Inside a proper (Utility company) LED work light.

[@blackdragonx1186]

I grabbed one those cheapo ones from amazon here in the states and it was the same story. dinky battery and resistor. I dropped an actual 10w led with a simple 1S lipo booster and 4 cells in parallel. It runs at around 6w or so, but will run for almost 5 hours. Good stuff!

[@ΑΡΗΣΚΟΡΝΑΡΑΚΗΣ]

Aaron S the good thing with these things, is that you can make a slipper thing, or salvage the parts.

[@Chuckiele]

Yeah, the case is pretty much the only reason to get those cheapy lights, the rest of them is usually crap.

[@BenjaminEsposti]

Also if you get a proper LED from a good manufacturer, you can get high luminous efficacy ... more brightness for same power consumption! :)

[@jlucasound]

Aaron. Isn't it so satisfying to modify an existing enclosure (Chuckiele) and just gut the thing and build it to where you know it will last. And you can say, "I made that light". Awesome feeling.

[@ErikMinecraft]

I would really like to see a video about how to make/hack the cheapy ones into more proper lights. Like with custom circuitry (or modules from ebay etc.), better led chip and batteries, so overall just using the case and making the rest from scratch. At work we use this style of worklight too, but its from "Haupa". Charges with 12V I think, and it has an USB outlet, 2 brightness settings and a charge indicator.

[@bigclivedotcom]

Easiest hack is a bigger battery pack. I made a video about that.

[@888johnmac]

that is a neat trick, using the IR camera to work out what chip does what.. it's always interesting to see the difference between 'pro' tools & made in china consumer grade tools

[@cmj20002]

I guess I was lucky. I purchased the El Cheapo from Amazon and the only thing that was cheap about it is the crappy rejected 18650's they used for power. Both tested at 1.3 AH so 2.6 total. I replaced them with three Samsung 2.4AH cells giving it just a bit more run time. The charger wasn't very good either, so I devised a better way. I may install a 10 watt LED in it as well. Other than that I can't complain. The cheap one you have, I would start by replacing the cell with three to four better ones, then I would install a 10 watt LED driver and a USB battery charge module. You can buy five of them for about $3 US. I love hacking these lights so much that I get disappointed when they don't need to be improved.

[@Mazaron]

Clive you should definitely have a list of recommended / not recommended products listed somewhere. Would help a lot of people.

[@spikeydapikey1483]

Hell of a difference between the two!! This is the content I love. Cheers.

[@SeanBZA]

Funny thing is that the decent PCB and charge circuit probably added $5 to the cost, and the proper non recycled cells added another $5 to the cost of the unit, but the selling price is likely $100 more because of that. Microcontroller is there to drive the little leds and control the big array, and the low voltage will likely be indicated on the bicolour led, going from green to amber ( both chips either on or flashing at over 100Hz) then red as the battery voltage falls, then the charge management in the battery has the final say on power off. Charge wise same, the micro runs the display and flashes till the battery indicates it no longer is taking current, then only shows green for full charged. Power switch likely is only connected to the micro, no high power through it, and likely it is the generic PIC clone that so many have made in the PRC.

[@bonamin]

Yes, but since there are manufacturers that keep producing crappy devices, it means that there still are people who keep buying cheap crappy staff. When you go buy a floodlight, and you are presented with two options, one that is $50 and one that is $150 and is slightly brighter, as a non-electronics person, you'd be tempted to choose the $50 one ! :) THAT being said, most of the time, in certain devices, the difference in price is tremendous !! I can understand why people buy them, and why manufacturers build them !

[@helistorm98]

Do it! Modify the cheap one to make it better!

[@jamest.5001]

helistorm98 make it make daylight! make it about 200watts. light up everything? with extra batteries.

[@matakaw4287]

These videos are always so illuminating.

[@jlucasound]

I see a Clive Video; I click, I thumbs up, I watch and learn. Sometimes I cringe, sometimes I laugh. Usually, Clive just answers any questions I may have. Sometimes stuff blows up. (Bonus).

[@dropcorr]

I have that exact light. Bought it from an hvac supply house I go to often. Light has worked great for well over a year. I took mine apart also when I first got it to see what 18650s they were using.

