These work lights are all over ebay and amazon now with a hundred different brand names. I bought one for £19. I like it. Obviously not 20W but it lasts the quoted 4 hours (on the first two charges anyway). Very usable light output. Plenty of room in the box for hacking in more cells.
I just saw these (in pink no less!!) at my local Ace hardware shop and thought to myself "I wonder if Clive has torn one of these down yet?" and lo, there is a whole bunch of videos to watch... result !!!
I can see a modification coming on, fill it with 8 0r 9 18650s in series to get to 30 odd volts, replace the LED with a 100W unit and light up your garden, and all the neighbours' gardens.
I think the reasons for the under powering the led is so a smaller and cheaper battery can be used. It also extends the life of the LED chip as the temperature rise is less so the light can work at higher ambient air temperatures. It is common practice for lamp manufactures to use an oversize led chips and under drive them but still claim the full LED chip wattage. The undercharging of the battery is done deliberately so there is no chance that the battery could ever be overcharged. The circuit is very basic, you may find a small charging voltage variation between chargers in production due to tolerances in the components and the zener junction temperatures. Can't be precise with a rough circuit like that and get a perfect 100% charge. Its all to keep the cost down and be competitive.
Have you noticed that some manufacturers basically re-purpose the main unit as a rechargeable motion sensing solar powered security light? The reflector / LED module certainly looks identical.
Hi, I am new into this high power LED stuffs and I have this question that I need help from you guys. How to drive the 20W LED by only 8.4v from 18650 lithium batteries? Isn't 20W LED needs about 30v not 8.4v to work? I even didn't see any step up module here. Please can any body explain this to me. Thanks in advance.
You could replace the 2 Lipo's with a 4S Lipo pack used for drones and then adjust the values of the resistors to get a decent current usage and improved runtime (or just add a couple more 18650's!
do you think the Chinese assemblers can buy a sort of kit from the manufacturers and they can spec the kit to various levels. so there might be identical looking lights that are full of batteries and are outputting 20W. incidentally I saw a video of a woman in China hand winding the transformers.
So there is a tiny battery that will never be fully charged due to the power supply output and best of all it will tell you the battery is charged before you even reach full capacity. At least the power output is low compared to spec so you will get a few minutes of light out of a charge.
After watching this I decided to take my 'expensive' version of this light apart as mine seems to last the 8 hours quoted on the back, even at full power. It seems I have 8 18650 cells in it rather than the measly 2 of the cheaper units. You really do get what you pay for.
They may purposefully have used a charger that only charges the batteries up to %80 because you get a lot more recharge cycles from the cells. I do doubt it though, due to the general lack of quality all in all.
what would happen if you connect the low circuit in parallel with the high ? better still, connect a diode from high to low, low will be unaffected, high would also enable the low
i use mine without the base as you dont really need to aim it much, they could sell them a bit cheaper if they didnt include them! they are obviously cutting corners to compete on price, my 10w has 4 cells, but was bought 2 years ago for £35 from my local electrical factors, and will run about 5 hours till sudden cut off, came with the car&mains charger
Considering that power unit is so tiny, couldn't you easily hack it so that it lasted a good 10-12 hours with a couple of extra units? From what i hear of people i know that are in the business of using these worklights, is that the batteries deteroriate really fast.
Another question for you Clive... If you were to encounter a cross-threaded screw (that is possibly glued in?) made of complete shit that just gets chewed up by your screwdriver to the point where there's just a round pit left in the screw rather than the phillips cross groove, what would you do?
Hey Clive, thank you for all your videos, most entertaining and informative! I have blasted a wedge of cash on 'tat' from Ebay as a result. Taking items apart to laugh at the contents is actually as much fun as than the intended usage. I have found several distinct earth 'compromises' (missing completely). It would be great if you could do a video about yourself...you clearly have an interesting past to have attained the knowledge you now have. Would be good to see what you do and have done in the past. Cheers from Warwickshire UK.
I have a similar light made by maxxima in canada i took the back case off it has 4 cells and a a board that covers the latter much bigger board than you have shown mabey a better model number is MPWL-20
there is a benefit to charging lipos under their 4.2v/cell. if you charge to 4.1 per cell you double the number of cycles you'll get out of the pack. I fly rc helicopters so I deal with lipos very often! (:
when i tested the led the current draw was 6A from the battery which is strange i know 5A at 12v is 60w but at 6a is about 72w dissipation from the 30w led . and the chips was turning blue colour like when u overload a white led slightly when it goes slightly blue and i also tested it at low voltage and it was uneven illumination across the led package . so i just removed everything till one day i might rebuild it with current regulation ect as i paid just over £40 for it that time .....the chip is rated 30w 12v not the 36v version
Although I have not got the foggiest idea about electronics,I enjoyed your video.You explain things very clearly.I was shocked to see those two tiddly batteries in such a big space,what a con.China really are not doing them selves any favours by selling shoddy cheaply made lights like this.Thanks for saving me from buying one of these things from China.
Is there any LED lights that could be used for lighting in filming (for a movie production society)? I bought USB powerbanks, which have 2.4A outputs at 5V, which in theory could then give 12W of power, or using all three usb ports the maximum total is 3.1A. Ive been looking at amazon etc for anything, but most usb powered LEDs seem to be really weak, most taking around couple of hundred of mA. I just thought it would be really convenient to have something powered by a usb powerbank, since they could apparently output quite a bit of power, i would probably buy at least few ones if there were for example some 5W ones. I guess I could try build something myself too, would probably be cheaper. Maybe some 5V LED strip and cut into sections which run off 1A and just have three usb connectors to the powerbank...
