Cheap eBay illuminated panel push button.

Another of the many cheap industrial components available from China via eBay. These are commonly available because they are so widely used in Chinese factories.
This one is an illuminated panel mounting momentary action push button with separate normally closed and normally open contacts. It is designed to fit through an industry standard 22mm hole.
Although intended for 220V use it will operate at 110V too at slightly reduced intensity.
I didn't spot the 1 Megohm discharge resistor hiding underneath the capacitor to avoid tingles from the lamp contacts when the lamp is de energized.
To adapt the lamp to 12V AC or DC you could replace the capacitor with a wire link. For 24V AC or DC you could replace the capacitor with another 1K resistor.
These cheap clone industrial components are fine for DIY or prototyping, but in an actual factory environment It's probably better to go for recognised brands for liability and reliability reasons.
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.co...
This also keeps the channel independent of KZbin's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.

[@davidgalbraith1840]

BigClive, supporting Right To Repair from across the pond!

[@asbestosfibers1325]

Right to repair is government overreach. Let me engineer it the way I want to. The market will sort itself out. If they don't like it, they won't buy it.

[@xRepoUKx]

What a load of rubbish, nothing to do with overreach at all.

[@asbestosfibers1325]

@@xRepoUKx how is the goverent telling you how you HAVE to engineer your products not an overreach?

[@asbestosfibers1325]

@@f123raptor and sometimes the reason a company has chosen not to support a product anymore is much deeper than you think. Ask NASA for some 4004 it's and see what you get

[@asbestosfibers1325]

@@f123raptor Okay. I didn't find what you presumed...

[@dri50]

Thumbs up for the Granny story, Bless Her heart!

[@England91]

She'll fit right in my family, we are a bunch of mad folks

[@herpnderpn2484]

Nice name drop.

[@TheChipmunk2008]

To be fair, she'd probably have liked it more if she could hear the words. I mean this not ironically.... Old people were young people not very long ago :)

[@herpnderpn2484]

@@TheChipmunk2008 My grandmother used to smoke weed back in the day. I still think she would blush at a minimum at the thought of a dominatrix and bondage.

[@lostjohnny9000]

Aww, Clive's Nana pretended she couldn't hear the song to save him from embarrassment. If it were my mum she would have been singing it all the way home on the bus.

[@RodBeauvex]

My thought as well.

[@gregorythomas333]

My mom would as well :)

[@710thcenturydigitalboy4]

story checks out, source my grandma's stripper name would have been "chesty larue" so she claims.

[@GiddeonFox]

"Ok, if you don't want me to repair my QuickTest myself, send me an entire new replacement unit."

[@misterhat5823]

Wait and see... Bad customer service like that is just begging for some outfit in mainland China to make a clone of it. Either the key or whole unit.

[@John_Ridley]

If they won't replace a part, clearly someone should post replacement parts to thingiverse. Might as well post all the bits just in case...

[@dg2908]

@@misterhat5823 CPC did have a clone, seems to have been discontinued within a year however www.easyflip.co.uk/CPC_Catalogue/?page=861

[@BigClive]

I specifically never mentioned the clone. I prefer to support that last few remaining British products.

[@TheChipmunk2008]

@@BigClive Clive, do you remember the older version, with the metal clips and no Neon...? I have two, one of them branded RS ! I recall one fitted to a clare safety tester at work in the late 80s (before such things were called 'pat testers' by people unversed in elimination of redundancy).

[@arcadia1701e]

Black leather gators & pifco vibrators, Gigantic beds with unbreakable springs, these are a few of my favourite things ! lol!

[@Bodragon]

Your hearing is perfect and your memory is good.

[@Landrew0]

He remembered the words exactly.

[@BrokenSet]

I actually think these industrial components teardowns are the most interesting. I demand more.

[@masonp1314]

The two best are industrial, and deathdatptors

[@HighestRank]

The Steampunk

[@HighestRank]

The Steampunk

[@patsullivan9399]

@Ungregistered User The reviews and tear-downs of bad design stuff are the most interesting.

[@SigEpBlue]

"Only technical people are going to use the Cliff QuickTest." Well, not anymore, if that's how they're going to treat their customers.

[@HyperVectra]

​Big Wang Bai - professional Switch supplier in China is an oxymoron. Peddle your cheap wares somewhere else.

