this planed obsolescence is there for a reason. Honestly i would like device that will warn be before parts need replacement rather than suddenly break. You also dont replace car parts after it completely escapes your vehicle but its rather preventative. That cartridge is cheap at 14 pounds (even when big Clive deleted my comment about it) and is recycled
One of the very best! Clive's channel was recently recommended to me by the manufacturer of a product that he had dissected when I had technical query recently because his review gave more info than they could supply! There again it was a very positive review :-)
@@YerUnclePhil Sometimes acetone or some other solvent can be used to either dissolve or make the resin brittle enough to crack/peel off. But on higher-end stuff it won't react with solvents.
@@YerUnclePhil You could use a hot air station or a blowtorch to melt the resin, but that could generate toxic fumes and damage the components that are encapsulated in the resin.
LoL! Clive and Fran are like those quiet neighbors you always felt so happy to have around as a child. ❤ ❤ They'd be seen doing their hobbies during the weekends when school was out. Adding to the magic of childhood.
One thing about Sharp Air purification products, at least the ones from back in the day, they are very powerful, back in early 2000's when I worked as contractor for them, we had a fan belt for the HVAC decide to melt and smoke at our █████████, USA Facility - (Redacted to protect the innocent), and fire department had to come out and clear building for use again, and when we were allowed back in Sharp put in a few of their really nice air purifier units that are about 2 times larger than a Box fan, and after just running 8 hours, we moved the unit at end of day and turns out they had accidently placed the unit in front of a normal box fan that was probably 15 years old and before this event that fan had baked on black dust, and after just 8 hours somehow that damn fan was sparkling, looked NEW. SO yeah I looked up the cost and the purifier was something north of $1500 US dollars at the time, if I had the money to burn I would get them lol.
New age types (and others) : "microwaving food uses ionising radiation and is -bad- *evil* " Also New age types (and others) : "Where's my ioniser , I can't breathe."
I bought an ionisor unit pureley after watching your ionisor videos. A large unit with standard 240v lead and UK plug. does the job of getting rid of stink, but currently lives under the sink not used. i buy stuff i use for 10 minutes then never again. love your work big man
Could even get an 8 pin micro and program it to keep sending the requested data and "I am brand new" number constantly, just toss it on its own board that presses onto the wires to get power and then cut the data wire from the module itself.
If the internal chip was accessible it would possibly also be possible to lift the write protect pin and connect it to the adjacent positive voltage pin. That way the controller could read that it was "new" but would not be able to decrement the life counter.
@@kasamialt There are SHA-256 challenge-response chips that fit on an I2C EEPROM footprint, such as ATSHA204A. They're 50 cents a piece but they generate $10s of profit in an application like this. There are also serial EEPROMs with OTP sections, factory-unique serial numbers, secondary addresses, and other fun features that make emulation attempts more detectable.
@@kasamialt They Already went through the effort to pot it. Business types won't see the sense paying a software engineer to do a job that's technically already done, Until the workaround Is noticeable in their bottom line that is.
Such a shame they decided to start scamming people with the built in obsolescence. The unit would run for years if they didn't build in counter. . Intertying thing that we know to avoid. 2x👍
"Exploring the expiry timer on a Sharp plasmacluster module." Hehe only this community would eagerly click on a video titled as such. Great video though:)
Don't know if I can agree with that. I've watch almost all of Clive's posts, back to 5yrs ago. Clive's M.O. ( or S.O.P. if you will ). is Persistent, Consistent, and Methodical. ( and sometimes, cringe worthy ) You would do well to follow this channel. Like the little kids chocolate, there's a surprise in every ep. Oh bugget, my gas light just ran out.
Clive - Not specific to this video (although this is an _excellent_ example), I'd like to say how much I admire and appreciate the consistent attention to detail you put into your production. It's not just the difficult work in disassembly, depotting, and reverse engineering, but also the care taken in framing, lighting, focus, and sound. Your carefully drawn schematics; your "the light is coming back" warnings; your georgeous - and often helpfully hand coloured - circuit board photographs ... even your occasional on-camera miscues; all go towards making yours the premier "teardown" channel on the tube. (Even your pronunciation of shshsh-KEEm-atic is appreciated). Thank you for being. And for sharing yourself with us. Many congrats on finally reaching the well earned million subscriber count.
My cousin had a laptop about 20 years ago that started to show a warning about falling battery levels as 'the battery was reaching the end of its expected x year lifespan'. It was a big manufacturer, possibly Sony or Samsung (those come to mind). He set the date back a year and not only did the warning disappear but he got the previous much longer battery life back. All by changing the bios date. Of course stuff like that doesn't work nowadays with computerised batteries but it was one of the first egregious examples of planned obsolescence I experienced directly.
This isn't as evil as it sounds. I once had a UPS go up in flames because of a expired battery. Internal resistance goes up with age, power went out, everything switched to battery, five minutes later the thing was on fire (and working oddly enough). The consumer friendly way would be to monitor actual battery heath instead of going down the lazy route of using a strict timer, but that would cost RND and timers are cheap... So its only half Evil mega corp stuff.
@@Klokopf52 Have a UPS That was designed to be disposable. Small little desktop unit. I got it because we started getting little bouts of unstable power and wanted my computer to not be affected by the brown/black outs. It started to complain about overload One day After only a year of use when the power went out, And figured the battery Was dead. I knew it was bound to be a 12 Volt Lead acid, as the unit was pretty heavy. Looked around the damn thing, Unscrewed it, And found the shell was being held captive by the front panel... there was no way to open it Other than... Physical override. I chewed off the two tabs on the bottom with a pair of flush cutters that clipped the front on to the rest of the unit, And heaven behold. it was a standard 12v Lead acid gel battery that's used As power back up for security systems. Swap the battery out, and it was good as new. Now, whenever the UPS fails Its self test, I just slap a new one of them in there and it's still going 6 years later.
