Computerised power saver plug (with schematic)
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- Опубликовано: 6 авг 2024
- Yet another fake power saver plug, but with with an unexpectedly complex twist.
I've since scoped the triac gate drive and it is hard driven (not pulses) so the software is probably only using the zero crossing detection to ensure the triac only turns on at the zero crossing point to avoid a huge current spike through the triac if it turned the capacitor on at the peak of the sinewave. By default the triac will turn off at the zero crossing point itself when the on/off button is used. But when directly unplugged while active the capacitor will be left in a random state of charge as demonstrated by my fingers. That's where the discharge resistors could have helped avoid a zap and also avoided a triac current spike when turned on again.
It's bizarre that so much effort has gone into the circuitry design when they could just have had the capacitor connected between live and neutral (with a discharge resistor) and just put on a lightshow when the button was pressed. It's professional fakery where the circuit does make sense even if it is just a scam product. Possibly just to make it look more convincing. But why would they even have an on and off button on a power saver anyway.
It's worth mentioning that the vague 10kW rating is just fluff to indicate the household load which it could correct if it was a real thing. The unit does not actually pass actual load current.
Note that while active, the unit presents an apparent power of 40VA which will increase your electricity bill significantly over a year if you are charged for apparent power. It would effectively cost 1 unit per day on 230V, so over a year that would be about 365 units, which at local costing would be about £80 a year.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of RUclips's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
#ElectronicsCreators 
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Someone at the factory checks a box: "[X] Shocked Big Clive"
Electrical manufacturing bingo
@@onemoreguyonline7878 ElectroBOOM is center free square
Yup. They were sneaky. No shock on the outside. So Clive thought he was safe.
It's safe to say most things shocks Big Clive with half of the Chinese garbage he pulls apart.
At their next staff meeting "Ladies and gentlemen we got him!"
Guys, I got the idea how these masterpieces actually saves power.
...
If you plug a dozen of this in your house it actually occupies a lot of sockets so you cannot plug anything else and it saves the power.
That suddenly hit me.
Genius 😊
You got it 👍
🙃
Sounds logical to me.
Shocking!
Imagine the guys in China saying: OK guys, let's make this one a challenge for Big Clive to reverse engineer and be perplexed!
Oh and put something in that'll shock him.
Good clean fun 😂
They probably did.
The silk screen for the unpopulated discharge resistor should have read "Gotcha, Clive"
@@sometimesleela5947 a high-pitched sound will do better🤪
Imagine all of Chinese electronic fakery working out another puzzle for Clive to reverse engineer.
They couldn't afford a 'death beam' (they don't like AC anyway), so fitted a 'tiny-wee' shock instead. In this case, the cost cutting managed to prevent a serious injury - first time for everything, I suppose.
I'm stunned they've actually implemented the ability to switch in and out the capacitor, would be very interesting to know what the designers were thinking at the time and if they were trying to justifying it to themselves it wasn't a scam. But the blinking red light before it turns blue 100% is just trying to convince the user it's doing something more advanced, no reason it couldn't just instantly switch on.
The more elaborate the rouse, the more likely the mark will buy in to it. Especially someone who might have seen BC's expose of the cheap and nasty version of these, and think these ones might be the real deal.
@@mikenco Yep, but lookily this ruster rows to the chalinj of expowsin the "ruse". 😜😂😂
Well, it _is_ doing something. It'd making the LED blink.
😡
@@samuelfellows6923 what are the chances of you being the same Samuel Fellows I know...
It's amazing how quickly things become very heavy and you have to let go, I did it the other day on the lathe.
I can't remember the last time a cap bit Big Clive on a tear down. But be honest, seeing someone get a tingle on a tear down makes a review at least 20% more enjoyable right!? 😊💚
Always remember: There is a factory somewhere that produces something like this, and they are very proud of it!
Another useless product adding to our waste pile.
@@DiAngeloTheSecond another useless product producing more waste for our landfills to take
Garbage is both their number one import and export.
