LED torch with a DANGEROUS charger

Today let's take a look at a 3-mode "20 000 lm" zoomable LED flashlight that comes with a fake 18650 Li-ion battery and a deadly charger (risk of electric shock and fire). Includes schematic and transformer autopsy.
You can support me on Patreon:
/ diodegonewild

AE - Automatic Explosion

[@romanhanajik3185]

or adaptive, autonomnous,

[@ElectroVilla]

😆

[@adamsucksatyt]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Erebus-PCFX]

AvE - AUTOMATIC (violent) EXPLOSION

[@moeinsp2027]

😁😁

[@stavinaircaeruleum2275]

English misspelling on labels is a clear warning to not use it.

[@0xCAFEF00D]

It amazes me how low effort it is on that front. Regardless of the quality of this flashlight it's functional enough and has interesting features. It's way way more work than translating to English. I'm assuming these people don't actually know English at all but surely they can find someone who knows enough to Google translate the words they're looking for. But maybe Google is confused about Chinese. Maybe the great firewall of China doesn't let them translate.

[@bitelaserkhalif]

Sheef life

[@enzoperruccio]

"So today let's take a look at a fleshlight" OH God please no

[@BalintNandori]

0:15 comes with discharger (this charger) who wants to discharge the battery

[@KoAkhusaNjeX]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@ElMirc]

Well i actualy is, if you connect the charger without mains power, it will slowly discharge the battery with the green led and the voltage divider.

[@piyushnagawat24]

Other than knowledge, the reason to subscribe this channel is your *accent*

[@tiranoid]

and the jokes, ambulance emergency, activated explosion

[@CheapCheerful]

I love it too, but it's impossibly good. Do yo think he's faking it? Nothing is what it seems on the toob!

[@Erebus-PCFX]

_"So today guys, lets look at an interesting _*_fleshlight_*_ ."_ Oh dear... Don't come at me like this.

[@jayc2469]

AE- A&E - Accident & Emergency. I watched this *all* the way through and I was most impressed! I'd love to see an _ideal_ LiPo charging circuit created by you! Worthy of a Sub and thumbs up!

[@atmel9077]

I would guess those -transformers- *coupled inductors* are supposed to be used in non isolated devices such as LED light bulbs, but many of them end up inside death trap chargers.

[@garrygemmell5676]

Wow I thought Big Clive was in depth but this guy takes it to another level - unwinding the transformer - Brilliant! I wish I had a teacher like this when I was at school - quite superb teardowns and explanations. I only came on for a minute and have spent all day on here learning - Its been a good day!

[@Kraaketaer]

You're very lucky to have such an attentive and curious lab assistant

[@jkvdv4447]

my cat is seriously in love with yours! 🐈

[@skyem5250]

But your picture shows you with a dog?

[@jkvdv4447]

@@skyem5250 thats my daughter with her puppy. sadly she was taken from me two years ago

[@rajesworbirsingh331]

I have done same removing unnecessary IC. It"s working well now. Thank you for your video.

[@jkobain]

That «AE» suffix must stand for «Acquisition Extinguisher», I guess.

[@booom2314]

I love your videos 👍. they are quite relaxing 🤤.

[@bitoff9125]

only DGW can make 40-MIN video about flashlight and make it super interesting.

[@bluey_heeler]

I love the amount of warnings in the beginning

[@paimond223]

SHEEF-LIFE gets me every time

[@TheSpotify95]

Sheef life around 10 years, Encironmental friendly. :)

[@noakeswalker]

Great analysis of a poor flashlight and a terrible charger. The old hand drill will last longer than both of them :o)

[@Gersberms]

Thank you, I finally understand how these chargers work and what the opto coupler is for.

[@wychowanek90]

You should try charging with this +/- 0,5 V charger and then send the video of exploding battery to the seller

[@DrHouse-zs9eb]

They wouldn't care probably...

[@Systemrat2008]

Thank you for showing the identity of the LED control chip. I have a number of LED touches and that flash mode drives me nuts I just want it to switch on and off. Seems thats simple with the LED current limited by a resistor rather than the chip.

