Ironically that morse output looked like 3 dots, 2 dashes & 4 dots - which translates to SMH, which in modern parlance translates to “shaking my head”, how appropriate!
Between the IR receiver, the micro-controller and always-on USB output, there probably is enough phantom loading to cancel out whatever comes out of the tiny solar panel out over a typical day.
Should really be disappointment. He already had capacity tested the device at two ampe hours, so if there was one cell at least it would be half decent. With there being two cells, thats one ampe hour each - ie shitty chinesium ultrafire rubbish.
Having that large number of LEDs means they are each running at low current. They should both be very efficient and last forever under these conditions.
"This looked a lot bigger on eBay, I have to say..." is rule #16 of Chinese sales: take photos that make tiny things look normal-sized, or better yet, design tiny things that look normal-sized in photos.
To be fair often you get people complaining that it looked bigger in the photo when the photo is literally _just_ a full frame picture of the thing with no misleading context and the dimensions where in the description. What can you do? Take every product photo next to a coke can?
@@anononomous I feel like the solution is to always include product dimensions. (Without it being in a box for shipping.) Then we can just laugh at the photo-glancing-only buyers.
Cargo cult science is their specialty. As seen in some of Clive's ionizer things... components that go nowhere or are not connected; vent holes and mounting positions contradictory, etc. And definitely no testing of the finished product. They really have no clue.
It's nice to see a teardown of something I have. I've never used the solar panel to charge it, only USB. It's a nice little remote controlled light. Mine has a metal hook for hanging it.
I’m shocked by the 60 L.E.D’s running at 6 watts, seems a bit much for a camping light. Well, it does dim at least. Nice video Clive. Thank you for sharing.
I work for Jaycar here in Australia and I just bought a couple of our little camping lanterns (ST3420). It has the usual light modes by clicking the button, but luckily if you leave it sit for a few seconds, then press the button again it'll turn straight off. It's really bright too. Very usable light. The only downside is they run off 6xAA batteries instead being rechargeable.
Actually, bought a generic power bank like this one - exactly the same shell as well, simply because they take 18650s, which can be easily replaced and recharged in a proper charging unit, and are quite handy as an isolated 5 volts power supply for quick tests.
Hilarious that this is one of the better SOS modes I've seen from China in terms of speed, yet they still managed to ruin it by reversing its polarity. SOS modes are one of the weirder things that Chinese makers latched onto and refuse to let die, even on products where it makes no sense. Most generic LED light chips have such slow SOS modes that no one would notice the letters; they'd just see a slowly blinking light. An SOS sequence should take no more than 5 seconds in total, yet some of these products take that long for each letter. A strobe mode on a closet/camping light is just plain ridiculous. These blinky modes should never be in the main button sequence, but should require a hold or other special sequence.
Completely agree !! 5 seconds is 12 words a minute. I was taught, SOS and PAN PAN PAN, should be sent at 10 words a minute, but thats on a key. Is it different with Semiphor ?
Not going to work. SOS mode will be right, but the off state will be the on state. What I think BCDC didn't make clear was they changed the MOSFET, and then someone was told to fix the firmware, they did that to the best of their ability. But, because they didn't understand what the SOS mode was for, they (and all the post design testing) didn't notice that they'd buggered it.
The striping is an artifact of the camera shutter. The shutter also reduces the gradient between light and dark bands visible on the surface of the lamp. But since you mention striping, I am reminded that I have to go to Home Depot tomorrow and pick up a few cans of Raid and a couple of mirrors.
Try turning it on and waiting for a few minutes before turning it off to see if it turns off with one push of the button. I have a headlamp that does this.
Definitely a must multi level hack unit. 1. Replace the cells with laptop battery 2.6Ah [5.2Ah total] 2. Relocate the solar + over to the USB + in through a diode. [don't need shotkey, plenty of voltage push. I understand driving a solar panel with voltage can cause damage, hence the diode for when it is plugged in for charging.] 3. Fabricate your own 5V/500ma [or buy one] solar panel with USB output, so you can use a standard USB to Mini-USB cable to charge the unit. [And your cell phone too. 😃]
You beat me to it. It is certainly that - that blue LED has likely high enough forward voltage to limit the charging voltage on the cell. Most likely it won't charge at all (blue LED with Vf about 3V ...), only prevent deep discharge of the battery ...
All of my 18650 chargers, solar, mains, some cheap n nasty, and 2 "intelligent" units, continue with 20 mA after the 'charged' led lites. Weird ? Yes/No ? I've put 24 ohm resistors on each individual cell bay. Increases the charge time by a bit.