[@theR6969]

I guess I am not the only one who uses a tool, puts it down and can't find it two minutes later. 😂

[@stewartcaldwell5299]

While never having left the chair. LOL.

[@Uncle-Duncan-Shack]

Hi Clive, I just opened my R250-00 version which I have two off. It's an in between of those two. The battery is 7.4V 2200mAH. The boost converter steps it up to 9V and it draws 600mA to the leds. For charging it relies on the battery protection built into the battery and uses the same 12V charge wall wart with a led that goes from red to green when the current to the battery stops flowing during charge. There is space for three of those battery packs in mine so one could extend the range up to over 10 hours which is quite luxurious. The pcb is glued down and I have not removed it, but somewhere there must be a charge current regulator lurking in there as well, possibly hidden from sight. Thanks for another great video. kind regards, Duncan South Africa

[@RexDorchester]

Loved it. Been watching this channel for years, watched it in my parents home and that's how I got into tech. Now I live in silicon valley! WOOO!

[@schregen]

Rex D hi rex d! Thank you for your contribution! 😍😍😘😘

[@bigclivedotcom]

I think this channel has helped nudge a few people in the direction of technical careers. Just like the original website used to.

[@crystalsoulslayer]

18:21 God damn, Clive. Your voice just came out of my subwoofer.

[@bigclivedotcom]

Unfortunately Dolby tends to divert my voice to the subwoofer as standard on some systems. Which can be tricky when there's no middle or bass speaker.

[@crystalsoulslayer]

Make no mistake, it was kinda awesome. I just have a cheapie little 2.5 channel set of Logitech speakers -- two satellites and a tiny little sub. It only uses the usual 3.5mm cable for stereo, so I'm guessing it just diverts the lower-frequency sounds automatically. Somehow. (Traffic lights? I don't know how signals work.) It's never happened with a voice before, though, so it really took me by surprise. Behold the power of Clive! :D

[@dashcamandy2242]

The Logitech speakers probably have a basic hi-pass and low-pass filters to feed the bass frequencies to the subwoofer and the higher frequencies to the two main speakers. I think the pitch of his voice dropping made the audio be heard mainly through the subwoofer. It's not necessarily a Dolby Surround thing (although it could be), more like deep manly voice. I listen through my stereo in 2-channel mode and that moment in time really boomed. LOL

[@robfenwitch7403]

It's probably warmer in there than it is on the Isle of Man...

[@stewartcaldwell5299]

@@crystalsoulslayer Just capacitors and little coils separating the frequencies, but some overlap on the drivers, and some subs can vibrate surprisingly high.

[@jlucasound]

It may look similar on the outside, but it is way different on the inside. Quality Original vs. Cheap Knockoff. Thank You Clive for educating the masses about the difference.

[@cheater00]

Hey Clive i have the same Rolson screwdriver set, it saved my life recently after like 4 other safeties failed. I should post the story on a blog sometime.

[@amojak]

i have a few of the yellow chinese type ones but these are now a few years old and they have the lack of charge controller like your cheapy Clive but do have 6! cells in them and run a few hours at a constant brightness. they charge at 12.8V via an adaptor like the cheapy one has. so they are sort of a mix of the two you have there.

[@PeterBaker2004]

Good vid as always matey. Just to let you know the scrubbed microcontroller will be for the 3 colour LED on the side. It's there to provide indication the charge is running low. I have a worklamp similar to the industrial one that I got from Lidl a while back & like the industrial version in the vid it features the same 4 cell configuration. Exactly the same ratings, run time etc. Only difference is the circuit design (slightly different but functions the same) & the LED indicator on the side. On mine it lights solid red on charging & swaps to green on full charge. On usage it stays off until the battery level drops, at which point it lights a solid red (around 10% charge left). Then once fully discharged the indicator light flashes red. I'll see if I can do a vid on it for you :)

[@gillenzfluff8380]

Interesting to see the insides!, I got one of these from lidls and it is not too bad it is still working after 3 years!

[@drayce1]

Particularly enjoyed this one Clive. It was like watching myself work, but with my thoughts spoken aloud in a Scottish accent and with more and better gadgets to work with. Overall a very nice effect.... Maybe I'll get some power monitoring devices for Christmas this year...

