What's inside LED light up shoes? And can they be fixed?
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- Опубликовано: 17 янв 2017
- I was sent a pair of LED shoes by a chap called Billy to take a look at. One was working and one wasn't. So here's a complete shred of a shoe that shows how they are put together and how it may be possible to fix simple faults.
I think this may be the first time I've seen a lithium cell potted in resin and also mounted where a user is standing on it!
In hindsight the current limiting resistor for the charging function is probably mounted on the remote two wire charge/control PCB because otherwise the button would short out the charger completely.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm 
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I bet these a joy to take through an airport.
Exactly what I was thinking
it's a bomb lol "every one freaks out over leds"
as long as they're not in your luggage but in your carry on then you should be fine...
Wires hanging out and cheap Chinese lithium batteries.
Why would anyone be worried? :-P
I once took a double-gasket pressure sealed aluminum tube with a raspberry pi, arduino, and several power circuits wired together inside through TSA... Twice.
The guards in portland wanted to know what it was for. The guards in Texas didn't even seem to notice it.
Tbh as long as you put these shoes in the tray, they aren't gonna give a rat's behind.
“Hey, Bobby, come out and play!”
“I can’t.”
“How come?”
“Still charging my sneakers.”
**loud bang followed by a few muffled screams**
"....Bobby?"
Sneakers? Spot the yankee
*Dang it Bobby!*
Somehow I dont like the idea of walking on Lithium batteries :/
Yeah, that seems both dangerous and stupid. Makes you wonder what would happen if one of them blew. I imagine that would burn and hurt your foot quite badly.
RMJ1984 it would also be interesting to see if it has proper protection for things like overvoltage ...
RMJ1984 I read this in Clive's voice
HPZeta it's like putting note 7 under your feet while charging
Just stand on a nail or tack and watch the fireworks.
Those shoes turn any nail you might step on into a landmine :D
I was shouting at the screen, "charge it first", once you found the connect unplug hahahah !
Yeah, exactly.
I was thinking the same thing. But it wouldn't be a Clive video if he didn't pull it totally apart !
Me too and when he started demolishing the charge connector..........
He could have havked it after charging
The thing I like about this channel is that Big Clive is not detered by the fact that there are "no user serviceable parts inside" (warning printed on the back of US TV sets after they stopped making them with vacuum tubes.)
Wow, if that lithium cell is 100% sealed in resin, I could see it becoming a mini foot-grenade in the case of major failure... The nice thing about pouch cells is the whole, not venting when they get a gas buildup, just puffing up. With a plastic shell, i could see some poor bugger with a very sore foot
LED shoes from the 90s were either powered by caps that got charged when walking/running or a coin cell that only lit up while moving.
I had rubber boots with a red LED at the back, when I was young. One broke pretty quickly (the LED module and the boot itself). So go buy shoes that are shoes, not mediocre shoes combined with mediocre gadgetry.
SandyStarchild la gear lights forgot about them
Only size 15! You are so lucky. I'm a UK 16-17 and YES i do have Big....................................................................................................................Shoe boxes.
Nice investigation video Clive, thanks
Shoe boxes? More like sofa boxes
I remember having a pair of these when I was really young, about 4 or so.
I kind of remember taking it to bits when I'd grown out of it.
Had no idea how it worked at the time but I remember there being a tube with a metal ball bearing that must have acted as a switch to turn them on for a set period of time.
They must have had really long life batteries, I don't recall them running out of power. I doubt they had some charging system built in like the jerk off flashlights.
Clive many people seem concerned about the safety of the batteries, can you show that they have nothing to worry about under various fault conditions :-)
So did it turn green when charging finished?
I was about to ask that too
Asking the important questions!
it probably just turned off, most chinatown stuff does once it's charged.
not_found
Have a pair. They just go dark after charging. Also, they don't light at all unless given like a 2A charger.
Ah, I love servicing non-serviceable assemblies. Although, at the end of the day, there's far more serviceability in these shoes than I was expecting. The ones I had as a kid just had a little clear plastic module that slotted into the heels and contained a lithium coin cell. No charging facilities; it was a primary cell and you were intended to replace it when it wore down. Also at least once the module squitted out the back of the shoe when I was running down the corridor.
Disappointed you didn't replace that nasty RGB LED strip with warm white...
I watched this, saying to myself, "when's Clive going to destroy a shoe?"
Always destructive exploration. Thanks for sharing, Clive!
Holy crap! You wear a size 15(16)?!?! Daaaaamn!