Hey Clive. Have you come across any of these yet that you would specifically recommend that actually come close to their advertised output? I picked up a wee 10W from a supermarket out of curiosity as much as anything else, and actually quite liked it as it's useful for my photography. I ordered a different 20W from Amazon, but it seems even dimmer than the 10W, and is certainly no brighter
What a coincidence, I'm picking up one of these from Screwfix tomorrow. It's a 10W which can apparently make 700 lumens. I just hope it's enough to light the underside of a car on a lift.
Would you be able to analyse the led work lights from screwfix/toolstation as you would expect them to be 'reputable' and therefore determine if they differ from ebay? Thanks
As soon as I saw the charge I thought 'oh god not one of those'. You get them with many different things from ebay containing Lithium cells and they're really nasty and dangerous. They have no fuse and when they fail (which they will) they make a nice big bang and trip your breakers. They're almost famous for exploding on the mains voltage side. If anyone ever uses one I'd highly recommend you use it in a fused extension (4-way or similar) to avoid burning your walls and risking further damage to your home if you don't have a modern consumer unit with faster acting circuit breakers. Also don't place near anyone with a weak heart. Still, I'd be tempted to buy one of those lights simply to use the case and fit it with a better LED and current limiting driver.
so is the LED actually a 20w Led? and if so could you change the resistor value or use a driver to give the full power; that is providing you also upgrade the battery.
+austins_creations although its technically a 20w you might find its one of the reject pile, bu good enough to run at 10w or a bit more, the battery would also run it, but already they are lying about battery life, it would run about 1 hour on high on the current battery, so youd have a light that runs 1/2 hour! overall its a budget light, you get the cheaper parts.
I am not that well versed as you are in electronics, but if I may add, the idea behind charging the cells to only 80% of its rated capacity is to lengthen it's life. the Nissan Leaf uses such a method of charging its pack. I hope I got that right :-) Cheers!
Looking forward to the day these are available at a good price and at half decent quality, then I can do some modding and make a useful light. Something like this could be very useful for work, but so far they are either far too expensive or poor output/runtime.
I hate how they keep cutting costs until they completely ruin it. Zener instead of TL431, then 1N4148 instead of UF4007. I have seen a lot of USB chargers stating 5V / 500mA being rectified by 1N4148, which is rated 150mA (!!!). The resistor used instead of a current regulator is still reasonable, but the 1N4148 is going to melt and short in a few seconds. Then the main switching transistor is going to explode together with almost all parts in the circuit :D.
I recently bought the 50w version of these light (needed a powerful wide spread floodlight for night time film making) But i found it doesn't even output as much light as my little F&V z96 led panels. I was curious while watching your video, if it were possible to modify it in some way so it could either output the wattage it was claimed to be or maybe replace the led unit, which only seems to have 2 rows of emitters, with one that had a full set of emitters? Would love to get some opinions on this. I still like the light and it being waterproof and battery powered will come in handy, just would be nice if i could get a little more intensity out of it. Thanks.
@ bigclivedotcom i have (King Canada KC-2401LED) got from the local gettin spot (glass was smashed and the company i work for wouldnt repair it) the driver also went bad (was probably me messing around with it but it was rated 120v ac- 24-36 v dc @ ~500 mA) it states it as 20w. im trying to repurpose it as a rechargable portable unit with 6 18650s in series then to a switch and up-converter (adjustable, because its pretty dim ran off of just the 18650 series battery.) can i use a 5v usb charging circuit to "trickle" charge it and should my powerswitch be before or after the up converter (im thinking before because it makes more sense).
I have a 50w Rechargeable Portable Ul LED Floodlight With DC plug charger & Car Charger 12V Output: 8.4v Battery Type: Lithium-Ion Built-in Battery High power battery capacity 2200mah 8.4V I wish to adapt this light to take my Makita 18v - 5.0 Ah Battery. (as these charge within 20 min) Would i need to use a Step-Up/Step-Down Voltage Regulator? Or anything else? Sorry to appear vague,this area is not my specialty.
This explains why it's so hard to tell if these chargers light green, orange, red or whatever. Looking straight on the LED it's one colour, but looking at an angle it's another colour. So annoying. Is it possible to buy a proper designed compact charger for this, after seeing this I don't trust these chargers and you never really know when the battery is fully charged (if ever), or if gets overcharged due to poor tolerances.
Thanks Clive for more brilliant videos, and hope you did not get too battered in the storms!! What are those very nice looking screwdrivers you use, and where did you buy them from ??
Hi, Im looking for a handy rechargeable worklight for working in a garage at night. So im wanting a strong light source with a life of at least a few hours before recharge is necessary preferabally 6 - 8 hours. Now is something like this quality even on the market or is it all rubbish like this LED work light ? Your reccommendation is much appreciated.
For detail work I strongly recommend getting a decent rechargeable head torch. Then add a portable work light for a bit of general room fill. That way there will always be plenty of light where you need it.
Thx clive . Any recommendation on head torch is appreciated ! I have one of those cheepo 10w led lamps you reviewed hooked up to a car battery and its ok for bg light but i need something brighter for measuring and marking. Specific brand and model or spec is appreciated.
+Prasetyo Muhammad Dwi you can if you want the resistor to fry itself and leave a nasty burn mark on the device and possibly your fingers as it fails. Power handling and dissipation capacity is why the wire wound (stone block as you call them) are used.