Are they? Or are they just doing a job so they don't starve?
@@SmallSpoonBrigade that's more likely, sad, but more likely
Gotta love the logic of selling a 2 pack and only delivering one :)
Why would you even need two though?
@@tncorgi92
To get double the savings :)
@@tncorgi92 One to use, one to take apart.
"One to use, one to take apart." Technology Connections: "Through the magic of buying two of them..."
I live in Germany and some commercial leaflets shows, lets say 2 bottles of Vodka and "the normal price" with a strike through and the discount price. However, "discount price" is still per bottle. Pretty annoying... b'cuz brain observes one price and two bottles. Both bottles have the same face forward, so it's not the backside either. Pretty deceptive... in the beginning.
Love the way you take a good on camera zap in stride!
And no cuss words!
You should be proud😊
I've complained about a few bits of Chinese crap recently that were sold mis-leadingly. And, they always give the same patter and I always say that I'm not using my money to return something. It's not worth them paying for return postage, so then they offer a couple of discounts, then they offer a full refund IF you leave positive feedback, which I never do, as it just encourages them to keep scamming. ALWAYS pay with PayPal, as PayPal have no issue with simply taking back the money.
The resistor over the triac could help switching it off when the current zero-crosses. The LED mainly causes a phase correct current while the capacitor shifts the current. This makes it difficult for a triac to turn off because the current is almost never below the holding current threshold. By placing a resistor over MT1 and MT2 you can bypass the ohmic amount of the current and make the triac switch off 90° later.
Being a doctor I'd have given it the finger poke. And serve me bloody right! 😆 That was a mighty enjoyable teardown, Clive. I think you've save us all. ❤
How many people are disappointed that the silk screening on the thumbnail is not present on the actual item?
I'm going with they put the triac in just so it would pass the finger on the pins test, then bite you when you least expect it. It was very effective.
You Electroboom'd that just fine :)
Interesting circuit, I don't know if it's its weirdness or uselessness that baffles me more.
"Let's give it a fingertest - no, no charge. That's good" - Clive, the living example of work security while fiddling with electric gadgets. And I like it. #LLAP On topic: I like the fact that such manufacturers can make a living out of the idiocy of power saving esoterics
It's North American voltage. A baby could handle it.
What?! Did you think that it was only fraudster businessmen/politicians like Trump and Co that could endlessly milk the mentally incompetent? 😉😁
Remember that the old saying that "There's 1 born every minute!" is itself not true. That would mean that there should be around 40 million alive at any 1 time. When in reality there's billions of 'em! 😱
@@chitlitlah I tested North American voltage as a toddler 65 years ago in North America, with scissors (went bang) and with fingers (unpleasant). Tamper resistant outlets would have protected me from the first experiment, GFCI would not have protected me from the second as I substituted my finger for a light bulb. Dad's response was "You shouldn't do that. Don't tell Mom."
@@chitlitlah What's North American voltage? Certainly not with Big Clive, who gets 245V, which is definitely deadly.
@@davidg4288 A charged capacitor that isn't grounded on either side usually poses no immediate danger to life. It just hurts a lot.
Unless you purposefully create a current path through both arms, and subsequently through the heart. Like Clive did.
Almost reminds me of the CAN bus "fuel savers". Some of those were ridiculously complex for just blinking two lights. I guess, though, when a micro is the same price as a 555 timer in the quantities they deal with, why not just use a micro?
The micro is actually cheaper, seeing as it is made in the millions, and is programmable, so the cost to use one is minimal, and you get to be able to do a little more than flash a LED. Much lower power use as well, saving on the cost of the power supply components as well, you only need a very low current supply to run it.
As many times as we've seen you touching stuff to see if it holds a charge and not getting zapped, this one made me jump.
Not as much as it made Clive jump.
I have to admit, I haven't seen Clive get a nip for years, so I confess to a little chuckle, and sympathy, because we've all been there.