Ah, the good ol' Sidac/Sydactor/SIDACtor/S.A.S. (Silicon Diode for A.C./Silicon thYristor for A.C./Silicon Avalanche Suppressor) basically a high speed bi-directional avalanche diode used to clamp Transient voltage spikes or as a high-current trigger switch (like a high-power DIAC) often used in multi-stage surge arrestors along with MOVs and Gas-tube Arrestors - especially for Telecom protection (typical arrangement is G.A., series inductor, MOV, series resistor, SIDACtor...)
@@marcdraco2189 Mouser should have datasheets for Littlefuse SIDACtors online... And I've seen surge suppression docs from the likes PolyPaser and Telebyte and Tripp Lite...
The timer here reminds me of my 3M Filtrete air purifier. It has an LED that's supposed to show when the filter needs to be replaced. But since I didn't use it for months and lazily didn't unplug it I watched as the LED went from green to red without the purifier being used at all. At least the LED can be reset and the purifier doesn't stop working.
One unit I took apart had a cheap button cell in it that was slowly discharged by a resistor in the unit. When the voltage got too low the cartridge was "expired".
one thing that astonishes me.. (and it really is persistent astonishment across decade or so of videos) is BC's reversing. The pad schematic always looks so neat and tidy and clear. When i look at the circuit board, and then look at the schematic, i break down mentally. how can it be so easily understandable for this cyborg? "Are you bionic?" "No. Thank you. I only like the girls" (~don't mess with the zohan)
It's the inkjet thing down to the fact that you aren't running out of the high voltage module (or the print head) and only one small component, the carbon fiber tuft (or the ink itself) needs replacing. What's that, a few dozen for a dollar/pound/euro? But for 50pounds, might as well build your own timer module around an arduino and a mosfet to replicate most of the features in the original.
Or probably just reflash that pic microcontroller? it would be much easier to trace all LEDs and the button. Definitely would be faster than buiding something from scratch, since it requires just to switch the fan (probably PWM for different settings), turn on the one of three LEDs and give the power to the ioniser unit
@@dcallan812 In the 1990s my Father bought a Sharp photocopier in which the cartridges expired after a fixed number of pages irrespective of how much toner you had used. The first time I encountered such a practice although before then there were trial light bulbs (similar to paint tester pots) that were made to fail after 24 hours !
Very neat Clive. You mention hydroxyradicals. Those are dangerous things, as is any strong oxidizer! One should remember that these air purifiers work by smashing apart complex molecules, and high-concentration ozone gas in the air will happily "disinfect" your lungs as well...
That chip in the swappable module may be a 24C02 which is a Serial EEPROM. It can store 2k bits, but there probably isn't much. It's probably storing how many cycles has passed.
The negative ions generator from the '60s (which I worked with) were built with an Americium capsule same as the fire alarm, a -3000 Volt generator made with diode/capacitor voltage multiplier ladder, and a fan. The voltage generator attract the positive ions generated from the capsule, so the fan is blowing only negative ions in the room. The negative ions are those very beneficial to human health. Other devices used a dark discharge ozone generator instead of the americium - but they didn't provide any health benefit, and the ozone could be an hazard...
I'm a retired pointy-haired boss. I don't understand most of what Clive says, but I like listening to him because it reminds me of all those thousands of project meetings I used to attend...
It's funny how i use one of these for a long time, and then one day i've realized that i could've just get one of my spare solder fume extractor and leave it turned on while i'm away and it actually works better lol. (congrats for 1M subs btw)
Shame that greed forces some tech to be tossed in the bin. Hoping that the 50,743 camel fleas I sent, will infest their underpants. £70 for the piece and postage is definitely taking the Michael. Thanks Clive, very interesting 👍
Their advertising is something else. Excited Japanese students in white boilersuits doing "tests". They even target the ladies by claiming that the thing moisturises their skin.
Just checked Sharps environmental section on website. They say they support a circular economy. I see that here, money from the owners wallet to Sharps own sky rocket .
I did draw a short light arc using 8x12V=96VDC SLA batteries in series and using two graphite pencil leads. It think, it smells like Ozone too, is that how you can generate Ozone instead of using high voltage? However, the light arc is blinding bright, and everything melted after a few minutes, including the alligator clips. 🔥 As a retired engineer at least one experiment per day to keep my brain going. Greetings from Ohio, Marco 🇺🇸
I also drew some arcs with some graphite pencil leads, but with my bench power supply (mine is 30V 5A). It was able to light my whole room up. Although it probably generates tons of UV light.
@@schaltnetzteil495 I came here to comment about the UV output from an arc. If you aren’t careful, you can get permanent eye damage. You can also get a sunburn on exposed skin.
Carbon arc lights used to be a common way of producing high intensity illumination like in search lights, film projectors, filming sets, stadiums etc. before the invention of gas discharge bulbs. They give out a lot of light but the electrodes burn shorter so there needs to be either a person or an automatic mechanism adjusting them constantly and they need replacing after they wear out.
@@MurgohI've worked on a Kodak Carousel slide projector that used a carbon arc light source. Made for medium sized auditorium. The cooling fan that was part of preventing the slides from melting had failed. More work clearing out the melted plastic than disassembling, replacing the fan and reassembly and testing.