[@looksirdroids9134]

@@HyperVectra Big Wang Bai is from American Dad.

[@TPWSProductions]

These are the chinese copy of E.A.O's 704 series switches, that the british railway network use for most of their train cab controls. if you were interested :)

[@digitalsparky]

I really dislike when companies don't support their own hardware or customers... if it's a fault with the product, support the darn product; if the customer broke something, provide the ability to purchase a solution at reasonable prices. It's not rocket science. Don't do an Apple... A life long happy customer is worth so much more than the 30 seconds it takes you to respond to a simple request.

[@rompdude]

I really hate it when companies buy cheap alternatives as they dont want to spend the money on the expensive quality items and buy cheaper alternatives, then wonder why they fail or dont last long. then throw their toys out of their pram.

[@Cadwaladr]

@Undefined Lastname I wanted one, but it was too expensive for me, so I made my own out of wood, alligator clips and brass contacts from the inside of a plug socket. Works great and I only spent about $2.

[@QoraxAudio]

"Don't do an Apple." - DigitalSparky, 2019 Well said! 👍

[@tydshiin5783]

"Dominatrix walks in with a whip" caught me off guard lmfao

[@paranoiia8]

#CliffSendThatManAButton! Also about video: it's nice button for small projects, maybe it's not some perfect heavy duty stuff but it's better than some other I saw...

[@ShinyMajor]

@@appleejack Sometimes these small companies don't quite understand how close knit a lot of these communities are. A while back there was some shenanigans going on with a piece of software called Ham Radio Deluxe, and everyone basically dropped it like Linus

[@CrashM85]

@@ShinyMajor nice LTT joke on the end there ;)

[@antimattercarp2720]

@@ShinyMajor "Never have worse customer service than china" is words to live by.

[@phillipsofthedriver]

Next up, pifco vibrator taken to bits. who's bits, I have no idea.

[@gregorythomas333]

Bahahahaha

[@csmatthew]

'if you get a spudger, and you spudge, you can ping...' I'll own up to it, I enjoy having your videos on in the background as a sort of audio podcast.

[@jeffreyhebert5604]

It's funny Mr Clive you actually remember the lyrics to that song.. LoL

[@Milamberinx]

I guess he went back a couple of times without his Gran :-)

[@hughaskew6550]

It looks like there is a smaller discharge resistor under the capacitor....

[@BigClive]

There was. 1 megohm.

[@RODALCO2007]

Great autopsy, this modulair principle has been around for decades. I have Siemens push button switches from the 1970's with exactly the same set up N.O. / lamp / N.C. can be modified to whatever combo you want.

[@PaulTurner_Haizo]

I also saw a 1 MegaOhm bleed resistor across the capacitor.

[@BigClive]

You guys can see so much more than I can in HD. It is indeed 1M.

[@markferrick10]

If someone with a Quicktests want to send me a scaled photo of the button, along with dimensions, I would be happy to model up a new button and put on thingiverse.

[@odin-eliottodinson7330]

Nice vid. But I'm positive I did see a quarterWatt discharge resistor tucked under the capasitor....

[@slaughterround643]

You're right, check the description.

[@saeedoc]

true.

[@pshq]

That's true. I saw it as well, it's there.

[@odin-eliottodinson7330]

@@slaughterround643 My bad. Didn't read the description...

[@AttilaAsztalos]

Quite undresstanda... uhhh, sorry I mean understandable - not even those who *do* expect the Spanish Inquisition ever read KZbin descriptions...

[@12Deathcon]

Jaycar stopped doing the resistance wheels last year. Drove us absolutely mad as we would sell a fair few a month to trade and home gamers alike. Useful if you want to a test and experiment circuits.

[@romwil]

Imagine the surge right now- I didn’t know it existed and would now be looking. With a bunch of other viewers I’m sure.

[@mikedavis1127]

Grans can be the best thing to put a smile on your face sometimes. It reminds me of when I had just gotten my license to drive, or perhaps just a learners permit, was taking mine out to dinner with mom, granny was in the back seat and I had a new Metallica tape in (mid 90s), and mom tells me I should put on different music orturn it down right as grandma leans up and says, "this sure is pretty song can you turn it up just a little bit I don't want to have to adjust my hearing aid"

[@richardluna652]

Thank you for posting. Was trying to figure out how to remove the switch. Your video was spot on. Always fixing Chinese parts.