+Prasetyo Muhammad Dwi resistors differ in their power dissipation, the small ones are 1/4 or 1/3watts, you need a 10w resistor for this lamp or the resistor would burn out higher rated resistors are larger, and use a ceramic box that can withstand higher heat (and are still sometimes attached to a heatsink)
Great video! I'm really glad you've done a tear-down on one of these because I was so close to buying one the other day! On the other hand, it looks like there is plenty of room for adding additional batteries inside the lamp? Could be a nice little project.
@bigclivedotcom: i'm wondering if maybe you might put up a simple "tutorial" on how opto-isolators work. I know YT is full of examples but I'd rather learn from you. Thank you sir!
It might just be me but ever since yesterday, every time I try to watch one of clives new videos I don't get audio, I've checked several times and all my volume controls are on max, and its just his videos, other videos are fine. Any ideas?
I would rather they make lights like this that use quickly replaceable 18650 batteries. Would much rather have the ability to have a set of extra batteries on hand or at least get better capacity batteries. Also use a way more trustworthy charger too... And if i was to buy such a light i would have to mod in a Constant current driver. And use a PWM to lower the light output. Seems a bit more efficient. IDK
+John Simpkins there are now lights that have a compartment on the back for three 18650's. I think it may have been inspired by the UK postal rules prohibiting shipping of batteries by air.
bigclivedotcom oh cool thank you for the quick reply. Let's hope they wire that in such a way to not kill the batteries. So with a cut off voltage. Love your vids. Fun seeing someone take the time to inspect the cheap and surprising in all the wrong ways. Used your information to inspect and stop using some if the cheap Chinese wall warts I had in use.. usb hubs and led light's.
+John Simpkins With a bit of faffing about you can remove the battery and put in a compartment for 4 cells. You can also fit a current mode switch mode PSU that runs quite cool. The switch can be wired to alter the current as well if you are careful. You cant just run it as an additional parallel resistor in the current sense circuit as that will make the switcher throw a wobbler as the inductance and distance from the chip will make it throw a wobbler due to noise etc.
I'm actually a fan of undercharging lithium cells, because it will extend their life. I normally go for 4,1 V charger IC's instead of the 4,2 V ones. Of course the charge voltage of this cheap thing is more like hit an miss.
storing lithium cells at full voltage is what kills them, not charging them up to full 4.2v capacity. undercharging does nothing unless you plan to let the cells sit for an extended period.
+thechosendude Yes, I agree. Where I was going with this was, if I don't fully charge them, then they won't sit at full voltage ever, no matter if I use them or have them sitting on a shelf. Of course you trade in usable capacity, but that LED work light is actually a perfect example, you probably will only use it sporadically and most of the time it will sit on a shelf. And if you needed the full capacity, the case has plenty of space and weight isn't an issue, so you could just double up cells. Also that 4.2 V is a very delicate figure, go over it only slightly and irreversible damage is done to the cell.
+Jack White It's a better option than what I ended up with when I bought some 14500 lithiums to run a cheap $3 single AA pocket light. My smart charger is not smart enough to not charge those cells at more than 1C so they have to be charged in parallel slots. The punchline is that the low voltage protection circuit on the cell cuts in at 3 volts. So it's leaving a lot of capacity unused but I usually have one cell sitting around fully charged. The cells run the LED brighter, but have less than half the run-time of a NiMH. A tired, bargain-brand NiMH. Reduced capacity *and* shorter run-time *and* reduced life.
+Markle2k Below 3 V there really isn't any charge left in a lithium cell, we're talking a couple of percent here. And discharging it further would also damage the cell (even more critical is charging a deep discharged cell ... they are a real fire hazard).
+BigCliveDotCom Was getting worried you haven't posted a video in a while. Thought you were either taken up ill or (gasp!) Poundland closed. I agree with others posted that this would be a great lamp to "hack" (read "build it correctly"). You can definitely add additional batteries rather easily, maybe run the LEDs at the rated 20W? Did you give them a pass on the crappy way they attached the leads to the resistors? No insulation, no screws holding them down. Presumably, running this lamp over time will cause those resistors to heat and cool, expanding and contacting causing them to loosen and fall off. Potential fire hazard? Thanks for the great videos. Have to say, I'm learning so much more about electronics now from you, than I did when I went to university "a couple" of years ago.
LOL bloody hell, im sure you will find an upgrade battery for that beast :-D That charger was odd, perhaps replace the farty diode for a schottky diode for less loss, and stick a diode in series with the zenna to up the voltage a little?
no he'd replace it with a proper lithium charger. one that does a constant Current then a constant voltage charge cycle before terminating at a proper 4.2volts per cell;)
+topher Im sure your right, i still think there is some leaway in the voltage cutoff, i dont think the batterys would explode if there was 200mv overvoltage or undervoltage, i think abuse causes them to pop lol.
+zx8401ztv Sadly they don't need abuse to cause them to explode. 18650's and the like caused the problem with sending batteries by post. Just google Segway battery fires. Most Chinese manufacturers outright lie about batteries, LED's, memory sticks and similar. The usual price for a 2Tb USB memory stick is about £10 on ebay. Their actual size is close to 10Mb. Some 18650's can be opened up to find a smaller battery inside. Does anyone actually make 10,000 mah batteries? Brass fittings never rusted till China made them. Anyone remember screws that didn't lose their profile. Ebay compound the problem by knowingly allow the sale of lied about products. Rant over.
