Plot twist: This isn't a fake product. Unbeknownst to Big Clive, "designing products to troll Big Clive" is now one of the premier e-sports in Shenzen. This product was made specifically as bait to see how he'd review it.
I was that mate! I built an FM transmitter and receiver in soap boxes. Wore the receiver and fed the earpiece through my shirt and around my ear lobe, covered by my long hair. Sat by the windows and threw my question sheet out the window, and claimed I didn't get one. Meanwhile, two grade 12 friends were outside that picked up the question sheet, and transmitted the answers in to my ear. Grade 10 Geography was never easier. And a hell of a lot of fun to build and mess with.
It's like that Swees USB adapter you tested. There's so much "all that stands between you and the mains is an 1/8w resistor" or "sub-millimeter separation" in cheap products, it's actually refreshing to see one where there's no separation at all.
I've wondered if they're acquiring injection molds that once belonged to others (leftovers from r&d, mold errors, unpaid projects, etc) and then try to figure out the cheapest way to stuff some type of semi-working guts into them to give the appearance of a viable product...
I've seen videos of people strolling around the vast Schenzen electronics markets, and there are people selling these "generic" cases and other plastic moldings by the thousand for pennies each. Thats why so many Chinese products look the same but are branded different, and have different internals. I get the impression that if a company comissions molds to make cases for a product, once that order has been fulfilled and the molding looks sellable they just go on making them and sell them on the market to smaller companies looking for a cheap case or mechanism. Copyright in China and across the far east is a somewhat flexible concept.
@@IanSlothieRolfe As no "copyright laws" exsist in China once someone spends their time and money designing a product others just seem to copy it without the same expense.
And the Chineseum crap factory’s pick up the leftovers and make crap with them and “export only” to the west, and expect us to buy them, and eventually throw in the electronic waste. While managing to fool standards/customs from intercepting and destroying them 😠⚠️
@@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse Oh, if you copied something made by a company run by or that supported the CCP you'd find out about copyright pretty fast....
When it's sooooo bad that Clive does his best to not giggle like a school child seeing a naughty image badly drawn on the wall, you can not help but giggle right along 🤣
haha, this is why i watch as well. I have what is best described (and charitably so) a child understanding of electronics but I watch cos I like his personality and way of explaining things. That makes it entertaining for someone like me to watch/listen to.
It's sold under various names at Amazon USA: "Tbh not sure if it even works because I can’t tell the difference. I stopped using it though because it shocked me up my arm." And from a review site: "Customer complaints include receiving mild electric shocks from these units and they may be particularly unsuitable if you have young children or pets in your home."
Nothing more than a mild warning for a device designed to waste poor people's money - and a little bit more! Between these, dangerous diy videos and fake batteries - it seems like there's just too much in common, either someone wants you dead [why?]; or otherwise wants to kill 'the maker' - that undead adage of "don't burn the house down!" gets it's merit from examples set by fools; and these malcreations...
Don't forget that the European supply is nominally 220 volts. Getting a shock at this level is a completely different story to one from a 120 volt system. Mild shocks and 220 volts don't belong in the same sentence
@@rjmun580 on the other hand, European shoppers at least have the nominal protection of the CE classification system... If they aren't too ignorant to look for it.
Clive, it's about time the company did an upgrade combining all, in a compact, plug-in unit - an ioniser, power saver and pest repellent of all critters. Now that circuit would be worth analysing.
If they made a real one, I guess it would just be an ioniser and pest repellent, given that the power savers are BS? I could imagine one of those death fan insect trap things that lures them in with pretty lights and sucks them down through a fan. Perhaps a decent corona discharge would attract the bugs while ionising the air (although, of course, then it wouldn't be a 'repellent' but the aim is still 'less bugs')
@@treborrrrr That's an excellent solution. It's cheap, quick and as a result, be put on the market for sale straight away. I recommend you apply for lead designer for label engineering.
@@aliveandwellinisrael2507 The power saver function can be added for free, as part of the device upgrade. The power saved can then be used to power the other functions. Sniffff - Aaahhhh I Love The Smell Of Fried Insects In The Evening.
When YT suggested me some of your videos, I didn't think I'm here to stay. It happened like three or four years ago, I don't even know, but I subscribed after watching several unusually calm, friendly and interesting videos, and I'm happy since then.
We need to keep in mind after all that we are talking about people who counterfeit nuts and even eggs. Not edible counterfeit eggs, like egg substitute, just things that look like eggs till you eat them and then you die from ingesting whatever chemicals they were made of.
One of the op-amps has its two inputs wired together. If it's a differential amplifier like the 741 I used to play with in school, that would mean the output was permanently nothing. Edit: 6:45 "More components make more realer!" And that's how you design an electrical circuit.
This kind-of reminds of the "Chinese mystery pistols" that #ForgottenWeapons did some videos and published a book on, where there are fake features which look almost like they were copied by some-one who didn't understand what they did or how they worked, but sort-of cargo-culted a rough ersatz of a half-remembered real device.
@@dj1NM3 My father the mediaeval historian told me that some European coinages in the Middle Ages copied coin issues from the Islamic world - complete with the inscription saying "There is no god but Allah", which they thought was just a decorative squiggle!
@@zh84 It's impressive that the copiers didn't even realise that they were copying writing, but did so well that it could be read. The most famous "brand" inscription used on those mystery pistols is "Wauser", sometimes stamped several times in a row.
Hello Big Clive, the teardown you did survive, from the unit being live, it had components more than five, glad you're still alive, unfortunatly manufacturers of fakes like these will still thrive.⚡🤨⚡🇨🇳👎
And then send it to the original manufacturer with a note explaining how they could have made MORE profit using jellybean ionizer and power supply modules instead of their custom designed bogus bullshit.
I think they've made the pins live intentionally, so that anyone who touches them gets a jolt of high voltage to reinforce that the device actually does something.
@@aliveandwellinisrael2507 a prickle from a high voltage brush isn't going to harm you much unless you are otherwise grounded. I've gotten a good shock while part of me was grounded, and just a tickle if I wasn't firmly grounded.
