Total teardown of a shady eBay light with "mystery earth"
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- Physically this light looks and feels quite nice. The way the driver is mounted is unusual and minimalist.
While I wouldn't recommend this in its original form, it has potential as a source of an interesting case for your own lighting project.
Here's a generic search link:-
www.ebay.com/s...
The same search on eBay UK shows a wide price range from £9 upwards.
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.co...
This also keeps the channel independent of TH-cam's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
One day we're going to find Ebay listings, that ship from China, will start saying "will not ship to Isle of Man" and we'll know why... 🤣
They already do. It's getting harder and harder to get stuff shipped here.
@@bigclivedotcom off-topic question I'm not a fan of vintage stuff it scares me
@@bigclivedotcom I'm sure there are enough folks who would forward new stuff to you if you ask
@@bigclivedotcom how heavy was that object
@@bigclivedotcom probably too much effort and more cost, but is there not someone in mainland UK you can have items shipped to, then have them send it to you? just a suggestion.
That potting material looks and sounds kind of like some sort of expanding foam.
I bet someone calculated that they could save a ton of money on potting resin since the expanding foam only requires a fraction of the volume of material vs. traditional resin that needs an entire enclosure volume worth of resin.
or it's just random two part unknown garbage, poorly mixed and very aerated, possibly toxic crap blended.
It's not expanding foam, it'll be some kind of silicone or polyurethane compound overloaded with the cheapest filler they can find. I've seen the same stuff used on fake motorcycle voltage regulators were the filler appeared to be fine sand.
@@ferrumignis "filler" aka whatever garbage they can put in it, likely the supposed recycled plastic bottles and grocery shopping bags.... there's no way to safely and efficiently recycle most plastics to this very day IRL, yet we/the whole earth is polluted with said junk plastics.. at least glass breaks back down into sand, when not cleansed and re-used.
@@throttlebottle5906 you can burn them, but no, the real problem is toxic co2... 🙄
@@monad_tcp nobody said it was toxic
That compound looks like it had a lot of air holes in it, might be part of why it was so crumbly, but it would make it an effective insulator - making that power supply it's very own self-easy bake oven. Extra fun for the capacitors!
I have pretty much no idea whats going on but I can't help but binge this channel.
"Fake Earth" would be a good band name or album!
Don't tell the Donald..
Fraudulent ground wire is just sickening.
38C-50C is the tempreture it's supposed to run at
gazyounglive I was thinking the same thing .
TV sets are still only rated at 10C - 40C, because the standards have not changed since that is all you could achieve with a valve set..
The thought just came to me that I'm slightly surprised you can't at least read mandarin by now. I love your videos though they are hilarious and informative. The very first video I saw was flamin fanny and have been hooked since.
First time I've ever seen chocolate used as a potting compound 🙂
At first I thought Clive meant that it contained a mysterious earthen stuff that was probably thorium oxide…
Also when I hear “buck regulator” I want there to be such a thing as a doe regulator as well…
I went quiet at 7:15 so he didnt lose count
When he was crumbling all that plastic away, I was expecting a creamy nougat center.
It worries me a little to see that fake ground, I wonder how many products I currently use are built that way, some of them used in damp environments.
It's always worth testing new products.
This is another nice light for in my garage
Parkside eh!, Julian will be happy.
Clive, I did not hear you scream at 09:20 when you exposed a live circuitry that could be exposed to water.
why do LEDs need heatsinks? i've never noticed them getting hot enough to really need them.
Is it the case that manufacturers give them enough surface area to dissipate the heat such that it isn't noticeable?
"that's so shit" lol exactly what I thought
The first thing I saw was the rusty screw. Is this a clue towards its quality
Might be OK for a grow light housing but too expensive.
Could that "white moist siliconey stuff" be dielectric grease???
I learned from today’s video that 33 and 100 are the same number of LED’s. Way to go metric system.
You didn't tear anything you methodically strip it down.
Electric screw gun!! Nice touch.
I have a Chinese laser cutter that had an interesting earthing arrangement, all very neatly done. They had very thoughtfully secured the lug at the end of the green/yellow wire onto a high quality standoff insulator mounted onto the substantial steel chassis, which ensured that the earth connection could never accidentally come into contact with the chassis. There was thus no danger of it tripping my RCD or blowing a fuse if the live wire for some reason contacted the chassis, which would be quite inconvenient.
