Teardown of a "firework" bulb - with schematic

It's 11 years since I first looked at a very expensive Calex branded version of this bulb. At that time they were using a capacitive dropper and had all the LEDs in series.
I was expecting it to be the same, or maybe a linear regulator. But it's not. And the LED wiring arrangement is different too. Probably to make manufacturing simpler, allow a wider voltage range and also allow for the same LED structure to be adapted to different sized bulbs.
These bulbs are now available at a much lower cost online, and in a wide range of colours including warm, cold and golden white, blue, ice blue, green, yellow, red, pink and purple.
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.c...
This also keeps the channel independent of KZbin's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.

[@not-another-dev]

Clive has a sixth sense when people get bored. I was bored but now he has a video up. Good job buddy and thanks for all your videos!

[@tncorgi92]

Same here, everyone right now is dwelling on the hurricane headed for Florida and it is a relief to get away from that for a while.

[@LawpickingLocksmith]

Yay! The Hopi Fun is back! With such an efficient regulator I am surprised the power factor was so low.

[@amorphuc]

Thanks Big Clive. That's wild. Most puzzling to me is how they fanned out the LEDs once inside the bulb. I would have initially thought they had used springy wire to the LEDs and then just funneled them in but a tool of some sort like you said or some poor sap sitting there individually spreading them out? Very interesting. Like looking at a ship in a bottle.

[@derekloudon8731]

I think they probably use retired gynaecologists to manipulate the LEDs

[@Plons0Nard]

NIBBLE !! Leave Orifice alone !! The moment Clive mentioned "Nibble", I got transferred to the Schoolmaster Universe, feeling very small 😂 👍🏻🤝🏻🥰🇳🇱

[@noggin73]

Maybe they employ the 'Ship in a bottle' people. There doesn't seem to be much demand for ships in bottles these days.

[@dennissmith8199]

Maybe they could have put it in a machine and spun it axially at a high speed to bend the LEDs outward?

[@Pistoletjes]

yes, centrifugal force is my guess as well

[@bigclivedotcom]

That's an interesting idea.

[@leybraith3561]

...Agree axial spinning could work.... ..Conceivably helped by a sleeve of rolled plastic around all LEDS that initially is a straight tube to allow insertion. When entire bulb spun fast axially, top of rolled sleeve opens out inside bulb to form cone and help steady LEDS. Sleeve then withdrawn... I note the longer stemmed LEDs appear to be splayed out more than the short stemmed LEDs - this also makes sense for this axial spin idea as shorter ones would tend to resist centripetal splaying more than long stems... ....Alternative idea....utilize some flower arranging spiders with strict instructions to remove webs when finished arranging LEDs...

[@MattyEngland]

Waltzer

[@RS-Amsterdam]

Or with the help of "ancient aliens " like building the pyramids 😅

[@PaulSteMarie]

You need to get about a dozen of those boards and chain them together inside a fluorescent-style tube. They seem to be just the right size.

[@SirBoden]

It’s amazing what they can fit death beams into these days.

[@peter.stimpel]

"You destroyed it" - "This is science..."

[@richardbriansmith8562]

Awesome Video Big Clive👍🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂

[@memejeff]

Very nice device. I am extremely curious now about the rig used to make it. Will keep a lookout for the machine on chinese sites. Hope you get yourself another one to just enjoy since you liked it.

[@18robsmith]

Buck regulator - what the rabbit warren down the road needs....

[@ejc4684]

That’s a cool light. You could make your own driver and a 3D printed bulb and use it again.

[@AlbertoRestifo]

Anything is a fuseable resistor if you run enough current trough it

[@sam3317]

"maybe they've got a tool?" Clive's never done a ship in a bottle, interesting.

[@jaysparrowhawk9388]

Is it tiny children with nimble fingers?

[@s980845]

I miss when you used to call the power meter the "Hopi". RIP the original.

[@mxslick50]

He still has the Hopi. It is just not suitable for very low current devices so he uses this one, which reads low curret better.

[@GriotDNB]

At least there's schematics!

[@mxslick50]

@@s980845 Do you remember which episode? I don't recall seeing it, thanks for the update.

[@bigclivedotcom]

The Hopi is fine, just better suited to higher current loads.

[@stevenverhaegen8729]

It's made by people trained on putting ships in glass bottles... 😂

[@gregorythomas333]

Neat circuitry but I would love to know ow the LED's are expanded too!

[@bigclivedotcom]

Someone has suggested they may be spun out centrifugally.

[@ctid107]

Looks like the Apple logo on the rectifier !