Lol. Don't get me started again. REUTERS: The Pentagon repeatedly waived laws banning Chinese-built components on U.S. weapons in order to keep the $392 billion Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter program on track. www.reuters.com/article/us-lockheed-f-idUSBREA020VA20140103
I should really make one that runs off a power bank. But then again i don't trust these ratings of 10-20-30watt I want to get the most lumen per watt with the wattage of max 10 this way 5v@2amp would be good
Ah wish I saw this earlier lol. I bought DIALL LED Site light from screwfix for £30 - 23w - and it's so much better than this 50w big light I just bought. Will be sending it back since it's not as well made and not as bright. My little light is heavier than the big 50w. Tried contacting ebayer before buying but no response so thought I'd just give it a go. I wish someone actually properly made 30-50w led site lights rather than these fake crap ones. I need them for outside when I'm travelling about and 23w is great but would love to have 30-50w. Would be great to if they used T6 CREE LED also. If someone actually made decent ones I would happily buy it.
Can anyone solve this mystery? - bought what claims to be a 20w work light. It is actually 3w. Just turned it on today and it won't light. Plugged the mains charger in with the switch at the mains socket off and it lights up? The socket being a single pole switch only. I can even remove the charger from the mains socket and it remains on. But if I remove the jack from the charging socket it turns off.
Thank you. Very helpful. Does not worth the money. After this video I am planning to build a "DIY" portable floodlight using a motorbike battery or something cheap but useful. It seems that better if I buy a cheaper AC feed floodlight too.
I've noticed that you can get the 10w ones now in screw fix for not much more money than gear best. www.screwfix.com/p/ae0183-rechargeable-led-work-light-10w-12-240v/1815d
As many of these units will spend most of their lives plugged in waiting to be used, charging to 80% rather than 100% might actually be a benefit to the long term health of the cells perhaps...?
Maybe, but I'm sure there is a point of break-even between charging cycles and less capacity per charge. OP's thoughts were initially considering the fact that having the battery sitting 100% charged 90% of the time is a bad idea.
the charger is not charging to full,these are as the led ,cheap chinese batteries so if you use a bigger psu you might over charge with a chance of exploding batteries
Clive I feel the same enthusiasm as you about the CRAP made in China, I feel the need to shower after touching cheap crap like this, It just leaves you dirty feeling, keep the videos coming, your friend from the USA..
"China - we don't always cross-thread screws, but when we do, we make sure to screw them all the way to the hilt" I DIED ! :)))
Your videos always help me understand electronics better than by just reading up on them, thank you sir! You're good people
+Sean Confer Same here! Given me much more confidence for small projects.
These work lights are all over ebay and amazon now with a hundred different brand names. I bought one for £19. I like it. Obviously not 20W but it lasts the quoted 4 hours (on the first two charges anyway). Very usable light output. Plenty of room in the box for hacking in more cells.
I just saw these (in pink no less!!) at my local Ace hardware shop and thought to myself "I wonder if Clive has torn one of these down yet?" and lo, there is a whole bunch of videos to watch... result !!!
I can see a modification coming on, fill it with 8 0r 9 18650s in series to get to 30 odd volts, replace the LED with a 100W unit and light up your garden, and all the neighbours' gardens.
You forgot about the missing active cooling fan. It also takes some quality cells to cope with the higher current of over 2.5 A.
James Lamb run time and heat 😉
I guess they supply a quite handsome frame etc so a great upgrade project to make a unit that works as well as it looks.
I think the reasons for the under powering the led is so a smaller and cheaper battery can be used. It also extends the life of the LED chip as the temperature rise is less so the light can work at higher ambient air temperatures. It is common practice for lamp manufactures to use an oversize led chips and under drive them but still claim the full LED chip wattage. The undercharging of the battery is done deliberately so there is no chance that the battery could ever be overcharged. The circuit is very basic, you may find a small charging voltage variation between chargers in production due to tolerances in the components and the zener junction temperatures. Can't be precise with a rough circuit like that and get a perfect 100% charge. Its all to keep the cost down and be competitive.
Have you noticed that some manufacturers basically re-purpose the main unit as a rechargeable motion sensing solar powered security light? The reflector / LED module certainly looks identical.
Hi, I am new into this high power LED stuffs and I have this question that I need help from you guys.
How to drive the 20W LED by only 8.4v from 18650 lithium batteries?
Isn't 20W LED needs about 30v not 8.4v to work?
I even didn't see any step up module here.
Please can any body explain this to me.
Thanks in advance.
I am tempted to buy one just for the case and replacing the electronics, the case seems solid
You could replace the 2 Lipo's with a 4S Lipo pack used for drones and then adjust the values of the resistors to get a decent current usage and improved runtime (or just add a couple more 18650's!
the goop they used for that 2 cell pack is silicone resin
possible to fix the output voltage of the "charger" to 8.4V ?
do you think the Chinese assemblers can buy a sort of kit from the manufacturers and they can spec the kit to various levels.
so there might be identical looking lights that are full of batteries and are outputting 20W.
incidentally I saw a video of a woman in China hand winding the transformers.
So there is a tiny battery that will never be fully charged due to the power supply output and best of all it will tell you the battery is charged before you even reach full capacity.
At least the power output is low compared to spec so you will get a few minutes of light out of a charge.
After watching this I decided to take my 'expensive' version of this light apart as mine seems to last the 8 hours quoted on the back, even at full power. It seems I have 8 18650 cells in it rather than the measly 2 of the cheaper units. You really do get what you pay for.