[@cmj20002]

Please make a video of you hacking the cheap light. I would enjoy that very much. Many improvements can be made to that unit.

[@bigclivedotcom]

I did one where I increased the battery size.

[@mikecowen6507]

bigclivedotcom How about a build where you give it the ALL the tweaks?

[@cmj20002]

I watched it and liked it very much. I may change my light to a COB instead of one with individual LED's. I do like the LED's like the ones you show here. I also want to make sure that I am driving the LED fully. None of this 10 watt LED with 3 watt driver stuff.

[@Patrickgray88]

I've got the same flood it work light. They're £67 and yes they have a good light output. I've been using mine for many years now

[@makomk]

XLSemi are definitely the budget option for switch mode controllers. Wouldn't be surprised if this was a higher-end Chinese design actually; the component selection is about what I'd expect.

[@wayne7939]

Hi Clive Only saw this one today so opened mine from screwfix different again from both yours. Twin 3.7 cell clipped into holder board all plug in on the back of the led panel. Took pics but cant post them on here.

[@neilhuband995]

Great idea using flir for diagnostics.. didn't think of that.. saves fucking around with meter leads on tiny little IC pins. Clever

[@paulstaf]

I like my Ebay cheap Chinese one...I charge the 18650's in a Nitecore charger. :)

[@justDIY]

Clive you're too generous with the eBay scammers. A unit like that I think we'd see advertising 20ah or something equally ridiculous. Various direct from China websites love the fictional 5000mah 18650 unicorn cell.

[@ethanpoole3443]

Gordon McLellan Yes, the classic 5Ah 18650 cell that inevitably produces somewhere in the vicinity of 120-500mAh under modest test load. They are only 5,000mAh when they are sitting loose on your workbench -- they instantly loose 95% of their rated capacity at first power on. Clearly no lies are involved, it is just an "undocumented" characteristic of cheap Chinese lithium cells that affects no other lithium battery manufacturer in the world.

[@jonathanmccomb4187]

It's always nice to have an XL Semi....

[@buchnermarkus]

I have got a proper one as well, and I am now in the process of rebuilding the battery-pack. It's got two 8205A and a 3y60 within the shrink wrap of the pack. I got mine for the bargain price of 20€.

[@scottfirman]

I have some led light strip on my deck,the control box,a small 12vlt power controller that is supposed to work has died in cold temps. I brought it inside and as soon as it warmed up,it went back to working. I need to buy an actual outside light controller as my guess is it is not rated to handle extreme cold. I may send you one for analyzing. I got them cheap on E-Bay. They plug into a 12vt converter wall wart and use a remote to change the light patterns. The green leds stopped working so my guess is something already went out. I put it back outside after it started working. My guess is it will die again later as the temps drop -20 . Yes it is that cold here in Northern Michigan.

[@LtKernelPanic]

That industrial one is damned nice and the cheap one was even crappier than I expected. I bought several of the cheapies off eBay last fall for myself and as a gift for my brother. They at least had 2x18650s in them and all output 8W +/- .2W which for a cheap "10W" work light is more than acceptable in my book. I've been tempted to do a battery mod similar to the one you did on one of mine to have around in case of another power outage like we had last winter.

[@mikelmendioroz8210]

Would love to see a follow-up (even if it's a 30 sec video or text) on that mysterious chip on the high quality one.

[@knalliebar]

Hi Clive, the yellow one is sold in the Netherlands at the Lidl and the Aldi... Tool them appart was surprised to even see circuitry... the Lidl one even had silicon on the components! compared to the other branded ones at the home improvement stores they are super value for money. So your cheapy one is almost as expensive as the Lidl one...

[@ronb4633]

Thanks for the detailed review. I checked out the my flooded dot-com website and they do look impressively made. I was also checking eBay and found one from a u.s. seller for $13 with all the same specs 7.4 volt 4400 mah, 10 watts 3 hour runtime constant current. seems like maybe a knockoff of the flood it. I picked up two since 2nd was 20% off and will see how they perform.