[@superdau]

I have not watched the video yet but I expect at least a few "that's a bit dodgeeee". [edit] 1 minute in and we are already at "looks quite dodgy" :)

[@dedr4m]

I dislike the "silly mode" epileptic fit in a chip and thus I always bypass that chip... I don't bother increasing the current limit resistance(s), instead, I enjoy the marginally higher light output even if at a slightly reduced lifespan and quite some extra heat. As for the PSU, I kinda like the sheer simplicity of that design, except they could've: Put an adjust pot for max V-out, Added better creepage on the circuit and in the transformer, added a fuse. The circuit design would make a great reference for a DIY low power isolated SMPS.... for battery operated stuff coming from a learning-electronics angle.

[@vincentrobinette1507]

A full wave bridge rectifier, a resistor, and a fuse would make that a pretty decent little power supply. Even the design of the transformer is OK, if they just added another layer of isolation tape between each coil, and left more clearance when routing the wires to the bobbin terminals. I've found this same circuit design in cheap cell phone chargers. Simplicity=reliability!

[@TheSpotify95]

20:25 and the same dodgy charger as mentioned in a review on this channel about a year ago! Output: DC 4.2V +/- 0.5V! Seriously?! So it will charge your Li-Ion battery up to (potentially) 4.7V, and anything above 4.3V will make your Li-Ion battery catch fire or explode. That's nice! 21:12 4.42V oh yes that's fantastic! almost the exact same voltage as the last one (4.45V). That will make your Li-Ion battery blow up.

[@franklydude]

I discovered that my Dremel li-ion powered tool was not working properly. I tried charging the battery (10.8V 3 x 18640 li-ions)... in the dedicated Dremel charger. the charge light went out... The tool still didn't work properly, I opened the battery module up, One cell completely daed with near zero vaults across it. The other two showed 4.56 or so! Neither cell was hot or obviously gassing, but it may be damaged... No BMS module inside the pack, Nothing to stop over charge, nothing to balance the cells! Makes me angry! Rubbish design.. I wrote to Dremel, I wonder if they will get back to me...

[@jkobain]

15:31 - This cat is so persistent! ;D I hope it got some pets it came for.

[@mikeoliver3254]

Loved the very detailed teardown. You have inspired me to modify one of my lights to remove the flashing mode.

[@keithking1985]

It's the most annoying thing about New flashlights. I like this hack.

[@keithking1985]

Mike: have you seen his video on the pirl test and teardown? ? It's one of his best👍 well worth watching.

[@mikeoliver3254]

Oh yeah, I watch all of his videos. I also support him on Patreon, because his videos are always smart and educational.

[@keithking1985]

@@mikeoliver3254 how dose patron work can anyone do it because I would contribute to a few of these guys.. they have changed my life for better I love this stuff.

[@mikeoliver3254]

keith king diodegonewild has a link to his patreon in his show notes on every video. It’s easy to sign up if you click on his link it will step you through how to do it.

[@DryLog420]

Always a good watch! Thanks for posting Diode!

[@BillAnt]

When he said "Flesh Light", I thought we're gonna be watching a whackin' off video for 40 minutes. xD

[@anthonyvolkman2338]

Ha good one!

[@francoisguyot9770]

Thorough analysis and fair evaluation of the circuit designs. Keep the good work! I like it

[@skyem5250]

I love your videos but there is one thing that drives me crazy. I have never seen such a talented and knowledgeable engineer whose soldering was so dreadful. I will donate a good quality soldering equipment and supplies if you promise to learn how to solder properly.

[@Taran72]

Your cat is an essential presence to your videos!!! LOL. It's a beautiful cat. :) I used to have one and would come on my desk every time I was studying and usually throw herself on my books...almost wanting my attention. LOL

[@yoshibros1111]

"What does AE mean? Automatic Explosion?"I almost died of laughinglove this guy

[@dr-gaberibrahim5268]

Excellent video tutorials as always. Great work uploaded. You're one of my favorite KZbinrs. Keep up the good work

[@TheSpotify95]

2:12 "Sheef life around 10 years; Encironmental friendly" Wait... I'm sure this is exactly the same as that other "3000mAh" Castnoo battery in a few videos ago. I expect 500mAh capacity as usually for all fakes :p.