Maybe the empty spots for the missing resistors were meant for current limiting just to allow enough electricity trough for a tingle in the initial design but then it would cost additional 2 cents sothey went with full on death ionizer pins.
Apparently, the only concern about these things is a potential risk of cancer and birth defects, and even that is only a concern in the state of California.
Its about time ebay did something about these product sellers. I know they won't because the sellers fees are what ebay wants. Somebody is going to die because of these scam units - and ebay don't seem to care.
Fixing this would either require proper governmental oversight and strong consumer protection, massive lawsuits, or eBay taking its own initiative. Which one of these is more likely to happen, I leave up to the AI. :)
@@antisoda Many people already dies from non isolated USB chargers and notjing changed. And it will get worse as new phones dont come with cargers anymore, most people will buy the cheapest charger they see.
The fact that they care about it looking real and at the same time connected live to the emitters makes me think it's deliberate to give people a strong albeit likely not lethal shock since a person wouldn't tough all the bristles.
the best theory i’ve seen is that they tried to make yet another “technically it does make a few ions” ionizer, but themselves got scammed when using third-party components.
Will say every component on the main board is likely a recycled one, whatever was cheapest on the market that day, and was bought by the kilogram for use. The only part that was critical was the resistors for the LED's, those probably bome from a bin of selected value resistors not to blow up the LED's, and then the rest are potluck. Seems that day they had a lot of 120k resistors going cheap, and any 8 pin IC was used, solder blob by accident, because the internal diode will conduct anyway. Ioniser module DIY, because that was 3c cheaper than buying a real one, and possibly they also have a market selling the real items, and put fakes in some deliveries to improve profit margin, putting the fakes in the loads to the drop reshippers, who also do not care.
That's a million dollar idea right there - a 3-in-1 power-saving, insect-repelling ionizer device! You should get that patented! 😂 Shaking my head about this thing though. I mean it's one thing to just sell an "ionizer" that has nothing inside but a few blinking LEDs, but going to the lengths of designing a circuit board and a potted module that both look very important to average Joe but have absolutely no function (and can by mistake even shock you) - wow. Wouldn't be surprised if it was actually slightly more expensive to design this useless thing than putting together a real functioning device out of existing components.
It may be the manufacturer of dodgy goods got duped by another manufacturer of dodgy components. After all they arent going to do any batch testing of the product ato see if it works.
I don't understand why they would put extra components to make it appear functional. Anyone who does open it up is going to figure out it's fake. Someone who knows nothing about electronics isn't going to open it in the first place...
I would desolder the IC and test it. It may well be that it is a dead factory reject chip that was bought for scrap since it will be used in a useless application anyway. I know there is a substantial market for these nonfunctional ICs, as an electronics class I had in college almost a decade ago had a huge problem with fake 74LS04s, some of which were just resistor network lead frames with no resistors. One even had 16 pins.
@@bigclivedotcom Really? I knew there were a lot of fake 'basically the same thing' versions of common components out there, but that's pretty bad. Guess I shouldn't put anything past them.
@@aliveandwellinisrael2507 I've even heard of nonfunctional TO-92 transistors, either empty or wildly wrong like BJTs marked as JFETs. IIRC the cheap eBay opamps that behave roughly like an opamp are mostly a handful of the same low performance dies put in different packages.
there is a strong possibility that that scam happened earlier on in the parts supply chain. Ive actually ran into one revision of a thing being fake and another being real.
Scams happen at every level. Component suppliers swap in bogus parts, assembly contractors use child labor, the packaging companies stole the box design and are also selling it to other companies, and the shipping companies are highjacking the product and subbing in a fake. And every step of the way everybody is swearing they are totally in compliance. Eventually you get so much fraud in a product that it loops around and becomes good. This is not one of those.
Its a well known trick. We were shipped laptop power supplies to test for one of our suppliers. We tortured and destroyed them and sent back the bits announcing it actually took a fair bit to do, they all failed safe and were pretty good, definitely on a par with the original Delta units. Supplier said thank you, ordered a ton of stock, and then a few weeks later, fores, failures and explosions started. The actual stock was borderline lethal. The Chinese supplier sent initial units for certification and evaluation, then having got the contract, sent worthless junk in the same packing and cases. We checked a couple and it was a horror show
@@rtechlab6254 reminds me of the eBay one I bought that spit out so much RFI it made the laptop malfunction, on teardown it looked pretty scary, board went straight to junkbox and I just used the cable to fix the old one.
Man I really love these cheap and dangerous electronics teardowns you do. Thank you for doing these! The "electronic kettle" you got a long time ago will always be on my mind. It's just two leads directly into water, with a plastic case 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Oh gawd, LOL! I really needed this. Clive you are a treasure. I will never be able to repay you for the glimpses of joy you bring into my life. Thank you my wonderful friend that I have never met
@@bigclivedotcom I'd wager the people who actually make the fake potted things have no idea what they are producing. To them it's just another electronics component that gets shipped out to an assembly workshop, where other workers assemble the parts and don't know how it all works.
Many of these products are assembled by people working at home or with a few people in a shed, then sold to resellers who just want something to ship. They buy cases and parts at the Schenzen markets for pennies and assemble a plausible product. Obviously some don't appear to understand electronics....
@@bigclivedotcom Isn't that just life under the CCP in general? Calling your country the "People's" Republic of China while the people are the ones with the least power, etc
Reading the title I wondered if it's a typo on wire or if the schematic is worthy to be called dire. The product doesn't disappoint. It's worthy of the title.
I find it hilarious that they went to the trouble of sticking on a California Prop 65 warning on a device with a UK plug that won't work anywhere here in California!
I love that you publish this indictment that eBay is prone to harbor scammers on YT, who insist on bombarding me with ads of similar, if usually more expensive scams...
I recently purchased a 12v cigarette plug usb car charger with integrated "volt meter" on ebay only to descover the voltmeter was simply a dedicated 12.5 led display. Not volts mind you, just the number 12.5.