On the other hand, an inverted SOS could be a good safety feature, especially on a slow pattern like that -- the light would be on more of the time. This could help determine location in extremely low light levels. 🤷♂️ I'd pop that solar panel off and replace it with a barrel jack, then attach a better solar panel somewhere else where there's more sun. 👍
The international outdoors distress signal is six blasts on a whistle, six shouts, (or other noise), or six light flashes, repeated at intervals of one minute. The response is three of the same. Flashing SOS is not an officially recognised signal.
The issue with that is that the forward voltage of the diode is current dependent, as the current goes down, so does the dropped voltage, which could mean, at low current (full battery), you could have 4.5V to 5V being pushed into the battery. Liion does NOT like that, even at microamps...
A few of the "better" lights I have support a long press to turn off, bypassing those stupid flashing modes. On some, it only works after the lamp is lit for 5 seconds or more.
This thing is oh-so-close to being a really nice light. It has plenty of emitters and they aren't being overdriven. It uses 18650's, which many people have a collection of, and uses common powerbank and LED chips to create an affordable product. Unfortunately, it has the weird flaws that Clive mentions and doesn't offer an easy way to swap the 18650's even if someone wanted to modify the light with a battery door. The solar panel is basically worthless and is wired to ensure this is so.
Could you hack this to just turn full-on or off by adding a switch to pull the gate of the FET to 0 volts? I really dislike the 'feature creep' switches that the Chinese seem to consider de rigeure, which take you through multiple modes. I think a simple on-off switch would suit the needs of most people...
Nod to this. I have a pushbike rear light that had FIFTEEN strobe modes. Sounds good - but all I want is the light to be actually onny on all the time, which is mode 1 - meaning to turn the thing off after a ride I need to press the button another fourteen times....
I have an LED rechargeable torch with the whole full-mid-low-strobe-sos cycle. Only recently noticed that if you press and hold the button, it jumps straight to "off"
I've seen few companies advertising a torch with the strobe feature being used as way to scare off burglar by shining strobing light in their face lol, and btw its one where you have to cycle through all the features before it turns off.
All those various strobing & flashing functions can be annoying, especially on things like bike lights or torches, where you have to go through about six button presses to turn them off!
@@wizard3z868 it's odd that people believe that. Rates of burglary are not lower in the USA than in places where firearms are not normal. However, rates of murder are far, far higher in the US. Go figure.
If you use Google lens app, you can get instant translation of Chinese (or any other language) onscreen. Perhaps even use it in the video through screen recording? 👍
the charge for use if its not personal. thats why you dont see it in western apps. eastern apps seem to have an alternative which works very well within the apps.
Good video Sir. Are you familiar with the lights that you pull down on and as they go back up, they shed light? What I saw online they were being distributed in third world countries but I’d like to purchase one myself. Keep up the good videos and Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
You seem to think that is a camping light. It is not! Obviously it is an illuminated "clay pigeon" made for night time skeet shooting. The Cunard Line used to offer skeet shooting off the stern deck, but only in daylight.
Working SOS-signal is not bad idea. It is easy to notice and interpret. Coast Guard is easily triggered by any kind of signals. Once Norwegian CG helicopter thought my hammock with orange stripe was a SOS-flag. Also once Canadians thought the orange sail on my kayak was on a life raft.
Someone could simply ad a 1S ,BMS for 50 cents and a jack for a useful exterior solar pane / charger. I do a similar hack with cheap solar lawn lamps so I can put the little solar panel on or out the window, for a light inside ,a few feet away. Add a switch to the light and it's always charged when needed.
Had they made this without the SOS and strobe and added USB charging it would pretty much be the perfect camping light... I would even accept them adding red or blue LEDs for "night vision" if they needed to add a gimmick feature. I'd replace the two 18650s with a single 5A 21700, looks like there is plenty of room.
Hey Clive, I have a couple of items I thought might make for interesting teardowns. I have a pair of shopping trolley (shopping cart) anti theft wheels of different types. One I believe weighs the trolley and the other uses either RF or magnetic field to trigger the brake.
HEY CLIVE! Where is the 12th pin of the uC? It isn't show on your schematic! I wonder if that 12th pin is an option input that determines positive/negative polarity for the LED DRIVE pin?
I wholeheartedly agree. I do like a high and a low mode, but prefer that they are different switches or have a good user interface. Nothing like needing a little light and getting the full power of the sun because you have to "mode" through it.
