Very impressive B&Q LED Xmas lighting frame. (Too much maths?)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ย. 2018
- This large Christmas lighting frame is the very essence of streamlined mass production. A robust steel frame with a single section of LED rope light with perfect colour transitions seemingly moulded directly into the outer plastic sleeve at just the right spacing to fit a welded frame. It gives the impression of a swirl of 12 individual stars in alternating colours.
This cost £40 which is exceptional for something approaching the appearance of the classic small aluminium municipal frames in the £500 price region. It won't have the longevity of an aluminium frame and certainly isn't suited to mounting on a lamp post, but for an interior retail or entertainment environment it would be perfect.
The frame accommodates about 7m of rope light and would be fairly easy to retube, albeit in a single colour. I still can't get my head around how they have added the colour so precisely to the rope. Is the outer layer completely coloured or has it been made as a finished clear white rope and then a thin extra layer of colour added on the surface? I may have to dig into it to see.
The references to the George Square Xmas lights are to the original colourful animated lights which were scrapped a few years ago when the contract was taken over by another company. They were the first Christmas lights in the world to use rope-light-on-frame construction. Being the prototypes for the modern Christmas lighting industry they were somewhat "industrial" in their construction. Very heavy 3D steel frames that had to be craned into position.
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.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of TH-cam's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
My cousin's 1 year old son managed to liberate my phone, unlock it, and pull up Big Clive. I found him watching attentively. There is hope for the future!
For both electronics and for hacking :D
@@gregorythomas333 yep I agree.
All so I at a you're very very early age.
Was into all kinds of stuff.
Not the tipicle way that people think.
In a good way not a bad way.
I was doing repairs at 4 and 5 years old.
Bleave it or not.
And this is the realey surprising part.
Working with 110 to 120 volts AC line voltage!!!!
First started repairing lamps at that age.
I went from there never did get hurt.
Or even close!
I understood basic electrical and such even earlier.
I even new 3 and 4-way switching before I repair my first lamp.
By the way I think my first ever quote unquote hack.
Actually a series of them.
I still remembered as fondly.
Have you ever seen one of those metal Jack in the boxes.
That would play pop Goes the Weasel and in the clown pops out.
Well it didn't work very well anymore because of the spring was shot.
You could have said I was more like Tim Allen.
MORE POWER!!!!
Well I managed to get Springs from other things.
and other places including the metal toilet paper holder holders
Among others.
And you get the pucture.
I don't know how many pounds of force it took the stick the clown back in.
but I remember it was quite hard to do..
And also I had a safety catch that would nead to be released.
And a pin would need to be manually removed.
If I remember the pin was made out of a metal coat hanger.
Soon after that the second hack came along.
Same Jack in the Box.
But now motorized crank.
I do not remember what the motor was from.
It was a somewhat slow turning gear motor of some sort.
Probably from a discarded toy.
The motor candle was actually extremely long telephone cord.
And that was one of those coiled cords.
And the switch was a doorbell button.
Heck I even had an interlock switch that acts as a key on that end.
it was either a barrel Jack or a 1/8 inch mono headphone jack and plug.
Where the plug end of it it looped in a short circuit.
The. The battery compartment was an old Flashlight.
that was a continuity tester.
but the inside for messed up to the point it couldn't be used for flashlight.
so I'm basically turned the cap and lenze into another contact
And ended up putting the doorbell button in series.
The plug for the telephone cable was a quarter inch mono plug.
On both ends.
The end at the controller and Battery.
Plugs in to the origina.
l quarter-inch Jack for the original test leads for that continuity tester.
And at the uther end there was a quarter-inch Jack in the Jack-in-the-Box.
I still don't remember what that came from.
Basically stand back as far as possible And plug in the inter lock.
Of course this is after you close the lid release the safety catch
and pull the coat hanger in out of the Jack in the Box.
And. Then. press and hold the doorbell button.
And 5 4 3 2 1 we have liftoff.
Yes they clown would leave the Jack in the Box.
A little too forcefully for any child of any age.
And probably for some adults for that matter.