[@bhxlegend]

I watched it full and it was a great experience learning about this circuitry

[@seanman6541]

The best LEDs you can find today have a luminous efficacy of about 200 lm/W. In the best scenario, an LED with a rating of 20000 lm would require 20000 / 200 = 100 Watts of power. It is physically impossible to get that amount of power from an 18650 battery. The 20000 lm rating is bogus.

[@ShimonKupferman]

18:48 === Note: the metallic disk above the LED can make contact with the two leads and short and burst the battery..

[@FlyingShotsman]

There’s a layer of plastic film on the back side of that disc. It’s visible very briefly in the video.

[@ShimonKupferman]

@@FlyingShotsman Thanks for the interesting comment. I didn't see it. Pretty!

[@robertdouville74]

We used to put a piece of tape isolation on end of windings of the primaries on our transformers in the time, early 1980, amazing 40 years ago! Time go fast!

[@billywhizzy]

As crappy the charger of the torch specs of + or - 0.5V are, this probably is ok ONLY if the battery is truly protected.

[@DrkTrx]

Yeah, but somes PCB Protections cutoff the charge at 4.4v :(

[@billywhizzy]

@@DrkTrx Dangerous protection!

[@TheSpotify95]

You're not supposed to rely on the protection of a cell to cut off the charge. The same goes for discharge. Most protections tend to cut off at 4.3V for charging, and 2.4V for discharging. Charging to 4.3V instead of 4.2V will shorten the lifespan of the battery, unless it is a special battery that was designed for 4.3V or 4.35V charging (a couple of Samsungs and LGs are like this). The same goes with discharging; most batteries are fine down to 2.5V - 3.0V, under 2.5V will damage the battery, so relying on the protection at 2.4V is not a good idea. Conclusion - use a reputable charger like a balance charger (skyrc/turnigy etc) or a single/multi cell charger (e.g. nitecore, xtar etc). Don't rely on rubbish like this with crazy tolerances.

[@danielmantione]

I have received AC adapters in this casing with quite some electronics I ordered from AliExpress. The internals were different with every PSU. I believe this is some kind of standard case that small manufacturers can order to build their AC adapter. The quality did range from poor to unacceptable. As people are not willing to pay for AC adapter and they don't have the efficiency of large manufacturers, they cut costs in every corner, which leads to these single transistor designs. Interrestingly, for one of those AliExpress sales, the seller was already warning that the power supply was unsafe :) I have thrown most of them away, but one I judged fixable and fixed it.

[@puckcat22679]

Daniël Mantione oddly enough, I have a charger in that same case as well, which I examined when I went through and weeded out the dodgy chargers. I decided which ones to look at based on certification marks. Being in the US, a CE mark with nothing else is a dead giveaway, because something with a US plug, by definition, cannot comply with EU regulations. Anyhow, that was the case with this charger, so I opened it up. And I was pleasantly surprised! Excellent isolation distance- about 8mm, a real, honest to goodness class Y1 interference suppression cap, a fuse, and reasonably sized input and output smoothing caps. Now, the only noise suppression was that Y1 capacitor, so I'm sure the thing is noisy as heck, but safety wise, it was excellent.

[@danielmantione]

@@puckcat22679 One small remark: Plugs are not standardized in the EU, different countries have different plugs. So the US plug would not fail by definition, but likely fail when tested agains the standards because the US plugs allow you to electrocute yourself when it is partially inserted. Individual countries have national electricity regulations that in many countries enforces the use of a specific plug, but some countries leave it free to the industry which prefers the German Schuko plug.

[@mistersunny3636]

This inside moving lense mechanic was initially implement to design a waterproof and dust proof housing. Here it seems quite useless, though. Thank you for this informative and entertaining video. 👍

[@booom2314]

Maybe the charging power supply is made for Ni-MH. I mean 4.4 volts for three Ni-MH in Series is pretty much normal. Nice video 😊👍

[@keithking1985]

I think you are right it dosent make sense. It must be for something else.

[@atmel9077]

For Ni-MH it would have been okay (many NiMH chargers actually connect a DC supply to the battery with a resistor). But the charger is still not safe because of insufficient transformer isolation.

[@keithking1985]

I actually have one in the shed somewhere for charging an old helicopters batterie pack. I must dig it out and have look at it...