Of course they can be reset. The Japanese are known for their engineering but when it comes to software, not so much. Be interesting to see if the output was based on the sensor or just time - as in the module really did wear out as its output was getting weak
Has anyone ever thought a circuit was bad or something was wrong coz your not getting voltage readings and then you change to continuity mode and realised one of your meter probes is loose 😅.. I just spent A BLOODY HOUR, thinking I had a problem and all along its a loose probe.. 🤨 Oh well I guess that was my lesson for the day. 😅 (Until it happens again) 👍🇮🇪
Wow! Thanks Big Clive. VERY interesting and also like you said, very much like the planned obsolescence of ink jet cartridges and so very many other things these days. I can't even imagine how long this took you and your curious mind to crack. It would almost be worth a Naomi Wu sort of time-lapse video with catchy music to show you doing your magic. Sharp. Good but pricey!
mmm...such a brilliant brilliant channel...so much information in a short span...love the content...have been talk to the screen along with you hehehe...cant help it being a retired tech
A "plasma cluster" sounds like a hand-thrown, grenade-type weapon from "Star Trek" or something, and yet the thumbnail looked like one of those trendy, not-quite-safe devices for cooking meat in a bag for that special plastic-laced flavor. An in-car air purifier seems just as strange, though, hehe.
Great video, thanks Clive! VERY expensive and over-engineered to "clean" the air in the car... just easier not to smoke in your car..or not at all! (He says while making another cup of coffee and heading outside for some "fresh" air!🤓)
🙄 ~ far more easier to “turn on” the car’s fan or open the windows, all the government & NHS told them to do is put a film screen between passengers and the driver and both to mask themselves [looking diseased] 😠
Nowadays gadgets have a surprising amount of R&D resources put into replacing traditional obsolescence, with small (inexpensive mass-produced) *expensive* plastic consumables. 🤔😂
It seems like you're always having to laboriously scrape away different resins and polymers and stuff. I think you ought to co-laborate with one of these chemistry channels and level up your stuff-dissolving techniques. It's just a matter of finding the right chemicals, right?
I'm guessing that the modules are potted that way to keep Chinese manufacturers from making cheap chinesium units. But that doesn't stop us geeks from making a device that will trick the timer into running until the mechanical failure of the carbon fiber tufts :)
The high price on those modules might be just in the UK. I just checked and found one on eBay for less than $20 from a USA seller, and even Walmart sells a pack of 2 of them for $80 ($40 each).
I'd actually be keen to see another video on one of those cartridges and the code you might be able to get out of it. I'd also be very interested in seeing if one of them could be reset.
Dollar Tree here in the USA sells a poor copy of Spam that has pork plasma as an ingredient. Presumably it’s some derivative of pig blood. First thing I thought of, but I’m weird.
I'm wondering what the reset and capsel pads on the target board are, they could have put the timer reset there to make it easier to get to, along with the cmn pad
That replaceable plasmacluster module is identical to my much larger (and much more expensive) Sharp home air filter/cleaner. Mine comes with a little brush to clean the bristles that is stored inside the machine. Mine also warns when nearing (supposed) end-of-life. I haven’t kept it going to see what would eventually happen, I recently replaced the original one after about three years of use. The old bristles did look a little compromised…
Great video, Clive! Love the ink jet mini-rant - we all hate them. Have you tried methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) - great solvent - use it outdoors with gloves. Regards, David
Talk about a wild product title, but before you opened the white plastic "cartridge" i thought it'd be a good idea to find a way to read or monitor for any signal or resettable usage timer, I guess my intuition was right, but as you said, good luck knowing what was what and where everything was without opening it. But hell it made a good video anyway!
I have rhe same brand, but a large unit for my home, with hepa and carbon filter, and the plasma thingy. And also a water evaporator. I do have to say its one of the best because, the filters last 10 years. the water evap unit can be cleaned, and there is no timelimit on the plasma thingy. So bit surprised about the time limit. As far as i understand the plasma thingy is meant to polarise particles to make them cling to each other to make them heavier, so the fall down etc. i have No idea how effective it is. But the rest works very well. Previous one was still working after 10 years with Literally 24/7 use.
The input you marked with ? on the plasmacluster module is a control input i think. It makes no sense to measure ionisation and not control the ion output.
Expiry timer question: my camping trailer is equipped with a standard, mandatory, combined propane/CO detector that runs on 12v DC. This type of detector will work for 5, 7 or 10 years (depending on brand/model) from the first power up, then an "end of life" or "replace" signal is triggered (beep and/or flashing LED) and then the unit must be replaced with a new one. I've always wondered how can the unit keep track of time? Campers are not all used the same, many like mine are sitting in my driveway for days, completely de-powered between camping trips. Also, most RVs, at least here in northern America, are not in use during the winter months, and are winterized and again, completely de-powered for months. Still, after the prescribed duration, the "replace" signal will appear. Usage (or lack of) doesn't seem to affect the internal timer in them. How does that work?
I'm not sure how that works. The CO detectors are often based around a cell that generates a small voltage based on the presence of carbon monoxide. It may be that the cell itself stops producing any voltage when it fails. Another interesting technique I've seen is the use of a dedicated button cell discharged slowly by a high value resistor until the unit detects that it has dropped to a low voltage.
@@bigclivedotcom Thanks for the response Clive. My unit will "die" in about 2 years. I'll send it to you to reverse engineer! One - moment - please! ;-)
Not gonna lie, at first I thought "Sharp makes a plasma cutter?" Fun Fact: The marketing for EdenPure's "Thunderstorm Oxyleaf II Air Purifier" specifically states it releases "oh-three" molecules. Guess they're trying to avoid calling it "ozone?"
no, they said it produce hydroxide ions (OH-), similar to bleach, and it is distinct from ozone. Hydroxide ions are not a product of ozone; rather, ozone can react with hydroxide ions in certain conditions to form other compounds.