There wore times you would actually take quite a while to find the Clown.
I was told more than a fue times.
that I would probably eventually put the clown into earth orbit.
What made me think of this the other day I happened to find those test leads in my stuff.
Oh yeah and there was a time that I had built a model sewing machine.
out of Legos that had an actual sewing machine motor attached to it.
later on I used the same motor in my shop on a piece of equipment.
Can't recall what at the same time.
Oh and also I used our old old Kirby in my shop.
including building a device for a power takeoff from the motor.
And yes I had to Hanley Butler as well which is a flex shaft tool.
And of Kirby power sander.
But what I did was a modifie. An attachment.
that would Mount on the frunt of the Kirby give me belt drive.
For eney purpes.
I even used. The suds gun to do panting and finishes exec.
Also I Used to Know Montgomery Ward dryer blower for my exhaust system.
As well as power takeoff.
When the Kirby was not suitable.
Walks into B&Q, see's random but admittedly interesting lighting display. "HHHMMM the internet will want to see this, I must buy one". Well done Clive, it's precisely why we're here.
Well done, yes. But I don't think he bought it.
I did buy it. That's it hanging on the wall at home so I could explore it closer.
@@bigclivedotcom Oh, so you liked it too much to bring it to the workbench.
@desposyy --> Actually his first thought was, "*MUST. HAVE. NOW!!*" The "internet will want to see this" thought came after he came out of the trance he was in staring at it. The staff broke him out of the trance when they told him, "Sir, we're closing now. You'll have to buy it or leave now." lol
Don't apologize for the math. It's good to see it being used with a real example as it helps me remember it a little better.
Without this channel, I wouldn't know to appreciate a Christmas light display. Excellent video!
I know you don't have Thanksgiving as a holiday Clive, but I am thankful for you! 😀
Clive, I wish you were my dad. I've built an amazing Christmas light setup at my parents' house with digital WS2811 garlands and trees, and the outline of the house, fence and all the bushes are covered in extra warm glow LEDs that look stunning. They seem to love it, but they look like question marks when I discuss the different type of lights I've installed and why one's better than the other and so on. Heck, even the whole neighborhood love it, and people from the town drive by slowly to take pictures. I can't wait until december 1st to make it shine again!
EDIT: All the normal (non-digital) LEDs are run of a lab power supply in the basement, feeding 31V to a underground wire going around the house, everything powered from the same source. It's safer than lots of extension cords and 230v adapters all about. It also allows me to lower the voltage of everything to 29V so it isn't too bright for your eyes.
@Undefined Lastname You can make just about any pattern you can imagine. I have an open source setup of patterns that I've written and adapted to be customizable on my channel: th-cam.com/video/3044w402HXs/w-d-xo.html
You can of course go for the DMX controlled light show, but mine is run all by arduino (ESP8266).
howmuch amps would that - found an old HP power supple (printer) that gives like 30V
@@herauthon Mine is a 60A 5V PSU, you can get them on amazon for like $20.
@@TheHookUp- Holy.. 60A ?
www.amazon.com/Tanbaby-Universal-Regulated-Switching-Computer/dp/B017YEOAPA
indeed so.. wow.. perfect
@@herauthon about 1A per metre for WS2812B, assuming 60LEDs per metre
The injection molding machine has 5 barrels. one for each color. Quite advanced, expensive and reasonably rare in the USA and Europe, originally developed for automotive multi color moldings, such a tail lights etc if they are Chinese, they've upped their game considerably
They probably have a cheap version that uses inkjet printer technology to put the colour in the plastic as its extruded. There are 3D printers that paint the filament as it goes to the hotend to give full colour prints.
@@DennisFisherUK Not for the mass consumer market for quantity and price point. I'm really grateful that we have at least _one_ politician who is willing to discuss bringing back manufacturing.
These lights are great. I would never have noticed until Clive pointed them out.
Great video BigClive. Answering your question: Just the right amount of maths ;)
That's a wise life lesson: Things work fine until something goes wrong.
It's very nicely-made for a Christmas decoration. A lot of thought must have gone into it.