So can we start calling you TripodClive instead of Bigclive?
revmpandora
That's size 15 shoe NOT a 15 inch penis! 😉
Well you know what they say about big feet
yep, big shoes
honestly these shoes look kinda silly but in a fun way at the same time, i actually would kind of like to get my hands on some. not sure if BC ever intended people to be using his old vids like the home shopping network but i'm glad for it regardless~ lol
Hello Clive,I have just had to repair one of my grandsons led boots.It was dead so I checked the charging socket first and found that the internal connections were destroyed,It was a bit of a task de soldering and re soldering the tiny micro USB socket but I managed to do it. Enjoy your channel thanks.
I never had shoes with light as a kid. god i wanted so much...
Probably i will buy them now, you know, because of reasons
Well now you can buy them AND hack them.
They are available on Amazon. $35-40 or so in adult sizes. I just ordered a pair for the wife and me for our evening dog walks. Just search "adult led shoes". I'm not greedy/assholeish enough to link using my affiliate ID but Clive totally could.
@@kill-nine I was thinking of using them maybe for a rave. But I guess you are right, using them to walk the dog would be much more ideal..
Thanks Clive, my kids shoes stopped lighting (exact same brand as you de-constructed) and I found a loose connection...I never would have guessed what the problem was. Loose wire strikes again!
Too bad they don't fit - that purple e-pipe needs a suitable pair of slippers to go with it.
I can imagine various utilitarian uses for something that added this functionality to existing shoes... maybe something like a large elastic band that you can slip over your shoes... better night jogging/walking awareness... handsfree lighting for dark places, etc... can't say that I would want that option on my shoes all the time though.
I just love your sense of humour and speaking style :)
Size 15 feet!!, do you have shoes made at the local canoe shop? lol.
zx8401ztv i went into a nike shop the other day, had UK size 22!!! They were like clown shoes
Wow 22, ive never known anyone with feet that big.
You are sure it wasnt a canoe shop :-D
I'm sure he never heard that one before...
EU 45 size
lol
Very interesting your way to search the problem out, bravo!!
i can picture you now clive, walking down the street at night, lighting up the floor with these disco shoes
re-cap this video, *MAKING A PAIR OF DIY RGB-LED FLIP FLOPS*
Welcome to ElectricAlert, I'm your host Killer Clivestar, leeeets get roooooiiiight into the shoes!
No. Just no.
The perfect iShoe for the iSheep of the world.........glad to see Clive treating them as they deserve. If they began AT THE FACTORY with the scissor move, it would save time and effort.
I've been waiting for this teardown!
when all else fails, force prevails. I love this channel
LED shoes are great if you're doing best man at a friend's wedding -- or going in to see your bank manager about a loan.
Or visiting your girlfriend's parents
Or going to a funeral.
WhiteHawk “Mmmmm... we'll call you with our final decision.”
“But look at me shoes!”
“Oh my god you're hired.”
Use them for first dates, is quite the conversation starter.
I once found a small module on the street with lithium coin cell & tilt switch. It was possible to access it by starting to cut away on the resin with snips (creating a crack leads to another crack leads to another crack, .....), so you may be able to access the circuit board if you really wanted.
When I was a kid, we had shoes with red LEDs that had no battery, but flashed all the time from walking, so they had some kind of energy harvesting device in them.
mharris1270 Cool, more than 25 years later!
I remember not knowing how they work, but I don't think I tried opening them up to look...I don't even know where they went, I guess my parents may have given them to some other kid, after my feet outgrew them...? No idea! ;)
+ELECTRONTHORP2 Yes, something like that. As far as I can remember, I never got the chance to find out what it was.
i'm pissing myself in laughter here... "so basically you're walking on lithium battery, not sure that's good idea though"
(through no fault of your own) this may have been one of the most un-satisfying videos I have ever seen. I am left with a deep-rooted sense of discomfort and it is not going away
7:16 I've soldered together the wires from MANY of my headphones when the jack broke or whatever and all you have to do to deal with that fiber in the middle is just burn it with a lighter (not too long or you'll cook the copper) and then you can solder it really easy.
Thanks Clive, another great video.
I enjoyed this video! Very informative.
Hi - I took apart one of those kids shoes that blink for a bit after each step - the module looked very similar - a circuit potted in clear resin just like yours - it wasn't rechargable though and just had a large button cell. I guess the resin package makes it water proof etc.