Interesting. I wonder if the solar panel could be re-wired to the same place as the USB input - or somewhere else, so that it gives the cells some protection on the solar side? Or would it be better to just get a thin Li-Po battery (with protection circuit included) and just use that instead of the 18650s? Or would it be better to just buy a cheapo protection PCB for about £2 off eBay :)
You have mentioned the microcontroller software seems to have been written expecting N-channel mosfet on the output and that's why the SOS strobe is in reverse. Would it be possible to just change the P-channel transistor in this circuit for a N-channel one to fix it? Or would it require other changes to the circuit and/or software? I could never fully understand transistors and especially the differences between P-channel and N-channel.
The SOS weirdness is due to them not wanting to drive an NFET, which requires gate voltage below the 0V rail. What's the IR sensor for? Can the unit actually turn the light on when it senses motion, or considering how backwards it's designed would it turn the light off?
What's the market for the strobe/SOS feature? It's it so many torches and I've NEVER met anyone who likes it. I get the hi/med/lo brightness and whilst the implementation is often clunky and imperfect, it at least makes sense.
I always wonder what would happen if one was marooned somewhere and used their LED torch to flash the SOS signal... Would anyone a) understand, b) bother to do anything? Maybe in China there's a special significance which is lost on the rest of us?
What current from the cell, and what current per LED. Such a small solar cell so many LED's. Upside is maybe a long LED life, but camping should not last a year.
Clive. If the chip is sending an inverted signal to the mosfet and therefore the SOS is odd, does that mean that when you press the button and turn it off, the chip is sending out the signal when it's off? Or when you've turned it off, it's actually on. 🤔
Hello Clive, I have just bought a similar lamp, but i realized that the light lamps is reduced to low light after 10 to 15 minutes from high light mode. So i had to always click on the maximum button to make it in higher light mode again which will stay another 15min and so on. Did u remark the same behavior on ur side ? If yes how could we solve that annoying problem in ur point of view ? Thanks a lot
I'm a subscriber great channel: Clive, I keep going through LED rechargeable flashlights pretty much they all died because of the crappy push button switch. In your exploits have you found a good reliable LED flashlights with a switch that's meets military or industrial standards?
I detest lighting devices that force you to cycle through all the modes before turning them off. It's not that difficult to put in a little more effort to create a simple on/off and then a mode switch.
@@phonotical Just thinking about it had me laughing for a fat minute or two, she didn't believe me until I pointed out "Dollhouse table + 4 chairs" and "NOT A REAL FURNITURE SET" in the description.
I got some today & I noticed a design flaw for shipping the hook is lined up with the button so one of them was dead on arrival until I had it plugged in to a charger for over 4 hours to even see the charge indicator lights dimly lit.
Im not that much knowledgeable in electronic but what if you swap those weak 18650s with those 3000mah 40 amp 18650 variants, will the electronics take only what it needs or would you fry it, guess the charge/discharge protection wont be suitable but what if you get a charge controller for the high power ones and bypass the shitty one with it on the drive board for the LEDs, will it survive or will those batteries fry it as well?
I'm surprised they didn't just use the powerbank chip and hookup the leds to the flashlight capability many of the powerbank chips have. the sos is useless and some analog way of dimming the leds could be used
if 20mA could really flow into the cell, it might be enough just to recharge it during not so heavy use. At least should be good enough just to provide like 15 mins of light while you're just trying to make some room in the tent to be able to lie down :)
I'm not sure about it being inrush current limiting. The cap is only 2.2uf, so not much current to limit, and it shouldn't damage the USB power supply. I wonder if the resistor is used to reduce voltage spikes. When the USB power supply is plugged in, the combination of the inductance of the power supply leads, and the low equivalent series resistance of the ceramic capacitor can create voltage spikes of around 40 volts. This will destroy the TP4333 IC which only has a VDD absolute max of 7 volts. Adding the resistor will reduce the ESR of the capacitor and thus reduce the voltage spikes. For more info on this, search "Linear Technology Application Note 88", "Ceramic Input Capacitors Can Cause Over voltage Transients".
@@bigclivedotcom OK, it was just a thought. Often enough it does work that way. But of course you already tried it. I guess this thing just insists on being weird.
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
Ironically that morse output looked like 3 dots, 2 dashes & 4 dots - which translates to SMH, which in modern parlance translates to “shaking my head”, how appropriate!
Imagine sitting in your tent and hearing "strobe" "der, der, der da" from the tent across the field with a bearded shadow cast against the tent!