[@Term-0]

The battery outputs about 8 watts, and with 3 batteries, it would be outputting 24 watts. assuming that both the LED and the boost converter have a 90% efficiency, that would be 19.44 watts, from that we can infer that the light is outputting almost exactly 20W of light. The donut inductor, the capacitor next to it, and the diode next to it on the other side of the board form a boost converter, or maybe it is a buck converter and the batteries provide power in series at 24V, that might explain the battery balancing setup. PS: It is refreshing to see an actual properly built circuit, although analog circuits are really cool and easy to visualize, the complex digital circuitry does the job, and it often does it a lot better job than the analog circuits can.

[@sparkyprojects]

That anonymous chip could include a pwm driver, there must be a boost converter to drive the LED

[@ROL3517]

Sparky Projects the xlsemi part is a boost converter

[@amojak]

yep the toroidial choke and diode nearby that gets toasty is a giveaway :)

[@SueBobChicVid]

Great video. This is why I'm here.

[@michaelathens953]

This video just popped up in my recommended, but it reminded me that I have a pile of LiPo cells that I was planning to use to upgrade a pair of work lights a bit like this. They're German made and quite decent quality, but there's just SO MUCH empty space inside I can't NOT put bigger/more batteries in there.

[@rhkips]

The first thing I notice, is that it makes a very different sound as it rolls on your bench!

[@Mixbag]

At B&M you can buy 10w led flood lights for £5! i use one to work on my car and its very good for the price! Clive you should check them out

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Mix Bag Damn! I was there and didn't see them.

[@TechDJ87]

I have this same lamp. Got it in CEF FOR £40. you definitely notice the difference between this and the cheaper shit available. Very bright and lasts.

[@asmolbean9300]

You know you're good when a utility company asks you to try and fix stuff

[@UnrealVideoDuke]

I was hoping that you would do more Christmas themed stuff.

[@bigclivedotcom]

Christmas has crept up on me unexpectedly. I don't even have any lights up.

[@SaberusTerras]

"We'll open this shitty, cheap worklight later." *Clank* I lost it.

[@sootikins]

Does the nice FloodIt's label divulge its country of origin? Can't find any info on their web site - no physical address for the company, much less any indication of where their manufacturing is done. I'd really like to know.....

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Sootikins Almost certainly China.

[@Estabanwatersaz]

Good video Clive! Thank you loads! Merry Holidays.

[@stinkycheese804]

Clive you know better! The Chinese would say they're 5000mAh cells so 4 of them is 35,000mAh, lol.

[@ethanpoole3443]

Stinky Cheese Now let's be honest here. Four 5,000mAh cells is roughly 50,000,000mAh. You just move the decimal place over four digits when adding together four cells -- that's all there is too it. Of course, only about 200mAh of that is usable capacity, the rest is secretly preserved just in case they need that extra power later on to spontaneously combust when commanded to by their secret overlords.

[@chaos.corner]

Battery capacity is geometric, right?

[@ethanpoole3443]

Paradoxical Nightmare You completely missed the inside joke regarding Chinese battery specifications.

[@SueBobChicVid]

Amazon (US) sells a TK10YCW from Food-It (ASIN B015YNL8GC) about $83 U.S.. I see a Walmart listing for the FL10YCW (which is what's on the back of this one) for about $52. Wonder what the difference is. The listed specs look the same. The Walmart one is out of stock (wonder what it sells for when it's in stock?).

[@HuntersMoon78]

Food-It?

[@davidnull5590]

s3.supplyhouse.com/product_files/FLOOD-IT-FL6WWSP-Brochure.pdf There are several models from myfloodit [dot] com

[@SueBobChicVid]

Food-It... I was hungry, alright?

[@craazyy22]

www.myfloodit.com/flood-it-floodlights/ here you got all the variants

[@Thirdbase9]

On Amazon $57+, Home Despot $63, Amazon- Home Despot $68.

[@TheWtfnonamez]

You are more useful than the BBC mate.

[@SLEEPYJK]

I love being able to save some money when I can, but I love having well made and great quality tools/electronics even more. Knowing that something will last a very long time with daily or semi-daily uses, it's really worth spending the extra up front cash.