[@GrahamLeggett]

Ebay is full of them - "500mA 3.5mm 4.2V AC DC Charger Power Adapter for 18650 Battery flashlight EU" www.ebay.co.uk/itm/500mA-3-5mm-4-2V-AC-DC-Charger-Power-Adapter-for-18650-Battery-flashlight-EU/272425974732 - Most can't supply the stated current at the stated voltage, which is too high anyway, as in this video! :/

[@GrahamLeggett]

These ones are just as bad! "UK Plug Wall AC Charger 4.2V Out for 18650 Rechargeable Battery Flashlight Torch" www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-Plug-Wall-AC-Charger-4-2V-Out-for-18650-Rechargeable-Battery-Flashlight-Torch/152978207705 - They sent out a 4.5V one! but the Spec was "Output: DC 4.2V±0.5V" anyway!

[@MD4564]

Automatic Explosion + Drawing on your cat = awesome

[@kevinjacob7464]

Pink panther is back lol!

[@MrTauron77]

Annak idején én is vettem egy hasonló lámpát, de szerencsémre az egész szerkezete fémből van, ugyanúgy raktam bele CPU pasztát, az akkumlátorát pedig Sanyo UR18650TH M39A cellákra cseréltem, azóta is remekül működik. A videóid nagyon tetszenek, igazán nagy szakértelemmel készülnek. Sok sikert a továbiakban is.

[@n0madfernan257]

always liked your humor. 'AE = automatic explosion' lols or 'All is dodgeeE'

[@davidsbastelbude3326]

I have a similar -but even more dangerous- type of charger. It is built mostly the same, but it does not have a cable permanently attached to it, but instead has a USB-Socket and comes with a matching cable. So people might get the idea of plugging that cable into their USB-Chargers and totally overcharging their cells to 5V.

[@twocvbloke]

AE is Astonishing Excrement... :P

[@PeterMilanovski]

That charger looks a lot like the one that was provided with the Plantronics Bluetooth earpiece! I got it in the early 2000's, very similar Circuit design, mine has a full bridge rectifier instead of the half wave on yours but apart from that they are almost identical! I always wanted to know how this circuit worked... Thanks 👍

[@williama29]

At 2:22 I see spelling errors on the battery at 10:24 the cat looks happy

[@Rainbow__cookie]

when a flashligth has bigger battery than your phone

[@bashaaksema94]

Does a lithium battery care if the input voltage has a ripple voltage?

[@simontay4851]

As long as the peak is not above 4.2V

[@georgebalanayferrer]

I remember the Eveready battery logo. When I see your cat.

[@jesuslovesyou5819]

I love your videos, I found you after watching big clive and I can't stop watching your videos! You are so smart and funny and I love your voice and the way you pronounce the battery information. All in all, you are about to pop and become HUUUUGE!

[@lakiza55]

Why don't they just give you a tiny adaptor with a TP4056 board inside and a usb cable. It's cheaper and safer. Also, what happens when you connect the charger while using discharged AAAs? Bloody hell!

[@KuntalGhosh]

they could have just added a tp4560 charging module! ... (the one without any output protection or they could have added the whole module with discharge protection into the torch itself!

[@simontay4851]

How? There is not enough spare space inside the torch/flashlight.

[@KuntalGhosh]

@@simontay4851 make round boards.. specal custom board... its just a single 8pin ic and some smd resistors... they have enough space to have 2 boards and have the protection circuit. ...even if they can't fit it they should modify the torche design to fit such features!

[@vicfitti2008]

Brazil is second in the world in number of Internet accesses, however, only 1% knows English. If your videos had English subtitles for the automatic translation of KZbin, their accesses would increase in geometric progression. It is just a suggestion for you to increase the number of subscribers and accesses. Congratulations on the channel.