I personally don't mind the maths! It gives me a chance to play beat-the-calculator.
Clive explaining the math is helping me to learn more bit by bit. I would actually like to see a video dedicated solely to the more commonly used math involved in electronics. Resistor, LED's, capacitors etc...
I have one of those ropelight snowflakes back when halogen was big. Even though it's only like 1.5 feet across it takes 50 watts. Beautiful brilliant deep shade of blue.
I think the maths is good. It's not too hard and the more often I see it done under different circumstances the more likely I am to recall it at some interesting and pertinent moment! Cheers sir ❤☺️
Damn Clive! I have struggled with the maths of electronics, especially trying to work out what values of resistors I am going to need in a light circuit (am an artist so have need for the pretty, but have no brain for the thinky). Suddenly, at 14:00 it just clicked with me how terribly obvious it is to run that calculation backwards and it will tell me what total resistance I need, then I can just divide it from there... so simple, and it's taken 33 years to sink in! Thanks chap!
never too much maths.
understanding the maths is what keeps this stuff from going up in magic smoke.
Hi Clive, ALDI are selling a few products that need your attention. The Lightway 15 LED Motion Sensor Light lasts about 10 hours then the motion sensor packs up and you're left with a non-stop flashing light. The Zero In Bug Zapper which goes through a set of 4 'C' batteries every 24 hours as does the Reka DAB & FM Radio. They know this but continued to sell these faulty products.
Cheers for info about the Aldi Motion sensor light, I've just bought one of those, still in packet at the moment, I was planning to fit it in a hard to reach location on the inside of a porch ceiling.
I've bought a few similar lights from Lidl in the past & not had any problems with them. Maybe you just got a dodgy one.
@@NOWThatsRichy Leave it in the packet then at least you'll have the illusion that it works ;-) I have bought three only one worked and if you look at Aldi-online reviews there are too many go wrong for it to be a coincidence. Aldi are bad in that respect, even though they know an item is a bad one they just keep on selling it. I've just bought a 'Crafty Foldable Trimmer' when I tried to trim/cut with it it wouldn't cut. I looked under the cutter holder the blade was missing. The worst product most recent faulty product was the The 'Zero In Bug Zapper' which goes through a set of 4 'C' batteries every 24 hours or less but they kept selling it until it was sold out. Even though they knew the fault. Best of luck with your Motion sensor light it might just be a good one, if it is do the Euromillions this week ;-)
@@LordWilsonVILLA I'll try it for a while before I decide to fix in its intended location, at least it comes with a set of Alkaline batteries already fitted.
@@NOWThatsRichy They swap them or refund if you take them back, I sometimes think they have shares in the petrol companies they say take it back so many times. If not this time you've only lost £4.99 :-)
@@LordWilsonVILLA You shoud have sent your faulty one to big Clive to do an autopsy on and find out the problem.
A few days ago the local Council were putting the lights on the Christmas Tree, it took 4 of them - 2 to work and 2 to watch
It used to take me and my colleague a day to put 10,000 lights on the George Square tree in Glasgow. And no lazy "wig-wamming" (straight lines top to bottom.) We gave it a really dense light coverage with no gaps.
Hunter's Moon - that’s a better work ratio than most roadworks around Bristol, where it’s normally ONE person working while three or more are stood watching or chatting...
I love this time of year... I'm the only one in my family who has any technical ability... I just wish they wouldn't take me for granted...it took years and lots of reading to get this stuff... I don't mind..just me complaining with a fellow tech...lol...have a great day sir
This seems a very well thought out light. The maths were very relevant and un rambly.
I personally LOVE the maths, GREAT video BigClive!!!!
I quite enjoyed the maths, it's an important part of electronics that alot of other channels don't even mention
I've lived all 32 years of my life in the southern hemisphere and it still feels profound to me to hear someone associate 'christmas' with 'snow'. The only weather-related issue we have in december is that you have to wait until after 9:30pm for it to be dark enough to see the coloured lights properly.