[@Joelsfilmer]

It really is worth it! I go by the philosophy that the first tool of any type that you buy can be a relatively cheap one but when one breaks or causes problems you replace it with a premium one. So if your first set of chinesium pliers become wobbly or the side cutters get dull you replace them with a Xuron. When a power tool dies you get a blue Bosch, or whatever brand you prefer. This way you only buy what you actually need. Everyone needs good tools but few need a toolbox completely full of Bacho, Knipex, and Makita. Even fewer know what they'll appreciate ahead of time and without experience. Of course this doesn't work for professionals who really depend on all their tools but for amateurs and enthusiasts I think it's a good rule of thumb.

[@lwilton]

So an XLSemi buck converter in the charging circuit so that you can charge that 7.2V battery from anything from about 10V to maybe 48V at probably close to the maximum safe charging rate for the cells. And then an XLSemi boost converter to convert the varying battery voltage to a constant 12V to drive the light at constant intensity. Sounds like a good design. For a few bucks you could get a boost and a buck converter from China to do the same sort of thing to the cheapie light.

[@Lumibear.]

I’m still curious to know if the reflectors in these kinds of lights make a significant difference to the light they put out (considering the led chips seem to be flat to the rear rather than forward like a bulb would be), or are they mainly just a design choice now.

[@chaos.corner]

LEDs are somewhat focussed already but it looks like there's not insignificant light that can be caught and thrown forward (assuming you want to, of course). It might be beneficial if the LED could be moved forward to allow light to be dispersed more widely if needed. www.ledsupply.com/blog/led-optics-explained/

[@Lumibear.]

Chaos Corner - interesting link, thanks, having just skimmed it, it looks like polymer TIR lenses are more the way to go for effective focus, rear reflectors not so much, but then I guess it must do something as if it doesn’t make a significant difference, why keep it, as Chinese makers aren’t known for including superfluous parts. Heat sink?

[@chaos.corner]

Most likely reason is to make it look like the better designed one. Why does the better designed one have it? Perhaps because the bulb ones did. You know the old story about British railroad tracks being the same width as roman wagons?

[@BobMuir100]

Clive, what fun this was!! BigClive at his best! And my jaw dropped to the floor and I swore in exclamation (I did) when you opened the back of the Chinese one and it was f@#*ing empty! Hilarious Thanks Clive (ps: loving your back catalogue and spotting all the different calculators.....)

[@jameshunt2141]

i have the same uni t clamp meter, best meter i have alongside my remote display fluke. im pretty sure i got the idea or model number from you! thanks! if you could aquire one of these durite led worklamps for review id be interested to hear your thoughts. i have one and its really good but only a couple months old. time will tell. durite 0-699-86. its pricey but seems to be well built!

[@samblackburn2216]

Hi Clive, are you interesting in having a look at some failed dishwasher or washing machine PCBs?

[@lambertax]

What to do for the same price ... Buy a super high quality LED lamp that will take care of its batteries for years or choose 5-6 Chinese models that will give me either several light sources or at least 20 hours of lighting and which will warn me of the discharge just by becoming less bright. My choice is quickly made.

[@darylcheshire1618]

I like the way he takes the cheap one out of view and there is a junky crashing sound.

[@axeami1354]

that circuit board reminds the of the ring ones, things are crap. a coworker brought 5 of them and 1 broke within a month so i ended up repairing it , changed the circuit board out for a little boost converter and added a charge protected board to the original batteries, ended up out lasting all four of the others.

[@lumpyfishgravy]

I suspect the larger IC is there to drive the bicolour LED. A cheap micro of some sort working as a status monitor. Sounds like overkill but if that's the spec - how else would you do it?

[@stanburton6224]

Could you not install a joule theif circuit to extend the run time on the Chineseium one?

[@danijel124]

Just a quick question about the uni t clamp meter. If you zero it out and point its clamp to the ground mine starts showing 30mA. when I put it on the bench it displays arround zero... Why is meter orientation messing with my readings or do I have a faulty meter??? Plz help me Clive

[@gordonrichardson2972]

The clamp meter reads magnetic fields, and is sensitive to stray interference in the same way as a compass.

[@casemodder89]

Gordon Richardson perfectly right !