[@eagol]

I bought 2 similar torch lights over 3 years ago from Taobao and put one in my car for occasional repair use and / or light maintenance under the hood, while the other inside my desk drawer for regular usage. Price is about 4 USD each included battery, charger and a hand string. Both still working fine as of today. The problem is, your country's importers need to pay shipping, import tax and plus making a profit, so they ask the supplier in China for a low price. The supplier in China in fact can provides high , medium and low end products. So they said: Bada, u wan kolidi we gib kolidi, u wan jip jip we gib jip jip. There is lo kolidi n jip jip ( Brother, you want quality we give quality, you want cheap cheap we give cheap cheap, there is no quality and cheap cheap). Hope that explain the situation. p.s. I am still using an induction cooker bought in Haikou in 2003, and a 28L counter top oven bought in Shanghai in 2009. Both are Chinese brands It also depends on your knowledge to choose a good brand.

[@blowingchannel4424]

Seriusly?!?!? Are you kidding me guuuuuuuuyyysssss

[@jagardina]

Very complete evaluation, very informative. But I'm sorry, while I'll continue to watch your videos, I'm taking Bigclive to bed with me. His voice is like magic to put me to sleep. Kidding! Thanks for this informative video. Very well done. Love your close ups, also the cat.

[@anthonyvolkman2338]

Theses flashlights that use an 18650 or the three triple A cell can also be run off a 26650 battery as well! The battery chassis fits the 26650 perfectly.

[@shivambatra6379]

Please do one for HLK-PM01. The datasheet is available on LCSC electronics store website. It's in chinese and can be translated using Google translate.

[@shivambatra6379]

In the datasheet, they also have additional safety components required in application circuit.

[@shivambatra6379]

Product Link: lcsc.com/product-detail/New-Arrivals_HI-LINK-HLK-PM01_C209903.html Datasheet: datasheet.lcsc.com/szlcsc/1906201102_HI-LINK-HLK-PM01_C209903.pdf Google Document Translate Instructions: support.google.com/docs/answer/187189?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

[@kezpenc3004]

i didnt watched it yet but noice well explained video

[@redstoner2006]

i bought the same thing about a year ago, any tips to replace the LED chip?

[@chandraganeshan961]

Diode gone wild, I have gone through your website in English version and it was amazing work... I was able to learn a lot from it. Your videos and website are very helpful in understanding switching power supplies. Can you please tell me where do you get the ferrite cores for the transformers you have used in switched mode power supply circuits in your websites? where can I get it?

[@-yeme-]

arent those resistors waaay over their power rating? they look like 0805s? which are 0.1W or 0.125W I think, two of them left so 0.25W, theyre dropping ~1V and passing 500mA...

[@jkobain]

Why not boiling the transformer in hot water to get rid of glue and salvage the core?

[@alessiobaronello917]

Keep up the good work! I love watching your videos. They are funny and interesting.

[@nomars4827]

AE stands for Accidental Electroshock charger

[@jek__]

15:45 get rid of your cat on your schematic by putting your schematic on your cat lol. Surprisingly I think thats the first time ive ever seen someone draw a circuit diagram on a cat :P

[@lez7875]

Greetings from Brazil to all. Look at the cat `` engineer´´ at the beginning of the video. and later too. very good. Useful information. Congratulations. success.

[@ronalddhs3726]

Another great video... :) I'd attribute the poor transformer construction to ignorance (of the manual labouring guy) rather than laziness; thanks for your amazingly instructional and entertaining content.

[@peterbatka2402]

It should draw more current, because it wants still same power, according to Ohm's law, the smaller voltage, the higher current and same power.

[@bwselectronic]

I think the boss was in the video so much because it wants to see a laser pointer review instead. Lol A drill like that can come in handy when you need to drill something with a very small drill bit. I used one like that to replace seat tags on chair arms in an auditorium at work. It gives you much more control and your less likely to break a small bit than with an electric drill. Give the boss a petting from me.😎👍

[@RS_83]

Thank you, Diode!

[@jaytaffer9641]

Great video! Very informative.

[@Conservator.]

The only thing to make the charger even cheaper would have been to shorten the wire;)

[@dvgog]

Actually i own the same flashlight with same charger but with Uitrafirc battery (a rebrand of dodgy ultrafire cell) and the manufacturer actually made the charging cable much shorter, about 5cm max lenght. Lol

[@romanhanajik3185]

@@dvgog next year without cable, 2021 wothout case.

[@Conservator.]

disconnect.me Haha, and I thought I was joking!

[@1marcelfilms]

You should get a makita knock off tool and inspect the charger on that. They feel so light I dont trust them to charge without me being in the same room.

