If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
Having accidentally ended up with a (paid for!) bottle locked shut with one of these security caps, it suddenly became a challenge to open it.
The functionality is very good, and no amount of twisting and pulling was able to remove the cap - in fact it just locked on tighter! So without a suitably powerful magnet to release the latch I improvised by cracking the lock cap off with a thin screwdriver.
Obviously I then had to investigate the mechanism to see how it worked.
Given the difficulty that LIDL staff often have with removing these caps from bought bottles, it might be worth them trying a different approach. Place the bottle into the unlocking station and then twist the cap in the locking direction slightly to allow the ratchet to disengage easily.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- https://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDRfJ6eCoSY
This is a home automation product that lets you run a bath or have a shower by voice commands via your voice recognition device and a remote server. It looks like someone put a lot of work into the design, but it seems like a bad idea to have your shower controlled via a remote server (which may be down).
The idea of a glitch or hacker turning your shower on unexpectedly while the door or curtain is open, and flooding your house, or even just splurging gallons of hot water down the drain seems undesirable.
With no physical override it also means that a system crash, fault or hack could leave you with no way to have a shower, bath or even wash your hands.
Then there's the cost of getting a "home automation expert" to repair it. It's an industry flooded with big egos with matching hourly rates.
But Kudos to the people who actually designed and built this unit. It looks like it was a valiant effort to create a functional product, albeit a bit ill-conceived. It certainly looks like it was expensive to develop and manufacture.
The Home Assistant posse do seem to be exploring the protocols of this system to try and get it back up and running on a local network.
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/smartap-shower-control-getting-started-with-reverse-engineering-a-smart-home-device/358251
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zZzIOk19dI
This started as a very ordinary fault with an easy fix, but then I discovered that a section of the circuitry was getting extremely hot and had to explore further. It turns out that a classic fault was causing a weird knock-on effect that was so unusual that I felt the need to reverse engineer that section to see why it was happening.
The main culprit was a classic bulging capacitor, but it's much less common to find that fault in equipment with traditional low frequency power supplies. It's much more common with modern high frequency supplies. The use of the Glan branded capacitor may be the issue here. The circuitry shouldn't really be stressing it with a guesstimated current demand of around 300mA with active relays.
The unit has the facility to connect a remote display and button interface with just two wires, and it appears to achieve that by using a current regulated supply to that module, and communicating in both directions by shunting its power wires in pulses.
The main capacitor failure caused an unexpected situation where the processor was unable to initialise, and by default the display output data shunt is active, meaning that the current regulation circuit was dissipating high power in its main transistor continuously.
As the capacitor progressively failed the unit would potentially have started glitching and resetting intermittently, getting progressively worse until it just didn't start up.
One huge advantage of doing an on-site repair on these units would be that it keeps their existing settings intact, which saves reprogramming the unit for a specific system from scratch. That can be a real time saver if you have to work out what everything is doing and how it's connected.
Without a working reference unit for voltage measurements, and perhaps a remote display module too, it's hard to say if other damage has occurred. But the configuration of the circuitry and now cool transistor suggests that the fault is fixed and these units have been saved from becoming expensive landfill.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- https://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLkE-XxMtKw
It turns out there's a reason there aren't many videos on YouTube showing bananas being zapped with electricity. But it had to be done for science.
If you look for the hot dog electrocuting videos they are much more dramatic.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTzgWrq41LY
This breaker is a combined overcurrent and leakage device. It had a fault where it wouldn't reset, and the issue was annoyingly trivial.
If you wonder why there's an awkward bit in the video it's because I left the camera running when I was exploring the circuitry. The channels Patreons suggested I leave it in as a glimpse of what goes on in the jump-cuts.
Thomas Nagy's channel can be found at:-
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6EJTy6p58ZW16PEljSn4Qw
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kWIITspYvk
A group of traditional theatre gel scrollers running to various colours under control of a handheld DMX tester/analyser.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrIQOpSb2mA
This little light is a keyring style flashlight styled on a handheld one. The lithium cells are sealed inside making it a disposable item, but the use of a momentary switch means it really is just a short use flashlight better suited to keeping as an emergency light in things like cupboards or stuck to distribution boards with the built in magnet. The heat sealed case suggests it's probably waterproof too.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UooFK7nvwZs
How to use the classic STC-1000 clone thermostats, and a look at the circuitry inside them.
I think the original version of these units may be Elitech.
These modules are shockingly cheap for what is effectively an industrial control module. It's almost as if the software got out into the wild and everyone started cloning them in a common style of case.
As with all generic grey-import products you should only consider them for personal projects and prototypes. For professional or critical applications it's probably better to go with a higher profile unit for better construction standards and higher operational stability. That especially applies to where higher current loads are being switched. Although these claim to be able to switch compressors and heaters I would only recommend doing so via an external rugged high current relay. I'd also suggest a 12V DC system as the 12V relay coils are more rugged.
If you search on eBay for STC-1000 you'll find a lot of these at wildly different prices. Cost is not an indication of quality and what you get will be completely random - even when two are ordered from the same seller.
Here's a super compact guide to programming them.
The two main settings are temperature and differential (hysteresis), where the differential is the difference from the set temperature and is where the heating or cooling will kick in.
The compressor delay setting is to avoid rapid cycling of the compressor to prevent it stalling by starting under pressure.
The calibration function lets you tune the accuracy of the thermistor.
Press the up arrow briefly to check the main temperature setting.
Press the down arrow briefly to check the differential setting.
To change a setting press the "S" button for a few seconds to enter setting mode, and use the arrows to step up and down through functions F1 to F4.
To adjust the chosen setting press the "S" button briefly to display its current setting, and press and hold "S" while using the arrow keys to change the setting. If no button is pressed for a very ungenerous four seconds the unit will exit setting mode.
On some units the settings may not be stored unless the power button is pressed briefly while in setting mode.
F1 sets the required temperature. These units only operate in Celsius.
F2 sets the differential in degrees where the relays activate either side of the main setting.
F3 sets the compressor delay to between 0 and 10 minutes.
F4 lets you nudge the calibration of the thermistor to match a more accurate thermometer.
The temperature sensor is a very common 10K NTC thermistor. (10K ohms at 25C)
If the sensor is open or short circuit the unit displays EE.
Try to keep the sensor cable away from mains voltage wiring to avoid display instability.
To turn the unit on and off
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4umSkJjXwY
Since I recently looked at a fairly complex two transistor self starting solar pendulum circuit, I thought I'd also take a look at a classic simple pendulum circuit as found in many ornamental clocks.
This circuit uses a single transistor, but requires a centre tapped coil for the pulse and sensing functions.
I went through a spell where I built a lot of magnetic pendulum circuits. It's very gratifying to create a lot of continuous and very visual motion with virtually no current draw. Ideal as a silent battery powered ornament that runs 24/7.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- https://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
#ElectronicsCreators
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psHVTiIoAWA