[@danijel124]

Thanks guys ;)

[@28YorkshireRose12]

And to think, when I was barely out nappies (diapers - US), the source of cheap and crappy was Hong Kong, and as a kid growing up in the '60s, there was a definite stigma attached to having toys and gadgets that proclaimed "Made in Hong Kong". Before that, in the 1950s, or so I was told, it was Japan. It might seem odd today, but I remember when people would give a wry laugh and say "Oh, more Jap crap". I guess it's a matter of what comes around, goes around, and as time goes on, these cheap Chinese products will eventually be replaced by better quality, or maybe the scope for that is lost in history. Any, and the thing is, I was considering an LED work light similar to these, from Wilko, but given they look suspiciously identikit, I might look for some other alternative instead.

[@PsiQ]

could that bigger chip + many smd caps + resistors be the balancing circuit for the cells ?

[@johnwhitmore2531]

You measured the current but that reminded me of a question I keep meaning to resolve. The current going into the LED can't equal the current coming out of it, can it? I mean some electrons have to be 'used' generating photons. If that's the case can you get measurements very wrong depending on where you measure the current. Don't think I've ever seen that discussed but occasionally I think about it. Probably just confusing myself.

[@0x8badf00d]

It looks like the PCB can fit four separate DC-DC converters, but only two are fitted. I'd guess it's intended for multiple charging and/or discharging circuits.

[@chrischeltenham]

Big Clives got a Big Cold :( get well soon

[@Elodea]

That particular light retails for around $81.00 USD (February, 2019) online in the United States.

[@bigclivedotcom]

It does seem quite professional. In the industry this came from (power distribution) it's worth paying the extra for known reliability.

[@michaelparker2449]

I've got a cheapy Chinese one but managed to get a good quality one that was all smashed up for free and swapped the circuitry out.

[@justbearwithit1642]

That chip might be a boost/buck converter or voltage meter LM317 kind of device.

[@phils4634]

Clive - got to ask - whose microphone are you using? Sounds a bit like a Samson C01U (popular with many Tubers)! Planning to buy one and user feedback's always useful!

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Phil S Moto G4 internal mic.

[@phils4634]

Thanks for the info. Pretty amazing quality for a "mobile phone" system (better than certain "stand-alone" microphones too! :-) )

[@davidchadwick7559]

What make of variable power supply device are you using when you dial up various voltages?

[@youngengineer6697]

Did you give it back to them after you found out it still works?

[@alexparish6250]

young engineer at 12:35 he said he would ask if they needed it back..

[@BastiElektronik]

Can you please make a video about a rgb led floodlight (wattage is not important) it would be very nice

[@stewartcaldwell5299]

Wouldn't rgb make white ?

[@neilwilliams6484]

If you want a good quality cheap one of these then the powerfix one they sell in lidl's are great for the money

[@andreim841]

For the end gamer what's important is the bang for canukistan pesos. If it chooches and doesn't burn your hacienda it's skookem enough for me.

[@Big_Loo]

Andrei M Wrong channel...but I like your style anyway.

[@Big_Loo]

Andrei M Oh...and I thought Canukistan used Kopeks, not Pesos.

[@Bin216]

Andrei M I think you have watched enough of AvE’s videos...

[@andreim841]

Bryn Jones - you got that right, he only had like 5 videos when I saw him first

[@dashcamandy2242]

This made me laugh, I just realized I've seen enough of AvE, that I automatically translated in my head without even thinking aboot it.

[@maicod]

I see you're back on the IOM

[@NickNorton]

The Chinese just don't translate the position of a decimal point well. 4.4Ah seems to equate 44000mAh

[@robertdillane1878]

Nick Norton Yeah and 2000 lumens is 200... Not gonna stop me shopping on AliExpress though :D

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

Nick Norton Besides basic lying (always an option) I think the Chinese languages count in steps of 10000 unlike the western 1000. This may make it hard to remember the SI prefixes such as milli, kilo, Mega, micro etc.