They may purposefully have used a charger that only charges the batteries up to %80 because you get a lot more recharge cycles from the cells. I do doubt it though, due to the general lack of quality all in all.
Would like to have seen you run the LED module at 20W from bench power supply.
what would happen if you connect the low circuit in parallel with the high ?
better still, connect a diode from high to low, low will be unaffected, high would also enable the low
+thechosendude Nope, both cells are in use on both levels, it''s the resistors that make the difference
The extra big case is nice for those who want to shove more 18650s in there and get a bigger, badder runtime. Maybe not worth the extra cost though.
So, what was the actual run time after full charge from their charger? Notify the vendor of all this?
hows about doing a vid on how we could get these running better than what they are ?
that light would be a great project light, especially if you could fit a small 12v gel cell in there for durability.
i use mine without the base as you dont really need to aim it much, they could sell them a bit cheaper if they didnt include them! they are obviously cutting corners to compete on price, my 10w has 4 cells, but was bought 2 years ago for £35 from my local electrical factors, and will run about 5 hours till sudden cut off, came with the car&mains charger
Considering that power unit is so tiny, couldn't you easily hack it so that it lasted a good 10-12 hours with a couple of extra units? From what i hear of people i know that are in the business of using these worklights, is that the batteries deteroriate really fast.
sorry if this has been asked before, but what make and model screwdriver is the one you use, looks great quality? thanks
Another question for you Clive... If you were to encounter a cross-threaded screw (that is possibly glued in?) made of complete shit that just gets chewed up by your screwdriver to the point where there's just a round pit left in the screw rather than the phillips cross groove, what would you do?
+Sebastian Ramadan You can get spiral inserts that tap into a re-drilled hole if it's crucial. Or rivet-like threaded inserts.
Do you have any plans to moving to a better camera?
Hey Clive, thank you for all your videos, most entertaining and informative! I have blasted a wedge of cash on 'tat' from Ebay as a result. Taking items apart to laugh at the contents is actually as much fun as than the intended usage. I have found several distinct earth 'compromises' (missing completely). It would be great if you could do a video about yourself...you clearly have an interesting past to have attained the knowledge you now have. Would be good to see what you do and have done in the past. Cheers from Warwickshire UK.
I have a similar light made by maxxima in canada i took the back case off it has 4 cells and a a board that covers the latter much bigger board than you have shown mabey a better model number is MPWL-20
can you make a video were you put in a proper 20w led and decent cells? it would be interesting to say the least.
there is a benefit to charging lipos under their 4.2v/cell. if you charge to 4.1 per cell you double the number of cycles you'll get out of the pack. I fly rc helicopters so I deal with lipos very often! (:
when i tested the led the current draw was 6A from the battery which is strange i know 5A at 12v is 60w but at 6a is about 72w dissipation from the 30w led . and the chips was turning blue colour like when u overload a white led slightly when it goes slightly blue and i also tested it at low voltage and it was uneven illumination across the led package . so i just removed everything till one day i might rebuild it with current regulation ect as i paid just over £40 for it that time .....the chip is rated 30w 12v not the 36v version
and the charger put out 13v not 12.6v which is bad in a way
I bet they included the resistor's power loss as part of the wattage.
But even then it's only 12W instead of 9.3W!
Although I have not got the foggiest idea about electronics,I enjoyed your video.You explain things very clearly.I was shocked to see those two tiddly batteries in such a big space,what a con.China really are not doing them selves any favours by selling shoddy cheaply made lights like this.Thanks for saving me from buying one of these things from China.
Is there any LED lights that could be used for lighting in filming (for a movie production society)? I bought USB powerbanks, which have 2.4A outputs at 5V, which in theory could then give 12W of power, or using all three usb ports the maximum total is 3.1A. Ive been looking at amazon etc for anything, but most usb powered LEDs seem to be really weak, most taking around couple of hundred of mA. I just thought it would be really convenient to have something powered by a usb powerbank, since they could apparently output quite a bit of power, i would probably buy at least few ones if there were for example some 5W ones. I guess I could try build something myself too, would probably be cheaper. Maybe some 5V LED strip and cut into sections which run off 1A and just have three usb connectors to the powerbank...
Hey Clive. Have you come across any of these yet that you would specifically recommend that actually come close to their advertised output? I picked up a wee 10W from a supermarket out of curiosity as much as anything else, and actually quite liked it as it's useful for my photography. I ordered a different 20W from Amazon, but it seems even dimmer than the 10W, and is certainly no brighter
What a coincidence, I'm picking up one of these from Screwfix tomorrow. It's a 10W which can apparently make 700 lumens.
I just hope it's enough to light the underside of a car on a lift.
Would you be able to analyse the led work lights from screwfix/toolstation as you would expect them to be 'reputable' and therefore determine if they differ from ebay? Thanks
As soon as I saw the charge I thought 'oh god not one of those'. You get them with many different things from ebay containing Lithium cells and they're really nasty and dangerous. They have no fuse and when they fail (which they will) they make a nice big bang and trip your breakers. They're almost famous for exploding on the mains voltage side. If anyone ever uses one I'd highly recommend you use it in a fused extension (4-way or similar) to avoid burning your walls and risking further damage to your home if you don't have a modern consumer unit with faster acting circuit breakers. Also don't place near anyone with a weak heart. Still, I'd be tempted to buy one of those lights simply to use the case and fit it with a better LED and current limiting driver.
so is the LED actually a 20w Led? and if so could you change the resistor value or use a driver to give the full power; that is providing you also upgrade the battery.