Likewise I find it hard to grasp bright sunny Christmas days. Here it gets dark from about 4pm so the lights get a chance to shine.
By golly. Not all products are a scam on the consumer. It's a damn good thing we have Clive to help us tell the difference!
That's a shock. Well made and B&Q don't usually go together!
Don't know if you do Thanksgiving over there bit I wanted to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving if you do and I hope it was or is a day filled with the love of good friends and family. It is Thanksgiving day here.
Thank you so much for the great videos I enjoy watching them to try to learn something sometimes it is a little much for me to understand some of the numbers you use but you do a great job of doing your videos.
Thank you so much for all you do to help people learn
Don [BigD]
Big Don Big Don - In the U.K. we don’t have Thanksgiving Day, in fact we have no official holidays from the end of August until Christmas Day (December 25th). In the area of the U.K. where I live, we don’t celebrate Halloween, but do celebrate Guy Fawkes bonfire night (November 5th) (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night ). Both with fireworks and with illuminated carnivals ( www.guyfawkescarnivals.co.uk ).
Great video Clive
Domestic meets "municipal"? Either way better than the shit the lass down the street has, with a properly nice enclosure, that some numpty drilled though nor realising how the boxes worked, resulting with an install that lil children can easily reach. Oh so much fun to be had there.
I should offer to test really, but there's a chance I'd get told to go forth and multiply.
I love the maths segments. Please do more equations as I want to learn the calculations along side the product info/ details/ functions. Love your content.
I liked the math part. Keep Up the awesome Work.
Love the math Clive
delicious lighting for sure !
Superb video.
Very pretty.
I mounted a cheap solar powered ropelight on my roof which was only visible to occupants of the discount airlines. I chose the classic "C0ck and Balls" symbol because they recently began using my airspace as a midnight U-turn after taking off.
The rope section didn't last long under the UV but the solar box is still working.
I have the tungstan version at home. Use to selotape it around my cieling at christmass. Every so oftern it would fall down. My bro called my room Santers Grotto as I always use to go mad with the lights every year.
Great vid, showing the math always good...
Nice, interesting frame and installations
Thanks for sharing👍😀
Being from the southern hemisphere I never even though about snow buildup on Christmas lights.
But surely your Fourth of July lights must consider it? :-)
@@johncuzzourt2118 we don't do 4th of July. And we don't get snow at all
@@AlexNZL Not even on Thanksgiving day?
You write decimal points kind of funny. I don't know about Britain, but in America when a dot is placed mid-level like that, it represents a multiplication sign. Back in the late 1980's when electronic chaser lights became popular, water would always get into the electronic modules making the lights light improperly. We tried wrapping the modules in plastic bags, but it didn't solve the problem. Then, we heard that the best way to solve that problem was to run the lights when it rained. We tried that, and yeah, it kept them working properly. Running them during snowy and icy conditions also kept the bulbs clear of ice and snow. That LED yellow looks like baby sh*t yellow...
A large part of my working life has involved the violent relationship between electronics and the amazing ability of moisture to penetrate anything.
Robert Gaines - strange, in the U.K. for multiplication we either us ‘x’, or ‘*’ (computer use) or no symbol (e.g. P=VI ).
Robert Gaines - In some other countries, they use commas for decimal points.
Robert Gaines - You think trying to keep electrical and electronic devices going through the festive season is hard? Try keeping electrical and electronic equipment going in the middle of nowhere going continuously for twenty years plus through all weather conditions (from blistering hot summer days through to very windy wet days, and of course -20 degree periods including snow and ice. In all cases, we use a combination of enclosures sealed at the top, but with vent and drain holes at the bottom. Plus in anything other than cable connection boxes, we fit small heaters (these days with a simple thermostat).
@@Mark1024MAK - there's a video somewhere nearby on youtube discussing the pros and cons of LED traffic lights vs incandescent ones in cold and/or damp climates, to whit the lack of heat output vs all the other benefits including longevity and power saving.