You are so brave to start dismantling those things right off! Who knows what is inside, a charged cap, a red-hot resistor, a seized relay that triggers the moment you shake it and blows some IC to bits using the aforementioned cap... Really a work of courage :)
@@confusedkemono Well, I'm kinda jumpy when things come down to counterfeit electronics. Own experience: a weird malfunction of own devices, unable to communicate yet seem to power up and work. Checked the crystals first, all marked as 14-something, just as needed. Breaking the thrill though, those still indeed were the crystals, as what frequency do the 14-something (forgot the value) MHz ones resonate at? 13.56 of course (well, at least judging by those we got here) :P. And those were not even counterfeit, just a factory issue. Could cost a lot of time and a broken deadline. Truly counterfeit is much worse, say I had a car fan that nearly set itself on fire (the resistor shined like a bulb). Or a (non) "Vago" connector that burned down from half of it's rated current. Or a few mains extension cords that burned too.
I wonder at times if some of these are just deliberately made to mess with the west, the things I’ve seen on aliexpress from the less scrupulous sellers raise many questions.
absolutly amasing that this product got out on the market, amasing that no one said.... HAY, something is wrong her, its absolutly lethal.... but thanks for taking the time to make the video and share it.
I'd pay so much money to see some sort of series where Clive got a chance to interview the "engineers" who designed all the circuits in these scam products. Would they try to defend their schematics? I wonder what they'd say. I'm sure it'd be hilarious.
@@simontay4851 I was about to say, in the US (probably GB too) outlets are mostly run along the bottom 16" of the wall. This would be perfectly located for an infant to come into contact with the live voltage.
This looks like as if they have a single "engineer" or outsourced to someone through one of those online outsourcing services, and the "engineer" threw this in their direction and they didn't even check it before rolling out to production.
Any product that gets the Big Clive Giggle has got to be one of the worst ones on the entire planet...definitely not disappointed with this one...so bad it's good :D
It doesn't need a solder bridge across the chip. The diode up at the top of the diagram connects everything (half-wave rectified) to live anyway. Though I wouldn't be surprised if those op-amp ICs were actually bad to begin with too. This really feels like somebody had some bins full of fake/faulty components lying around that they were trying to get rid of, and just decided to throw them all into this "circuit" so they could make some money off of otherwise useless components... All they had to do was not actually connect the first half of the circuit to the second half, and it at least wouldn't have been outright hazardous.
The power pins of the dual operational amplifier are shorted. Truly perplexing, because somebody with design experience made this "device" intentionally, as a bet on the public not able to identify the entire device is a scam... Strange world we live in - with the help of eBay...
I bought some Jumper cables for a car and was wondering wy they did not work. I cut the thick wire and it was 90% insulation and something like 0.75mm copper. The packaging was nice and the clamps as well. They stated it would start a V8 xD
This is bizarre and dangerous, I wonder if eBay is libel in anyway, and the 65 warning sticker means it’s sold to the states, so it might take a law suit to give us a answer
This looks like somebody got tasked to do this, had no idea how to do this, just looked at some other version looked like and just added a lot of confusing components to "make the boss happy".
Two steps closer to right would have been yet more dangerous with both live and neutral passed to the front with a miswired op amp as an explosive nod toward a fusible link.
I really hate we live in a world where scamming is so prevalent😒 I know for some, they feel its their only option but there's too many who could be making decent products but don't.
I’m pretty sure some of the other folks in comments might be on to something: someone acquired a bunch of bits from other manufacturers, and asked “how can we use this parts to make something we can sell”. Explains the case/logo. I once made a “laser” complete with backpack “power supply” and “ray gun assembly” and a lens from a telescope. Very convincing prop. I was in junior high and a wee tyke.
Unrelated to this video, thank you for showing me how to use free batteries from the trash to power things. I made a marble machine with a rechargeable power source quite easily from your instructions. Thank you again
I'm surprised that those carbon brush emitters are real and that there was even a circuit board under the potting, that there were *any* electronic components other than the diode and resistors to light the LEDs. My first guess would have been that the carbon brush emitters were just knotted, hot-snotted in into the box and then potted, but that there was continuity to the live pin is just weird. It seems that just about as much manual labour (which would be the expensive part) went into this as would go into constructing real ioniser units
If you have a bunch of surplus parts from (perhaps genuine) production runs, plus faulty parts or parts from different products, why _not_ slap them all together and sell them on the side? ;)
About you saying they mixed up Live and Neutral in the plug connection. Except maybe for the UK plug, but with using a Schuko or Euro plug we tend to do it all the time.
Sounds like that side of things alright. Introduce a law, then apply it as broadly as possible or flat-out hide ridiculous crap in the bill that has nothing to do with the main subject
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Thats SHOCKING literally. Well you got a nice case and 4 nice carbon emitters, you just need to fill the circuitry part yourself. Thanks for getting this so we don't need too. 2x. 👍👍
I think other comments got it right: it's seemingly the most effective way to make money from surplus parts without spending time/money on working out better uses for them or buying components like real ioniser modules to make something that works. Also, you really should make a video where you turn it into a real ioniser.
It makes me wonder what kind of people they are for making such a dangerous scam product. (I have a particularly nasty word for them). BIG thank you for Clive for warning us, plus his usual glee. See you later tonight, homies! Wendi
They tried to give the impression that its a real ionizer. Clive should rebuild the scam ionizer without the useless parts into a working one and see how they could of done better.
I bought a fake ionizer off Amazon, and did a teardown. I posted a reverse engineered schmatic in an Amazon review and my review got taken down. They did end up giving me a full refund in exchange for returning it. And they still sell the fraudulent product. The PCB looks just like the one I got.
This is such a waste of materials. They could’ve just as easily run the live wire straight through the box and spun some nonsense about health benefits and you could probably sell just as many to the essential oils and crystal crowd as before. Instead they just waste PCBs and those chips. No wonder we have a silicon shortage
This is the type of thing that makes you wonder how deep the scam goes. Do the people who put this whole thing together know it doesn't do anything? Do the people who made and potted the useless module? Is it even a deliberate scam or just a chain of compounded incompetence?
Its possible the people that assembled it bought fake modules and never bothered to test the ones supplied to the assemblers. Perhaps they even bought the PCB assembled and since the LEDs came on they assumed everything else was OK. When it comes down to it they only really care about getting the bits in the case and the product in the cardboard box for the guy selling it on.