One of the first modifications I made to mine was to remove the existing plug and replace it with one of a proper guage for its power usage, which lead me to rework the ground to actually be life protecting instead of its original configuration.
Your body should be good enough to trip the rcd 😂
ROFL they wanted to produce a working device.
Nobody said it had to be safe.......
BORING
Yeah
I don't think I've ever seen something potted in "poundland pencil eraser" before.
Why do manufacturers pot it in the first place?
Is there any benefit to it or is it just supppost to make the repair harder?
@@felixd2136 keeps the elements out and stops anything shaking loose. It's also a pretty lazy/cheap way to mount things in a box. Some certainly do use it as a way to obscure the contents. I don't think they care about repair at all, even apple don't seem that intent on blocking repair through design. Most decisions come down to cost/time of production.
I like how the back of the PSU case says "PF > 0.95" and the actual power factor was nowhere near there.
Typical Chinese ratings
It's not cute. It's disgusting.
it may hit the supposed power factor rating at a specific voltage and current input and output load both... as do even the best active PFC switch modes, let alone passives
somebody noticed: If we put this sticker on, it boosts karma with customs. Same goes for the magic sticker "CE". perhaps it's just like buying candles in church. it helps by the power of positive thinking!
@@rarbiart customs LOL, they're too busy making sure live things are dead, it;s not humans inside, nor illegal drugs...
the rest total crap-shoot
They chopped off the lead to earth-ground to make a solid connection to the earth-silicon potting 😂 I wonder what toxic manufacturing waste filler-crap you just touched.
He's immune to toxic manufacturing waste due to his constant exposure to all the Chinese junk that he gets from Poundland to do surgery on.
@@wolfmobile3693 heh perhaps. But I don't think that's dye pigment gray. I think that's incinerator furnace mystery-ash gray.
I haven't even thought of that. You can bet it's something that they just wanted to get rid of.
Prolly loads of PCB's
@@wolfmobile3693 His beard is a HEPA filter
'The earth wire has just been chopped off. That's so shit'.
Expert analysis and safety advice from Big Clive. :-) LOL.
After all of these years, I've never noticed until now the HOPI says "FREQUENCE"
woah. We've been Mandela'd lol
France moment
@Michael Bishop Get on my level, 3x400VAC 25A in virtually every household in Denmark ;)
@Michael Bishop Most American houses are 240v its just that its broken or split into two legs of 120v.
this cordless driver has a strange speed, so the interference with the camera frame rate every unscrewing looks left-handed.
yeah, that threw me for a loop, too.
Someone please buy him a proper impact driver
Yep- I noticed too.
My radio can detect lightning for miles using the super antenna aka a bent steel rod
let me guess
static noise
@@ebrocoliphoto Static noise is not very static any more when lightning is around. It becomes "spikey noise".
🤨 - its not the length of the antenna, but the bands that you have selected on your radio, how far you can pick up static. AM - SW, MW, LW, can pick up lightning out to sea/main land Europe. FM can only pick up static within 1 mile from the radio 😉
Once I had a radio that 'detected' lightning by burning out the transistor in the RF input. But it was an easy to find 2N3904. 🙄🙄
My Internet router recently detected lightning nearby by blowing a couple of Ethernet ports. 🤨
It amazes me that someone would go to the trouble of putting together the lens etc., and making a decent job of it - even prerusting the screws - and buy two types of cable to fit to it, then clip off the earth wire.
Presumably they think it's purely decorative and required by import authorities for it's colour.
They like bright colours! Look at those pretty red screws...
It's double insulated! There's insulation around the earth wire, and it's not connected, insulating it from everything! That's how it works, right?
Seriously at least ground the housing. That's just stupid dangerous.
China seems to have some strange ideas regarding earth connections, many of the K40 laser engravers from China have an earth connection to the metal case... but they don't think to remove the paint first! (this is on a device with 15 thousand volts with water cooling on the laser tube.... what could go wrong?)
@@Anaerin if it was actually double insulated as the double square "suggests" (it is actually not) you could omit, better, you MUST omit the earth wire.
It seems some Chinese electrical devices should have a label stating "FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY" affixed to them.
Lol
Any time I see a buck-regulator supply I wince a bit. I had a time with one where the board was poorly cut, slotted into aluminum channel, and found a path to earth in a very FZZZT-sounding way. blew the wires clean off each end of the regulator "supply". good riddance!