Switching a capacitor on at a clever point in the sine wave almost sounds as if you could fool a smart energy meter
Bro what if these actually work 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
dont be dumb
Maybe it could fool the meter to overread.
@@rovhalgrencparselstedt8343No. If you push the load towards inductive, it's the real power that does the work, not apparent power.
So you can't get away with trying to transfer real power to apparent power.
⚡ZZZAAAPPP!!!! ⚡ Brings new meaning to "Dropping Capacitor"
Imagine Diode-gone-Wild watching, and the moment BC gets the shock: Niiiiice!
At least the finger zap proves that it's a real capacitor, and not just a box of sand.
If that shock was the 2 pin variant, can you imagine what the three might have done ?! 🤯
yay a new clive video! i love these videos were you have these wierd items, ionziers, ozone generators, insect killers , and ofc power saver plugs and more, they are all so intressting how they are constructed, pretty much always some wierd suprise to find :P
Phenominal! Big Clive got a shock. Could have used that as click bait, but respect, you didn't.
Big ups for you clive.
You're the man dude! 👍🏻😀🇬🇧
The Electrolytic capacitor is very annoyed at being described as a mere Cylinder Capacitor
I have followed the power factor scammers for years and this may be the most sophisticated attempt yet that I have seen. People cannot understand the difference between real and apparent power and those are technical terms. They are seduced by the numbers on the ammeter going down and are willing to spend big on something that makes that happen. Just understand that NO public utility charges for power factor in single phase service and the meter on the side of your house records watts, not amps. So even if they did work, you aren't going to see a difference in your electric bill.
Sorry, I couldn't help myself laughing when you got zapped 😅 Not to worry, I do know the feeling.
This has given me an idea for some YT content, and a 'comedy' product design. Sweet. Thanx BC 🖖
Edit: The components I need for my 'power saver product' are in stock at my local B&Q, nice. I can feel a Sunday project in the air 😸
That finger poke was pretty brave!
2:16 "So here is the cir... AAAAH! Right. That does hold a charge!"
🤣Classic! 🤣
What a brilliant idea to use a triac to switch the capacitor from the mains instead of a discharge resistor. That way, whoever touched the capacitor inside would get a nice surprise even after being scammed into buying a 2 pack and getting half. And the power saver was actually a power waster. Not to mention, the triac had a power supply that wastes power instead.
That was hilarious. You did the finger test and I was just wondering to myself, 'what'll he do when he actually does get zapped?' and then you got zapped, lol
Tearing these down will never get old
One thing I've thought... Maybe it's to convince people that "don't understand" it's not a real product that it's actually doing something, specifically those who have seen the tear-downs/exposure on the other fake ones (big caps, 2 LEDs and resistors - pretty easy to recognise). I saw somewhere else (I forget where) but it could have also been someone had to design this fake product and decided to design it the best they could or as an educational circuit (for themselves and us). :)
My guess is you have the "Pro" version of the power saver plug: the cheaper "Basic" version doesn't have the "Intelligent" parts (including the triac), but only the 1µF/275VAC capacitor alongside the missing R8, R9, R10 resistors and active indicator LED 3.
Finally, I've been waiting for 237 videos to see Clive get zapped.
Just a bit of pedantry; the triac turns off automatically when the current passing through it crosses zero. That is, having a pure capacitive load, exactly the point of maximum voltage across the mains line. So, the "hard" continuous command current is the easiest way to maintain the triac conducting. Probably, the designer's initial idea was to detect the moment of the zero crossing and to "compute" the delay of the gate control pulse for every half-wave of the alternating supply voltage.
The measured 40 VA of purely capacitive reactive power is able to compensate for the same amount of inductive reactive power. If the utilities companies charge for the reactive energy, then something like this product, or simply a capacitor with a plug, may help save those 80£ per year (from BigClive's example).
I didn't need to watch this video to know it was a useless device, but I do enjoy the process of proving it.