DO NOT INTERRUPT ME I AM STRRRROBINGG 😂😂😂
The sounds he made for SOS was my favorite part of the video.
"One moment, please."
@@stephendavis891 IM GONNA STROOOOOBE
Sorry, I was too busy listening to "Ta ra ra boom dir ay" on my Sony Wakman.
Between the IR receiver, the micro-controller and always-on USB output, there probably is enough phantom loading to cancel out whatever comes out of the tiny solar panel out over a typical day.
THIS is what I wondered. does it even produce enough power to overcome the you know they will be blinking high power blue charging led's
@@chri-k do you not know how to read english? You seem to have typed English so I assume you can read it
It doubles as a bug zapper, though. That sure comes in handy, when out camping. 😄
3:50 I enjoyed the delight in Clive's voice when he discovered "TWO! Eighteen-six-fifties." in the lamp.
Should really be disappointment. He already had capacity tested the device at two ampe hours, so if there was one cell at least it would be half decent. With there being two cells, thats one ampe hour each - ie shitty chinesium ultrafire rubbish.
i never get tired of you explaining circuits. i dont always understand what you are saying but you make me feel like i should. so thanks
I was in absolute stitches with your sound effects you did while in S.O.S. mode ! You have great videos! I've been subscribed for years.
The best part of this review is undoubtedly the moment where you mimicked the couple goodnight dialog. Cheers.
Having that large number of LEDs means they are each running at low current. They should both be very efficient and last forever under these conditions.
Replace the battery?
But then, this is Big Clive's channel, and a good many of *his* devotees would be likely to possibly change the batteries.
@mowgli2071 soldering li-ion cells opens up a whole other can of safety worms as well.
@@carbonite1983 Perfect excuse to bring out the battery spot welder!
@@oliverer3 my man! You are indeed correct.
"This looked a lot bigger on eBay, I have to say..." is rule #16 of Chinese sales: take photos that make tiny things look normal-sized, or better yet, design tiny things that look normal-sized in photos.
like you wouldn't see this on amazon...
To be fair often you get people complaining that it looked bigger in the photo when the photo is literally _just_ a full frame picture of the thing with no misleading context and the dimensions where in the description. What can you do? Take every product photo next to a coke can?
@@anononomous I feel like the solution is to always include product dimensions. (Without it being in a box for shipping.) Then we can just laugh at the photo-glancing-only buyers.
This might be a case of the manufacturer modifying an existing design without understanding it! Learned a lot from this one Clive!
Of course they have no clue about what they do, they´re chinese.
Cargo cult science is their specialty. As seen in some of Clive's ionizer things... components that go nowhere or are not connected; vent holes and mounting positions contradictory, etc. And definitely no testing of the finished product. They really have no clue.
"Inverted SOS", I guess that would translate to *Sod Off Stranger*
Everything looks bigger until it shows up in person.
- my dating life
It's nice to see a teardown of something I have. I've never used the solar panel to charge it, only USB. It's a nice little remote controlled light. Mine has a metal hook for hanging it.
I’m shocked by the 60 L.E.D’s running at 6 watts, seems a bit much for a camping light. Well, it does dim at least. Nice video Clive. Thank you for sharing.
I work for Jaycar here in Australia and I just bought a couple of our little camping lanterns (ST3420). It has the usual light modes by clicking the button, but luckily if you leave it sit for a few seconds, then press the button again it'll turn straight off. It's really bright too. Very usable light. The only downside is they run off 6xAA batteries instead being rechargeable.
Clive ,you are one of the coolest dudes roaming around on YT. No matter what
Actually, bought a generic power bank like this one - exactly the same shell as well, simply because they take 18650s, which can be easily replaced and recharged in a proper charging unit, and are quite handy as an isolated 5 volts power supply for quick tests.
Hilarious that this is one of the better SOS modes I've seen from China in terms of speed, yet they still managed to ruin it by reversing its polarity.
SOS modes are one of the weirder things that Chinese makers latched onto and refuse to let die, even on products where it makes no sense. Most generic LED light chips have such slow SOS modes that no one would notice the letters; they'd just see a slowly blinking light. An SOS sequence should take no more than 5 seconds in total, yet some of these products take that long for each letter.
A strobe mode on a closet/camping light is just plain ridiculous. These blinky modes should never be in the main button sequence, but should require a hold or other special sequence.
well china ruined language by writing it upside down back to front ,so that explains a lot
Completely agree !!