@@IanSlothieRolfe There's also a chance that the boards were reverse engineered from another product, and either the people doing that reverse engineering didn't understand what they were doing, or the soirce material itself was nonfunctional.
I have a feeling the people who design these knockoff products are psychopaths because they don't care about their actions on others! It's not even being scammy, it's being deadly!
That is probably one of the most dangerous items I have seen Clive dismantle since the dire batch of usb chargers that were guaranteed to cause a house fire, why on earth Fleabay does not do anything about this is beyond me but then again since it's owners don't use the crap that it sells there is no incentive too.
I have a few things from eBay - usually neat little gizmos that are hard to find that fulfill a specific need that never worked. I'm not sure whether it's just not working for me or whether they're actually scam products.
The irony of a California Prop 65 warning sticker on a 240V UK plugged item that couldn't be used in California if you wanted to. Hey Clive, when you see these truly dangerous items (plastered in regulatory stamps to boot!) do you ever report them to the authorities so they can maybe clamp down on them?
And a big thank you, now i know what value resistors i need for running LEDs off the mains, question, do i need a reverse current protection diode across the LED ?
I made a video just about running LEDs from the mains. The older reds and greens are more resilient to reverse voltage, but the new white, green and blue ones are easy to damage.
@@bigclivedotcom Thank you Clive, by the way, I'm a retired engineer of 41 years, last job, aerospace electronics engineer, if you need any help, just ask, but you are doing OK
I have a North American version of this one. Mine was also random components but it had a real rectifier! I gutted it and replaced it with a new potted module and circuitry from ebay.
Honestly, after watching your last video, I feel like there must be some people in China who don't care what they make, whether it be dangerous, deadly, or just a scam, doesn't matter as long as they can sell it. Can you imagine being the factory worker who has to test these? You'd literally get the shock of your life if you accidentally held it wrong while plugging or unplugging it. Assuming they actually bother testing them.
Plot twist: This isn't a fake product. Unbeknownst to Big Clive, "designing products to troll Big Clive" is now one of the premier e-sports in Shenzen. This product was made specifically as bait to see how he'd review it.
Well that puts a new twist on bear bating
It's a business model. People buy these products specifically because Clive reviewed them and they're so awful they want to tear them down too.
@@collectorguy3919 👀how did you know what I enjoy doing 🤣
Didn't realize "plot twist" was still a thing
China is laughing at the West all the way to the bank
Reminds me of a mate at highschool who had elaborate methods of cheating in tests. He could've spent half the effort just learning the stuff.
But learning the stuff only helps you with that one specific test. =)
Kobayashi Maru.
I was that mate!
I built an FM transmitter and receiver in soap boxes. Wore the receiver and fed the earpiece through my shirt and around my ear lobe, covered by my long hair.
Sat by the windows and threw my question sheet out the window, and claimed I didn't get one.
Meanwhile, two grade 12 friends were outside that picked up the question sheet, and transmitted the answers in to my ear.
Grade 10 Geography was never easier. And a hell of a lot of fun to build and mess with.
Like Dick Dastardly from Wacky Races -- he is always in the lead by fair means when he begins his elaborate scheme to cheat!
@The Drone Ranger Yeah, making dodgy ioniser's because he never actually got an education.
It's like that Swees USB adapter you tested. There's so much "all that stands between you and the mains is an 1/8w resistor" or "sub-millimeter separation" in cheap products, it's actually refreshing to see one where there's no separation at all.
I've wondered if they're acquiring injection molds that once belonged to others (leftovers from r&d, mold errors, unpaid projects, etc) and then try to figure out the cheapest way to stuff some type of semi-working guts into them to give the appearance of a viable product...
That's one way to keep down the population of the world.
I've seen videos of people strolling around the vast Schenzen electronics markets, and there are people selling these "generic" cases and other plastic moldings by the thousand for pennies each. Thats why so many Chinese products look the same but are branded different, and have different internals. I get the impression that if a company comissions molds to make cases for a product, once that order has been fulfilled and the molding looks sellable they just go on making them and sell them on the market to smaller companies looking for a cheap case or mechanism. Copyright in China and across the far east is a somewhat flexible concept.
@@IanSlothieRolfe As no "copyright laws" exsist in China once someone spends their time and money designing a product others just seem to copy it without the same expense.
And the Chineseum crap factory’s pick up the leftovers and make crap with them and “export only” to the west, and expect us to buy them, and eventually throw in the electronic waste. While managing to fool standards/customs from intercepting and destroying them 😠⚠️
@@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse Oh, if you copied something made by a company run by or that supported the CCP you'd find out about copyright pretty fast....
When it's sooooo bad that Clive does his best to not giggle like a school child seeing a naughty image badly drawn on the wall, you can not help but giggle right along 🤣
haha, this is why i watch as well. I have what is best described (and charitably so) a child understanding of electronics but I watch cos I like his personality and way of explaining things. That makes it entertaining for someone like me to watch/listen to.
@@Daremo6969 for me, childhood means curiosity, confusion and fun.
Therefore, Clive's videos bring me a lot of childhood, any day of the year. ^_^
@@jkobain yeah, as I've passed 50, those memories are long gone (mostly)....I don't even remember that person anymore...
It's sold under various names at Amazon USA: "Tbh not sure if it even works because I can’t tell the difference. I stopped using it though because it shocked me up my arm."
And from a review site: "Customer complaints include receiving mild electric shocks from these units and they may be particularly unsuitable if you have young children or pets in your home."
Nothing more than a mild warning for a device designed to waste poor people's money - and a little bit more!
Between these, dangerous diy videos and fake batteries - it seems like there's just too much in common, either someone wants you dead [why?]; or otherwise wants to kill 'the maker' - that undead adage of "don't burn the house down!" gets it's merit from examples set by fools; and these malcreations...
Don't forget that the European supply is nominally 220 volts. Getting a shock at this level is a completely different story to one from a 120 volt system. Mild shocks and 220 volts don't belong in the same sentence
@@rjmun580 Yes, very good point. The ones on Amazon USA are all 120V of course.
@@rjmun580 200 volts doesnt exist in Europe anymore. Almost all countries standardized 230 V as the nominal voltage in the 1990s.
