished testing
the light will dim below 3v but will turn off at ~2.75v
Mine had no protection circuitry at all. So I put in a lithium cell with built in protection.
@@bigclivedotcom how can i email you
Gotta be honest Clive, when I saw the thumbnail I thought you'd found yoursel another one of those adult toys.
The voltage drop across a silicon diode depends on the current. It close to zero when passing small current
There is the tp5100 for 2 amp or series of tp4056 for 2.4 amp but no 3 amp chip?
It’s identical to a battery version I purchased from poundstretchers about a year ago but mine takes aaa cells that is a touch pad to bright/dim on/off I paid about £7.00 for it at the time.
thank you for disassembling rechargeable touch light...👍
I actually bought an LED light in Canada from the dollar store that looks exactly like that one except it's not rechargeable, it has a battery compartment for 4 AAs in the bottom and no USB port.
We sell one like this at jaycar here in australia, it's got a 500mah battery and a large clip on the underside to clamp onto a desk with a body that's half the width.
Id assume it's the proper one with all the circuitry and healthy battery inside it though considering its about 12 USD
The chip on the circuit diagram looks like a little robot :D
Clive, interesting video, but I started hoping for a firey desk-scarring lithium cell teardown event with smoudering chaos :) You expressed interest in the polarity of the cell connections, surely curiousity should rule.
Could you just use 3-4 AA/AAA type rechargeables?
are those really recycled old phone batteries? if so, are they likely tested to see if they even hold a charge? one part of me feels that you're getting cheated in a way by getting a used cell, but the other part feels that if it works then recycling them is a good use for things like this. i just wonder how long they would work for..
I have a similar model (mine has a clamp) and it works just fine for me. It has an charge indicator that changes from red to green. When I see the green light, I just unplug it!
Sounds like yours may have the correct circuitry.
@@bigclivedotcom I sure hope so! BTW, I love your videos, you explain so much. Though sometimes, it's downright scary what is in the cheaper goods! Keep the videos coming - I have become a much more careful E-Bay consumer thanks to your work!
Will we be seeing a repeat appearance of Fannie Flambeau anytime soon? It was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Perhaps something with unintentionally exploding fairy lights?
Thanks!
Wow something from here in he great white north. Nice to see we can have dodgy electronics just like every place else ;)
They made a point of saying in the title that the new item is "working". 🤔
LEDs in parallel?
Currently having a lot of building work and "camping" out in one room, at night it's like an assault course getting past all the obstacles, so I've scattered a few ebay and aldi pir controlled 6 and 10 LED lamps about the place. No rechargeable types but all are incredibly sensitive.
Rechargeables terrify me after watching clive and his tin of doom ... I bought a selection of charge/discharge protection boards for pennies on fleabay. I'm still a fan of "ordinary" cells
Rechargeable cells are perfectly safe if not severely damaged. If you're without power right now I'd strongly recommend a head torch as a very convenient lightsource at night.
#@@bigclivedotcom Headlamp not a bad idea for evening when hands full of brew and bikkies, the PIRs do add a certain something to a journey. Swanning round with lights automatically following you does add something.
At 60+ "getting about" is actually a euphemism for going for a pee. At 3am I've usually waited to the last second so need to make the journey quickly, hunting down headgear isn't always an option.
A chunky battery would also give it some weight and make it more stable . I bought something similar but with an 18650 battery inside , very wobbly so i got some Plasticine and put that in the base , worked a charm
Hi night owl 👍
On the topic of USB protection, last night I read an article about a 13 year old in China that needed surgery because he had cut the connector off the end of a USB cable and ran it up in his urethra where it curled in to a knot inside him.
It was an Apple style cord, but I don't know if that is a factor.
Wow, smashing through the rubber feet, how brutish.
I really want to see Clive improve this lamp :>
I felt weird when he didn't do it
I have actually just modified it with a protected phone battery. Charge current started at about 600mA for a discharged cell and cut off properly at full charge.
@@bigclivedotcom That makes me happy to hear Clive,
I can now sleep well :)
@@bigclivedotcom will we get to see it?
My mother has one of these, mounted on the underside of her kitchen cabinet above the sink. It's hooked up to a similarly dodgy 5V charger so it wouldn't run down. So you're saying that the cell is kept at a constant 4.4V, and could light the entire kitchen on fire anytime? That is... reassuring 🙃
Clive, love your channel. Just wondering how I could send you things for you to take a look at. I live in Malaysia but I often go to Shenzhen on business. I always go to the Electronics market and I don't mind sending on a couple of the things I come across.
I love cheap lamps of this type. They provide very nice modding possibilities. Just replace the stock board with a cheapo powerbank board, use a normal switch, fill case with old phone cells and presto, a base-heavy and long lasting usb light.