Hydroxyl radicals are a real thing that do actually work. I can't go into details but I was involved in an independent assessment of their efficacy based on the Panasonic Nanoe X. Other companies make similar claims. I can't confirm or deny almost any of them. Most of them (especially "ionisers") are just ozone generators. Easily detected. The only exception I know of is the Airocide unit which apparently uses surface bound hydroxyl radicals which convert VOC's into CO2 and H2O, and also kill pathogens etc. That does actually definitely work... But neither work as well as opening a window...
Not sure if you’ve tackled this already but there was a neutrogena light therapy mask that required purchasing a “charge pack” that counted down from 30 uses and locked out further operation when it reached 0. Nothing unique about the charge pack, it took AAs which frequently outlast the “charges”. I bypassed the counter on one and posted it on Twitter and their people were MAD. Idk if they still run that scam but it’s absolutely slimy.
@@bigclivedotcom absolutely, just a mosfet gate and a cheap mcu refusing to drive it. They were nice enough to leave space in the "charge" unit for a C&K switch though, so that was nice of them
My wife and I have owned two Nissan vehicles which had Sharp Plasmacluster filters built into the HVAC system. I’m not sure why, but the owners manuals for the two cars hardly mentioned the feature and what it was for. I was curious, since both of them had the little “bunch of grapes” plasmacluster icon on the indicator panel when the system was active. I hadn’t previously heard of Plasmacluster in the U.S.
Does it emit ozone though? Sharp is explicitly saying it does not, in my understanding this was actually the point with this technology, opposed to regular ionizers. I've seen huge commercial units in use on the Japanese subway, and those fellas usually don't mess around, plus environmental laws are super strict on Japan, so I am inclined to give sharp the benefit of the doubt. Also, it seems somewhat unlikely that a company like Sharp would expose themselves to a world of lawsuits by claiming something that is objectively false. That planned obsolescence thing is BS though, completely unnecessary that they would do that.
They imply it doesn't. But in reality they mean that it doesn't create more than is considered ambient levels. Especially with a strong breeze to mix it into the air.
CHEM - DIP Professional Carburetor and Parts Cleaner this should clean up circuit boards like that just don't let it soak to long or the part numbers dissolve .
A product with planned obsolescence, with an expiration timer to let you know exactly how long it's going to be before it's landfill bound? Brilliant.
welcome to scientific equipment!
The Japanese mastered this with vcr's in the 80s... [/snark[
this planed obsolescence is there for a reason. Honestly i would like device that will warn be before parts need replacement rather than suddenly break. You also dont replace car parts after it completely escapes your vehicle but its rather preventative. That cartridge is cheap at 14 pounds (even when big Clive deleted my comment about it) and is recycled
@@beastlysun doubt he deleted your comment, youtube is hot trash and will eat comments, then post them hours of even days later
@@Brunghis probably i need to watch some adds to get my comment back :D
I misread the headline as Plasmacutter, I was very confused for the first minute or so.............
Me too.
Me three
me four
Glad I'm not alone
Me too
Yay! Clive's back on Ionisers/Ozonisers again. I enjoyed that season.
I could literally make nothing but ioniser and ozone videos. But people get sick of them.
@@bigclivedotcom How ironic, given their intended function 😂
I just noticed you've made it to a million subs, congrats! Yours is one of my favorite channels on RUclips.
Where is the yt plate
The button did arrive.
One of the very best! Clive's channel was recently recommended to me by the manufacturer of a product that he had dissected when I had technical query recently because his review gave more info than they could supply! There again it was a very positive review :-)
@@bigclivedotcom did you show it proudly?
A cartridge with an artificial expiration? Who do they think they are? HP?
Add S, A and R and you have "sharp" could this be a conspiracy ?
Resin is always a reverse-engineering buzzkiller. Great video once again! Keep it up!
Could the resin be dissolved?
@@YerUnclePhil Sometimes acetone or some other solvent can be used to either dissolve or make the resin brittle enough to crack/peel off. But on higher-end stuff it won't react with solvents.
@@YerUnclePhil You could use a hot air station or a blowtorch to melt the resin, but that could generate toxic fumes and damage the components that are encapsulated in the resin.
Access to a small industrial x-ray machine would be handy for these moments.
Munro used nitrogen blasting to remove the gluey stuff in the battery pack without damaging the components.
LoL!
Clive and Fran are like those quiet neighbors you always felt so happy to have around as a child. ❤ ❤
They'd be seen doing their hobbies during the weekends when school was out. Adding to the magic of childhood.
both such straight-up decent souls as well.
One thing about Sharp Air purification products, at least the ones from back in the day, they are very powerful, back in early 2000's when I worked as contractor for them, we had a fan belt for the HVAC decide to melt and smoke at our █████████, USA Facility - (Redacted to protect the innocent), and fire department had to come out and clear building for use again, and when we were allowed back in Sharp put in a few of their really nice air purifier units that are about 2 times larger than a Box fan, and after just running 8 hours, we moved the unit at end of day and turns out they had accidently placed the unit in front of a normal box fan that was probably 15 years old and before this event that fan had baked on black dust, and after just 8 hours somehow that damn fan was sparkling, looked NEW. SO yeah I looked up the cost and the purifier was something north of $1500 US dollars at the time, if I had the money to burn I would get them lol.
New age types (and others) : "microwaving food uses ionising radiation and is -bad- *evil* "
Also New age types (and others) : "Where's my ioniser , I can't breathe."
Also 5G is bad for you. It says so on this conspiracy site I'm reading on my 5G phone.
I bought an ionisor unit pureley after watching your ionisor videos. A large unit with standard 240v lead and UK plug. does the job of getting rid of stink, but currently lives under the sink not used. i buy stuff i use for 10 minutes then never again. love your work big man
Could even get an 8 pin micro and program it to keep sending the requested data and "I am brand new" number constantly, just toss it on its own board that presses onto the wires to get power and then cut the data wire from the module itself.