[@davidmyford8258]

It's a semi-clone of the EAO series 04: the panel mounting method is different, but the contact block is virtually identical.

[@rhythmstic]

Found one of these on my new Chinese lawnmower. A low branch smashed it so I had to find a new key lock assembly to fit it which I got from another unit like the one you are analysing. My switch had 2 green plungers whereas yours has one red & one green. Works fine now.

[@stefantrethan]

These look identical to some EAO (swiss made) pushbuttons I've had for decades. The front end is a little different (there are many variants), but the contact section looks like an exact copy. I used a couple for the doorbell and light switch at the garden gate, the waterproof version, and they have never given me any trouble in the weather.

[@tracyguilbeau]

13:17 Wonderful hilarious personal story in the middle of a technical review... one of the many reasons I'm thankful you're on KZbin.

[@xKatjaxPurrsx]

I love the cheap "LAY" components from China. I'm building a robot fighting arena for my students and all the traps are controlled with LAY37 buttons :)

[@ADR69]

More granny stories plz Also, tear downs are cool too

[@rebsdioramas]

You can still get that resistor substitution wheel from Jaycar here in Aus for $15.30. Can also get a resistor substitution box from Amazon for $22 ;).

[@jonathong.4203]

I work at a Jaycar store and unfortunately they've been discontinued for some time with no apparent replacements

[@rebsdioramas]

​@@jonathong.4203 Well that's annoying, it was showing in stock last time I checked that was a while ago though. You can still get the boxes off Amazon, not as compact as the wheel but oh well. Wonder if it'd be possible to design and 3D print something like the wheel...

[@jonathong.4203]

@@rebsdioramas Yeah it really sucks, We've had a fair few people after them, being standard values I imagine it's just them all soldered in a ring, with a track around the outside to pick which one, similar to a multimeter.

[@jonathong.4203]

@Evan Cottle Altronics also has quite a good range of components and tools, probably more than Jaycar I'd say, shame they don't have as many stores

[@nicolamarini]

One upon a time , me and my grandad , were on trouble with a button... and an old lady helped us with a piece. One grandson of that lady was there. Probably in the early '80. I think he may be you .

[@kthwkr]

What a nice switch for one of a kind applications. I could realize a 6PDT with no problem.

[@Berkeloid0]

I bought some of these after watching the video, and I noticed that the type shown (with one normally open contact and one normally closed) don't actually switch at the same instant (you can hear this at 6:57 when only one of the contacts actuates). However after testing with a few switches, it always seems to be the NC contact that breaks first, and the NO contact is made second, with the reverse happening when the switch is released. So the switches are always break-before-make, and you'll never get a situation where both the NO and NC contacts are both closed at the same time (but you can get a situation where they are both open at the same time). Good design!

[@PaftDunk]

Instantly had Jane Morgan tune in my head when you starting singing that hilarious story!

[@uwezimmermann5427]

the antiparallel mounting of the LEDs makes the circuit simpler because it prevents the non-lit reverse biased LED from being damaged when it otherwise would need to block a major part of the grids peak ac voltage.

[@djlapio93litlebro]

From this channel, I learned that simple doesn't mean that it's shit.

[@jamesdriscoll9405]

I've used a similar switch, in 22mm and 30mm, for projects building test fixtures in a software test lab. The sw engineers and the safety set loved them, and they come from automation direct for under 20 usd. Easy to rig the switching behavior you need, and never had reliability issues. Not very compact, but they fit to NEMA enclosures like a charm.

[@sincerelyyours7538]

Good to know. You managed to find one with a built-in LED. About 10 years ago I was looking for a similar switch for my woodshop that would turn on a 120 volt circuit with one set of contacts and a 240 volt circuit from a step-up transformer with the other, and both would go off when the button was pushed. I also wanted a red LED to come on when the switch was live but none of the Chinese switches at that time came with one. Combining two switches into one to get the two NO contacts was the easy part. The LED took some more thought, but I fixed it by burying an old 5V cellphone charger inside the switch box and using it to power the LED along with a 100 ohm resistor to limit the current. A bit of overkill, perhaps, but I saved the time and cost of having to build a resistive/capacitive circuit just to power one little old LED on the full 120 volts.