The smart solution that manufacturers now seem to have adopted is to offer lamp units that run a small heating resistor track (and embedded thermistor sensor) in-between the diode lenses, with the sense line going back to the main light controller. When it detects a particularly low temperature condition indicating either settled snow, frost build up, or the imminent risk of it is beating the LEDs' intrinsic heat output, it turns on the heater for a while until everything melts and the temperature climbs a few degrees above freezing once again (the phase-change energy of water, of course, pretty much implying that if you're registering a subzero (celcius) temperature there's ice or conditions that may encourage its formation, and if it's more than a couple degrees above zero you're safe, as the transition between ice and water holds the local temperature steady at the triple point, i.e. 0.001'C).
The rest of the time, the unit acts just like a regular LED unit, meaning you get the energy and maintenance saving (and safety) benefits of the diodes, without them icing over or being obscured by snow, and without having to retain energy-sapping, short lifespan incandescents in your traffic lights year-round (or swapping them out at the change of season, which would be a huge drain on manpower) just to keep the ice off in the depth of winter.
I BROUGHT EXACTLY THE SAME LIGHT AND IT LOOKS AMAZING 😍😍
Too much maths? Not for me I'm still struggling with electronic maths.
LED lights are one application where having 120 V @ 60 Hz is a great advantage: less power is wasted in resistors and the flicker is less apparent. ;
You can also get apps that measure flicker via the camera or light sensor.
I like how they've used wide spectrum white LEDs plus, effectively, a filter gel to produce the colours. I bet the overall effect is much softer and warmer than the equivalent using monochromatic diodes and a clear sheath would have been.
Just wondering, though - is the colour selection actually red-yellow-cyan-purple-blue, instead of e.g. red-yellow- _green_ - purple-blue? Or is that just an effect of the camera? It seems like a rather odd spectrum otherwise, though the yellow and cyan might blend together somewhat around the border.
Thank You For The Maths...It's The Other 50% Of Why I Watch Your Videos
I was hoping that the stars would change colour when I saw the thumbnail. Beggars can't be choosers though I suppose!
Wait, you still have an open B&Q nearby?? They just keep shrinking or shutting them round here... :P
As for the lights, definitely an impressive setup, as for how it's all made to line up, it's probably done in CAD rather than trial and error, that way they can fit it all together virtually before finalising on the design... :)
It's hard to imagine big clive with a car. I always visualised you as riding down the hill on your Brough Superior ( or an Indian ), getting aboard the Sodor and Mann railway, and then cruising to work at Glasgow on PS Waverley past Ailsa Craig. A car ? We need a video of you in a car.
That should be Sodor and Man.
I like the math. I learn a lot of how the math is applied. Give me more math! :-)
If he gives you more than one math you'll get proper plural maths, the way it should be. ;-)
Maths confused
Clive you are well known for your love of leds, so it's about time you got into the programmable type ws2811, ws2812b etc. These things can easily turned into outside t.v.'s the rest is not brill but more than watchable.
I toyed with WS2812B LEDs. I was hoping to make a minimalist controller that could generate complex patterns along a long run of the LEDs in real time with no frame buffer. But they are extremely demanding in processing time to generate the data output. If a routine spends too much time processing an effect the whole LED array would shift the incomplete data to the outputs resulting in glitching. I'll maybe visit them again with a faster processor or one with a large RAM for buffering each frame.
@@bigclivedotcom thanks for the reply, it was after seeing this I thought of you. I now it's down to cost, that is why I haven't built one. I understand that you do a lot of display work, these leds have a endless use, check out this site. Keep up the good work. m.th-cam.com/video/e-rdgB_19Fg/w-d-xo.html. All the best. Nick
Electronics is just maths, there is never too much maths
Maths are exactly what were required, not too much :)
Great video thanks Clive! Just one question. Can these sort of lights be dimmed?
It's basic school maths and it helps to understand what's happening more intuitive, so just go on with the maths.
Oi! Clive! I love you!!!
Looks like they could build an LED-resistor-busbar 'ladder'. After inserting the resistor-LED rung into the void, they can fold the busbars around and melt it to the core?