Yep, unlike the capacitive dropper type led lamps where the output to the led board is referenced to mains mainly on the neutral side, the buck regulator type are even more dangerous as there is really poor current limiting capabilities, less reliability and can pose even more of a risk of serious electrocution and fire.
10:04 "I'd rather have it (shock) when I know I'm going to get it..."
Hmm, remember my Dad always used to say - if you're expecting an electric shock its less dangerous because its not so much of a shock! - some sort of odd builder's sense of humour :)
Weird. On the schematic, the line down from the negative end of the bridge rectifier had one of those semi-circles on it that were used elsewhere on the same schematic to make it clear that two lines were crossing each other but not connected, but that semi-circle was in a totally different place to where one of the AC lines crossed it...
It's like the schematic image was modified by someone who didn't really understand what all the parts of the image meant - just like the label on the LED driver, where they probably blindly copied "PF >0.95" from some other driver without knowing what it meant :)
Interesting, about a year ago I got some 50 W LED lights off Ebay that have exactly the same case made from the aluminium extrusion, with the yellow plastic sides and the strange lens in front. These lights however use the Driver On Board design, so there is just the mains connection coming out the back of the light. Grounding was very dubious in my lights, with the incoming ground wire just jammed inbetween the the LED board and the aluminium extrusion. I upgraded that to a safe screw connection and have been using the lights (I got 4 of them) as photo and video lighting ever since. There is a video about exploring and modding these lights on my channel if anyone is interested.
Ah yes, the wireless earth connection.
It's obviously a drain wire to empty out any static building up in the potting compound!
Do you think it’s compatible with those wireless anti static wrist bands Wish sells?
An earth isn't needed
"... feels like copper coated aluminium ..."
Also known as Chinese House Ignition Mix #1.
I see they are using wireless grounding technology on this driver.
Was that power supply potted with potting mix for pot plants?
Or was it chocolate?
"Recycled" potting chocolate?
The "HOPI" deserves his own channel. It can be ten minutes of it sitting on a desk just flickering away. I'd watch it!
That looked like Chinese Dairy milk compound 🤷🏼♂️ Who knows
But you can guarantee it’s full off all sorts of safe chineseium chemicals🤢
"Mystery Earth"? I was hoping for an unlisted included package of some rare earth powder.
Nah, just a standard Fake Earth.
Earthed via Kryptonite.
But even that earth isn't flat.
This uses new Virtual Earth technology where it is the responsibility of the user to hold the case while switched on to earth it
virtual earthing works by the magic aura of yellow colorcoding.
@@rarbiart wait, here brown is the earth, yellow is live !
@@monad_tcp Definitely Brown trouser time then
It did have the double insulated symbol. Does the paper liner and potting count as two layers?
I guess that symbol has about as much value as CE on random Chinese imports.
Edit: and it claimed "PF > 0.95". I can't decide if the labelling is an intentional scam or just laziness by filling it with a bunch of stuff.
These stupid lamps all wish they could brighten our lives like you do.
Thanks man!
I would buy this just for the heatsink. How much did it cost.
I thought the same thing. Following the ebay link I found one for 19 GBP+Shipping which is honestly a decent price for the heatsink alone.
this psu is just horrible... the potting not enough, the potting it too thin, and it's crumbly... and the seals are non-existant... i wonder what this would look like after a a few week in north european weather...
I guess why they did not connect the ground... too many customer complaints about tripping RCDs....
It could have been interesting to see if the potting was fire resistant. I can imagine this PSU failing in such a way it would set the foam on fire if it not resistant to that...
It looks heavily glass filled (and that being the reason for crumbliness), so I would say it is at least fire retardant.
Clive could probably use the stuff he crumbled off as a BBQ starter.
@@evghenim1955 Looking the part or being left over wood shavings, the only test is to set it on fire and watch (from a safe distance).
"don't know if its functional but will stuff it in anyway" .. we've all been there?
Hello Clive,
Few years aback, I were able to locate some of those Pentawatt switching power regulators on Rapid Electronics. They can be configured both as buck or boost, and constant voltage or constant current. Your power supply is configured in constant current mode at 0.22 Amp.
Thanks for the video...
opened up a ladies hot wax warmer from ebay. This also had a mystery earth! So that was fixed as the thing uses an stainless pot inside another with a 100w heater band. Also the thermostat is the open frame type that is just screwed to the inside of said stainless pot! the design is just like a slow cooker!