[@bhavikshah5016]

3:05 AE - Ambulance Emergency.. apart from the obvious great content you are hilarious too..

[@omsingharjit]

3:11 Wonderful explanation 😁😁😂😂🤣🤣

[@ACOnetwork]

Always Exploding charger 🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂

[@FabRecUp]

I'll really appreciate a video about your battery tester because it's really nice, i've already seen it on your website but a video is better to explain things. Keep up !

[@DB-47]

Probably the charger was meant for NiMH battery :D

[@DiodeGoneWild]

The maker of the charger probably hoped that the battery will be protected. And the battery even says protected, but of course, it isn't. Not really. The protection is about as real as the capacity.

[@petertryndoch8857]

An easy way to compare torch brightness: Take a white sheet of paper and put a drop of oil in the middle. Shine one torch from the front of the paper and one from the rear. You can also move one torch closer of further away to get an equal brightness.

[@thewld2]

Been watching your videos and love them. Comment on some of them and shared a couple of them as well. I’m hoping one day you do a mini series of designing a PSU. For example 12V 3A supply. From watching so much of videos and sometime rewatching them, I know the different designs that are incorporated into PSU. But where I suffer from is understanding the designing/building of the transformer and how it is determine based on the IC operating frequency and desired output.

[@Dime_Bar]

Thats just simply crazy.

[@gillenzfluff8380]

The battery must be a recycled 900mah 14500 re rapped to make it 18650 size.

[@TheSpotify95]

These fake batteries are usually not recycled smaller cells. They are just really light cells (usually about half the weight of a good cell!) which are hollow in the inside, so don't have enough material for any decent capacity. They are made for approx. 500mAh of capacity. They are also not protected - unlike what the wrapping says - so if you charge it with one of these 4.42V chargers, the battery will easily catch fire or explode.

[@gillenzfluff8380]

@@TheSpotify95 I've been charging an unprotected sanyo lithium cell with 5.5 volt at 100ma in a solar floodlight designed for 3aa nimh it hasn't caught fire in over a year.

[@omsingharjit]

24:00 plz explain how to reverse engineer pcb to its schematic ??

[@vishftw]

For the first seconds i thought, default DGW Owner wasn't making this video, and the cat started the recording.

[@SoftBreadSoft]

On ebay there are listings with random letters on the end from the Chinese bots. I bought some voltage regulators and the title was "50pcs AMS1117 3.3V 1A SOT-223 Voltage Regulator FREE SHIP ASS." ASS being a coincidence of randomly generated letters, other listings had other random letters. But it's still probably automatic exploding..

[@EzeePosseTV]

I can confirm that those chargers are dangerous. I had one explode in a shower of glowing hot vaporized metal upon first use.

[@xistencestudios8904]

I owned a very similar flash light with the same construction but different design. Luckily I am still alive . It was a nice flashlight for the price

[@douro20]

A lot of old lead-acid battery powered devices use that type of charge indicating circuit.

[@prafulgohil3768]

AE in UK means accident and emergency

[@DiodeGoneWild]

Those things definitely may happen with this flashlight...

[@BW-ut6pp]

30:09 and the zener iiss.... NICE ! :)

[@maofpv9272]

Why the current goes through the feedback coil and not directly back to mains?

[@therealromster]

The problem with the zener diode is voltage drift and less current though a zener diode will change the current/voltage knee point, A zener should have at least 10% current of it's wattage dissipation to be reliable and then there is the temperature vs voltage drift, only 5.1 volt zener diodes are neutral with no positive or negative temperature shift. And 5.1 volt is well to high for a reference voltage. OP is right a 3 pin voltage reference would do better regulation. Cheap wall warts are a death trap I'll never use.

[@richardnanis]

Nice review. I guess the skywolf torch is still the best choice for low money! Its a pitty they never pay attention to good heat sink design. They dont even care with these cheap led torches. One of my led lamps got so hot that the led itself get loose from its solder pad and melted the plastic lens on it!

[@omsingharjit]

Can same schematic be use as 12 v 5 amp smps by replacing transistor and pulse transformer for higer rating ?

[@VtuberRex]

AE= Automatic explosion