If you haven't the split-pins, take your most narrow needle-nose pliers and give them each two tiny "waves." The "S" shape (might take a few tries) will give enough spring to hold good contact. Just be sure that the convex side is facing the mating contact.
Edit: because I regularly fail to proof read
I've done that in the past, but just a slight bend because some of the pins can be very brittle.
Very different from the US rope lights. Ours have two ends that plug into each other and a screw cap that you then screw them together with O-Rings on each side.
We have got one of those led star light
you need to get those beard lights... xmass lightes for your beard ;)
NOOOoooo... XD
And baubles, tasteful or otherwise.
I would have assumed the green was simply the result of the yellow and blue tubing overlapping.
Thanks Clive.
No, great amount of maths! I really appreciate you digging into these things. I’m from the US ( dumb question) - how do the Councils effect things?
Most councils are tied up in internal red tape and bureaucracy, but some do the job they were intended to do. Glasgow could be Gotham City in every way including the council corruption. The local Town Commisioners here still seem fairly balanced.
...and including the cartoonish supervillains?
This 0,9 W looks like it might be power just on LEDs (excluding power on resistors), as you calculated, total power 3,5 - 2,52(power dissipated on resistors) equals ~ 0,9W of power dissipated in LEDs only
Two poor sods in a cherry picker were fitting lights to the lamp-post over the road from me at 7 o'clock this evening. They looked cold and miserable...
yeah I saw some down town doing exactly the same thing it looks pathetic !
Mum: Oh look, Children, Santa has brought us pretty Christmas lights, isn’t he magical and simply marvellous!?
Council worker: ‘Santa’ nearly froze his bloody arse off and killed himself on a cherry picker last night, but Ho Ho, frickin Ho, luv.
Having installed municipal Xmas lights for over 20 years I experienced winter weather that ranged from sunshine and wearing hi-vis shorts to a full waterproof suit, looking down from the cherrypicker and seeing an outline of my body in the thundering rain.
Our local Council are getting the lights out. The workers (!) tend to do this sort of thing in the evenings since it's not quite so hot then. With the gale force winds we've had in NSW over the past 2 days I'll not be surprised if some of the installed lights will need "re-installation"!
@@phils4634 Do that put up wintery themed lights still in the Southern Hemisphere?... icicles, snowflakes etc.
I think these would be a lot more exciting if the rope lights were filled with det-cord! Though I suspect that probably violates some sort of zoning ordinance... pity. 🎆
If Burning Man had xmas lights, I'm sure det cord would feature...
I find the best way to seal joins in rope light (and other similar things) is to simply use a big ass bit of transparent heat shrink - works like a charm and it's easy, but of course you have to cut it off when it's pack away time.
The peril of heatshrink is it does allow water to creep in by capillary action as it always seems to relax as it cools. And the adhesive lined stuff also has issues adhering to the waxy plastic. In the past we've used amalgamating tape, silicone repair tape and tight fitting polythene tube.
Ooops completely forgot - before sliding the shrink tube on you need to smear a finger of Vaseline round the inside of it, then it is 100% waterproof once shrunk on. At least it's always worked for me :)
How many times did Clive push the "ON-C" button on the calculator in this video?
Hi Clive, Is it possible they used white tubing and coloured it with a special paint?
It's really even. But it's possibly just applied on top of clear tube.
Hi Clive first time commenting saw thease on 30/50cm LED Strip Lights White/Blue/RGB Waterproof DC Christmas Tree Decor Tube on ebay im interested in them but would like to know if i can reprogram them to be solid and fade rather than drip? I know there is a chip on board but cannot see any information online. I wonder if you ar anybody reading this knows?
Math is fine. Your dealing with electronic circuitry. Anyone that will take anything away from this video will appreciate seeing the math.
Robe light or rope light? 😅 Fun to wear...
Happy Christmas bigclive
Hard to work with in winter? Sounds like it'd be great for a place like, say, Australia, except I've never seen it here in my entire life. Which is a shame because I think rope light looks rather nice.