Clive, you should try using these modules as a "theatre prop led driver" by using single color leds on each of the three RGB channels, and then doing two sets of them, spreading channel A and B randomly around the prop. I feel like it would make quite a neat effect
Like the disco stick used by an American performer early in her career?
I'm guessing here, but I immediately thought "that's going to get pulled out too far" once I saw that little charging module. Even before you discovered the disconnected connector. A dot of glue and it wouldn't have been a problem anymore, and the adhesive metal strip behind the circuit board confirmed it: They really don't put too much thought into those cheap electronic gadgets...
I got a similar pair of shoes last Christmas, not the same, but they look like they use the same potted circuitry, down to the same battery. Mine have done the same thing, one working one not, though with the module swapped between shoes it still doesn't charge. Time to explore more!
Thank you so much!!! Pulled up the bottom and it was a loose connector!!!
Now induce a catastrophic failure in the battery module .......
Reminds me of a pacemaker that module.
I'm sure that same factory in china could pump out pacemakers for $1 ;-)
stefantrethan "pump out pacemakers..." Funny guy....
yeah but few would work, some would blow up, most would last 5 minutes and need a micro usb charger....not very practical!
But think of the savings to the NHS budget, not only in the cost of pacemakers, but also due to the fact that dead people don't need CAT scans, ECGs or looking after in general. :)
What would that pacemaker look like? A used car battery with a strap so you can hang it around your neck?
I was hoping for an overvolt of the battery's, just to see if the resin contained the magic smoke any better than e-ciggies. 😂⚡️🔥💥
I'll bet your dustbin man scratches his head on a regular basis mate ;-)
Especially when I fill the wheelie bin to the brim with fully charged lithium cells. (I don't actually do that.)
just do it, but use the ultrafire ones and then film the dustbin man :D
would make an interesting video :D
Semi-consensual? How does that work?
when in Rome...
Have you ever tried thinning down the tip of the isesamo? I "sharpen" mine then knock off the edge/burr so it wont slice flex/ribbon cables but since its thinner it gets into things easier.
With that sealed in battery this is the first time I've ever seen a foot grenade.
If you step on a nail it will make a good foot warmer. ;-)
A foot long flame thrower.
If you kick someones butt, you get a nice special effect. Ok yeah, you might need a new foot, but some people will do ANYTHING just to get into one of these "Fails of the Week" videos...
natural shoe bomber
@Clive: could you at some point make a video on your LED tester? I have one and found the printed value to be slighly incorrect (I've made a comment about that on another of your video, but I'm not sure you get notified of that)
A trick I learned to deal with the wire with string (or fibers) in it - usually they're a low temp polymer, so going over the stripped ends with a lighter balls up/melts the string, then it's easy to pull off. HTH.
I was wondering if you could've just undone the laces to get better access, but I suspect these shoes are so cheap the laces are just for show.
This looks similar to the WS2812b (or one of the similar ones like the ws2811). You can buy strips of them quite cheaply online, and they're extremely easy to control(if you can manage the timings, which isn't too hard)
How can I be the man, when you are the man Clive???!!!!!!!!!
Boy are those Yeezys?
jesusHERCULESchrist
yea, they took the design of the yeezys 350 boost and made it 10x times worse lol
Those are Cheezys. :)
He's had his own shoe since like 2009, first Nike now Adidas (he has some of his own and he did one with Louis Vuitton), he's doin' pretty well
they are the new 2017 yeezys man shhhh
jesusHERCULESchrist these comment sections are always a weird mixed bag
You should live stream! I can imagine the chat lol
Clive! you was having a bad day there wasn't ya😂 if you reconnected that supply cable you could have fixed those shoes, sent them back almost untouched 🤔 I was covering my eyes when you was checking the draw from the charge cable whilst unplugged hehe
Earned myself 8 stitches in my leg just two weeks ago from a blade like that Clive! Never towards yourself! Shit happens, and quickly :)
I would have tried charging it first before ripping apart.
I'm guessing that being unplugged from the charge supply wire, it's never been charged from the factory and when you connected it back up to the loose connector It may well have worked if you plugged it in
George Smith my thought as well. "The charge ports unplugged... "
Does anyone else wish they lived with Clive and just came downstairs randomly at 1am to see him take apart neon shoes with LEDs in several times smaller than his shoe size and just silently stare at him in wonder and then go and eat grated cheese from the fridge.
As someone who is also a American 16, Clive, I feel your pain.
Keep them toes safe, I know you smash them everywhere just like I do.