"mystery earth" lol
The Earth To Nowhere.
lol
Isn't the 35C - 50C the nominal operating temperature?
Wow, I wonder what would happen if some store here in Germany would sell these (we have pretty strict rules regarding everything that could endanger someone in some way). I think they would be forced into making a recall and giving the customers their money back when some authority would find out that the ground is just not connected at all. It feels like it should be illegal to sell these devices in their completely unsafe form.
If that crumbly potting mixture takes off, it will be a boon to people doing teardowns everywhere.
A LOT of Chinese stuff and even reputable corsair psu has used it before.
Feels like a foamy silicone hybrid. Really handy for tear down
The power brick for Husqvarna Automover uses that crumbling potting mixture.
Interesting light
LED Lamp: PF>0.95
Clive: PF
and I'm guessing "over 80% efficiency" is also wrong?
" Pre rusted " 🤣
I always learned that when you have a double isolated appliance, you should definitely NOT have an earth connection. Well, at least that's how it is in continental Europe.
Karl Moens it's not actually double isolated though...
The power supply may, with some effort, be considered double insulated, the whole appliance definitely isn't. The markings are, however, for the power supply alone. The appliance is missing everything. It is 200% illegal to be put on european market.
The power supply output is not main isolated. Definitely unsafe. Definitely not double insulated.
@@Seiskid double insulation is a different thing than low voltage insulation from mains.
A power supply may well have double insulation with high voltage ES2/ES3 output or non-insulated output. The symbol refer to the power supply alone.
Howerver the WHOLE appliance, to be double-insulated must have double insulation barrier from any live circuit to the cassis, which a COB LED array on an aluminum PCB is not.
The whole appliance could be double insulated if the output of the power supply is an ES1 circuit (low voltage) with safeguards for single failures. This is not the case, also.
Yes that's for double insulation, not 1/2 insulation.
Bigclive you are my HULK. 🤩
You can easily break these potting compounds with your bare hands.
Mystery Earth... Sounds like a good name for one of those Nat Geo docu-series.
Nooooo! Clive's gone over to the dark side - he's using an ELECTRIC screwdriver. I may have to unsubscribe...
Amanda Prosser It’s from Lidl/China so it still okay
The lens seal did not stick well to the lens because they did not rinse off the lens dies mold release compound after molding the lens. A few heat/cold cycles of pressure/vacuum on the seal and the seal will no longer be sealed and damp air will get sucked in and condense on the LED's in this "air tight" enclosure. Cast in place seals do not keep the sealing pressure on that an o-ring can on dissimilar materials as they expand and contract with temperature at different rates.
The thought of Clive crumbling in front of us is the thing that nightmares are made of....
Lidl Parkside FTW! My favorite tool brand
The low-res blurry circuit diagram really messed with my perception once again. Trying to focus on something that you can't. It's normally the large printouts of PCBs, which make me wonder how it's so easy to write on components...
Needs a shirt saying “no earth wire... Wow! That’s so shit.”
Ooh, electric screwdriver - Clive's getting posh! 😁
printing the image of the circuit probably cost more than the circuit.
I always find it strange when they go to a fair amount of effort on the overall construction and then the insides are a nightmare. It's like they achieve the more difficult/expensive aspects then try and cut corners elsewhere.
Makes sense - an externally good feeling and looking product will be more appealing to the average buyer than one that doesn't look as nice but has better made innards.
Someone did a good job of designing it, then others come along and remove all the bits that make it safe to save money. I wonder if it is for "Export Only" and too dangerous for the Chinese market.
I have a few of these, working well now for over 2 years with occasional use. I paid $5 each.
The driver is marked as a Class II appliance. This disallows earth being connected. They should not provide the yellow-green wire though.
It's marked as such but definitely isn't
The driver is non-isolated, so not just the driver but the whole light needs to meet "double insulated" standards. I find it highly doubtful that the mounting of the LED PCB on the heatsink/body of the light meets double insulation standards even if the driver does.
This driver is visible from the outside, so its markings should apply to the whole device i think. And the LED module is definitely a weak point that may fail to pass the double/reinforced insulation requirements.
And the presence of that unconnected PE wire just adds to the mystery. Anyway, we should not look for an earth connection at all when there is a Class II symbol (in legitimate appliances).
I wonder if that prism shape ad time 4:15 was the result of the cover being originally designed for a flourescent model.