5 seconds is 12 words a minute. I was taught, SOS and PAN PAN PAN, should be sent at 10 words a minute, but thats on a key. Is it different with Semiphor ?
Maybe the SOS won't die because the manufacturer designers are sending us their message. It's not for us, it is to us.
Some of the lights/flashlights I've got actually have a S-O-S-O-S-O-S-O-S-O mode rather than S-O-S-_-S-O-S.
Why for the God's love someone invented the fast blinking lights? Did they hate people with epilepsy? What is the point of this fast blinking light?
I wanted to see you solder in an N-Channel to see if the SOS worked properly.
Not going to work. SOS mode will be right, but the off state will be the on state. What I think BCDC didn't make clear was they changed the MOSFET, and then someone was told to fix the firmware, they did that to the best of their ability. But, because they didn't understand what the SOS mode was for, they (and all the post design testing) didn't notice that they'd buggered it.
The striping is an artifact of the camera shutter. The shutter also reduces the gradient between light and dark bands visible on the surface of the lamp.
But since you mention striping, I am reminded that I have to go to Home Depot tomorrow and pick up a few cans of Raid and a couple of mirrors.
The power that small solar panel makes gets used by a IR receiver and the USB inverter (both always active), so it's unlikely to overcharge._
Wonder if it also helps prevent completely draining the battery
It needs a switch for a charge-only mode to allow it to charge up fully when not in use. Then it could be ready when needed.
1:53 I almost choked from laughing!!! 😂
I'm crying
Lol love when he has those goof moments 😹👌🏻
"It's got that annoying feature!"
Try turning it on and waiting for a few minutes before turning it off to see if it turns off with one push of the button. I have a headlamp that does this.
Funny can’t find one video about this particular product until the day after I receive it in the mail thank you for the information great video
“Then it goes… dadddadaddddaddaad” haha good morning Clive!!
Definitely a must multi level hack unit.
1. Replace the cells with laptop battery 2.6Ah [5.2Ah total]
2. Relocate the solar + over to the USB + in through a diode. [don't need shotkey, plenty of voltage push. I understand driving a solar panel with voltage can cause damage, hence the diode for when it is plugged in for charging.]
3. Fabricate your own 5V/500ma [or buy one] solar panel with USB output, so you can use a standard USB to Mini-USB cable to charge the unit. [And your cell phone too. 😃]
I wonder if the resistor from the solar cell is to limit the voltage to avoid overcharging
You beat me to it. It is certainly that - that blue LED has likely high enough forward voltage to limit the charging voltage on the cell. Most likely it won't charge at all (blue LED with Vf about 3V ...), only prevent deep discharge of the battery ...
@@JanCiger That resistor only affects the LED current, not the battery charging!
All of my 18650 chargers, solar, mains, some cheap n nasty, and 2 "intelligent" units, continue with 20 mA after the 'charged' led lites. Weird ? Yes/No ?
I've put 24 ohm resistors on each individual cell bay. Increases the charge time by a bit.
@@snakezdewiggle6084 Not relevant to that 1K resistor they rambled about above.
@@johndododoe1411 oops, yeah sorry, apologies about that.
On the other hand, an inverted SOS could be a good safety feature, especially on a slow pattern like that -- the light would be on more of the time. This could help determine location in extremely low light levels. 🤷♂️ I'd pop that solar panel off and replace it with a barrel jack, then attach a better solar panel somewhere else where there's more sun. 👍
... where there's more sun... Not thinking of running wires across the ocean are we, Ted? :-D
@@stepheneyles2198 My wife has accused me of loonier things. 🤷♂️
The international outdoors distress signal is six blasts on a whistle, six shouts, (or other noise), or six light flashes, repeated at intervals of one minute. The response is three of the same. Flashing SOS is not an officially recognised signal.
Useless tiny panels! ~4.3v peak after the diode will trickle less than 1mA into most batteries... quite safe for months of day/night cycles.
The issue with that is that the forward voltage of the diode is current dependent, as the current goes down, so does the dropped voltage, which could mean, at low current (full battery), you could have 4.5V to 5V being pushed into the battery. Liion does NOT like that, even at microamps...
@@erroltheterrible Well, then you know when the battery's are fully charged if the thing catches fire.
A few of the "better" lights I have support a long press to turn off, bypassing those stupid flashing modes. On some, it only works after the lamp is lit for 5 seconds or more.
This one didn't.