I have several old phone batteries and 18650s knocking about (from an old laptop battery), they're literally no use to me as I'll probably just end up blowing a finger off - are they any use to you?
oh we sell those XD original manufacturer is finepower. well, as original as chinesium can be
I bought one from my local hardware store. Haven't used it much. Haven't charged it either. But it works OK so far.
The Range in London rd Glasgow do something similar to this for £6. 2 rows of 7 LEDs in the head also has slider off switch (unfortunately underneath) to stop it discharging .1200mAh LION. 2W on max power it's pretty bright and quite useful.
How bright is it IRL?
Well, are we removing the mystery chip to see if it's labeled underneath? Go on Clive, you know you want to!!!
Clive I wonder has your upload rate on the IOM already improved ?
Maybe you have to remove the diode to "enable" that charging control chip as it just prevents the battery from backfeeding?
How do you tell if a cell has protection? Would cells from Nokia phones have protection built in?
Easily removable cells from phones (as long as they're more or less legitimate cells from more or less legitimate phones) always have protection. Consider this, they have exposed + and - contacts, so if you were to accidentally short them i.e. by putting the battery into the pocket with your keys or a tinfoil wrapper from a candy, the resulting fire would not exactly be regulation compliant. Or someone puts it into a wrong phone or under a weird angle, those kinds of things.
Permanently installed cells may need to have their top dismantled to see whether there's terminals going right into the cell body or whether there's a protection board attached in between. Or elsewhere Clive suggested attaching them to a constant current supply with current monitoring, putting a bit of current into them at the top of their charge, and seeing whether the charge current rapidly shuts off once termination voltage somewhere between 4.2-4.35V is reached. These protection chips like DW01 exhibit 3 functions, they turn off the battery when it's about to be overcharged, or overdischarged (below 3.0V), or when current drawn is too high (short circuit protection) and you could hypothetically test either of these functions, though testing short circuit protecton is only fine when it's actually present, othewise ill advised :D Overdischarge via a suitably high current limiting resistance should work too, you should see the current (or alternatively voltage across discharge resistance) abruptly drop to 0 somewhere around 2.9-3.1V if protection IC is present.
They usually do, but it's not guaranteed. The only way to test is to charge them up while monitoring current and voltage and see if the current drops to zero as the cell voltage is around 4.2V to 4.25V.
It might be an interesting project to try to incorporate a DW01-P charge/discharge protection IC into this. BigClive probably has a few DW01's laying about his work bench somewhere. ;)
I swapped in a protected phone cell with that circuit built in.
What's the point of a 1-ohm resistor? A resistor in that position is used to limit the current through the LEDs, but V=IR, so if R=1, then it seems like the resistor would have no effect.
That's because (from maths) I=V/R, so if R is close to 0 (as wires tend to be), then the current will be close to infinity, which causes the LEDs to be sad.
The thing I don't get is that if the resistor is 1ohm, the current should be about 4A, which is still way too high, so either the wires are so thin they form a significant resistance, or the PWM is limiting the current enough for nothing to blow up, or BC misread the resistor value.
@@danya023 3.7V - 3V = 0.7V / 1Ohm = 0.7A and probably internal battery resistance about 0.5Ohm, so, the resulting current will be about 0.5A (excluding internal switch IC resistance and wires resistance)
These LEDs have forward voltage of approximately 3V. Assuming 4.2V operating voltage, the resistor drops 1.2V to make up the difference between voltage drop across the LEDs and the supply rail. For 1.0 Ohm across 1.2V, the current is 1.2A. Unfortunately it means the resistor dissipates 1.44W, at which i give it a few hours of life at most. Actually for higher current, the forward voltage of LEDs increases slightly, which probably would put the current right around 1.1A. This is still too high, as you can't run more than about 700mA through this LED panel, certainly not. Preferably more like 300-500, depends.
There's a possibility that the ESR of the battery and the resistance of the leads and the on-resistance of the control MOSFET were all designed into the system to help manage the current. I kinda doubt that the ESR of this battery is anywhere under 1 Ohm, if it's a sufficiently shitty one, but perhaps it still needed a little extra resistance.
What if though that the touch control chip actually actively monitors and limits the current? Then the resistor is merely there to help get some heat off the die, it doesn't actually do anything to affect the current. But even 1 Ohm can be a pretty good contributor.
Unfortunately there's no datasheet since chip is very anonymous.
@@makoveliprod Ah, right. I had a brain fart and forgot about the forward voltage. If that's included, the result is much more reasonable.
I have a similar-looking light which also has a clip on the base and an additional on/off switch on the back next to the Micro-USB. It's actually not bright enough for most purposes, so it doesn't have much of a point. Is yours bright?
It's not super-bright, but OK as a basic desk light. it's brighter with the diffuser removed.