[@andrewyoung0000]

Thanks for this teardown. I have been looking at these on Aliexpress for $2.50 AU with 24 volt LED. I was a bit apprehensive before seeing your teardown. I did note though that on the site there was a very disjointed confused statement that implied that the chrome finish on the escutcheon may deteriorate quickly in a harsh environment. Chromed plastic always shits itself.

[@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse]

Hmm that song fits in quite well with a big knob demonstration :D

[@evilutionltd]

A switch that I can put a logo on. Exactly what I've been looking for for a long time. They do 12v ones as well so I will finally have the custom switch I desire.

[@dwoodman26]

I bought a couple of these for a rocket launch box, thinking they were the width of a finger. Obviously turns out they're f'ing massive! I wish these Chinese sellers would include dimensions more often. Cool design though, I'm sure I'll come up with some use for them!

[@The4Crawler]

I still use my EU wire color Quick Test in the US. Simple matter to put a patch of black on the live clamp and a patch of white on the neutral clamp. Advantage is it works with both wire color schemes, since you may have the blue/brown colors or the black/white colors on a particular device.

[@scottmarshall6766]

I kept seeing a discharge/shunt resistor directly under the capacitor. Maybe it's just the camera angle? Years ago I owned and ran an Industrial controls business. We made a lot of cheap pump panels where the customer desire was cheap and reliable, we used "Baco" which was one of the 1st Chinese operators imported into the US. I had one customer for whom I made several hundred Reverse Osmosis / Mixed bed recirculation/repressurization panels, and they loved the Baco, The price difference was substantial, Telemecanique or Allen-Bradley would charge about $35 for a typical illuminated pushbutton assembly and the Baco was about $7. The cheaper operators worked great for this application as the panels were rarely switched, they "set em and forgot em", which was the point. Fuji was another one we used for a while, and despite the name, I believe it was also Chinese. This was back in the late 90's or thereabouts.

[@DubiousEngineering]

Massive thumbs up from me!! ... how can the wonderful big Clive make push buttons so exciting?!? ... with lights and a mains quick test!

[@Kloper2007]

I used to work in a company that had almost only Chinese industrial machines. And those from the factory, come with switches exactly like this one. I can report that during long term use they tend to break. Usually it's that plastic ring that holds it tight to the panel. Also quite often the contacts get lose or something, and they start fail registering a clicks. And that chrome painted ring gets unevenly white because ink is scrubbed away by constant clicks. And yea.. Since they get smashing "clicks" quite a lot, they get broken more fast that more expensive replacements that we used.

[@zh84]

In re antiparallel LEDs: I worked out in my childhood that this is how the signals for the Lego 12V railway worked. The green LED conducted one way and the red LED the other, and the switch for the signal produced a positive voltage or negative voltage depending on which key was pressed. Another switch connected alongside cut or maintained the power to the track. It worked very well, but if you connected up the signal the wrong way round it displayed Green for Stop and Red for Go.

[@K-o-R]

That modular design is very cool.

[@jrmcferren]

I didn’t know they made inverse parallel LEDs anymore. I have some telecom equipment that uses inverse parallel LEDs for dial lighting the Dial model uses 1 with a light pipe, not sure how many the Touch Tone (push button) models use. These were used in AT&T’s Trimline telephone until they outsourced production overseas.

[@assassinlexx1993]

You quickly change button and put one in with " self- destruct" Management loves this😉🤦

[@spokehedz]

Honestly makes me want to consider switching out all of the wall plates in my house with these buttons. They look so satisfying to click. And in a home environment, they won't get beat to shit either...

[@Conservator.]

I once went to movie with my parents. My farther had invested in a company that had almost gone belly up but somehow ended coproducing that movie which apparently had become quite a success. So there I was, mom to the right, dad to the left. The film was When Harry met Sally.…

[@charmio]

I've bought the same switch before and had it fail after 6 months of very light use (maybe used twice after installation and testing). The failure mode was a high resistance across the contacts (over 10k). The switch was only used to drive logic circuitry. Pressing it multiple times to swipe the contacts to clean them had no effect. I'd stick away from them for professional use.