@@rjmun580 on the other hand, European shoppers at least have the nominal protection of the CE classification system...
If they aren't too ignorant to look for it.
Clive, it's about time the company did an upgrade combining all, in a compact, plug-in unit - an ioniser, power saver and pest repellent of all critters. Now that circuit would be worth analysing.
For the people "designing" these things that would just mean putting a different label on the box.
If they made a real one, I guess it would just be an ioniser and pest repellent, given that the power savers are BS? I could imagine one of those death fan insect trap things that lures them in with pretty lights and sucks them down through a fan. Perhaps a decent corona discharge would attract the bugs while ionising the air (although, of course, then it wouldn't be a 'repellent' but the aim is still 'less bugs')
@@treborrrrr That's an excellent solution. It's cheap, quick and as a result, be put on the market for sale straight away. I recommend you apply for lead designer for label engineering.
@@aliveandwellinisrael2507 The power saver function can be added for free, as part of the device upgrade. The power saved can then be used to power the other functions. Sniffff - Aaahhhh I Love The Smell Of Fried Insects In The Evening.
And an ODB2 reader for your house :)
When YT suggested me some of your videos, I didn't think I'm here to stay.
It happened like three or four years ago, I don't even know, but I subscribed after watching several unusually calm, friendly and interesting videos, and I'm happy since then.
Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated. Or should that be resistors are futile?
We need to keep in mind after all that we are talking about people who counterfeit nuts and even eggs. Not edible counterfeit eggs, like egg substitute, just things that look like eggs till you eat them and then you die from ingesting whatever chemicals they were made of.
The eggs were made with sodium alginate and a savoury liquid. Probably not harmful, but not good to fry.
many people are allergic to real eggs and die if they eat them. Fake eggs don't kill them.
It's almost like someone was designing a real product then went aww screw it.
One of the op-amps has its two inputs wired together. If it's a differential amplifier like the 741 I used to play with in school, that would mean the output was permanently nothing.
Edit: 6:45 "More components make more realer!" And that's how you design an electrical circuit.
This kind-of reminds of the "Chinese mystery pistols" that #ForgottenWeapons did some videos and published a book on, where there are fake features which look almost like they were copied by some-one who didn't understand what they did or how they worked, but sort-of cargo-culted a rough ersatz of a half-remembered real device.
@@dj1NM3 My father the mediaeval historian told me that some European coinages in the Middle Ages copied coin issues from the Islamic world - complete with the inscription saying "There is no god but Allah", which they thought was just a decorative squiggle!
@@zh84 It's impressive that the copiers didn't even realise that they were copying writing, but did so well that it could be read.
The most famous "brand" inscription used on those mystery pistols is "Wauser", sometimes stamped several times in a row.
@@dj1NM3 As I understand it, the "decorative" inscription got harder to read over time as it came further from the Arabic original.
It’s *almost* an op amp multivibrator. But not quite.
I just love how much fun you're having pulling this apart, but yeah glad you're putting the word out there that such dangerous things exist!
Hello Big Clive, the teardown you did survive, from the unit being live, it had components more than five, glad you're still alive, unfortunatly manufacturers of fakes like these will still thrive.⚡🤨⚡🇨🇳👎
When Clive says something is *dangerously fake,* he is all serious about it.
Impressive. You should rebuild the unit into a real working ionizer as cheaply as possible just to see what they could have done
And then send it to the original manufacturer with a note explaining how they could have made MORE profit using jellybean ionizer and power supply modules instead of their custom designed bogus bullshit.
After you get it working you could send it back as faulty! 🤣
It would be just half of that pcb with the LED plus an actual ionizer module, or not even LED but a neon indicator and a ionizer module
I agree! I'd love to see that video.
@@TheWebstaff HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Dire schematics are a bit like normal schematics, only a bit bigger and a bit more savage and primitive in nature.
They get double hit dice and +3 natural armor.
with a proportionally bigger head
They're also fairly easy to tame and can be ridden without a saddle.
I think they've made the pins live intentionally, so that anyone who touches them gets a jolt of high voltage to reinforce that the device actually does something.
If they're still, you know, alive afterwards
@@aliveandwellinisrael2507 a prickle from a high voltage brush isn't going to harm you much unless you are otherwise grounded. I've gotten a good shock while part of me was grounded, and just a tickle if I wasn't firmly grounded.
@@moconnell663 Hi, so you got a 'good ' shock , hmmmmm meaning enjoyable, pleasant, agreeable, pleasing, pleasurable, delightful, great, nice, lovely, amusing, jolly, merry, cheerful, congenial, super, fantastic, fabulous, terrific, glorious, grand wow, how weird are you.⚡⚡😏
Maybe the empty spots for the missing resistors were meant for current limiting just to allow enough electricity trough for a tingle in the initial design but then it would cost additional 2 cents sothey went with full on death ionizer pins.
@@brucepickess8097 Is this a joke or what
Thank goodness it at least had the CA prop 65 warning label on it.
🤣🤣🤣
mains voltage: known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects
Never mind that there's no way it could be used in California, due to the plug or the voltage.
Apparently, the only concern about these things is a potential risk of cancer and birth defects, and even that is only a concern in the state of California.
@@dougbrowning82 From chemicals, of all things, if I understood it correctly. So maybe you're supposed to eat it rather than plug it in 🤔
Its about time ebay did something about these product sellers. I know they won't because the sellers fees are what ebay wants. Somebody is going to die because of these scam units - and ebay don't seem to care.
Fixing this would either require proper governmental oversight and strong consumer protection, massive lawsuits, or eBay taking its own initiative. Which one of these is more likely to happen, I leave up to the AI. :)
@@antisoda Many people already dies from non isolated USB chargers and notjing changed. And it will get worse as new phones dont come with cargers anymore, most people will buy the cheapest charger they see.
@@antisoda
Do you think more legislation would help, when the government just ignores it to keep business ties to China?
The fact that they care about it looking real and at the same time connected live to the emitters makes me think it's deliberate to give people a strong albeit likely not lethal shock since a person wouldn't tough all the bristles.
the best theory i’ve seen is that they tried to make yet another “technically it does make a few ions” ionizer, but themselves got scammed when using third-party components.