If the internal chip was accessible it would possibly also be possible to lift the write protect pin and connect it to the adjacent positive voltage pin. That way the controller could read that it was "new" but would not be able to decrement the life counter.
@@kasamialt There are SHA-256 challenge-response chips that fit on an I2C EEPROM footprint, such as ATSHA204A. They're 50 cents a piece but they generate $10s of profit in an application like this. There are also serial EEPROMs with OTP sections, factory-unique serial numbers, secondary addresses, and other fun features that make emulation attempts more detectable.
@@kasamialt They Already went through the effort to pot it. Business types won't see the sense paying a software engineer to do a job that's technically already done, Until the workaround Is noticeable in their bottom line that is.
Such a shame they decided to start scamming people with the built in obsolescence. The unit would run for years if they didn't build in counter. . Intertying thing that we know to avoid. 2x👍
Thank you for taking the extra time to cut out your zoomed pictures; was a beautiful extra touch to the video!
"Exploring the expiry timer on a Sharp plasmacluster module."
Hehe only this community would eagerly click on a video titled as such.
Great video though:)
Yeah. The more complex and difficult to make a video is, the less views it gets.
Don't know if I can agree with that. I've watch almost all of Clive's posts, back to 5yrs ago. Clive's M.O. ( or S.O.P. if you will ). is Persistent, Consistent, and Methodical. ( and sometimes, cringe worthy )
You would do well to follow this channel.
Like the little kids chocolate, there's a surprise in every ep.
Oh bugget, my gas light just ran out.
Nurse, I’ve broken my spudger
Clive - Not specific to this video (although this is an _excellent_ example), I'd like to say how much I admire and appreciate the consistent attention to detail you put into your production. It's not just the difficult work in disassembly, depotting, and reverse engineering, but also the care taken in framing, lighting, focus, and sound. Your carefully drawn schematics; your "the light is coming back" warnings; your georgeous - and often helpfully hand coloured - circuit board photographs ... even your occasional on-camera miscues; all go towards making yours the premier "teardown" channel on the tube. (Even your pronunciation of shshsh-KEEm-atic is appreciated). Thank you for being. And for sharing yourself with us. Many congrats on finally reaching the well earned million subscriber count.
My cousin had a laptop about 20 years ago that started to show a warning about falling battery levels as 'the battery was reaching the end of its expected x year lifespan'. It was a big manufacturer, possibly Sony or Samsung (those come to mind). He set the date back a year and not only did the warning disappear but he got the previous much longer battery life back. All by changing the bios date. Of course stuff like that doesn't work nowadays with computerised batteries but it was one of the first egregious examples of planned obsolescence I experienced directly.
This isn't as evil as it sounds. I once had a UPS go up in flames because of a expired battery. Internal resistance goes up with age, power went out, everything switched to battery, five minutes later the thing was on fire (and working oddly enough).
The consumer friendly way would be to monitor actual battery heath instead of going down the lazy route of using a strict timer, but that would cost RND and timers are cheap... So its only half Evil mega corp stuff.
@@Klokopf52 Have a UPS That was designed to be disposable. Small little desktop unit. I got it because we started getting little bouts of unstable power and wanted my computer to not be affected by the brown/black outs.
It started to complain about overload One day After only a year of use when the power went out, And figured the battery Was dead. I knew it was bound to be a 12 Volt Lead acid, as the unit was pretty heavy. Looked around the damn thing, Unscrewed it, And found the shell was being held captive by the front panel... there was no way to open it Other than... Physical override.
I chewed off the two tabs on the bottom with a pair of flush cutters that clipped the front on to the rest of the unit, And heaven behold. it was a standard 12v Lead acid gel battery that's used As power back up for security systems. Swap the battery out, and it was good as new.
Now, whenever the UPS fails Its self test, I just slap a new one of them in there and it's still going 6 years later.
Fascinating Clive. First time I've heard of a SIDAC.
Ah, the good ol' Sidac/Sydactor/SIDACtor/S.A.S. (Silicon Diode for A.C./Silicon thYristor for A.C./Silicon Avalanche Suppressor) basically a high speed bi-directional avalanche diode used to clamp Transient voltage spikes or as a high-current trigger switch (like a high-power DIAC) often used in multi-stage surge arrestors along with MOVs and Gas-tube Arrestors - especially for Telecom protection (typical arrangement is G.A., series inductor, MOV, series resistor, SIDACtor...)
@@LDuncanKelly more! No really. Is there a good source? I would love to design something with them but, ya know, data sheets, sample circuits.
@@marcdraco2189 Mouser should have datasheets for Littlefuse SIDACtors online... And I've seen surge suppression docs from the likes PolyPaser and Telebyte and Tripp Lite...
The timer here reminds me of my 3M Filtrete air purifier. It has an LED that's supposed to show when the filter needs to be replaced. But since I didn't use it for months and lazily didn't unplug it I watched as the LED went from green to red without the purifier being used at all. At least the LED can be reset and the purifier doesn't stop working.
One unit I took apart had a cheap button cell in it that was slowly discharged by a resistor in the unit. When the voltage got too low the cartridge was "expired".
one thing that astonishes me.. (and it really is persistent astonishment across decade or so of videos) is BC's reversing. The pad schematic always looks so neat and tidy and clear. When i look at the circuit board, and then look at the schematic, i break down mentally. how can it be so easily understandable for this cyborg? "Are you bionic?" "No. Thank you. I only like the girls" (~don't mess with the zohan)
It's the inkjet thing down to the fact that you aren't running out of the high voltage module (or the print head) and only one small component, the carbon fiber tuft (or the ink itself) needs replacing. What's that, a few dozen for a dollar/pound/euro?
