This is a different twist to a super-simple solar charge lighting circuit. I've never used reverse leakage current through a solar panel in this way before, but it seems to work.
The project uses a cheap eBay solar panel (5 or 6V) and a standard phone lithium battery with built in protection. The charge current is limited purely by what the solar panel can deliver, in this case about 100 to 200mA. The intensity of the LEDs will depend on the value of the series resistor and the transistor's base resistor. The unit is more intended for decorative use than area lighting.
I built a similar circuit years ago and use it to drive a string of meteor lights. They're still going strong years later and even work well into the night in winter.
I'm wondering how consistent the reverse leakage current from the solar panel will be between panels. It seems common enough to require the inclusion of a reverse discharge diode in most solar chargers.
The component list is:
Nokia or other protected phone battery. (Must be protected.)
Solar panel from eBay 5 or 6V 500mA output max (100ma is fine).
1N4001 1A diode. (or any from the 1N400X range)
10 ohm resistor to limit LED current.
10K resistor for transistor base, adjust if needed.
BC547 or any other similar NPN transistor with high gain.
Double sided foam tape and some insulated wire.
Some LEDs, Parallel LED string, meteor lights or whatever you want to run. Here's a general purpose eBay search link for some of the LEDs:-
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&LH_BIN=1&_nkw=10m+copper+wire+led+string&_sop=15
Keep in mind that the cell may have a charge while building the circuit, so be careful not to short it out, although it should have overcurrent protection if you do.
This circuit is intended for low current LED loads only.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycFTxCoNAQk
These scam products have been about for a long time. They were originally sold by "salesmen" using a trick involving a display case. But recently they've been marketed aggressively on sites like Facebook from countries with poor financial accountability. The marketing generally has a story associated with it, often involving young inventors who defied the oil industry by sharing their marvellous invention with the world. The stories are all fake too. The images and video footage are either stock or stolen from other sites.
In reality the plugs do nothing to reduce measured power in your home.
There's even a risk that in the future when smart meters start measuring apparent power these units could end up costing you more.
The capacitors in them are often low quality and connected directly across the mains supply, so there is a risk of fire if they fail. As such, I recommend against using them.
If you really want one, they are available at their REAL price of about $5 from the main Chinese marketing sites. (Many are drop-shipped to online buyers.)
They generally contain a fan-motor capacitor of between 3-5uF and a small PCB to make the green power indicator light. Sometimes the capacitors are so low quality that they don't even connect them.
If you've bought one of these then your chance of getting a refund from the scammers is slim. Keep it as an unusual ornament and reminder to avoid online scams.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y391QLEkQQ8
When I first took a microwave triggered lamp apart in a video I joked about the hidden chip being a standard PIR body sensor chip - and was then aghast to find that it WAS. Which meant that all the microwave signal generation and movement detection was being done by a single transistor and some cunningly designed PCB tracks.
I'll openly admit that microwave circuitry is such a specialist area where the only people who truly understand it are those who work with that type of circuitry all the time. It's not just a specialist area of electronics, but a specialist subsection of RF design where simple things like tracks stop behaving like conventional conductors.
Now I understand this circuitry better it all makes a lot more sense. It's got strong similarities to the Colpitts oscillator FM micro transmitters I used to make for the 88-108MHz frequencies - not 300MHz as I mentioned in the video. (Well not deliberately.)
The chip being used on this breathtakingly cheap and versatile module is a customised BISS0001 with a rarely used pin repurposed as the input to an internal 3.3V voltage regulator. That removes the need for a separate regulator on the PCB.
Here's a search link to find these modules on eBay. Target price less than a US dollar each:-
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=microwave+module&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_sop=15
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf19hc9PtcE
It wasn't all top hats, big dresses and chimney sweeps. Behind the scenes the Victorians were having naughty fun with "medical" devices used to cure their hysteria and other ailments.