@@chri-k when you sleep with dogs, you get fleas. so that makes the most sense
Will say every component on the main board is likely a recycled one, whatever was cheapest on the market that day, and was bought by the kilogram for use. The only part that was critical was the resistors for the LED's, those probably bome from a bin of selected value resistors not to blow up the LED's, and then the rest are potluck. Seems that day they had a lot of 120k resistors going cheap, and any 8 pin IC was used, solder blob by accident, because the internal diode will conduct anyway. Ioniser module DIY, because that was 3c cheaper than buying a real one, and possibly they also have a market selling the real items, and put fakes in some deliveries to improve profit margin, putting the fakes in the loads to the drop reshippers, who also do not care.
Yep. This.
That's a million dollar idea right there - a 3-in-1 power-saving, insect-repelling ionizer device! You should get that patented! 😂
Shaking my head about this thing though. I mean it's one thing to just sell an "ionizer" that has nothing inside but a few blinking LEDs, but going to the lengths of designing a circuit board and a potted module that both look very important to average Joe but have absolutely no function (and can by mistake even shock you) - wow. Wouldn't be surprised if it was actually slightly more expensive to design this useless thing than putting together a real functioning device out of existing components.
It may be the manufacturer of dodgy goods got duped by another manufacturer of dodgy components. After all they arent going to do any batch testing of the product ato see if it works.
@@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse That's true... might be a case of the Chinese Chinesing the Chinese
I don't understand why they would put extra components to make it appear functional. Anyone who does open it up is going to figure out it's fake. Someone who knows nothing about electronics isn't going to open it in the first place...
A shocking new innovation! 🤣
I would desolder the IC and test it. It may well be that it is a dead factory reject chip that was bought for scrap since it will be used in a useless application anyway. I know there is a substantial market for these nonfunctional ICs, as an electronics class I had in college almost a decade ago had a huge problem with fake 74LS04s, some of which were just resistor network lead frames with no resistors. One even had 16 pins.
Apparently they laser mark random chips to order.
@@bigclivedotcom Really? I knew there were a lot of fake 'basically the same thing' versions of common components out there, but that's pretty bad. Guess I shouldn't put anything past them.
@@aliveandwellinisrael2507 I've even heard of nonfunctional TO-92 transistors, either empty or wildly wrong like BJTs marked as JFETs. IIRC the cheap eBay opamps that behave roughly like an opamp are mostly a handful of the same low performance dies put in different packages.
there is a strong possibility that that scam happened earlier on in the parts supply chain. Ive actually ran into one revision of a thing being fake and another being real.
Scams happen at every level. Component suppliers swap in bogus parts, assembly contractors use child labor, the packaging companies stole the box design and are also selling it to other companies, and the shipping companies are highjacking the product and subbing in a fake. And every step of the way everybody is swearing they are totally in compliance. Eventually you get so much fraud in a product that it loops around and becomes good. This is not one of those.
Its a well known trick. We were shipped laptop power supplies to test for one of our suppliers. We tortured and destroyed them and sent back the bits announcing it actually took a fair bit to do, they all failed safe and were pretty good, definitely on a par with the original Delta units. Supplier said thank you, ordered a ton of stock, and then a few weeks later, fores, failures and explosions started. The actual stock was borderline lethal. The Chinese supplier sent initial units for certification and evaluation, then having got the contract, sent worthless junk in the same packing and cases. We checked a couple and it was a horror show
@@rtechlab6254 reminds me of the eBay one I bought that spit out so much RFI it made the laptop malfunction, on teardown it looked pretty scary, board went straight to junkbox and I just used the cable to fix the old one.
I like how it feels like the time this went from concept phase to actual production was 30 minutes
I think there are certain people over there that really enjoy making bogus electronic products. It must take some dedication.
"It's you that will be ionized" LOL!! I laughed my ass off when you said that Clive!
What an outrageous product. To go to such lengths to make something not only pointless, but dangerous too. I feel sorry for the OpAmp too !
I don't know why people still use such old-fashioned ways to bump people off when you can just send them a gift from eBay.
Man I really love these cheap and dangerous electronics teardowns you do. Thank you for doing these! The "electronic kettle" you got a long time ago will always be on my mind. It's just two leads directly into water, with a plastic case 😂😂😂😂😂😂
show link
th-cam.com/video/k-HommnQ2_s/w-d-xo.html
Lol
@@bigclivedotcom Yes that's the one!!! Lmao
Oh gawd, LOL! I really needed this. Clive you are a treasure. I will never be able to repay you for the glimpses of joy you bring into my life. Thank you my wonderful friend that I have never met
That's just *bizarre*. Imagine the factory turning these out
It must be a demoralising job potting thousands of fake "things" in resin.
@@bigclivedotcom I'd wager the people who actually make the fake potted things have no idea what they are producing. To them it's just another electronics component that gets shipped out to an assembly workshop, where other workers assemble the parts and don't know how it all works.
Many of these products are assembled by people working at home or with a few people in a shed, then sold to resellers who just want something to ship. They buy cases and parts at the Schenzen markets for pennies and assemble a plausible product. Obviously some don't appear to understand electronics....
I imagine it’s like the prison from Andor, people making things they have no idea what they are to be used for
@@bigclivedotcom Isn't that just life under the CCP in general? Calling your country the "People's" Republic of China while the people are the ones with the least power, etc
Reading the title I wondered if it's a typo on wire or if the schematic is worthy to be called dire.
The product doesn't disappoint. It's worthy of the title.
No typo. The schematic looks dire because it is so wrong in every way.
I find it hilarious that they went to the trouble of sticking on a California Prop 65 warning on a device with a UK plug that won't work anywhere here in California!
I love that you publish this indictment that eBay is prone to harbor scammers on YT, who insist on bombarding me with ads of similar, if usually more expensive scams...
I recently purchased a 12v cigarette plug usb car charger with integrated "volt meter" on ebay only to descover the voltmeter was simply a dedicated 12.5 led display. Not volts mind you, just the number 12.5.
Yeah, I have one here.