I have a usb powered version which I converted to a 1w warm white by dint of chopping off most of the head, hot gluing on the bottom of a beer can as a 'reflector' and changing out the resistor. I've used it as a bedside lamp for about two years now without really ever thinking about it again, it works really well now.
hey @bigclivedotcom how often do you find a product you actually like so you upgrade it, ie bluetooth speakers with 4650 mah batteries upgrade from 650mah etc, leds swapped for a dif color(i KNOW you're guilty of this 1)
Perhaps that bit of stuff under the touch point isn't actually copper, but copper clad aluminum? :-)
I’m wondering if the diode provides enough voltage drop to keep the lithium polymer from peril. Perhaps a 1V drop would take the USB to 4.1V. Who knows. 🤔
The drop at lower currents is 0.6V and combined with some USB supplies putting out over 5V it does seem to give the cell a rough time.
How does the touch sensor know when someone's finger touches it? I can't understand how it does that with only one wire.
Your body acts as an antenna to ambient electrical noise, and can also act as a capacitively coupled load.
There are several ways. Capacitance is one of them There's all sorts of RF jiggery-pokery methods but that costs too much for this sort of thing. There's even some stupid ESD sensor ones (basically they are depending on you having a static charge and discharging through the chip). Weird when I first replied BC's post was not there then it turns up a day before mine. Well that's the world wide wait for you.
@@gordonlawrence4749 love "jiggery-pokery" as a term.
www.catb.org/jargon/html/magic-story.html
@@herosstratos I am about 90% certain that is a true story as the smaller DEC computers EG PDP-10 and PDP-11 (as opposed to their VAX 11 range) did get grounding problems after long term use especially after moving them multiple times (which happened a lot).
I had Wondered Where you put your Gaming mic..?
The LEDs have to be in parallel, don't they? Are you sure there aren't any resistor up there, then?
They are in parallel. They have probably used matched LEDs from the same batch, and the current will be low enough not to cause an issue with slight forward voltage variation.
Thanks for the reply :-)
Clive.....When you say "HOICK" (I don't know how to spell that) . What is the derivative of the phrase. Sureley not based on the driech scottish town of Hawick.
Nice video Clive, keep up the good work and videos!
SGL8022W Single-channel DC LED control touch chip
Those were in an hotel i was sleeping in on Mallorca...
I'm in Canada and I've bought two lights similar to that one, the same but mine take AA batteries instead of being rechargeable. I bought them for $4 at Dollarama(a dollar store) I've been thinking of converting them to USB and sticking a rechargeable battery in them.
I always put extracted screws in a container. If left on the bench they always seem to disappear into an alternate universe.
Had one of them - was shite
Come to think of it, I should have taken it apart...
@@ralpha679 Don't turn it on... TAKE IT APART!
Thought about buying one like that (with a clamp instead of a "base"), but probably now won't bother.
Are there any "good" rechargeable/battery operated lamps like this that you can clamp to a shelf?
Was shopping at a bargain grocery store/market the other day amd stumbled upon a few intresting led lights amd one of them had a hair in it.
Could it be an attiny?
No, it absolutely couldn't. For one, that's relatively expensive, you don't need flash in here. For other, you can only pull 40mA through any given pin before datasheet says that it's likely to explode - really you could probably do a wee bit more, but not by much. That's about 3mA per LED, like, it will light up, you could see it in the darkness, but it won't be actual light that you could read under or anything, not this amount of light. And third, ATTiny pinout has diagonal power, 4/8.
Given the power requirements, you don't expect this to be a microcontroller to begin with, because usually power semiconductors and big complex circuits like general purpose processors don't mix very well on same die; you expect this to be a power MOSFET circuit with a hardcoded state machine for the logic function, probably a mass produced special-purpose touch dimming controller.
@@SianaGearz I guess you're right. Thanks for your reply.
Do what David Jones does to get the chip number.
It also needs weight in the base.
looks like something from the war of the worlds.
I just bought one of those. But mine takes 2×AA celle or conects To usb
Our local pub dishes these out during the pub quiz to improve the lighting...
I have almost that exact same one. I have it plugged into a powered USB hub on my desk. Only issue is that when the hub is off, the light starts powering other components connected in the hub...
Then the circuitry must be different - missing the diode between battery and USB?
many of those phone batteries have built in protection mounted on the top, but Im sure you know that
This one didn't. It's usually visible as a PCB, often protected by yellow Kapton tape on bare cells.
Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to simply replace the existing diode with TWO Schottky diodes in series ? Get two diodes that have around 0.3v drop at low current and around 0.5v at high currents and now the battery is unlikely to see more than 4.3v (provided the usb is 5v or thereabouts.. there's some voltage drop on the wires inside at high currents also)
MBR1020 , MBR120, MBR130 ... less than 10 cents each in volume
You can't really rely on the USB input being an exact 5V. Some chargers put out over 5.5V. With lithium cells the critical charge voltage requires tenth of a volt accuracy.