Which makes me wonder, do Australians have some sort of winter festival to break up that season? Did anyone ever suggest moving xmas to June in the southern hemisphere
@@MarkTillotson Not unless you count the various sportsball tournaments that occur during winter. I mean, here in Sydney it's an average high of 18°C during winter, and we usually only get a few days with a high temp below 10°C, so it's not like we're spending all winter huddling indoors around a heater, away from the cold, dark bleakness of outside. It's still usually sunny, just gets dark a little earlier. Maybe the Tassies suffer a little, but they're kind of asking for it living in Tasmania.
As for moving xmas, most of our politicians are highly religious, so I expect there'd be much foaming at the mouth at Parliament House on Capital Hill if such a thing were suggested. And as we're well aware after going through 5 PMs in 5 years, such bodily excretions flow downhill.
Big sale of Xmas things at B&Q, this rope light is now £22. Down from £40.
WHAT!? WHERE ARE THE BITS!? YOU DIDNT REDUCE IT TO THE EVER ANTICIPATED WONDERFUL, SEPARATE, INDIVIDUAL BITS! WHAT A RIP CLIVE. Yes yes, the resistor value I'm sure is important, as is the best temp to bend it... BUT WE WANT THE BITS TOO!!!
Considering I've seen some real shit in b and q, including an electrical tape Christmas tree... In black 😑, that isnt bad
I'd imagine they just add different colour pellets into the hopper while the tube is extruding, bit like those 3d printer filament makers
Speaking of Christmas..
I have a Christmas light newbie question...
I have a string of Philips LED lights non rectified from the US. I plug them in they work great. When I rectify them with a full bridge rectifier half the string turns off and half the string stays on. When I reverse the plug the other half goes off and the other half comes on.
Can I say please help... ? :-) BTW this happens with all 5 strings of lights I bought. Any suggestions or help will greatly be appreciated thank you. Happy holidays!
I think it's an attempt to reduce the flicker from the lights. In the UK we tend to use extendable lights with one rectifier at the beginning of the string, but they chose to pass AC through the whole string.
@@bigclivedotcom I agree, the only thing that's got me stumped for lack of knowledge on my side is why does the string go dark on only half the string when I pass it through a rectifier. It looks like some kind of reverse polarity is going on in the middle of the string of lights. Weird!
@@DaxLLM One side will have the string of LEDs in one polarity and the other half the other polarity. It sounds like they'll be very flickery in normal use.
@@bigclivedotcom Sounds like that's it, but I'm baffled as to why a manufacturer would make all thier Christmas lights this way. I bought 5 strings and they're all the same. Goofy. I guess I can find were on the string they flipped the polarity and correct it but it sounds like it would be a pain in the butt and not worth the effort. I'll just run them as 120 AC... Anyway the order I get the less likely I can see the flickerin. Thanks for the info and this site you've created. It's very entertaining, fun and interesting!
Dug out my tungsten roap light from the loft. Most of the roap don't work or is intermittent. It's probably due for the giant dustbin in the sky. It has/had 8. Modes. Open to suggestions as to what to do with it. May even video it...
The maths was very followable. I mostly get lost with circuit functionality, I am slowly picking up bits and pieces .
Perhaps you could send it to Clive (or me) for analysis?
crazygeorgelincoln dont try and cut the dead parts out and fix it, its really difficult to not make it short, not worth it
An appropriate amount of math.
It must be incredibly difficult to extrude such a long piece of rope light in multiple colours at the sort of speed required for mass production, makes a change from the cost-saving measures we see on other lights which lessen the overall effect! PS did you get my email?
You decided against trying out that ahem, 'device' you examined recently?
I had never stopped thinking about how that lights where made... A lot of technology involved! Thank you for the video!
About the 0.9 W rating, I'm thinking that it could be the total LED power. If you take out the resistors power from the total power, it results in about 0.9 W...
What the hell is that wallpaper! Never noticed it before!
It's in my hall. Part of the original decor of the place.
@@bigclivedotcom we moved in to a house with speckled wallpaper, that had been painted magnolia in almost every room. It gave me flash backs!