You are so brave to start dismantling those things right off! Who knows what is inside, a charged cap, a red-hot resistor, a seized relay that triggers the moment you shake it and blows some IC to bits using the aforementioned cap... Really a work of courage :)
In case of charged cap hazard he usually just does the finger test :P
@@confusedkemono Well, I'm kinda jumpy when things come down to counterfeit electronics. Own experience: a weird malfunction of own devices, unable to communicate yet seem to power up and work. Checked the crystals first, all marked as 14-something, just as needed. Breaking the thrill though, those still indeed were the crystals, as what frequency do the 14-something (forgot the value) MHz ones resonate at? 13.56 of course (well, at least judging by those we got here) :P. And those were not even counterfeit, just a factory issue. Could cost a lot of time and a broken deadline. Truly counterfeit is much worse, say I had a car fan that nearly set itself on fire (the resistor shined like a bulb). Or a (non) "Vago" connector that burned down from half of it's rated current. Or a few mains extension cords that burned too.
Ah my favorite small appliance disassembeler who only posts at 1 am
It's like someone asked an GAN/AI art program to design an ioniser schematic. It looks plausible at first but once opened it all falls apart.
I wonder at times if some of these are just deliberately made to mess with the west, the things I’ve seen on aliexpress from the less scrupulous sellers raise many questions.
More like they have no clue how things work and just make copies with whatever parts are on hand.
absolutly amasing that this product got out on the market, amasing that no one said.... HAY, something is wrong her, its absolutly lethal....
but thanks for taking the time to make the video and share it.
I'd pay so much money to see some sort of series where Clive got a chance to interview the "engineers" who designed all the circuits in these scam products. Would they try to defend their schematics? I wonder what they'd say. I'm sure it'd be hilarious.
That's not just an ioniser, Mate! It's a very "multifunctional device" that also doubles up as a contact rodent killer too! 🙂
Contact human killer too.
@@simontay4851 I was about to say, in the US (probably GB too) outlets are mostly run along the bottom 16" of the wall. This would be perfectly located for an infant to come into contact with the live voltage.
You might find it's easier removing hot melt glue if you spray it with isoprop alcohol. It works it's way into the joint and breaks down the bond.
Thats the first time ive seen you genuinely laugh at something, it was a nice moment.
This looks like as if they have a single "engineer" or outsourced to someone through one of those online outsourcing services, and the "engineer" threw this in their direction and they didn't even check it before rolling out to production.
Any product that gets the Big Clive Giggle has got to be one of the worst ones on the entire planet...definitely not disappointed with this one...so bad it's good :D
It doesn't need a solder bridge across the chip. The diode up at the top of the diagram connects everything (half-wave rectified) to live anyway.
Though I wouldn't be surprised if those op-amp ICs were actually bad to begin with too. This really feels like somebody had some bins full of fake/faulty components lying around that they were trying to get rid of, and just decided to throw them all into this "circuit" so they could make some money off of otherwise useless components...
All they had to do was not actually connect the first half of the circuit to the second half, and it at least wouldn't have been outright hazardous.
Companies like Amazon and Ebay that sell this stuff need to be held legally and financially accountable.
The power pins of the dual operational amplifier are shorted. Truly perplexing, because somebody with design experience made this "device" intentionally, as a bet on the public not able to identify the entire device is a scam... Strange world we live in - with the help of eBay...
Imagine being that bad at product design you couldn't even design a product that literally needed to do nothing.
Thanks Big Clive for providing us with a schematic diagram.
I bought some Jumper cables for a car and was wondering wy they did not work.
I cut the thick wire and it was 90% insulation and something like 0.75mm copper.
The packaging was nice and the clamps as well.
They stated it would start a V8 xD
Some Chinese engineer made an error in unit conversion and accidentally designed jumper cables for 12kV car batteries XD
@@Halfpipesaur yea i was thinking of using it AS spark plug wire but I'm not brave enough to trust the unmarked isulation 💀
This is bizarre and dangerous, I wonder if eBay is libel in anyway, and the 65 warning sticker means it’s sold to the states, so it might take a law suit to give us a answer
The eco-friendly-looking logo is there because their mission is to save the planet by eliminating humans from it.
This looks like somebody got tasked to do this, had no idea how to do this, just looked at some other version looked like and just added a lot of confusing components to "make the boss happy".
Two steps closer to right would have been yet more dangerous with both live and neutral passed to the front with a miswired op amp as an explosive nod toward a fusible link.
I really hate we live in a world where scamming is so prevalent😒 I know for some, they feel its their only option but there's too many who could be making decent products but don't.
I’m pretty sure some of the other folks in comments might be on to something: someone acquired a bunch of bits from other manufacturers, and asked “how can we use this parts to make something we can sell”. Explains the case/logo. I once made a “laser” complete with backpack “power supply” and “ray gun assembly” and a lens from a telescope. Very convincing prop. I was in junior high and a wee tyke.
The scary thing is these scams aren't limited to eBay. I've seen this crap on Amazon too.
A 4558, some diodes and a nice case. You can make that into a classic Boss overdrive or Ibanez tube screamer.
Unrelated to this video, thank you for showing me how to use free batteries from the trash to power things. I made a marble machine with a rechargeable power source quite easily from your instructions. Thank you again
I'm surprised that those carbon brush emitters are real and that there was even a circuit board under the potting, that there were *any* electronic components other than the diode and resistors to light the LEDs.
My first guess would have been that the carbon brush emitters were just knotted, hot-snotted in into the box and then potted, but that there was continuity to the live pin is just weird.
It seems that just about as much manual labour (which would be the expensive part) went into this as would go into constructing real ioniser units
If you have a bunch of surplus parts from (perhaps genuine) production runs, plus faulty parts or parts from different products, why _not_ slap them all together and sell them on the side? ;)
DeathDapter seal of approval.
This makes me wonder if it's not the manufacturer/assembler getting scammed by their PCB supplier.
It's like it was built by someone who can solder but doesn't know what any of the components do.
About you saying they mixed up Live and Neutral in the plug connection. Except maybe for the UK plug, but with using a Schuko or Euro plug we tend to do it all the time.