[@smjones4238]

Last Telemecanik (sp) I put in had a twist lock on the button casing. Was a 24vdc red led ind. with 1NO + 1 NC momentary about $70US (2015) 7/8" hole mtg. Would prevent the back unit from coming loose when the 200LB gorilla beats on the button. ToughAss button / switches! Great Video as usual... Michael in Colorado

[@wotid]

I've had to deal with switches like this many times in a professional environment with imported machines from numerous customers. The most common fault I've come across is the spring contact breaking in half. Always replaced with Schneider gear (no affiliation) , besides being modular, it is reliable. I was once and S&S user, but personally prefer the Schneider stuff.

[@BoB4jjjjs]

I like the copied switch but I like the story as well, she heard every word, just didn't want to admit it. lol

[@rickyhoward5880]

Hey Clive, Im here again with another product suggestion that is riiight up your alley. The Hydra Light

[@BigClive]

It's yet another of the units with dry cells that are presented as if the water provides the power, when in reality it just acts as the electrolyte and the battery plates degrade as normal.

[@rickyhoward5880]

@@BigClive What I am curious about though is that the video I watched (they do videos on "as seen on tv" gadgets testing their claims) they say the cell can be reused multiple times. It would be interesting to test exactly how much power over time one of these "cells" outputs as it degrades (that channel noticed rust appearing on the connection between the cell/torch after just 1 cycle) In comparison to say a non rechargable set of batteries of equivalent voltage?

[@mavos1211]

I love how you still remember the words to that song Clive! And kudos for the word “Suzzies” I haven’t heard that word in ages!😂

[@BigClive]

It was a "memorable" show. We didn't actually realise what it was going to be.

[@mavos1211]

bigclivedotcom honestly I laughed to hard listing to that, your nan bless her must have thought “what the hell have they taken me to!” 😂

[@DoctorX17]

I’m gonna get these so I can look super professional with my goofing around

[@jdgower1]

I do a lot of work on industrial and commercial production machinery and that particular configuration looks familiar but I'll have to check my Box Of Replaced Parts to put a name on it, but it's not your typical Telemechanique 22mm configuration that I run across in my travels. With that said, most industrial and heavy commercial machinery uses either 22mm or 30 mm metal body switches. You have a plastic body switch which would be used more on lighter duty stuff like lab or office equipment - maybe even prototype industrial stuff, but it would never meet the NEMA ratings for dirtier environments like the metal body ones do.

[@eustahijebrzic1627]

Now that button with a clear diffuser and rgb light would be interesting for diy.

[@roliasder]

I have used several of these swtches on the control panel for a milling machine, thought that they were brilliant and very adaptable. As for the Quicktest, I have something called a safeblock made by Rendar Instruments, must be getting on for fifty years old, somewhat battered and held together with araldite now.

[@I967]

We used to make this style of switch in Czechoslovakia, it was called the T6 system: www.mylms.cz/stare-rele-spinaci-jednotky-t6/ I thought about getting the Cliff Quick Test - it is a clever device - but it is ridiculously expensive for what it is (at least here in Czech Republic). I hope that they have sent the replacement part to that gentleman you mentioned at the beginning of the video.

[@BigClive]

The issue was resolved.

[@twocvbloke]

So long as it's not made out of explodium, it'd do nicely for DIY projects... :D

[@kimvibk9242]

No, it is Chinesium.

[@Mr.EricMBlack]

Best new toy of 2019 Electric Legos for adults!!!

[@tuxrandom]

The German electronics retailer Conrad sells these (or very similar ones) under their home brand TRU components. I'm using them for a keyswitch and an emergency stop switch in my electronics lab, I quite like them.

[@denismckenzie1991]

Your Granny sounds like a good time😉

[@EsotericArctos]

Jaycar Australia still have a similar resistor substitution box available. If you can find a Tandy store in Australia, they do still sell them also, but there are very few left here.

[@jeremytravis360]

Good one Clive. It looks like it is good quality. RS Components used to sell these sorts of switches. I don't know if they still do. I'm not in the trade anymore so I have not looked for one. As you say the most common sort of breakage was almost always caused by people banging the switches to hard. I often used the stacking, rotary switches when I needed a custom made switch.

[@kenfoland]

Due to seeing their products in use by BigClive, I have bought a Cliff QuickTest. And, it is now an indispensable tool that is always on my repair bench. Also, I have ordered the Unior Stripping Pliers we frequently see him use, from UniorUSA. I have been waiting five months for them to come from Europe (Slovenia). But, they continue to reassure me that I will receive them.