No such thing as too much maths :-)
Are you responsible for the polar bear display, if so.... well done
Not me, but it is the sort of thing I'd do.
If its 240V RMS after a full wave bridge isn't it something like 340 VDC ? I don't fully get why you used RMS, Does it mean its not rectified? Iam still learning could ya explain why you used 240 rms? Thanks in advance, I hope its not a stupid question.
The RMS is the average of the whole sinewave. If it was rectified and then smoothed by a capacitor then it would be closer to 350V.
Thank you for clarifying that for me.
@@bigclivedotcom However, the non linear load of LEDs plus a resistor doesn't allow for RMS to be used. For instance the average current through the string is actually 12.6 mA. The rms is 14.7 mA. And the resistor power is 2.8W.
imgur.com/a/0zvznRO
@@misterhat5823 The average is 12.6 mA but the current will actually be the RMS value of 14.7 mA because it's still has the sine wave shape (albeit rectified). "Average" voltage is really a compromise used by DC meters since DC comes in so many wave form shapes and sizes. DC meters just display average because it is close enough for any shaped DC wave form.
Kevin Flynn - but you should also take account that most LEDs have a peak current that is significantly greater than the maximum continuous DC current. The maximum continuous DC current is normally considered to be a smooth DC supply (from a battery or a regulated DC power supply) rather than a DC supply derived from a rectifier. So as long as you don’t run LEDs near their maximum current or near their maximum rated power level, it’s more appropriate to use RMS values in this application.
I believe there will be USB version too.
Harnesses Clive, wiring harnesses. A loom is a machine for making textiles.....
I think it's another regional thing. The phrases harness and loom seem to be common for cable assemblies.
I know and it annoys me! :) I think it comes from the wiring harnesses often coming from what is referred to as a the loom shop, which I can see could have come from the laying up, twisting, braiding, wrapping of the cable assemblies..... keep it up buddy!
Please please please I beg of you to take apart one of those shitty Ring video doorbells. We have one and it's horrible
The question is... how much does it cost??
Ellis Price £40
The answer is in the description right under the video.
This is the "Mains operated 12 star Rope light" on B&Q's web site. They say it is "Suitable for Internal & external use".
I'm worried because that terminology is also used about some medical equipment
@@MrHack4never If you think it'd fit you internally then you're a braver man than I...
As an EE I can handle the maths and pedantically say that V=IR only works for purely resistive loads. As Clive has shown these circuits are hardly unity with their high capacitance.
No capacitive dropper here. I'm not aware of any significant inductive/capacitive component to LED impedance. So, for this situation, it's fine.
No capacitor. The only thing that skews the result is the combined forward voltage of the LEDs resulting in a current waveform that is almost but not quite sinusoidal. The power factor of this effect was very good.
Peter G. Lol u got served
Any idea how much stray capacitance you need to have a noticable effect at 50Hz??
Those inverted cone LEDs are referred to as straw hat LEDs...
I wish they were. You can get tons of the domed straw hat LEDs on eBay, but finding the LEDs with concave lenses is really hard. They sometimes appear as packs of 100 from Chinese sellers.
Antony Barton - no, straw hat LEDs are not the same.
So Clive, it wasn't very clear in the video, do you like these lights? J/K ;)
those are well made festive lights . I wonder if they sell anything at Crappy Tire as good . lights to eat infused chocolate by .
I do math! Never meth..
In the UK we do maths! Never meths... :)
Meths is the short name for methylated spirit (denatured alcohol...with added poison!).
Meth is short for something else, but just as nasty here in the midwest.
0.9 meters is a yard.
How do I send you something
Motif
They should put setting dielectric grease in the void.
"Dielectric grease in the void", sounds like a prog rock band
Or a gay club.
More complicated than you might think.
And there's the first EP. it'll be on vinyl of course. 🙃😂❤☺️
Yeah I realise that thats probably the reason they dont do it. I was thinking if it was thermoplastic so it would set when the lights arent on but be viscous when its hot to protect from water ingress. But that's just me having too much time on my hands. You know how it is.
Sorry, Yes: Too much maths!