+austins_creations although its technically a 20w you might find its one of the reject pile, bu good enough to run at 10w or a bit more, the battery would also run it, but already they are lying about battery life, it would run about 1 hour on high on the current battery, so youd have a light that runs 1/2 hour! overall its a budget light, you get the cheaper parts.
How much was it?
I am not that well versed as you are in electronics, but if I may add, the idea behind charging the cells to only 80% of its rated capacity is to lengthen it's life. the Nissan Leaf uses such a method of charging its pack. I hope I got that right :-) Cheers!
Looking forward to the day these are available at a good price and at half decent quality, then I can do some modding and make a useful light. Something like this could be very useful for work, but so far they are either far too expensive or poor output/runtime.
I hate how they keep cutting costs until they completely ruin it. Zener instead of TL431, then 1N4148 instead of UF4007. I have seen a lot of USB chargers stating 5V / 500mA being rectified by 1N4148, which is rated 150mA (!!!). The resistor used instead of a current regulator is still reasonable, but the 1N4148 is going to melt and short in a few seconds. Then the main switching transistor is going to explode together with almost all parts in the circuit :D.
I just can't help but wonder just how many work lights you have by now.
I'm wondering if you're already in the triple digits.
But Clive, that's 10W per eye...
it's how the viewer perceives the wattwge
Jammit Timmaj
Also we have to take in consideration chinese eye lid is only 50% open so honest mistake
I recently bought the 50w version of these light (needed a powerful wide spread floodlight for night time film making) But i found it doesn't even output as much light as my little F&V z96 led panels. I was curious while watching your video, if it were possible to modify it in some way so it could either output the wattage it was claimed to be or maybe replace the led unit, which only seems to have 2 rows of emitters, with one that had a full set of emitters? Would love to get some opinions on this. I still like the light and it being waterproof and battery powered will come in handy, just would be nice if i could get a little more intensity out of it. Thanks.
@ bigclivedotcom i have (King Canada KC-2401LED) got from the local gettin spot (glass was smashed and the company i work for wouldnt repair it) the driver also went bad (was probably me messing around with it but it was rated 120v ac- 24-36 v dc @ ~500 mA) it states it as 20w. im trying to repurpose it as a rechargable portable unit with 6 18650s in series then to a switch and up-converter (adjustable, because its pretty dim ran off of just the 18650 series battery.) can i use a 5v usb charging circuit to "trickle" charge it and should my powerswitch be before or after the up converter (im thinking before because it makes more sense).
so to sum it up its cheap crap... any recommendations on a good portable light?
appears that it'd make a good project of some sort
Have a few Beers and then look at the video with the auto texting is comedic gold
I have a 50w Rechargeable Portable Ul LED Floodlight
With DC plug charger & Car Charger 12V Output: 8.4v
Battery Type: Lithium-Ion Built-in Battery High power battery capacity 2200mah 8.4V
I wish to adapt this light to take my Makita 18v - 5.0 Ah Battery. (as these charge within 20 min) Would i need to use a Step-Up/Step-Down Voltage Regulator? Or anything else? Sorry to appear vague,this area is not my specialty.
They would be better off selling them as bare units then you could mod it the way you would like .
Just bought two of these and first thing will be a quadrupling of battery capacity.
This explains why it's so hard to tell if these chargers light green, orange, red or whatever. Looking straight on the LED it's one colour, but looking at an angle it's another colour. So annoying.
Is it possible to buy a proper designed compact charger for this, after seeing this I don't trust these chargers and you never really know when the battery is fully charged (if ever), or if gets overcharged due to poor tolerances.
Facts first, you missed the close up label of the battery label, hours / amps, we can do the math it just the label info
Why do the instructions say do not use light while its charging? What happens if you do?
+Darren Jowett I don't actually see it causing any issue other than maybe not charging the battery to full capacity in these units.
Thanks Clive for more brilliant videos, and hope you did not get too battered in the storms!!
What are those very nice looking screwdrivers you use, and where did you buy them from ??
+700 Dog The small screwdriver set is from a UK shop called Poundland. It's a common type called a 9 in 1 set.
Hi, Im looking for a handy rechargeable worklight for working in a garage at night. So im wanting a strong light source with a life of at least a few hours before recharge is necessary preferabally 6 - 8 hours. Now is something like this quality even on the market or is it all rubbish like this LED work light ? Your reccommendation is much appreciated.
For detail work I strongly recommend getting a decent rechargeable head torch. Then add a portable work light for a bit of general room fill. That way there will always be plenty of light where you need it.
Thx clive . Any recommendation on head torch is appreciated ! I have one of those cheepo 10w led lamps you reviewed hooked up to a car battery and its ok for bg light but i need something brighter for measuring and marking. Specific brand and model or spec is appreciated.
can i just using regular resistor instead this stone blocks resistor? what's the difference? i mean regular resistor for limiting the current right?
+Prasetyo Muhammad Dwi you can if you want the resistor to fry itself and leave a nasty burn mark on the device and possibly your fingers as it fails. Power handling and dissipation capacity is why the wire wound (stone block as you call them) are used.
so regular resistor just for power handling and for lower wattage led's right?