What's interesting about "California Proposition 65" is that it's actual title is the "California Safe Drinking Water Act". 😂
The Chineseum crap factory has copied it, and didn’t even know what it stood for 😠
Sounds like that side of things alright. Introduce a law, then apply it as broadly as possible or flat-out hide ridiculous crap in the bill that has nothing to do with the main subject
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Thats SHOCKING literally.
Well you got a nice case and 4 nice carbon emitters, you just need to fill the circuitry part yourself. Thanks for getting this so we don't need too. 2x. 👍👍
The biggest "shock" is Ebay and it's continued propensity to turning a blind eye to shoddy and dangerous products.
I think other comments got it right: it's seemingly the most effective way to make money from surplus parts without spending time/money on working out better uses for them or buying components like real ioniser modules to make something that works. Also, you really should make a video where you turn it into a real ioniser.
Exactly. By just putting in a tiny bit of effort they can get _paid_ instead of expensing part write-offs and disposal. Win-win-win. 😉
It makes me wonder what kind of people they are for making such a dangerous scam product. (I have a particularly nasty word for them). BIG thank you for Clive for warning us, plus his usual glee. See you later tonight, homies! Wendi
the ppl assembling them probably have no idea.
Those emitters put a new meaning on the term "Black Death"
Maybe they have a scam product competition, whoever can make the best looking product that does absolutely nothing gets an award.
They tried to give the impression that its a real ionizer. Clive should rebuild the scam ionizer without the useless parts into a working one and see how they could of done better.
That's unbelievable! The effort they went to!
Every time Big C says "Scam" take a shot... 😵🥛
This drinking game is potentially deadlier than the scam products themselves. 🥴🙂
Reminds me of the, "This item is free. You just pay shipping and handling. "
Item is made cheaper than what you pay.
Not just Ebay, TH-cam & Facebook as well
It's also a fire hazard due to the grossly undersized wires coupled with a lack of fuse / reliable current limiting capabilities.
I bought a fake ionizer off Amazon, and did a teardown. I posted a reverse engineered schmatic in an Amazon review and my review got taken down.
They did end up giving me a full refund in exchange for returning it. And they still sell the fraudulent product.
The PCB looks just like the one I got.
This is such a waste of materials. They could’ve just as easily run the live wire straight through the box and spun some nonsense about health benefits and you could probably sell just as many to the essential oils and crystal crowd as before. Instead they just waste PCBs and those chips. No wonder we have a silicon shortage
This is the type of thing that makes you wonder how deep the scam goes. Do the people who put this whole thing together know it doesn't do anything? Do the people who made and potted the useless module? Is it even a deliberate scam or just a chain of compounded incompetence?
Its possible the people that assembled it bought fake modules and never bothered to test the ones supplied to the assemblers. Perhaps they even bought the PCB assembled and since the LEDs came on they assumed everything else was OK. When it comes down to it they only really care about getting the bits in the case and the product in the cardboard box for the guy selling it on.
@@IanSlothieRolfe There's also a chance that the boards were reverse engineered from another product, and either the people doing that reverse engineering didn't understand what they were doing, or the soirce material itself was nonfunctional.
@@asteroidrules True, but that sounds like unnecessary effort if you're just trying to make boxes for export :)
I have a feeling the people who design these knockoff products are psychopaths because they don't care about their actions on others! It's not even being scammy, it's being deadly!
They could have put the leds in anti-parallel and could have removed the diode and 1 resistor.
I'm amazed at myself for understanding your suggestion, seems like I'm osmotically gaining an understanding of electronics. Thanks
@Genghisnico yep, thats what i'd have done
That is probably one of the most dangerous items I have seen Clive dismantle since the dire batch of usb chargers that were guaranteed to cause a house fire, why on earth Fleabay does not do anything about this is beyond me but then again since it's owners don't use the crap that it sells there is no incentive too.
This is a great opportunity for a project.MAke it a proper ioniser.
surely it would be cheaper to throw some caps and diodes on a pcb and have a working product, than it was to manufacture this abomination
Not even a capacitive dropper.... OMG.... just wow. Surely this is the king of suicidal death plugs
I have a few things from eBay - usually neat little gizmos that are hard to find that fulfill a specific need that never worked. I'm not sure whether it's just not working for me or whether they're actually scam products.
And on the back of the case there appear to be the safety standard logos?
The irony of a California Prop 65 warning sticker on a 240V UK plugged item that couldn't be used in California if you wanted to.
Hey Clive, when you see these truly dangerous items (plastered in regulatory stamps to boot!) do you ever report them to the authorities so they can maybe clamp down on them?
What authorities......
Thank goodness for that Prop 65 warning. I'd hate to risk developing cancer during my electrocution.
Clive have you ever reported stuff like this to the import people or some sort of health and safety?
what's to report? none of these are being sold by stores
eBay has no proper reporting system, and probably couldn't keep up with the huge number of new sellers being generated automatically.
I guess the idea is that when you touch the ioniser and get a belt then it confirms it is doing something.
And a big thank you, now i know what value resistors i need for running LEDs off the mains, question, do i need a reverse current protection diode across the LED ?
I made a video just about running LEDs from the mains. The older reds and greens are more resilient to reverse voltage, but the new white, green and blue ones are easy to damage.
@@bigclivedotcom Thank you Clive, by the way, I'm a retired engineer of 41 years, last job, aerospace electronics engineer, if you need any help, just ask, but you are doing OK
I have a North American version of this one. Mine was also random components but it had a real rectifier! I gutted it and replaced it with a new potted module and circuitry from ebay.
There's a dark art in making scammy products. Some of these products need a Big Clive rating 😂👍
I really don't know most of what you're talking about. But these videos are definitely still interesting
Honestly, after watching your last video, I feel like there must be some people in China who don't care what they make, whether it be dangerous, deadly, or just a scam, doesn't matter as long as they can sell it.
Can you imagine being the factory worker who has to test these? You'd literally get the shock of your life if you accidentally held it wrong while plugging or unplugging it. Assuming they actually bother testing them.
Testing that's so funny, I like that one. Test for what?
@@edug1168 To make sure the LEDs light up.
Why bother testing it at all? Who cares if it "works" or not?
You should put from time 0:47 to 1:35 out as a #short public service announcement.