But for 50pounds, might as well build your own timer module around an arduino and a mosfet to replicate most of the features in the original.
just feel like a scam the unit would run for years so they built in obsolescence
Or probably just reflash that pic microcontroller? it would be much easier to trace all LEDs and the button. Definitely would be faster than buiding something from scratch, since it requires just to switch the fan (probably PWM for different settings), turn on the one of three LEDs and give the power to the ioniser unit
Why does it say these comments where made 8 days ago, this video is only 9 hours old??
@@dcallan812 In the 1990s my Father bought a Sharp photocopier in which the cartridges expired after a fixed number of pages irrespective of how much toner you had used. The first time I encountered such a practice although before then there were trial light bulbs (similar to paint tester pots) that were made to fail after 24 hours !
@@DavidOwen-p3u Clive releases videos a week early to his patrons.
Very neat Clive. You mention hydroxyradicals. Those are dangerous things, as is any strong oxidizer! One should remember that these air purifiers work by smashing apart complex molecules, and high-concentration ozone gas in the air will happily "disinfect" your lungs as well...
I know nothing about electronics but I keep watching your videos because of your calming voice.
That chip in the swappable module may be a 24C02 which is a Serial EEPROM. It can store 2k bits, but there probably isn't much. It's probably storing how many cycles has passed.
Yes, please try to hack one of these modules. It'd be fascinating.
I continue to be amazed by the number of people who drive away without repairs.
Clive you’re keeping me entertained at 33000 feet over the Atlantic, 5 hours to go, New York to Heathrow. Cheers!
My guess is that the T02 is a AT24C02 i2c eeprom. Which should be easy to check with a i2c analyzer or arduino.
RIP the spudger😢
It's replacement has arrived.
I made a temporary one out of some stainless steel strapping.
well you certainly moved on quick 😐
wheres the spudger love 😂
@@bigclivedotcom*Its
Hooray, time for more spudging!
I’m sure I’ve seen ion circuits with the HV secondary winding “floating”, no direct connection to anything except maybe a long isolated PCB track.
Takes me back 20 years when “ionisers” were cool
They still are useful… maybe not ‘cool’.
They never stopped being cool. They just hide them in things now to avoid prodding the "experts".
@@laustinspeiss you must love dirt everywhere and foul odors if you think they’re “not” cool 😂
Fascinating Clive thanks never even seen one of them before genuine sharp as well, thank you
Angled flaps are always a plus
Not much for Clive, right buddy? ;)
This gives me juicero vibes.
All this overconplication and DRM just to squeeze a juice pouch into a glass.
That was a classic from uncle bumbledork. QR packets and subscription required on top of the unit cost. 😂
The negative ions generator from the '60s (which I worked with) were built with an Americium capsule same as the fire alarm, a -3000 Volt generator made with diode/capacitor voltage multiplier ladder, and a fan.
The voltage generator attract the positive ions generated from the capsule, so the fan is blowing only negative ions in the room.
The negative ions are those very beneficial to human health.
Other devices used a dark discharge ozone generator instead of the americium - but they didn't provide any health benefit, and the ozone could be an hazard...
I've never seen that type. Only the ones that apply a high negative voltage to a sharp point to create a negative charge in the air.
so far as I am aware the only "negative ions" you can inhale are radioactive dust particles that are 100% unhealthy to be around, let alone inhale
I'm a retired pointy-haired boss. I don't understand most of what Clive says, but I like listening to him because it reminds me of all those thousands of project meetings I used to attend...
Did you get the "E" i sent you in mail?
Yes, a "hellish" teardown and analysis thank you!
It's funny how i use one of these for a long time, and then one day i've realized that i could've just get one of my spare solder fume extractor and leave it turned on while i'm away and it actually works better lol.
(congrats for 1M subs btw)
All they do is generate ozone. Ozone is the main component of smog.
Ozone is nature's reaction to pollution. The real problem is the pollution.
Shame that greed forces some tech to be tossed in the bin. Hoping that the 50,743 camel fleas I sent, will infest their underpants. £70 for the piece and postage is definitely taking the Michael. Thanks Clive, very interesting 👍
If someone asked me if I wanted to buy a "plasmacluster" anything, I would think it was that same "boswellox" language they use when selling shampoo.
Their advertising is something else. Excited Japanese students in white boilersuits doing "tests". They even target the ladies by claiming that the thing moisturises their skin.
ぶっかけサーキット至高!
I saw plasma cutter...
I thought i ordered a plasma cutter, doh!
We really need to all band together and get you a desktop ct scanner
Just checked Sharps environmental section on website. They say they support a circular economy. I see that here, money from the owners wallet to Sharps own sky rocket .
Another brilliant video, my mind is blown
18:42 "Atmoshperic Invigorator"
An absolute classic!
That was the result of late night design and uploading of PCB files.
I did draw a short light arc using 8x12V=96VDC SLA batteries in series and using two graphite pencil leads. It think, it smells like Ozone too, is that how you can generate Ozone instead of using high voltage? However, the light arc is blinding bright, and everything melted after a few minutes, including the alligator clips. 🔥 As a retired engineer at least one experiment per day to keep my brain going.
Greetings from Ohio, Marco 🇺🇸
I also drew some arcs with some graphite pencil leads, but with my bench power supply (mine is 30V 5A). It was able to light my whole room up. Although it probably generates tons of UV light.
@@schaltnetzteil495 Also the anodes of D-cell batteries make for good study electrodes to draw substantial, blinding arcs 😎
@@schaltnetzteil495 I came here to comment about the UV output from an arc. If you aren’t careful, you can get permanent eye damage. You can also get a sunburn on exposed skin.
Carbon arc lights used to be a common way of producing high intensity illumination like in search lights, film projectors, filming sets, stadiums etc. before the invention of gas discharge bulbs. They give out a lot of light but the electrodes burn shorter so there needs to be either a person or an automatic mechanism adjusting them constantly and they need replacing after they wear out.