[@tomhsia4354]

​@@johnfrancisdoe1563 Yes, we count in steps of 10000, and "trillion" share the same character as "mega-", which does not help things. Hence, it is always difficult to remember how to translate things properly. One of the more prominent online translators in China (Youdao) always had the nasty habit of translating various numbers like "trillion", "billion" in weird ways (the Chinese translation for trillion is "one hundred thousand", and "billion" becomes "Euro"), and "in case of" in Chinese get translated to into one thousand. For quite a while, the English translation for "In case Youdao gets killed" was "One thousand killed by Youdao translation." There is no reason for that to happen, "in case of" in Chinese literally means "ten-thousand one" character-by-character, and has nothing to do with one thousand. Also, interestingly, Youdao dictionary is quite accurate. That explains how the shitty, shitty, translations come to be. However, given how they make the same "mistake" in Chinese, I'd say a large chunk of such sellers are just outright scamming people. Oh, they patched the translator, so "In case of" now gets translated properly in a sentence. It still gets butchered as a phrase though...

[@stridermt2k]

This channel is awesome

[@schregen]

Michael Thompson yes!

[@danijel124]

Videos like these is why I like this channel. Also I like cheap ebay shit from time to time ;)

[@NYL478]

"That would be annoying" - understatement of 2017

[@james10739]

I have one of the cheap ones from eBay I think it pulled like 6 or 8 watts I forget but mine had 2 batteries and the power supply was putting out 8.4v but I added 2 more 18650s because I had them

[@eustacequinlank7418]

Dear Clive, do you watch a TV series called Dark? It's on Netflix currently. There are a few scenes where a person goes into a cave with a handheld spherical lantern, it looks like that's the only light source. I assume it's an LED lantern. I've been putting in loads of different search terms here and there and cant find one. There seems to be a handle just inside the sphere so it looks as though your hand has become a glowing orb. Ever seen anything like that? They'd make really great portable miniature 'light balloons' like the huge ones used in cinematography except for a studio setting.

[@zx8401ztv]

i would laugh if both were made in china, just the cost makes it better :-D So you need more batterys in the cheap one and a ldo constant current device bolted to the case. You can improve it Clive :-D

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

zx8401ztv An LDO behaves like a resistive dropper except it's regulated. For a power job like this, you should use a switching regulator, though it doesn't have to be the XL brand, and doesn't have to be two independent regulators like in that flood-it lamp. I'd expect someone likely BrightPower offering a chip that combines the needed circuits in a clever way.

[@jusb1066]

they are bth made in china, one is just the lowest cost parts and fake 10w led and noname cells, the other has genuine cells and a quality led, iphone is made in china right next door to a factory making an 8$ phone, i would hope they too are using different quality parts!, these sell for about 50-60£ and the cheapos 20-25, so you are getting better quality parts designed to work for hours a day search FL10YCW flood-it on ebay, its our fault for buying the cheapest rather than paying a bit extra for decent quality again

[@zx8401ztv]

My comment was for comedy effect :-D. Oh Jusb1066, you have forgotten how silly i can be :-D

[@Landrew0]

I'm no fan of cheap and shoddy Chinese goods, but they seem to dumped on unfairly in cases like this, without a chance to defend themselves. Obviously, Chinese factories can produce any range of quality, from poor to excellent top brands. After all, what isn't made in China these days? Most of the stuff labeled as "Cheap Chinesium" is either being peddled by some sleazy importer with no reliable contact information, or sold direct from online vendors in China, who compete directly on price. Who among us doesn't filter by "lowest price first?" Is it really a surprise then, that we get what we paid for? We have mostly ourselves to blame, but that doesn't stop us from blaming others.

[@jusb1066]

spot on Landrew

[@zephalon]

I got mine for 15 Euros and it works just fine :)

[@madrian_hello]

In one of your video you spoke about a great empty powerbank - it was white color, that's all what I remember. Can you help me find a powerbank like yours?

[@wewillrockyou1986]

I never understood why they used amp hours over watt hours or just a SI unit like joules to indicate the energy content of the battery since that is the actually interesting/useful measurement.

[@Chuckiele]

A 3.7V cell relying on the voltage drop of the crappy usb power supply. I hope that cell has integrated protection, otherwise it could get pretty exciting when using a proper power supply.