+Prasetyo Muhammad Dwi resistors differ in their power dissipation, the small ones are 1/4 or 1/3watts, you need a 10w resistor for this lamp or the resistor would burn out higher rated resistors are larger, and use a ceramic box that can withstand higher heat (and are still sometimes attached to a heatsink)
jusb1066 so much brief explanation... but hey thanks for clearing this up :D
i baught 2x 30w cool white floodlights
the leds are bad at 12v they come on
plus they draw 23.3w on mains via 32v driver ? paid £15 for both
i think i have a genuine 30w portable floodlight that has 6x 18650 cells
Correct torque = screw it in until it strips, then back off half a turn.
Oh, and that huge case with a tiny wee battery!
I suppose you could fill the battery compartment with cells.
I did in another one.
Do the batteries reach full charge using the car charger?
+Darren Jowett Add long as it puts out the required 4.2v or 8.4v they should.
the charger for mine it puts out 12.6v for 3 cells 2in parallel as its a 30w light but i need to replace the led as it died weirdly
I wish Stanley still made those 5000 series screwdrivers.
if its 8.4 charge, its probley "2" 18650 in series,so wire more in paralle to made it last longer Time on Batts, not a bad video overall
Great video! I'm really glad you've done a tear-down on one of these because I was so close to buying one the other day! On the other hand, it looks like there is plenty of room for adding additional batteries inside the lamp? Could be a nice little project.
you sound so much different back then big guy lol !! just going threw the old vids
@bigclivedotcom: i'm wondering if maybe you might put up a simple "tutorial" on how opto-isolators work. I know YT is full of examples but I'd rather learn from you. Thank you sir!
Please provide Buy link on flipkart
Add another battery in series with the current one!
It might just be me but ever since yesterday, every time I try to watch one of clives new videos I don't get audio, I've checked several times and all my volume controls are on max, and its just his videos, other videos are fine. Any ideas?
+TheJordanJurassic It's mono and some surround sound systems fire it all to the bass channel. It seems to be a quirk with TH-cam's own uploading App.
I would rather they make lights like this that use quickly replaceable 18650 batteries. Would much rather have the ability to have a set of extra batteries on hand or at least get better capacity batteries. Also use a way more trustworthy charger too... And if i was to buy such a light i would have to mod in a Constant current driver. And use a PWM to lower the light output. Seems a bit more efficient. IDK
+John Simpkins there are now lights that have a compartment on the back for three 18650's. I think it may have been inspired by the UK postal rules prohibiting shipping of batteries by air.
bigclivedotcom oh cool thank you for the quick reply. Let's hope they wire that in such a way to not kill the batteries. So with a cut off voltage. Love your vids. Fun seeing someone take the time to inspect the cheap and surprising in all the wrong ways. Used your information to inspect and stop using some if the cheap Chinese wall warts I had in use.. usb hubs and led light's.
+bigclivedotcom Link?
+bigclivedotcom
I hadn't thought of that! How does it go with laptop battery packs though?
It's bad enough trying to post an aerosol now..
+John Simpkins With a bit of faffing about you can remove the battery and put in a compartment for 4 cells. You can also fit a current mode switch mode PSU that runs quite cool. The switch can be wired to alter the current as well if you are careful. You cant just run it as an additional parallel resistor in the current sense circuit as that will make the switcher throw a wobbler as the inductance and distance from the chip will make it throw a wobbler due to noise etc.
I'm actually a fan of undercharging lithium cells, because it will extend their life. I normally go for 4,1 V charger IC's instead of the 4,2 V ones. Of course the charge voltage of this cheap thing is more like hit an miss.
storing lithium cells at full voltage is what kills them, not charging them up to full 4.2v capacity. undercharging does nothing unless you plan to let the cells sit for an extended period.
+thechosendude
Yes, I agree. Where I was going with this was, if I don't fully charge them, then they won't sit at full voltage ever, no matter if I use them or have them sitting on a shelf. Of course you trade in usable capacity, but that LED work light is actually a perfect example, you probably will only use it sporadically and most of the time it will sit on a shelf. And if you needed the full capacity, the case has plenty of space and weight isn't an issue, so you could just double up cells.
Also that 4.2 V is a very delicate figure, go over it only slightly and irreversible damage is done to the cell.
+Jack White It's a better option than what I ended up with when I bought some 14500 lithiums to run a cheap $3 single AA pocket light. My smart charger is not smart enough to not charge those cells at more than 1C so they have to be charged in parallel slots. The punchline is that the low voltage protection circuit on the cell cuts in at 3 volts. So it's leaving a lot of capacity unused but I usually have one cell sitting around fully charged. The cells run the LED brighter, but have less than half the run-time of a NiMH. A tired, bargain-brand NiMH.
Reduced capacity *and* shorter run-time *and* reduced life.
+Markle2k
Below 3 V there really isn't any charge left in a lithium cell, we're talking a couple of percent here. And discharging it further would also damage the cell (even more critical is charging a deep discharged cell ... they are a real fire hazard).
+Markle2k
3 volts per cell is a serious over discharge. personally I'd try to stay above 3.6 volts. And never under 3.3.
I'm really shocked they lied about the wattage..
I just bought some 'angle eye' bolt in led lights, so good the catch fire....
ytGUdgsrDso
That thing seem so ripe for modding.. tons of space for more batteries and ancillary electronics to do fancy things.
i use 4 of the ten watt ones as studio lights on my other channel
Nice one. I wont be buying one of these now.
Glad you did the review
+BigCliveDotCom Was getting worried you haven't posted a video in a while. Thought you were either taken up ill or (gasp!) Poundland closed.