At first I thought, "Queer Shoes". By the time you were cutting them up, I felt bad. They look pretty cool. They look like they could be comfortable, as well as flashy. The Lithium in the sole. Don't get them wet and don't wear them on construction sites or use them to go climbing on a pile of old, broken pallets. Wear them to the night club. The uppers look so "meshy". Flexible. I think what got me was the resemblance of the green to the Kawasaki green I remember as a youth. I felt sorry for that shoe. :-(
Remind me not to send my LED sneakers to you for repair.
Thanks for sharing. I found where I am. I just looked at for, but these are challengeable shoes, right? What do they make chargeable shoes from sketchers?
Did the LED's change colour once the cell fully charged? That would be a neat idea.
What confounds me is why they used such a chunky connector, and why it isn't just soldered in place.
They also could had made it a 6-pin connector at the end and during manufacturer, fed the cables for everything so it is at the rear of the heel, but installed opposite so the 6-pin connector going to the battery and board was at the very back to ensure the device didn't become disconnected.
The only bit of weirdness to plan against would be at the back of the foot, which some foam padding fastened in with hook-and-loop would had aided. As for the battery, it and the board being heavily conformal-coated with battery and board in a custom-made metal box would had done, _or_ battery in the heel, board in the rear would had done just as well instead of resin-coating it.
Matter of fact, the board being on a piece of flexible motherboard, then coated with a flexible conformal spray at the other side would resolve the weirdness, as well custom-made "Waterproof" flex ribbon connectors would had worked.Where the strip ends, have a flex connector folded 180 to go toward the board, then folded over and across the board to the connector would had done just as well.
Hey, i have the same issue! Im from the States and my size is 14 1/2 (its really hard to find half sizes so i usally go 15, and my feet are really wide, usally 4E is about right.
I want to see that lithium cell go off in the sealed compound! In 1992 or so there were the LA Lights shoes. Somewhere I have the potted light module, it is in fact several lithium button cells, very minimal circuitry (some sort of pulse one shot thing) and a REAL mercury switch! The shoes themselves were far higher quality. I'm not sure if even such a simple light module was cheap enough to go into the flimsier shoes available in those days - I'll guess it was mostly a name brand gimmick initially and I think they cost somewhere between $45 to $70 dollars.
I am very surprised you didn't check the battery first.
I think you would need 3 of these strips for each of your shoes :-) Size 15 wow!! I thought I had big feet at size 12.
Me too, BigClive! I'm a diminutive American 13 wide and I am usually dissapointed when shoe-shopping!
also the ones that sell here have the port inside a waterproof pocket and the button is on a separate waterproof pocket. they also have 3 instedad of 2 led's
if you have a pair of those shoes please seek help.
Simon Hopkins outside the led part they're not bad looking lol
I wonder if they use that stiffer LED tape just to make it easier to shove into the sole without getting twisted
Big Clive, cobbler to the stars. I want you to know that I spent time on Amazon, eBay and Alibaba and I was unable to find size 15 LED shoes. I have this mental image of you as a tiny tot, crying by the side of the road in your plain shoes as everyone else goes by with light-ups. :-(
A these controllers are well potted and presumably water proof, would they be any good for outside projects? Also how much could they drive?
The reason for the stainless-ish steel tape can be explained in the notorious failure of early efforts at wrapping flexible LED strips around the soles of shoes - repeated flexing of the rubberized sole occurs while walking. The flexing is concentrated at the front of the heel area, which tends to bend the copper circuit board in a "forbidden" direction, since it's only meant to be bent in one axis. The thin copper traces become work hardened and brittle at those kink points until they break and the shoe only partially lights.
Laminating the LED strip with the steel strip in a tube of heat shrink thus keeps the assembly much more rigid in the vulnerable direction. Gives it a fighting chance for them to last more than a few days in active use!
If anyone ever offers up another pair of LED or other "electronic" shoes, remember to remove the laces so the shoe can be opened fully and the tongue folded under and stuffed in the toe.
The steel tape is for rigidity. The tape appears to be standing on its edge inside an impact absorbing structure. The steel tape would prevent the much softer LED tape and vinyl sleeve from curling or twisting in the channel.
I'm thinking the "steel-like" metal is there to keep the LED strip from twisting around its axis so that the light shines in toward the middle of the shoe or down toward the ground, etc. Maybe it's a sort of spring steel and returns to its shape, keeping it facing outwards.