[@BigClive]

Five months is a bit extreme. Make sure you pester them about that. I use the quicktest regularly.

[@Saavik256]

Unior are a bit derpy with their delivery dates. I live *in* Slovenia and I have been waiting for some tools for weeks.

[@kenfoland]

@@BigClive Don't worry, I contact them at about three week intervals. The problem lies in the fact that UniorUSA primarily deals in bicycle repair tools. However, during my initial inquiry the rep insisted that he could get them for me. I just had to be willing to wait a bit, which I agreed to. Luckily, I have other, albeit inferior stripping tools.

[@kenfoland]

@@Saavik256 Unior tells me that they had a major order for a couple hundred repair benches, and the tools to outfit them. In that case, I can understand that my order for one tool carries no weight! Besides, patience is said to be a virtue!

[@kenfoland]

@@BigClive I received the Unior Stripping Pliers today. The rep for UniorUSA, Chris Kreidl, is a great guy to deal with. On two separate occasions, he offered to send to me, free of charge, his very own personal pair of stripping pliers, which I was not willing to accept. Karma, you know. So, I waited patiently. But, I did inquire frequently on the status of my order. When he received the tool ordered for me, he again offered to send it me free of charge. I also turned down this offer. Instead, I agreed to pay for the tool, and he shipped it to me for free. So, even though it took quite a while to get them, I am very happy with my purchase and the level of service I received. Never once did he ignore my frequent inquiry correspondences. And, he always had a good attitude and concern for the customers plight. That is the kind of company I look to do business with.

[@erictaylor5462]

5:50 I saw a guy once use a fork lift to mush one of those buttons. I'm not sure if he was trying to push it with the fork lift. After all he wasn't working on the machine at the time (he was driving a fork lift) and he was quite drunk at the time. It really did a number on the control panel. Broke a lot more than just the switch. He was fired, of course, then he got a DUI on his way home. I don't feel that bad for him though. He was an asshole.

[@jamesdenney9653]

I suppose then if one is using the "drunk forklift actuation method", it doesn't really matter if it's Name-Brand or Chinesium-Knockoff, does it?

[@colorblind1983]

I love your videos and the way you explain things.

[@SueBobChicVid]

Nice video. I like it better when you do comparisons with similar legitimate products.

[@michaelwebber4033]

Clive we opened some circuit breakers, out of interest as we manufacture switchboards. What we found was Schneider circuit breakers look exactly the same internally as a Chinese brand. So I'm thinking these days most circuit breakers are made in the same factory and just branded differently.

[@BigClive]

I think everyone copies everyone else. But there is a lot of branding going on.

[@richardamullens]

What I'm waiting for is a similar device with a Neopixel in place of a fixed colour LED

[@johngodden5196]

Hello Clive, Most enjoyable Vids on YT. In the video you say that you didn't think the capacitor had a discharge resistor. If you have a look at 8 minutes and 59 seconds you can see what I would estimate as a 1M resistor under the capacitor. Certainly, the first 2 bands are brown black. It can be seen again at 9 minutes 9 seconds. We Australians have a keen eye for detail, got watch out for those Kangaroos!

[@AlexHaans]

I love these switches, bough a bunch on the cheap from china and modified them to light at 5V dc, made some control panels with arduino boards inside them.

[@kbjames100]

They are also used for train control on platforms for Signalling system.

[@robert574]

So the day after I watched this, I received my order of red and green rotary lever switches of this same style as the push buttons (LA38) without the LED. There is an opening inside the levers where the LED post can fit. The separate LED module part was available, but hard to find, (search for "LA38 parts" on aliexpress and scroll down) in 6,12,24,220 and 380V AC DC, blue, green, red, yellow and white for about $1.50 US qty 10. I used the mouse right click and the picture search tool "search goods on aliexpress by this image" to find the rest of the listings (it has an ebay search at the top but no results). I wanted the LED modules to be as universal as possible since the switches are good for all those voltages and chose some of the 12V AC DC, white. All of the buttons are already colored (so white LED) and I figured I can easily modify the circuit (watching the capacitor voltage) to get any operating voltage based on your diagram. I even thought about building a test circuit with trimpots and adjusting it based on current for the max brightness. Then swap those resistance values in the module. I've got both variable AC and DC supplies that are fused or current limited.