Well, it does seem to be a power saver after all. You plug it in, it saves power. Then, when you open the case, it shocks you. Classic power saver behaviour. HAHA I am glad you din't get hurt.
I've got a real power saving device at home. It watches the current on one of the outlets and switches all the other ones off if there isn't enough draw to indicate that it's on. But, a single outlet product that saves power is pretty inexplicable. I cannot imagine how any such device could ever be something other than a scam.
I'm amazed it actually does the whole capacitor thing as if the concept actually does anything useful. I more expected the OBDII style product where it just flashes LEDs convincingly.
One thing I am curious about though... Since the triac could potentially switch the capacitor on with quite a voltage difference on it compared to the mains, is there scope for blowing up the triac? How big of a capacitor could you use on this thing before the triac blows up?
I think that's why it detects the zero crossing point of the sinewave to minimise the current spike.
The zero crossing input should read across the triac to avoid getting fooled by the cap's phase shift or by whatever zap was left behind when last the triac last saw a null in current.
Good one Clive , how you said (Bastards) when you used your screwdriver and one hell of a spared occurred. It made me bust out laughing.. the only thing is how does it get though (British safety standards). Very good videos that you produce.100% .
eBay bypasses the safety channel into the country.
When you order elictronics from China, you basicaly become an importer, at that time there is no need for any compliance to any safety standard
Only if you plan to resell that stuff on the local market, you are the one that has to declare it complies with the safety regulations
⚠️😡 ~ 🇬🇧
There seems so much work involved making these things it makes me wonder if there's some strange part of the world where they actually do something :-)
great work big Clive, as always very entertaining, but mostly truthfull about this junk. top man
That thing is shockingly⚡ well made.
positively !
Love your videos where you debunk and deconstruct products.
Clive, that was a great video, thanks very much. Being honest much of it was beyond my understanding but I laughed loudly when you got a shock, and then again when you said ''Barstewards.'' 😀
I reported one of these to the ASA - and guess who's schematic popped up in the advert!
you had the same reaction as me when i was taking apart a camera and the flash capacitor zapped me! LOL
I am waiting for one of these boards to have a little "hi Clive" printed on them.
When the product doesn't do anything, or does it badly, the case can be used for many things!
Watching Clive manhandle the circuit board that has been plugged in seconds ago, thinking "That may not be a good ide..." ZAP!
I just had to watch you zap yourself a few times 🙂You were holding on to the prongs with the left hand and grabbed the circuit board with the right hand right at the capacitor.
Which was a dangerous thing to do. Capacitors are usually very tame when neither side is connected to earth, but here Clive created a rather unfortunate current path right through his heart even.
One day Clive will open one of these and it will be an non specific bright light like the suitcase in Pulp Fiction.
That finger test is always so exciting!
I wonder if this was originally an ioniser design, and they just swapped the ioniser module with the yellow cap? That would make more sense
There is an ioniser that uses the same case and similar circuitry, but a low voltage DC ioniser module.
Anything that sounds too good to be true usually us, that wonderful old saying. Good video, Big Clive 👍
You got me with the thumbnail! Big Bong Electronic Factory indeed. 🤣
Every time you say, “Let’s open it up.” I imagine you reaching for a very big hammer. 😂
I would think the triac switch is simply for those who plug it into a power meter, so pressing the switch does show a change in the displayed power factor on the meter.
They really tricked you into a false sense of security with that triac preventing you from getting the zing of the plug pins!
I think the unpopulated parts are for the economy model. Add parts on those locations and delete everything else for the "capacitor is always on" version.
"Let's not touch that again." as he touches it, lmao. It happens to us all at some point. Thats why we can all laugh about it. Thanks for the video Clive
Latest electrical safety test, get a RUclips host to put his finger across it.
Although the internal 'fleshy discharge' was more entertaining, essence of electroboom
In vocational training our teacher told us about the inductive load they used in the company he worked at. industrial consumers had/have to pay for the real and imaginary power used. so they shifted the phase whenever they were welding to improve the factor and save money.
