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I've actually made a video about this type of solenoid actuated valve before, but it's always good to have a revisit for those who may not have stumbled across the older video. This is a very common valve sold on the usual online marketplaces. It seems quite well made, but as always, you should use one from a prominent local supplier for any critical applications where failure could caus...

It turns out that Russia does have a huge mosquito problem in some parts. I didn't know that. This unit is basically a self regulating pad based insecticide vapouriser. It takes standard pads that are preloaded with a pyrethrin oil. When the unit is active it heats the pad to slowly release a small quantity of vapour that affects the nervous system of insects and inhibits their normal behavio...

These lights are all over the Internet at the moment, often with very fake AI generated adverts showing them as being huge, very bright and sometimes rotating. I've not seen a rotating one yet, although it is possible and would be a nice effect. The primary science of the effect is based on a single point source of light casting a sharp image through a pattern, that can be punched or laser cu...

Another landfill lottery of technical goodies from AliExpress for us to explore. These videos are not sponsored by AliExpress. I buy all these items myself. Here are some links to the items. These are affiliate links, but that will not affect the price you pay. Keep in mind that these products may not meet your country's standards. Some listings may not work for some countries and some may ju...

This module is a classic phase angle controller suited to some specific types of motors (mainly universal motors with carbon brushes) and many simple resistive loads like heaters and tungsten lights. It uses phase angle control, which involves turning a triac on at a variable position on each half of the mains sinewave. This is electrically noisy, so it's good practice to add a suitably rated...

You can get these life saving keyrings from the UK ASPOD website with a 10% discount if you use the code BIG CLIVE or Big Clive. I have not been paid to make this video and will not be getting commission. I just want people to know that such a simple thing can significantly increase your chances of surviving a cardiac event. https://aspod.co.uk/ Note that ASPOD can't supply the keyrings pre-l...

The "anti-burn" feature of this power bank is not just polarity protection for the circuitry, but also polarity protection for the cells, so that if they are inserted incorrectly they will not short each other out. Obviously I had to test that. I was expecting it to be something very simple like a PTC fuse for each cell, or possibly the classic single MOSFET polarity protector, but it&#0...

Another Halloween horror of technical goodies from AliExpress for us to explore. These videos are not sponsored by AliExpress. I buy all these items myself. Here are some links to the items. These are affiliate links, but that will not affect the price you pay. Keep in mind that these products may not meet your country's standards. Some listings may not work for some countries and some may ju...

Just to clarify - Poundland is not what it might mean in America. It's the UK equivalent of a dollar store. But they do sell toys for adult use too. I do regret saying "I take my mum to Poundland all the time - she loves it." during a live stream. If your mom or pop has early Alzheimer's - take them to a dollar store and buy them some candy and "stuff". They really wi...

I don't see lead acid batteries being banned anytime soon, so this little charge control module could be quite useful. Especially for equipment with a built in charger that has failed. It's based on a dedicated charge control chip that integrates buck regulator control, current sensing and voltage monitoring to manage the proper charging of 12V lead acid batteries. The integrated bridge...

An interesting solar beacon with a few strobing patterns to choose from for identification purposes. The lithium cell tested at a surprisingly high 1775mAh. The circuitry is quite well designed with just one quirk. To make the unit as waterproof as possible it has a rubber sealing washer, but also has a silicone-like sealing goo in the threads. Turning the beacon on and off, and selecting the patt...

Note that these pyrethrin vaporizers are not recommended for long term use in rooms where cats are present. Also note that some of these units may come with chemicals that are banned in your country, due to regulations of suspicious validity. I made a previous video about these, but ended up rambling about pyrethrins (a natural plant chemical that affects bugs) and completely failed to take any of...

Another military-meddle of technical goodies from AliExpress for us to explore, "assisted" by my colleagues. These videos are not sponsored by AliExpress. I buy all these items myself. Here are some links to the items. These are affiliate links, but that will not affect the price you pay. Keep in mind that these products may not meet your country's standards. Some listings may not w...

A demo of what a UVC tube looks like when lit. They are a very pleasing ghostly blue, which unfortunately means that people have accidentally used them as a decorative item with painful results. Everyone in the room had glasses on that blocked UVC. Most ordinary glasses and plastics will block it. It's actually harder to find materials that allow it to pass through. We left the room for a whi...

I'm not sure how effective this device will actually be at killing nail fungus. There are professional machines that use light for treatment - often in conjunction with specialist dyes. The instructions suggest using it twice a day for THREE MONTHS! That smacks of "getting out of warranty". This unit uses four LEDs (not a laser as implied). Three blue and one infrared. All the blue...

Another backstage blast of technical goodies from AliExpress for us to explore. These videos are not sponsored by AliExpress. I buy all these items myself. Here are some links to the items. These are affiliate links, but that will not affect the price you pay. Keep in mind that these products may not meet your country's standards. Some listings may not work for some countries and some may jus...

This module uses a microcontroller and a set of fully addressable RGB LEDs but only uses them for single colours. I wonder if the original intent was to have colour chasing effects, but they discovered that the software was too complex or the processor too basic to achieve that result. Or maybe they just decided that the addressable LEDs are so cheap that they might as well use a huge string of th...

This unit is designed to be stuck to your car battery and connected to its terminals. It then sends voltage, temperature and movement data via bluetooth to an app on your phone to help you test and monitor things like battery health (the ability to store charge and supply high current) and whether the vehicle's charging system is performing properly. For short term diagnostic use in multiple...

This device detects dusk and only turns a light or other load on for a fixed time if it hears a noise. That could be useful as a security device, as an alternative to a PIR sensor. The circuitry is notable for using a common technique for switching medium loads with very low control current. But that does limit the power it can switch. This circuit has lots of interesting quirks. From the load swi...

Another Lampie-load of technical goodies from AliExpress for us to explore. These videos are not sponsored by AliExpress. I buy all these items myself. Here are some links to the items. These are affiliate links, but that will not affect the price you pay. Keep in mind that these products may not meet your country's standards. Some listings may not work for some countries and some may just be...

Despite them rating this module at 20A I'd suggest using it at much lower current to avoid excessive heat dissipation from the triac. In some applications it will also benefit from having its tab mounted to a heat dissipating surface. When powered up, this unit uses phase angle control to gently ramp the output up over a few seconds. It is aimed at specific loads like power tools with univers...

Note that these pyrethrin vaporizers are not recommended for long term use in rooms with poor airflow where cats are present. Cats may have greater sensitivity to the vapour than humans, so if they show odd behaviour then discontinue use of the unit. I'm finding mixed results on this subject - it may be direct ingestion of the liquid that poses the main hazard. Thousands of years ago, it was...

Another courier-carnage of technical goodies from AliExpress for us to explore. This was filmed in work-provided accommodation, so it will look and sound different. These videos are not sponsored by AliExpress. I buy all these items myself. Here are some links to the items. These are affiliate links, but that will not affect the price you pay. Keep in mind that these products may not meet your cou...

Quite an odd style in terms of operation and construction. By default the LEDs are driven with very high current that seems to be limited by transistor gain, but it's possible to nudge the current down by swapping the base resistors. I like the way the circuitry can be popped out from the front of the light, but it lacks the directionality of a traditional keychain light. It may be useful for...

I was expecting this unit to be super-simple inside with a capacitive dropper, a zener to cap the voltage and a potentiometer in series with a string of LEDs. But it turns out to be much more complicated. I guess the justification is that it is universal voltage and the UV LEDs are run at higher current than the blue ones. I subsequently noticed that the potentiometer is only used for part of its...