I agree with others posted that this would be a great lamp to "hack" (read "build it correctly"). You can definitely add additional batteries rather easily, maybe run the LEDs at the rated 20W? Did you give them a pass on the crappy way they attached the leads to the resistors? No insulation, no screws holding them down. Presumably, running this lamp over time will cause those resistors to heat and cool, expanding and contacting causing them to loosen and fall off. Potential fire hazard?
Thanks for the great videos. Have to say, I'm learning so much more about electronics now from you, than I did when I went to university "a couple" of years ago.
I had to laugh at the fact that there were no grommets !!!
Well ... it's a spiffy shade of red, though. Suppose that's something.
LOL bloody hell, im sure you will find an upgrade battery for that beast :-D
That charger was odd, perhaps replace the farty diode for a schottky diode for less loss, and stick a diode in series with the zenna to up the voltage a little?
no he'd replace it with a proper lithium charger. one that does a constant Current then a constant voltage charge cycle before terminating at a proper 4.2volts per cell;)
+topher
Im sure your right, i still think there is some leaway in the voltage cutoff, i dont think the batterys would explode if there was 200mv overvoltage or undervoltage, i think abuse causes them to pop lol.
+zx8401ztv
Sadly they don't need abuse to cause them to explode.
18650's and the like caused the problem with sending batteries by post.
Just google Segway battery fires.
Most Chinese manufacturers outright lie about batteries, LED's, memory sticks and similar.
The usual price for a 2Tb USB memory stick is about £10 on ebay.
Their actual size is close to 10Mb.
Some 18650's can be opened up to find a smaller battery inside.
Does anyone actually make 10,000 mah batteries?
Brass fittings never rusted till China made them.
Anyone remember screws that didn't lose their profile.
Ebay compound the problem by knowingly allow the sale of lied about products.
Rant over.
Hope you felt better, i did :-D
Lol. Don't get me started again.
REUTERS: The Pentagon repeatedly waived laws banning Chinese-built components on U.S. weapons in order to keep the $392 billion Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter program on track.
www.reuters.com/article/us-lockheed-f-idUSBREA020VA20140103
I should really make one that runs off a power bank. But then again i don't trust these ratings of 10-20-30watt I want to get the most lumen per watt with the wattage of max 10 this way 5v@2amp would be good
Just opened up my LED flood light and it have ONE 18650!!! Could not believe it!
That's like the one in the recent video. It makes it MUCH easier to retrofit a new LED.
TNice777 add it on paralel to boost capacity
All that space with only 2 batteries!?
i fitted a 12v led dimmer on my 30w vwesion
is its 12v not 8.4v
Ah wish I saw this earlier lol. I bought DIALL LED Site light from screwfix for £30 - 23w - and it's so much better than this 50w big light I just bought. Will be sending it back since it's not as well made and not as bright. My little light is heavier than the big 50w. Tried contacting ebayer before buying but no response so thought I'd just give it a go.
I wish someone actually properly made 30-50w led site lights rather than these fake crap ones. I need them for outside when I'm travelling about and 23w is great but would love to have 30-50w. Would be great to if they used T6 CREE LED also. If someone actually made decent ones I would happily buy it.
Can anyone give me a link to something similar that is actually putting out 20 w
Can anyone solve this mystery? - bought what claims to be a 20w work light. It is actually 3w. Just turned it on today and it won't light. Plugged the mains charger in with the switch at the mains socket off and it lights up? The socket being a single pole switch only. I can even remove the charger from the mains socket and it remains on. But if I remove the jack from the charging socket it turns off.
It sounds like the back of the jack has been miswired through the inserted-plug contact.
Thank you. Very helpful. Does not worth the money. After this video I am planning to build a "DIY" portable floodlight using a motorbike battery or something cheap but useful. It seems that better if I buy a cheaper AC feed floodlight too.
These are all bad, what would you reccomend and what web site
Nice case, its a shame they didnt put the electronics to match lol.
I've noticed that you can get the 10w ones now in screw fix for not much more money than gear best.
www.screwfix.com/p/ae0183-rechargeable-led-work-light-10w-12-240v/1815d
This 20W work light is really powerful, the light link : www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07LG8JF17?ref=myi_title_dp&th=1
As many of these units will spend most of their lives plugged in waiting to be used, charging to 80% rather than 100% might actually be a benefit to the long term health of the cells perhaps...?
not quite... lipos aren't happy constantly sitting with a current on them.... a proper charger shuts off when up to voltage.
+topher
Peter is right or maybe you misunderstood him.
charging li-ions only to 80% is universally better than to 100%, battery health wise.
+ECN well when you charge them to 80% then continue charging them holding them at 80%, no that is bad for li-ion batteries.
+ECN and charging to 80% isn't "better" than charging to 100% it means you'll get more cycles yes but you get less capacity.
Maybe, but I'm sure there is a point of break-even between charging cycles and less capacity per charge.
OP's thoughts were initially considering the fact that having the battery sitting 100% charged 90% of the time is a bad idea.
"Cross threading is a good as LocTite" as they say
You have a nice voice! You should look into doing commercial and movies
the charger is not charging to full,these are as the led ,cheap chinese batteries so if you use a bigger psu you might over charge with a chance of exploding batteries
The 50 Watt Version is even worse, Can tell you about it if you contact me
I think ScrewFix sell these lights.
Clive I feel the same enthusiasm as you about the CRAP made in China, I feel the need to shower after touching cheap crap like this, It just leaves you dirty feeling, keep the videos coming, your friend from the USA..