Clive, to solder that annoying type of cable you can lit the end and burn the textile fibres to leave the copper alone. Be ready to blow and extinguish the flame before it advances too much and starts to burn the plastic insulation.
16:26 The force is strong with this one.
Working in the City of London, our office security called me as they had X-rayed a delivery for our company, which looked suspicious. It was a pair of shoes with batteries and wires……this was shortly after the ‘shoe bomber’ incident and the X-ray images looked very similar. After the explosives unit came, they deemed it safe and the embarrassed recipient realised the implications, but her ‘hen do’ outfit was safe…..😀
Someone posted a link on a forum I use to a powerbank that looks the same as the Poundland and Poundworld ones but being sold by Citroen with their logo on for £18. I'd love to know what the internals are like compared to the £1 units but I don't think I'm brave enough to buy one!
I remember when I was a kid the la gear light up shoes were really popular and they had a mercury switch inside to activate the lights.
The effect would be a lot nicer imo if they'd manage to incorporate the thick diffuser layer from the light strip in the previous teardown... unfortunately that dayglow tigerstripe pattern just wouldn't go with my new wardrobe from Dickies spring collection.
I'm thinking it might be quite a feasible mod on a DrMartens sole - the stuff they're made of 'sort of' has the right optical characteristics and is already quite thick - pretty sure you can weld that stuff with a hot knife blade. (joinedup inc assumes no liability for shoe modding accidents)
Look at the pretty lights red, green and blue go on and off, great.
That's a fair pair of brothel creepers there Clive. Some nerve it would take to stote around in them.
We have LED collars for a our dogs for walks in the dark and they glow when charging go off when fully charged, so I suspect these would do the same.
That lithium battery might give new meaning running like fire under your heels...
Or if the battery leaks, like when wearing a wire tap, a "Hot Foot".
My mom got a pair of these from a garage sale. When I first plugged them in, I saw a faint red light flash but now nothing. Do they require hitting the button a certain number of times or something. The connectors are all together. I've even tried swapping the battery modules. These where a little easier to get to than your new ones. I'm guessing whoever had them before saw your video and fixed them at one point.
The batteries do look swollen. Also I havent stripped any wires yet on it. Everything is still intact. I dont see any burnt looking wires or chips.
Could you take an ASMO charger to bits? It's a premium-priced charger that's supposedly fire safe and doesn't use any electricity when stuff is not plugged into it. I'd like to know if it's worth the high asking price or if it's or just a load of crap.
Clive, I'd love your input on this, I had an intermittent backlight issue on an "edge lit" smart TV, when looking at the leds, some of them (9 out of about 120) weren't testing as a diode, although they still lit up when I tested them with my power supply, I've seen leds fail before where they don't emmit light but still act as a diode, and so the rest of the backlight array stays lit, but I've never seen leds fail in a way where they don't act as a diode but still emmit light, is this possible? Or am I doing something wrong somehow? This particular TV also had a blown 2.2ohm smd resistor on the power supply board near the led driver ic and the ic itself had a tiny hole in it.
When gallium nitride LEDs fail they often develop a rogue parallel resistance that will mess with the diode test on a meter.
@@bigclivedotcom so they had definatly failed. That's good to know I replaced them. Along with the resistor and ic and the tellies still running touch wood. Thanks for clearing this up, I hate it when I don't understand something.
Thanks ✋
The entire module is potted to create a hard shell to absorb the impact while it's being stood on, as well as to create plenty of hard shrapnel when the battery explodes. ;)
I feel your pain with footwear, I wear a US 15.5 wide, often US 16 with some brands, even big and tall stores lack shoes my size.
Out of every machine I've ever seen you take a look at, I think these are the least likely thing I'd ever personally use. That includes ridiculous things like the toaster-in-a-bathtub water heater, and the hot dog electric chair
sportsshoes.com seem to have a reasonable selection of large sizes. Simple to search all by size and sort by price too.
I assume that the metal strip doesn't have the sticky removed as that would restrict the LED tape from being bent. The way they have done it allows the metal to slide when turning corners. Perhaps they ordered the sticky stuff and only after sticking it on (on a few test trainers) did they realize this was an issue and left it unstuck??
have you looked inside the connector as tablets have the same one & they are prone to losing a lead or leads getting bent over & shorting out
Did the LEDs go green at full charge?
No. The red just faded out.
LOL oh clive, so funny :-D :-D
Dont let the blokes in the white coats see this video, "Just stand still while we help you put this special jacket on." :-D.
Oh well, im sure you can find a use for the leds :-)