Couple of those would be handy in a winter power cut with a full charge as emergency lighting
From the light modes it clearly has the same controller (software) you get in every chinese torch
This thing is oh-so-close to being a really nice light. It has plenty of emitters and they aren't being overdriven. It uses 18650's, which many people have a collection of, and uses common powerbank and LED chips to create an affordable product. Unfortunately, it has the weird flaws that Clive mentions and doesn't offer an easy way to swap the 18650's even if someone wanted to modify the light with a battery door. The solar panel is basically worthless and is wired to ensure this is so.
a camping light that looks like a landmine seems to be fun..
FRONT TOWARDS ENEMY
Alexa, turn on death strobe.
Trick or treat haha micro switch set to trick and boom 😂
Could you hack this to just turn full-on or off by adding a switch to pull the gate of the FET to 0 volts? I really dislike the 'feature creep' switches that the Chinese seem to consider de rigeure, which take you through multiple modes. I think a simple on-off switch would suit the needs of most people...
Nod to this. I have a pushbike rear light that had FIFTEEN strobe modes. Sounds good - but all I want is the light to be actually onny on all the time, which is mode 1 - meaning to turn the thing off after a ride I need to press the button another fourteen times....
I think you need to swap the mosfet
I have an LED rechargeable torch with the whole full-mid-low-strobe-sos cycle. Only recently noticed that if you press and hold the button, it jumps straight to "off"
Does the inverted SOS mean... Nothing to see here, move along, I'm definitely not in need of assistance ?
I don't think so 😂😂, very clever remark 😉
Amazingly enough, this looks almost exactly like a scaled-up dollar store LED light fixture.
I've seen few companies advertising a torch with the strobe feature being used as way to scare off burglar by shining strobing light in their face lol, and btw its one where you have to cycle through all the features before it turns off.
All those various strobing & flashing functions can be annoying, especially on things like bike lights or torches, where you have to go through about six button presses to turn them off!
Ya glad to live in a free state in America if the blast of the shotgun dosent scare em off the slug behind it sure will lol
@@wizard3z868 it's odd that people believe that. Rates of burglary are not lower in the USA than in places where firearms are not normal. However, rates of murder are far, far higher in the US. Go figure.
@@iainathairydog and they're highest in the areas with strict gun control. Fact.
@@wizard3z868 WTF uses slugs for home defence???
Dragons breath all the way.
We await the n-channel MOSFET mod. Your Waltons / Little House on the Prairie impression made me laugh but needs work.
Since all you'd have to do is move the solar Imput over to the usb in, it would be a pretty fast and simple fix if one could be bothered
The SOS mode is clearly designed for when you specifically want help from someone who can read inverted morse.
If you use Google lens app, you can get instant translation of Chinese (or any other language) onscreen. Perhaps even use it in the video through screen recording? 👍
What the hell is google?
the charge for use if its not personal. thats why you dont see it in western apps. eastern apps seem to have an alternative which works very well within the apps.
@@SLEEPYJK it's a web page on the interconnected network.
A word you may appreciate for such things as the ubiquitous SOS mode is "misfeature".
"Goodnight darling...STROBASCOPE!" Oh god, my sides!
Good video Sir. Are you familiar with the lights that you pull down on and as they go back up, they shed light? What I saw online they were being distributed in third world countries but I’d like to purchase one myself. Keep up the good videos and Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
I've heard of them, but never seen one.
This lamp is just what I need to illuminate under my workbench. Now I can find all the components I keep dropping.
Thank you internet!
Disappointed to see it's missing the 240V line voltage death option
That could be added.
You seem to think that is a camping light. It is not!
Obviously it is an illuminated "clay pigeon" made for night time skeet shooting. The Cunard Line used to offer skeet shooting off the stern deck, but only in daylight.
Unless you plan on getting Hercules to chuck it and shooting it down with a cruise missile, I don't get why it has two cells.
Working SOS-signal is not bad idea. It is easy to notice and interpret. Coast Guard is easily triggered by any kind of signals. Once Norwegian CG helicopter thought my hammock with orange stripe was a SOS-flag. Also once Canadians thought the orange sail on my kayak was on a life raft.
Nicely explained 👌
I'd argue but wouldn't know how. So why kind sir do I look forward to your sitting on my bench everyday?
Someone could simply ad a 1S ,BMS for 50 cents and a jack for a useful exterior solar pane / charger. I do a similar hack with cheap solar lawn lamps so I can put the little solar panel on or out the window, for a light inside ,a few feet away. Add a switch to the light and it's always charged when needed.