@@MurgohI've worked on a Kodak Carousel slide projector that used a carbon arc light source. Made for medium sized auditorium. The cooling fan that was part of preventing the slides from melting had failed. More work clearing out the melted plastic than disassembling, replacing the fan and reassembly and testing.
Listening to Clive's voice makes me want to move to Scotland
14:56 Let's look at the schematics which are going to be super simplistic because they are super complex, Clive 2024, what a Legend
Of course they can be reset. The Japanese are known for their engineering but when it comes to software, not so much. Be interesting to see if the output was based on the sensor or just time - as in the module really did wear out as its output was getting weak
Has anyone ever thought a circuit was bad or something was wrong coz your not getting voltage readings and then you change to continuity mode and realised one of your meter probes is loose 😅..
I just spent A BLOODY HOUR, thinking I had a problem and all along its a loose probe.. 🤨
Oh well I guess that was my lesson for the day. 😅
(Until it happens again)
👍🇮🇪
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. (Quite a few times.)
Yea, that is very annoying - like a stranded wire splinter in the foot ;)
Love ya Clive, great vid! Keep on keeping on
I thought the gold pad on the target board was the Windows File Explorer icon!
Wow! Thanks Big Clive. VERY interesting and also like you said, very much like the planned obsolescence of ink jet cartridges and so very many other things these days. I can't even imagine how long this took you and your curious mind to crack. It would almost be worth a Naomi Wu sort of time-lapse video with catchy music to show you doing your magic.
Sharp. Good but pricey!
mmm...such a brilliant brilliant channel...so much information in a short span...love the content...have been talk to the screen along with you hehehe...cant help it being a retired tech
A "plasma cluster" sounds like a hand-thrown, grenade-type weapon from "Star Trek" or something, and yet the thumbnail looked like one of those trendy, not-quite-safe devices for cooking meat in a bag for that special plastic-laced flavor. An in-car air purifier seems just as strange, though, hehe.
Great video, thanks Clive!
VERY expensive and over-engineered to "clean" the air in the car... just easier not to smoke in your car..or not at all!
(He says while making another cup of coffee and heading outside for some "fresh" air!🤓)
I'd guess this was used by a taxi driver during the pandemic to reduce the risk of virus transfer.
🙄 ~ far more easier to “turn on” the car’s fan or open the windows, all the government & NHS told them to do is put a film screen between passengers and the driver and both to mask themselves [looking diseased] 😠
Some of the slightly rubbery potting compounds are very susceptible to 50/50 IPA/white spirit. Soak for a few days.
Nowadays gadgets have a surprising amount of R&D resources put into replacing traditional obsolescence, with small (inexpensive mass-produced) *expensive* plastic consumables. 🤔😂
If there's a triac with a trip threshold, there must also be a diac with a drip dreshold somewhere.
I was ready to see a handheld plasma cutter from a eletronics company
Great effort, Clive! It would be great if you had some viewer in Japan that could mail you a few of these "expired" cartridges :-)
Great Scott Marty...
It seems like you're always having to laboriously scrape away different resins and polymers and stuff. I think you ought to co-laborate with one of these chemistry channels and level up your stuff-dissolving techniques. It's just a matter of finding the right chemicals, right?
ohh i know just the guy...where is he...
Thoisoi2 👈 this guy, look for his channel here, hes lovely and has a head full of chemical info. im sure he'd be happy to help.
keep in mind sometimes a solvent that can take away the resin may also decide to take away the component serial numbers, shells, the entire pcb, etc
i suspect this product may be discontinued after this goes viral and sharp noticed and this module with the carbon fiber brushes is micro suspicious
I love seeing the little squiggle burned nto your workbench
Having worked at a car dealership, there is no gadget you can buy that will erase tobacco smell. It permeates everything.
The only gadget you can buy to erase tobacco smell in your car is a new car.
I'm guessing that the modules are potted that way to keep Chinese manufacturers from making cheap chinesium units.
But that doesn't stop us geeks from making a device that will trick the timer into running until the mechanical failure of the carbon fiber tufts :)
Whereupon we will also replace the tufts.
Something satisfying about watching these types of videos where I rea😢 don't understand what the main guy is taking about.
The high price on those modules might be just in the UK. I just checked and found one on eBay for less than $20 from a USA seller, and even Walmart sells a pack of 2 of them for $80 ($40 each).
very clever man, and a great tutor thankyou matey
I'd actually be keen to see another video on one of those cartridges and the code you might be able to get out of it. I'd also be very interested in seeing if one of them could be reset.
By the time you were done opening it up, that plasma unit looked like it had spent five years in a Russian prison camp!
Dollar Tree here in the USA sells a poor copy of Spam that has pork plasma as an ingredient. Presumably it’s some derivative of pig blood. First thing I thought of, but I’m weird.
Plasma is basically just the water and proteins in your blood, with red and white blood cells removed.
Good iobe ✅
I'm wondering what the reset and capsel pads on the target board are, they could have put the timer reset there to make it easier to get to, along with the cmn pad
That replaceable plasmacluster module is identical to my much larger (and much more expensive) Sharp home air filter/cleaner. Mine comes with a little brush to clean the bristles that is stored inside the machine. Mine also warns when nearing (supposed) end-of-life. I haven’t kept it going to see what would eventually happen, I recently replaced the original one after about three years of use. The old bristles did look a little compromised…
Great video, Clive! Love the ink jet mini-rant - we all hate them. Have you tried methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) - great solvent - use it outdoors with gloves. Regards, David
"Just has that feel to it" :)
Talk about a wild product title, but before you opened the white plastic "cartridge" i thought it'd be a good idea to find a way to read or monitor for any signal or resettable usage timer, I guess my intuition was right, but as you said, good luck knowing what was what and where everything was without opening it. But hell it made a good video anyway!