[@iamdarkyoshi]

Clive, I bought some 100w LEDs of the same style as the cheapo chip in this video (metal PCB with the dam and pool of phosphor) and they all light perfectly even, no current leakage at all. Perhaps you could revisit the cheap shitty 100w LED saga?

[@sykoteddy]

Maybe the big chip you don't know what it's for, is regulating the load when recharing?

[@nathantron]

These products should be required by law in every country to give a component list on the package/description. That would kill so many of these cheap ass things.

[@tncorgi92]

Nathan only a few run-of-the-mill consumers would be able to understand one component list from another, plus you get those "proprietary" chips with the id rubbed off and the company would not want to share their "secrets" to manufacturing. No lobbyist worth his or her salt would ever allow consumer-friendly data to be published. At least that's the hurdle we have in the U.S.

[@thomasd9424]

Paul Drake Smart dude, we live in a pretty messed up world.

[@MRBIKERFINGER]

Dam I love this channel.

[@tim62744]

Know to buy that model now🇨🇮☘️

[@SodaWolf]

You should do a teardown of one of those ultra cheap smartphones, like those below $100 ones from China, I've wondered how they are from the components and how cheaply the quality is on them.

[@Ajengineering]

Nice information about

[@thomasherzog86]

hey mr. c, if you find some time to, i may be so outrageously demanding to ask if you could take one of those timer switches apart. i bought one recently and realised that a string of led lights i used to shut down for the daylight with, still were glowing a little bit during the day. i measured the voltage and supposed to get zero, but had 2,5 volts when connected L to L and over 75v with L to N mains. im not near good enough to understand the circuit, but as far as i know, when connected L to N, all there is in between is basically an 56kohm resistor and a inductor that uses the mainfrequency in AC to drive a magnet as a motor to count the passing time. there is a switch but its paralell and doesnt cut the contact this way. edit you already did in 2014, even thou i still dont understand why there is 75volts coming out when in "off mode"

[@ethanpoole3443]

Thomas Herzog When you say timer switch it is not entirely clear which you mean, a timed wall switch (installed in place of a wall switch) or a plug-in timer? If a wall switch they will typically allow some pass through current to pass as switch boxes seldom have access to both the hot and neutral conductors, so the switch passes some current through the load to actually power the switch (essentially accessing the missing conductor via the load). If a plug-in timer you are likely seeing some leakage current from a snubber capacitor that allows a small amount of current to pass through the load and prevents the triac (many devices use a simple triac rather than a more expensive relay) from being inadvertently switched back on when presented with inductive loads due to a fast back-EMF voltage spike...though a snubber capacitor may also be used (optionally) with a relay to reduce contact wear if the contacts are either underrated and/or if the load may be inductive in nature.

[@PetRatty]

watch some of Clive's other video from about 6 months ago. he explains this and shows examples

[@ethanpoole3443]

Hit reply too soon... anyhow, either way LEDs require so little current to glow dimly that any leakage current whatsoever will allow them to glow a bit. The same thing happened back in the day of incandescent bulbs the only difference being that they only emitted wavelengths deep into the colder end of the infrared spectrum at such small currents whereas LEDs always emit visible light within their intended spectrum no matter how little they are turned on (they will also emit some long wavelength infrared as well as they are not perfectly efficient).

[@thomasherzog86]

Ethan Poole a plug like this one locksafe.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/TIMER-SWITCH.jpg

[@thomasherzog86]

Ethan Poole thats interessting. i was pretty shocked (not literally) when even the neon indicator of my main tester glowed.

[@darkstarnh]

Apparently Flood It are no longer trading in the UK.

[@acw2099]

my cheap chinese light has started to flash when ran off battery for more than several minutes. quite annoying, now I must keep it plugged in during use.

[@arfski]

At £100 that pro lamp had not only better have a good battery, but make the tea as well! My cheapo £20 Wilko unit lasts around 5 hours, and is plenty bright enough.

[@stewartcaldwell5299]

Well, I always cut power workers some slack. Tough, any weather job, sometimes over 24 hour shifts in emergencies. Give them the best. Here in NE US, sometimes winter clothes weigh more than my tools.

[@lumpyfishgravy]

When did you start saying milli-amps instead of millamps? Shocking, I tell you!