Had they made this without the SOS and strobe and added USB charging it would pretty much be the perfect camping light... I would even accept them adding red or blue LEDs for "night vision" if they needed to add a gimmick feature. I'd replace the two 18650s with a single 5A 21700, looks like there is plenty of room.
Hey Clive, I have a couple of items I thought might make for interesting teardowns. I have a pair of shopping trolley (shopping cart) anti theft wheels of different types. One I believe weighs the trolley and the other uses either RF or magnetic field to trigger the brake.
HEY CLIVE! Where is the 12th pin of the uC? It isn't show on your schematic!
I wonder if that 12th pin is an option input that determines positive/negative polarity for the LED DRIVE pin?
it is getting harder to find a decent light with just 2 modes, on and off, who needs, wants or ever uses the flashing and sos modes.
The sos mode and strobe functions are rather useless in daylight if ever needed.
I wholeheartedly agree. I do like a high and a low mode, but prefer that they are different switches or have a good user interface. Nothing like needing a little light and getting the full power of the sun because you have to "mode" through it.
The camping lanterns usually come with a combined dimmer and on/off switch. If you don't dim them, the batteries won't last very long.
Interesting. I wonder if the solar panel could be re-wired to the same place as the USB input - or somewhere else, so that it gives the cells some protection on the solar side?
Or would it be better to just get a thin Li-Po battery (with protection circuit included) and just use that instead of the 18650s?
Or would it be better to just buy a cheapo protection PCB for about £2 off eBay :)
At least there was a battery in that remote when it arrived!
You have mentioned the microcontroller software seems to have been written expecting N-channel mosfet on the output and that's why the SOS strobe is in reverse. Would it be possible to just change the P-channel transistor in this circuit for a N-channel one to fix it? Or would it require other changes to the circuit and/or software?
I could never fully understand transistors and especially the differences between P-channel and N-channel.
It would work, but the modes would all be different.
I bought one for camping and the sos works perfectly. However 2 of the LED's don't light. they do if you push on them. (Mine doesn't have IR)
That looks very much like a Lidl interchangeable bit screwdriver you got there Clive.
And here in the USA, you can get them at Harbor Freight.
Janky as some of the machining may be, they're quite nice.
Wonder why they didn't just use a N channel MOSFET in the first place. Low stock or the P channel cost we significantly less?
The sound effects were the best part
almost every Chinese flashlight on Amazon has the "high medium low strobe SOS Off" click sequence
The SOS weirdness is due to them not wanting to drive an NFET, which requires gate voltage below the 0V rail.
What's the IR sensor for? Can the unit actually turn the light on when it senses motion, or considering how backwards it's designed would it turn the light off?
I've IR sensor is for the remote control he demonstrated at 0:46
An N-channel MOSFET would be switched with a positive control line with respect to 0V.
@@COBARHORSE1 Ah. Oops.
What's the market for the strobe/SOS feature? It's it so many torches and I've NEVER met anyone who likes it. I get the hi/med/lo brightness and whilst the implementation is often clunky and imperfect, it at least makes sense.
I always wonder what would happen if one was marooned somewhere and used their LED torch to flash the SOS signal... Would anyone a) understand, b) bother to do anything? Maybe in China there's a special significance which is lost on the rest of us?
I wish the products using 18650s would make it so normal users could change the batteries
What current from the cell, and what current per LED. Such a small solar cell so many LED's. Upside is maybe a long LED life, but camping should not last a year.
Oh my god the color codes coding is fantastic!!!!
A chinese company decisions process, "beta test why???".
Thanks Clive. ;) I've come across a few things like this. I'm starting to wonder if it's Ni-Cad / Ni-Mh tech bumped up into Lithium land.
Clive.
If the chip is sending an inverted signal to the mosfet and therefore the SOS is odd, does that mean that when you press the button and turn it off, the chip is sending out the signal when it's off?
Or when you've turned it off, it's actually on. 🤔
I wondered that myself.
Could you swap the MOSFET for the N-channel version and add a transistor to invert the control signal so that the SOS works properly?
That would double correct it and go back to inverted SOS.
Hello Clive,
I have just bought a similar lamp, but i realized that the light lamps is reduced to low light after 10 to 15 minutes from high light mode. So i had to always click on the maximum button to make it in higher light mode again which will stay another 15min and so on.
Did u remark the same behavior on ur side ? If yes how could we solve that annoying problem in ur point of view ?
Thanks a lot
That would be in software. It protects the LEDs and also extends battery life, but it can be annoying.