[@CrazyOregonBeaver]

I wonder what that nasty lamp glue is, I probably really don't want to know. 😂

[@johnrehwinkel7241]

It's probably a variant of the ancient RCA #6 base cement, which is mostly marble powder and ("orange flake") shellac. The remaining ingredients were durite, rosin, marble, and malachite green (to visually indicate when it was cured properly).

[@twocvbloke]

I'm going to guess that specialised machinery to expand the LEDs is expensive, so it's just a person with a hooked tool working in a sweatshop pulling the LEDs outwards after the assembly is inserted without the power supply fitted yet, then that is soldered on to the busbars and everything glued shut leaving us to work out how they do it... :)

[@dcallan812]

I see lots of old lady's and minors slaving away with a plastic hook to bend out the LEDs call me pessimistic. Still an interesting lamp, but for firework designation I would want some animation and or colour change. 2x👍 Just had a mad idea while watching, I wonder if spinning the lamps would bend the LEDs out

[@Njazmo]

So is that a basic PWM-driver?

[@visualchallenge2413]

To spread the LEDs probably they spin rapidly the lamp and use the centrifugal force. (I am pretty sure someone guessed it before me but I can't verify because comments are not searchable).

[@StubbyPhillips]

Scroll to end of comments so they're all shown, then "CTRL-F" to find words.

[@charlesnelson619]

Maybe they used one of those new 20 Tesla Superconducting Magnets to bend them !

[@farmersteve129]

From what I have seen, the boards are inserted one at a time with the LEDs gently squeezed to fit through the opening and then allowed to spring outwards. A hook tool is then used to splay them further if required. When it’s all you do all day every day you soon get the knack and can almost do it without looking.

[@flyingmoose]

Maybe they just have employees sit there with an ice pick or something and bend each LED out individually.

[@XSpImmaLion]

Complex tool = a manual laborer from a poor nation with a thin hook paid a few cents an hour. :P Though perhaps there is something... aren't those LEDs shaped a bit different? They seem to have a flat top instead of the regular dome.

[@bigclivedotcom]

They're concave LEDs for side emitting light output.

[@phonotical]

I'm not seeing people at the factory trying to make sure all of those leds are angled properly, so I imagine they are dropped into an open bulb already spread out and then the dome is friction welded to the outer sleeve I've never found anything good to get the lamp cement off, even using a combination of the strongest solvents, I've also never truly found out what it is, It must be a type of ab foam but with a stupidly small expansion rate, or a polymer with a lot of voc's which struggle to offgas

[@bigclivedotcom]

No seam at the top.

[@terrym1065]

Nope, it's just a Chinese girl or old lady with a plastic hook tool that spreads the array manually once inserted into the glass bulb. Maybe...

[@tncorgi92]

A really well-trained spider.

[@darrenrigby6843]

They may just spin the lamp at a speed that causes the led's to splay out.

[@joshuahansen5486]

Make three light bulbs out of it and put those into a lamp

[@FredBedderhead]

what if they spin the bulb at high speed to fan the LED out

[@bigclivedotcom]

It sounds feasible. But a cordless drill was not fast enough.

[@bonnome2]

I hate led lamps with circuits like this. I once did an experiment with neurons and I couldn't figure out why there was so much noise. Unplugged the led lamp and the noise went away

[@stevenverhaegen8729]

Electrophys?

[@RS-Amsterdam]

Thank God you are not a surgeon 😂

[@tncorgi92]

"Today in the operating theatre we have Mrs Jones, she's complaining of severe abdominal pain... let's take her to bits!"

[@Ni5ei]

Is the bulb made of glass? Otherwise I see no reason why the base is cemented on instead of crimped.

[@bigclivedotcom]

It is glass.

[@foorje]

What searc terms do you use to find these online Clive?

[@bigclivedotcom]

They can be tricky to find amongst the mirror style bulbs. Try a search on AliExpress for e27 firework

[@MattyEngland]

I think you need to attach it to a drill and spin it, see if the centrifugal theory checks out.

[@bigclivedotcom]

I did. Even my fastest drill wasn't fast enough.

[@Slikx666]

But definitely not available in brown. 😆

[@johnpowell5433]

But what does (did) it do?

[@zebo-the-fat]

it lights up!

[@renevile]

mabye they just spin the completed lamp really fast and let the centrifugal force bend the led's

[@lImbus924]

this one ought to show how it's being produced, with the LED being splayed out, but I can't see jack :) kzbin.info1YEJqBV9Rbs

[@phonotical]

Be fair, early calex were utter dog shit, so much so that I'm not about to waste money on a new calex product to find out if they're any better

[@NirvanaFan24]

Never been so early!! 😄

[@spankybear]

I bet the spin the lamp after the insert the LED array. The force will bend the LEDs out.

[@GWorxOz]

Always good.👍 👍 👍 👍