Factories often had switched capacitor banks for that reason.
"The old power correction scam is not enough", screamed the President, "we need more!". So the marketing team scurried into their shared office and devised the "2 pack" scheme.
I have a bench power supply with a similar big fat juicy cap across the mains. I used to get a wallop off it every time I touched the pins.
Did they say 10,000 watts? That's about 50A at 200V.
My friend and I once built a 10A power supply which had a 30A bridge rectifier in it.
Unfortunately we neglected to mount the rectifier on a heat sink, so we started to smell the smell of baking components.
I decided to feel everything to see what was getting warm.
When I touched the rectifier, it was burning hot. Youch!!!
And I still have the International Rectifier logo branded onto my finger tip 20 years later. (A very good lesson never forgotten :-)
And that was only about 15 watts or so.
Ohh.. Those naughty Chinese marketeers and their 10,000 watts :-)
Amazing how much effort has gone into designing and manufacturing a product that does nothing!
Wow this one isn't the king's version, it's the version for Gods.
Sorry Clive, I thoroughly enjoyed a positive “finger test” … I owe you a pint for that one!
This was a very charged topic that Clive covered today.
This gizmo, putting the live into Clive. 😵
Alternative title: Clive makes a shocking discovery.
wow.. that was still a rather spicy spark even after it got you.
You know that a fake product has to be good when the English on the package is "mostly" readable.
I'm absolutely loving the thumbnail Easter eggs 😂
Well, I see the logic of using that board. Quite well...
a) power saving plug
b) switchable ionizer
c) UV-light ( well ,you know because)
d) night light
You can sell the case for all of these and only need to change a couple of components.
for b): no big capacitor but simply put the ionizer-block in place of that
C) / d) : uv-LIGHT or nightlight: simply put the resistors and LED into place
All can be switched off or on with the LED-indicators, board and fits inside this casing
Since the reason for c) is now over, just make power savers out of them or nightlights and you can sell all of your stock.
Every household should have one of these, why are the government buying these up and giving them to households in Britain to save them money on there bills, as energy saving seems the main topic at the moment, i am surprised no one has come up with a gadget you clamp to your gas main that reduces the flow and save on your gas bills…. I’m sure sellers making a killing on the rubbish right now!
As always Clive great video thank you it made me chuckle, and that was a healthy “Crack” off of the capacitor 😊
nice placement of the spicey cap put it at the other end away from the input, just to brighten up a techies day.
"Just plain weird, But fun." The BEST kind of fun!
Due to the capacitive dropper, this wastes power instead of saving. Very silly of them to even waste more power switching the triac.
You could use a different color led and add it to the other led display and when the 2 colors combine it could indicate something else so in that way it could be made to make it compatible with the front display
_"...it's just plain weird... but fun!"_
And those are two of our favourite things! ;-]
Damn, I corrected a typo and lost the Heart... lol
Have two.
The other led and resistor might have been for testing purposes, to know when it's working and to try and use a lower power component?
I found this paper on ieee
Power factor improvement by pulse width modulated switched single capacitor
Reactive power is recognized as an essential factor in the design and good operation of power system. Real and reactive power on a transmission line in an integrated network is governed by the line impedance, voltage magnitudes, the angle of differences at the line ends, and the role the line plays in maintaining network stability under dynamic contingencies. Reactive power compensation or control is essential part in a power system to minimize power transmission loss, to maximize power transmission capability, and to maintain the system voltage within desired level. In this paper a new method is proposed which improves the power factor automatically of varying lagging loads to unity, using one single large shunt capacitor instead of using a bank of switching capacitors. Basically, this control scheme is a static power factor correction method by continuous voltage or current control of a capacitor. In this work the voltage across the capacitor is being changed by a bi-directional switch to control the magnitude of compensating capacitor current and thereby attaining unity power factor. This system incorporates high-speed insulated gate bipolar transistor switching technology. The gate signal of the switching devices is generated by using a compact and commercially available IC chip SG1524B. The scheme is simple in this sense that it uses only one static bi-directional switch controlled by an electronic control circuit that uses only analog ICs and some discrete digital components.