@@bigclivedotcom thanks for ur fast reply, so no other type to change the SW o bypass this annoying issue ?
That weird moment I thought this was a smoke detector, lol.
I'm a subscriber great channel:
Clive, I keep going through LED rechargeable flashlights pretty much they all died because of the crappy push button switch.
In your exploits have you found a good reliable LED flashlights with a switch that's meets military or industrial standards?
"This looked a lot bigger on Ebay..."
If I had a dollar for every time that's happened. :D
That explains why i haven't been rescued, i wish i'd worn clothes
The solar cells have a max voltage. That minus the fwd drop of the diode probably means the max voltage of the cells is not reached.
I would be more worried about the 2 W through that resister than the 6W through the LEDs.
could the mosfet be swapped for an n-channel, at least as test, to see if the SOS swapped itself around?
Did you try push and holding the pwr button? I have a bike light that remembers what the setting was.
It just went to the next mode
I detest lighting devices that force you to cycle through all the modes before turning them off. It's not that difficult to put in a little more effort to create a simple on/off and then a mode switch.
Small things always look bigger online 👀😅
:¬|
My auntie tried to buy furniture online fairly recently, until we pointed out to her that the table was 2 inches tall, and from a dolls house.
@@jimmyrustler8983 if the price seems too good to be true...
@@phonotical Just thinking about it had me laughing for a fat minute or two, she didn't believe me until I pointed out "Dollhouse table + 4 chairs" and "NOT A REAL FURNITURE SET" in the description.
i thought this was a weird alien styled speaker from the thumbnail lmao. but looks neat either way for a light.
Hey Clive, how do we ship stuff to you for taking its guts out? Is there any criteria like, it has to be weird or interesting, in some way?
The weirder the better.
I got some today & I noticed a design flaw for shipping the hook is lined up with the button so one of them was dead on arrival until I had it plugged in to a charger for over 4 hours to even see the charge indicator lights dimly lit.
If using a power bank type chip it may enter a trickle charge mode to recover the lithium cell.
Im not that much knowledgeable in electronic but what if you swap those weak 18650s with those 3000mah 40 amp 18650 variants, will the electronics take only what it needs or would you fry it, guess the charge/discharge protection wont be suitable but what if you get a charge controller for the high power ones and bypass the shitty one with it on the drive board for the LEDs, will it survive or will those batteries fry it as well?
It would run much longer. I'd actually suggest common 2600mAh cells as being a much cheaper option.
Does the link from the solar panel to the uP inhibit the lamp during bright sun so avoiding unnecessary battery discharge?
It's not connected that way.
@@bigclivedotcom I thought I saw a link to the uP on your schematic?
@@andic6676 The solar cell and the processor can both light one of the LEDs via resistors, but I don't think it's using that to sense light.
Will it turn off from any mode if you keep the button pressed?
No. It just switches into the next mode.
Have you tried holding the button down to turn it off? (I admit I am still watching so perhaps you try later.)
I'm surprised they didn't just use the powerbank chip and hookup the leds to the flashlight capability many of the powerbank chips have. the sos is useless and some analog way of dimming the leds could be used
They probably didn't even change the software.. all they would need to do is just swap the on/off button on the remote label.
Lots of components and a free salad bowl too, assuming it was inexpensive to purchase in the first place.
if 20mA could really flow into the cell, it might be enough just to recharge it during not so heavy use.
At least should be good enough just to provide like 15 mins of light while you're just trying to make some room in the tent to be able to lie down :)
What is the purpose of the 1.5 Ohm resistor connected to the TP4333 IC?
Inrush current limiting.
I'm not sure about it being inrush current limiting. The cap is only 2.2uf, so not much current to limit, and it shouldn't damage the USB power supply.
I wonder if the resistor is used to reduce voltage spikes.
When the USB power supply is plugged in, the combination of the inductance of the power supply leads, and the low equivalent series resistance of the ceramic capacitor can create voltage spikes of around 40 volts. This will destroy the TP4333 IC which only has a VDD absolute max of 7 volts. Adding the resistor will reduce the ESR of the capacitor and thus reduce the voltage spikes.
For more info on this, search "Linear Technology Application Note 88", "Ceramic Input Capacitors Can Cause Over voltage Transients".
Instead of cycling through the modes, can't you just press and hold the button to turn the light off?
It doesn't work on this unit.
@@bigclivedotcom OK, it was just a thought. Often enough it does work that way. But of course you already tried it. I guess this thing just insists on being weird.