[@jrmcferren]

These dual chip inverse parallel LEDs are nothing new. Western Electric used them in their Trimline (but not Princess) telephones starting in the 1970s to replace the incandescent dial lamps. Since they were powered from the telephone line which could be either polarity, they used an inverse parallel LED to provide the illumination. As for the Princess remaining incandescent there were two reasons. One, the Princess would loose the night light feature if it went to a line powered dial lamp. Secondly, unlike the Trimline which required a service call to replace the burned out lamp, the Princess had a user serviceable lamp (one of the few cases in the Bell System where this was allowed).

[@russell6167]

9:34 I don't see any other components... There was another resistor underneath the cap.

[@3dlabs99]

Yeah looks like there is a bleeder resistor there for the cap

[@michalnemecek3575]

My uncle has a box of old switches and buttons and I found something similar in there. It's a twin-button unit with square buttons (the part number on the label is 03-421-011). The lamps inside are 24V lightbulbs (there's 24V engraved on their contacts and there's MAX 60V printed on the unit's label) and the switches are rated for 300VAC.

[@SkuldChan42]

I call mine the Clive Quick Test - I have the US version too, and so far so good :).

[@psirvent8]

You forgot to mention the discharge resistor under the cap

[@BigClive]

I didn't spot it until afterwards.

[@seamonkeys12y]

Yeah Jaycar used to see it. It was removed a year or so ago and we still get distraught customers asking for it

[@tbelding]

I believe it's "A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine" which is two one act plays (basically) usually performed together. The first part is sort of a 30's musical revue, and the second is a Marx Brother's style version of Anton Chekov's _The Bear_.

[@Shit_I_Missed.]

Hey Clive, I had a thought that maybe the reason LEDs tend to be flickery on your channel is because your camera is running at 30 or 60 fps, while mains is running at 50 hz, creating an interference sequence with the light.

[@nickpayne3325]

It looks like the idec design although they use a the screw for the light contacts to attach the stacks

[@NeoMorphUK]

I use these switches in low power DC projects. They are really cheaply made too.

[@flits62]

Its a switch from "EAO" you can google it look at serie 04

[@McTroyd]

Nice Google-fu.

[@DocHuard]

I was planning to order one of the testers, more I'll wait. Thanks!

[@dl200010]

When you were moving the capacitor around I spotted a small resister below it. That is probably the discharge resister.

[@jaakkooksa5374]

3:00 I think if you connect an LED in series with a capacitor that limits the current to a level that is suitable for an LED, you actually have to have two of them in reverse polarity (or one could be replaced with an ordinary diode) because the maximum allowed reverse voltage of an LED is a lot lower than what it would be getting though the capacitor if there was just one LED. Also, if you want any current to flow through the circuit at all, the capacitor needs to be able to be charged both ways, which would not work with a single diode in series with it.

[@256byteram]

A friend bought a cheap modular industrial rotary switch off eBay to try and repair an industrial dish washer. To replace the original switch would have cost in the region of AU$900 from the manufacturer, who's name I forget. They had been making switches since the 1900's, two German names if I remember. Anyway, the Chinese clone he bought measured short across all terminals no matter what position the switch was set to. I dismantled one, springs went everywhere, but for some reason all the terminals had a bus bar running across them to short them out, with no way to remove them without dismantling and destroying the switch. Might someone shed some light on why they would have assembled them this way?

[@mbaker335]

I have sent an email to cliffuk re the black key but we all know how companies work these days. Maybe a 3D printed key could be used as a replacement. Or even a complete 3D printed replacement for the cliff tester. I know it is mains but it should be possible to produce a safe design.

[@alberttyong]

13:06 another one of Clive's life stories. XD Dear god, now I want to watch that show :P

[@jonnyreverb]

Damn you Cliff... SEND THAT KEY!

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Great video Clive

[@alexmarshall4331]

oooooh....more industrial jewellery (tom foolery) love it!!⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐👍❤👜

[@alasdair4161]

Sure beats those horrid PSB5 incandescent bulbs that either failed prematurely or just failed to connect properly.. and they were usually a pain to replace.

[@MrPDawes]

Should be using a X type capacitor if not fuse protected. That cap could cause a fire if the dielectric fails. It also looks like there's another resistor under the cap. which may be a discharge resistor.