I have rhe same brand, but a large unit for my home, with hepa and carbon filter, and the plasma thingy. And also a water evaporator.
I do have to say its one of the best because, the filters last 10 years. the water evap unit can be cleaned, and there is no timelimit on the plasma thingy. So bit surprised about the time limit.
As far as i understand the plasma thingy is meant to polarise particles to make them cling to each other to make them heavier, so the fall down etc. i have No idea how effective it is. But the rest works very well. Previous one was still working after 10 years with Literally 24/7 use.
Alas, poor Spudger. We knew him well. 💀
You need a special tool to open them...called a sledge hammer 😂
The input you marked with ? on the plasmacluster module is a control input i think. It makes no sense to measure ionisation and not control the ion output.
Naughty little timer memory chip prpbably the same as in the printer ink cartridges?
Expiry timer question: my camping trailer is equipped with a standard, mandatory, combined propane/CO detector that runs on 12v DC. This type of detector will work for 5, 7 or 10 years (depending on brand/model) from the first power up, then an "end of life" or "replace" signal is triggered (beep and/or flashing LED) and then the unit must be replaced with a new one.
I've always wondered how can the unit keep track of time? Campers are not all used the same, many like mine are sitting in my driveway for days, completely de-powered between camping trips. Also, most RVs, at least here in northern America, are not in use during the winter months, and are winterized and again, completely de-powered for months. Still, after the prescribed duration, the "replace" signal will appear. Usage (or lack of) doesn't seem to affect the internal timer in them. How does that work?
I'm not sure how that works. The CO detectors are often based around a cell that generates a small voltage based on the presence of carbon monoxide. It may be that the cell itself stops producing any voltage when it fails.
Another interesting technique I've seen is the use of a dedicated button cell discharged slowly by a high value resistor until the unit detects that it has dropped to a low voltage.
@@bigclivedotcom Thanks for the response Clive. My unit will "die" in about 2 years. I'll send it to you to reverse engineer!
One - moment - please! ;-)
Not gonna lie, at first I thought "Sharp makes a plasma cutter?"
Fun Fact: The marketing for EdenPure's "Thunderstorm Oxyleaf II Air Purifier" specifically states it releases "oh-three" molecules. Guess they're trying to avoid calling it "ozone?"
Lots of companies disguise the trigger words for the conspiracy industry.
no, they said it produce hydroxide ions (OH-), similar to bleach, and it is distinct from ozone. Hydroxide ions are not a product of ozone; rather, ozone can react with hydroxide ions in certain conditions to form other compounds.
seems HP makes air purifiers now
17:17 "...and the very act of going in to find the connections destroyed it" - HeisenClive's Uncertainty Principle. ;)
Hydroxyl radicals are a real thing that do actually work. I can't go into details but I was involved in an independent assessment of their efficacy based on the Panasonic Nanoe X. Other companies make similar claims. I can't confirm or deny almost any of them. Most of them (especially "ionisers") are just ozone generators. Easily detected. The only exception I know of is the Airocide unit which apparently uses surface bound hydroxyl radicals which convert VOC's into CO2 and H2O, and also kill pathogens etc. That does actually definitely work... But neither work as well as opening a window...
I have a used Nanoe X here for exploration.
4:11 [fade to slow motion black & white]
🎵Who can say where the road goes?
Where the day goes?
Only Clive🎵
Nice a new video I really like theses plasmacluster
Not sure if you’ve tackled this already but there was a neutrogena light therapy mask that required purchasing a “charge pack” that counted down from 30 uses and locked out further operation when it reached 0. Nothing unique about the charge pack, it took AAs which frequently outlast the “charges”.
I bypassed the counter on one and posted it on Twitter and their people were MAD. Idk if they still run that scam but it’s absolutely slimy.
I saw that when they first appeared, but even secondhand ones were very expensive. Was it just a transistor bridged?
@@bigclivedotcom absolutely, just a mosfet gate and a cheap mcu refusing to drive it. They were nice enough to leave space in the "charge" unit for a C&K switch though, so that was nice of them
Nooo, the spudger! That was one of the early ones, too!
My wife and I have owned two Nissan vehicles which had Sharp Plasmacluster filters built into the HVAC system. I’m not sure why, but the owners manuals for the two cars hardly mentioned the feature and what it was for. I was curious, since both of them had the little “bunch of grapes” plasmacluster icon on the indicator panel when the system was active. I hadn’t previously heard of Plasmacluster in the U.S.
Does it emit ozone though? Sharp is explicitly saying it does not, in my understanding this was actually the point with this technology, opposed to regular ionizers. I've seen huge commercial units in use on the Japanese subway, and those fellas usually don't mess around, plus environmental laws are super strict on Japan, so I am inclined to give sharp the benefit of the doubt. Also, it seems somewhat unlikely that a company like Sharp would expose themselves to a world of lawsuits by claiming something that is objectively false. That planned obsolescence thing is BS though, completely unnecessary that they would do that.
They imply it doesn't. But in reality they mean that it doesn't create more than is considered ambient levels. Especially with a strong breeze to mix it into the air.
This is so unbelievably over engineered, I’d never expect that
Let the Spudging commence!
CHEM - DIP Professional Carburetor and Parts Cleaner
this should clean up circuit boards like that just don't let it soak to long or the part numbers dissolve .
On the main board, can’t unsee all of the connectors as a pair of eyes and a gob with a varying number of teeth.
Surprised not much dust, attracted by the high volts
Somehow with the name "Plasmacluster", I was expecting a directed energy weapon! 😂😂