This is an original Dr Young's self retaining "dilator" which was claimed to cure many ailments including bad breath (!), apathy, constipation, piles, anemia, pallour, weakness, insomnia, stress, diarrhea, headaches, flatulence, indigestion, insanity and many other things.
Yes, I sterilised the livin' bejesus out of it when it arrived from eBay!
Here's the Wikipedia article that thankfully doesn't reference their full original instructions, which claimed they could be used on all members of the family, but when using them on children and elderly people, to only use the small ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Young%27s_Ideal_Rectal_Dilators
Latterly they even mounted them on the end of motorised "reciprocating massagers" for a more "healthful and invigorating" experience.
Obviously, in this era eBay is full of modern versions with more honest descriptions of their intended use.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvFRcWA3RzE
This device is intended to heat and froth milk by whipping air into it.
I was sent this by Thomas Nagy, a London electrician with a youtube channel:-
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6EJTy6p58ZW16PEljSn4Qw
The unit has failed, let's take it to bits and see what went wrong.
Unusually retro power supply. Probably for reliability.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUpNa1LoYgM
While browsing for unusual modules on eBay I came across an odd little unit intended for keeping the interiors of fridges or other small spaces sterile.
Before anyone starts indignantly announcing that the correct way to keep your fridge sterile is to clean it regularly, I should mention that the main point of this device is to stop transfer of odours from stinky cheeses and other aromatic foods, and also to prolong the life of exposed food by limiting the growth of bacteria or mould.
The unit claims to put out positive and negative ions, and it does have a carbon fibre emitter for each that does indeed have a matching charge. However, the main characteristic of this unit is the slight hint of ozone. Ozone gas (an unstable 3-atom oxygen molecule) is increasingly being used at low levels in catering environments to reduce the risk of food poisoning and prolong product shelf life.
The power consumption of this module on 240V is very surprising. Just a fraction of a watt at 0.01W (ten milliwatts).
Before de-potting this unit I had a guess at what might be inside. I expected the common circuit based on discharging a capacitor in pulses through a small high voltage transformer, but I was completely wrong. It's a very neat little circuit, but quite perplexing as the component count is much lower than expected.for the style of circuitry.
Here's a search link for the 220-240V version of this module:-
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=TFB-YA2102&_sacat=0&_sop=15
Here's a search link for the 110-120V version of this module:-
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=TFB-YA1102&_sacat=0&_sop=15
Here's a search link for the 12V version of this module:-
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=TFB-YD12102&_sacat=0&_sop=15
Note that I do NOT recommend using 12V DC ioniser modules on ungrounded plug-in power supplies, as they can create a high enough voltage differential to ground to cause arcing/tracking between the low and high voltage sides of the power supply.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kutNgCsJ2Hs
This thing is hilarious. It's a toy ninja with a light sensor so that when it detects a disturbance in light levels it farts loudly.
The circuitry is pretty much what you'd expect to find in these. A light detector based on a simple potential divider with a traditional LDR, and a couple of transistors to amplify the signal to the point it can trigger the sound chip.
The sound chip may just be a microcontroller, and drives a miniature 8 ohm speaker directly on two pins. It seems to do so as a series of positive and negative going spikes. I ran out of time to analyse the signal further as I don't use oscilloscopes regularly enough to hone in on the data I need quickly. The brief bursts of noise and seemingly simple pulsed waveform made it hard to get an automatic lock on the full sound.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOw27bCi1jA
Quite a neat little LED lamp with a standard capacitive dropper circuit and 60 standard 5mm LEDs in series. There were 15 blue and 45 red arranged in quite a pleasing random manner. So pleasing that I got the urge to modify it into a much lower power lamp purely for the visual appearance.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkUycdTFFrQ
A look inside a more modern LED lamp that seems to be taking the circuitry a bit more seriously versus the traditional capacitive dropper units. This one even quotes a realistic power rating.
The hum when the lamp is lit is actually from the iPad as it has a weird issue where visual intensity modulation is interpreted as audio!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmJDv5CqaGU