Those bastard zaps keeps a person alive. We'd all die if it wasn't for static electricity zaps, some are lucky to endure man-made zaps.
I hate power saver scam products. But I’m actually happy to see that they actually made it somewhat “smart”
It’s a much better attempt than those capacitors straight across the mains with an LED to trick you that it’s actually doing something. Maybe they’ve been watching your channel Clive lol
A scam is a scam, even if it does have a few blinking lights to manipulate you into thinking it isn't a scam
The good old Zap-O-Matic 2000. For the wee bit of extra-excitement.😂
I was just thinking, one of these days that finger test is going to bite you on the ass 😂🙈
Remember the bug that was placed in the United States Embassy, that was not found for (if I remember correctly) decades?
I believe that most of these devices are just putting on a show, but this one for example. What if they are feeding back into the electric system in the structure, until it comes to something that could transmit back to somewhere. What it would be transmitting, or where it could be transmitting from. I don’t know.
Is there any fields that are emitting from it, and what the fields might be affecting. I don’t know. What if they are transmitting a frequency of what, and somehow it is repelling insects, or what if they are drawing insects to them (not the heat, but the energy field that they are producing).
I am not saying mind control, but if this was placed near enough to where someone was sleeping (naps included), would the lower state of their body be affected somehow? If only to prevent deeper sleep from being rustled up barely. Or if there was a feedback into the electrical system (even if it was so many meters, and didn’t make it back to the breaker), and affected other devices on the circuit, or the whole system.
This idea is from, high end audio systems. Because they have power conditioners, and the should have their own circuit ran, along with other things designed into the power supply, to prevent noise from polluting the sound produced.
Yea, I believe that as hifi systems are built, that cables and that noise coming from other devices on the circuit, and from the power grid, will affect the performance of the speakers. But that’s not until someone has been building it to make one absolutely amazing resolution hifi system. That is when it could be heard. This thing would cause havoc on a setup like that.
Was that a little spicy? ⚡⚡ Im surprised that there is so much inside this thing. most are just as cheap as can be.
You forgot the 2x👍👍
@@stepheneyles2198 Indeed, my mind must be going ☺ 🤣😂
These people are so good at repurposing old parts. Not just useless scammy items but everyday objects as well.
I have an old Supertron SM1421 MDA monitor from 1989 and another Taiwanese company used the exact same bezel and crammed a mono VGA circuit in it. It's a tight fit but it works, they must've cut lot of the costs that way.
Competition between these Chinotaiwanese businesses must be huge.
Reminds me of the Red Dwarf crew going up to RED ALERT - it does mean changing the bulb....
Perhaps the PCB positions for the components that are not fitted are used in an alternative cost-cutting version that has no micro or option for switching the capacitor in/out.
Who else rewinded to just to see Big Clive get Zapped again 😂. Just a small sadistic streak.
Lots of people apparently.
I have one of these. I didn't know you are supposed to have two. I guess I will have to get another . I might just buy two new ones, the same.
What a complicated circuit for something that literally does nothing, (except a lot of useless things, and lighting up LEDs) except give Clive a shock, and therefore give all of us a giggle!
"Big Dong" just cracks me up every time
I struggle to believe that people fall for this kind of scam
I have worked all my life as an industrial electrician and I am very familiar with the workings of power factor correction capacitors in factory substations.
Of course they are a big benefit to a factory that has hundreds .. possibly thousands of electric motors pulling the power factor down.
Nearly everywhere that I have worked there has been in the on site substations power factor correction capacitors
But at home?
How much inductive load will you find in a domestic environment?
Maybe the hoover, hair drier, lawn mower?
A small capacitor in one of these devices will probably, because of it's current consumption, cost more than it can pretend to save