You can watch your hotdog cook in there. It's a perfect box for a e-fork cooker!
Glad you did not pause to crumble the crumbley bits.
The eBay search gave several sellers selling ones named "Viugreum" just like the one in the video. Sounds like those pills from the Canadian pharmacy spam emails. 😂😂 Oddly, they all said 110V, which seemed odd since these are typically universal power supplies.
I've been thinking for a while now you need an electric screwdriver to speed things up on camera...and then you whip out this thing my grandpa used in 1985. Seriously, get a nice torquey little impact and keep it on the bench...people don't like watching you turn screws. A little 12v model with some small bits would be perfect.
Looks like the Bosch 3.6v lithium screwdriver we had at work.
Is it me or are the lens screws left hand thread? I know GB is a left hand drive country but...
Frame rate illusion.
@@bigclivedotcom Thanks dude!
@@fanplant DUDE
Moral of the video: drill a hole and run your own earth wire to the chasis of these chinese crapy devices if you care for your safety.
My biggest complaint of the quick test is the stiff power cord and the lite weight of the other end.
That aluminium heatsink housing is awesome.
I used an Old housing like This on 1 of my 12volt to 110volt Convertors.
A factoid of dubious utility: The hopi shares it's name with a Native American tribe.
@@analogueavenue no. The skin of red is an racist myth from the topless nature of many Tribes native garb.
Where as things are often named after Native Tribes in respect to them, as they where fearsome warriors and getting a tribe to join your side in any early conflict could easily turn the tides of war.
And did turn the tides of many conflicts, leading to the many treaties the USA promptly ignored and broke....
You should feel sorry for yanks. If the US government wont even honor its treaties what hope do you have of them honoring anything else?
According to circuit diagram - another LED light where you must avoid LED terminal touching when device is plugged in mains. Still curious about what was that junkyard vomit used as filler for circuit board casing?
Big Clive, Could you consider taking apart a Fuelrod USB battery pack? It is the only one I have that can be charged while in use. Sort of like a USB UPS. But I want to know if it is safe to charge it while in use. If so, I might use it as a Raspberry PI UPS.
Just use an actual UPS hat... We make inexpensive and safe ones!
Well, someone has been to Lidl! They had a cordless driver kit in this week again, I was tempted....
Oh yes, most LED lights from China take weeks of exposure to the elements for that kind of rust to form, so it's good to see this one comes pre-treated.
Ground. In America we call the "earth" wire a "ground wire"
"pooed some silicon around it."
What a perfect word choice.
If you pour acid on a buck regulator do you get a bucks fizz?
0:53 I can already see 2 things indicating it is a bad piece of electronics.
The power supply has 2 pieces of plastic plugging the sides of the metal part.
However, they are both NOT fully in the metal housing.
And 1 of the screws is rusted over.
I was thinking that aluminium extrusion might make a good heat sink for a test load I'm making.
I notice the power supply said it was >95% PF, not the 55% that it actually was.
I think that is mostly useful as a nice heat sink. Maybe build an audio amplifier and use it.
I kinda like using a cordless impact driver for disassembling stuff, pretty fast, and DeWalt has one that is very short and stubby.
Great teardown Clive @BigCliveDotCom
Nice no mid-roll ad's. one in the eye for youtube but not for the viewer's :)
You wouldn't be talking about ads if you had Adblock Plus or (my preference) uBlock Origin installed. For more ad-proofing you could install Universal Bypass to skip those for-profit link shorteners and SponsorBlock for crowd-sourced skipping of sponsors on popular channels.
TH-cam advertisers miss the point when they don't get the brand name in the first 2 seconds before you skip it.
I have a few of these lights, they have been holding up fine for over 2 years in construction work. I probably should earth them now that I have seen this.
How do the Chinese manufacturers find out about these niche chips? The light manufacturer surely isn't rolling their own silicon for exclusive use. Is there a trade magazine or website in Chinese where this is advertised, or really just word of mouth experience?
They're sold by industrial suppliers. Many will be knock offs of other companies chips.
@@bigclivedotcom So how do the suppliers know what to offer? Do they have like an internal catalog, or look at the products the manufacturer is making, and recommend some of their new 'solutions'? Seems they'd need engineering staff to really study their customer to know what they might need/want and what to offer? I want to believe there is some accessible resource we could find, that with a simple browser 'translate' we'd find the treasure trove of this 'hidden' internal info/datasheets...