Saturday subject suggestions?

If there's nothing visibly damaged inside it's worth checking the values of larger resistors and the main output transistors. There's a high probability that the USB outputs are completely separate circuitry.

Big Clive

I wonder if Mean Well do a power supply that would suit your application. They do various voltages with adjustable current, which is the important bit for a battery charger. The question is whether you would trust the built in BMS on its own or would rather have the extra benefit of capped charge voltage as well as a fixed maximum charge current. The dedicated chargers take away a lot of the liability if a wheelchair battery fails in a volatile manner.

Big Clive

What's the most likely poi t of failure here! Can I fix my 12- 220v inverter? My generator went haywire and spiked at 400 something volts.... My 12vbattery bank charger broke but it fried something in my Inverter. It still powers on, the USB ports work but it has a solid error light and its not trying to make 220v ac anymore. No obvious fuses seem to have blown so I guess it was low amps very high volts. How would you test this to see what's cooked? Nothing smells of magic smoke. Thanks!

... you were just getting comfortable 👌👍😂

Cerity

Make some trash food stuff

CheesyChickenGran

The hydro electric power stations and dams in the highlands. Incredible engineering

Mark Chapman

It's impendance. I don't see why they shouldn't be able to measure live lines, provided they themselves are not referenced to the ground.

horrovac

Could you describe how color changing or blinking leds are made, what makes them work and the differences in standard leds

What's worse than your wife walking into your bedroom while you're getting ready for bed? Your wife seeing you mid-way through removing your trousers with the Manx Beard Club live stream on a 42" display... Then backing slowly out of the room :D I'm never going to live this one down :D

Steve Brace

while watching the wylex video it reminded me of a wylex TP & N Distribution Board where if you look at the MCB they are marked load / supply. Well this board someone had placed the mcb load to the centre supply on dist board input except when it came to the rcbo which was mounted as instructed so this one breaker switched in the opposite way. So question for tonight is does it matter which was the flow on MCB I was told the spark may not quench correctly?

N. Shaun Tremayne

Get your component from reputable distributors or resellers when something 'just has to work'. In a permanent installation or when it will cost money when the component fails! If something is for hobby only you can get it from the China shops.

Frank

In the 2 A to 3 A range you can buy a supply from a reputable distributer or reseller.

Frank

Like double layer capacitors?

Frank

I'd love to hear you talk about and cook more of your "trash" series of food. Those are the best!

I do have a wiring diagram for a similar, but I think different wattage amplifier circuit, for reference. But this has been dogging me for two bloody years now :(

Steven Raith

Hmm. I have a circuit board which is the main board for an audio amplifier circuit. It's blown two resistors so badly that they're not identifiable, anger might have taken a MOSFET with them. Is there any way to 'backwards logic' identify the parts without a wiring diagram?

Steven Raith

I've got a hoard of some 67 street lanterns and just lately I've started wondering how ignitors for MH, HPS and LPS lamps work. I know they send out 2-5kV pulses (depending on lamp type and condition) but just don't know how they produce those voltages in such a small package and what allows them to pulse, especially the timed ones that time out if the lamp fails to start after a few seconds as well as the ones that cut out if the lamp is cycling.

I remember those! Fascinated me a a kid. I always wanted to build one as there were circuits and explanations in an Electronic Experiments book I had. ~Instructions were something like 'get a x-ray tube from your local medical suppliers and a Ford M T magneto/ignition coil. .......'

Mr B Shepherd

hey clive! i use a power wheelchair, and am a youtuber as well.. reviewing chairs and making repair videos etc.. im looking to find some GOOD quality 24volt LiFep04 battery chargers. (the chair's 100Ah packs already have a BMS's installed in them) - but when looking online all i see is what appears to be import garbage.. maybe a few tips on what to look for to try and find decent ones? im ordering 5-6 different ones, and will be taking them apart to inspect things.. (USA 120v) can ya give any pointers for things to look for with board layout, parts used, isolation etc? (i know thats a lot of questions) lol but i just want to be able to find a few and then be able to recommend them to my audience :^) thanks man!!

Totally Normal

It's all behind a small APC UPC so that hopefully shouldn't be a problem

Paul Slootman

We made a similar set of frames for one of the poles on George Square in Glasgow. It was designed by kids and then we interpreted six of their drawings as lights inside an outer stocking. It was one of my favourite effects because it looked so wacky.

Big Clive

I'll answer this one now. You could use one or more NTC inrush limiting resistors in a bit of ceramic terminal block. These are black disk thermistors that start with a resistance of about 5 ohms and then lower in resistance as they heat up with the current flowing through them. The cap the magnitude of the current spike to something that is less likely to trip the breaker.

Big Clive

Ethernet is isolated by transformers on every port, so there isn't going to be a problem with grounds. It should work fine to use a single power supply.

John Hiesey

I prefer to keep them separate, in case something has a spike, it more likely to be contained locally in the failed component.

Scrufdog

Where my internet feed comes in, I have a 12V power supply for the fibre tranceiver thing, a 12V power supply for my router, a 12V power supply for my switch, and a 12V power supply for my little server. The last one takes up to 3A, the rest are less than 1A. Would it be better to replace those 4 power supplies by one big one, and if so, any gotcha's to reckon with? I have measured the voltage between the grounds of these devices and they don't seem to be connected.

Paul Slootman

Most effective way to power LED illuminated button cell Christmas model houses etc.

Andrew Donaldson

Have you seen these Clive? they're fantastic https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-55131048

Have you ever examined an old x-ray shoe fitting machine? I've read that many of them produced extreme radiation hazards, but at least in the USA they were quite popular for a few decades in the middle of the 20th century.

John Hiesey

Suggestion for discussion - simple circuits for driving two wire Xmas lights, at full brightness, without the various flashing effects, so they just 'come on' at power up. An H Bridge I believe but what is the simplest implementation?

Mr B Shepherd

I would say yes - essential. Last year I had some Xmas 'falling star' LED lights outside they were fully 'sealed'. When I took them down in January half had water collected in the bottom, some had corroded and some LEDs failed. I suspect that liquid water did not just enter but moist air was puled in by the heating/cooling cycle and then condensed. I did pull them apart and repair and will be drilling a hole in the bottom this year. I noticed that similar units bought this year already have a hole in.

Mr B Shepherd

Another question; I made a soft start for a 2.6KVA 240 / 110 transformer from a contractor / timer and a bulb ( shorted by the contractor ) yes works great but breakable and not ideal for moving around. Without something it will often trip the feed to my shed (16A C curve ) I’ve had a few ideas; triac based ‘dimmer’ diode or resistor instead shorted out by same contractor / timer. I like the resistor idea but power dissipation (thinking 100 / 200 Ohms ) is in the 500 - 250 watt region- yes only for a second or so should cope? Disadvantage of that is size / cost of big power resistor Any opinions / options ( MOV?) etc

RDM

I have a projector lighbulb outside projecting white stars on the front of my house, I have put it in a clear plastic box that is pretty much sealed. Should I put a drainage hole in the lowest part or if its sealed leave it as it is?

How Ze testers (like Megger's) actually work and measure it hot; how the hell do they measure impedence/resistance over wires that have 230V running over them!?

Good call !! Gets my vote

RDM

I only ask that you do a shot to the Aracibo Observatory. We tragically lost the telescope on December 1st.

Michael Thompson

Water/Weather/UV protecting (LED lightstrips etc.) for outdoor use.

Microcontrollers. What is your favourite? NodeMCU? Do you only code in assembler/machine code or any C style using IDE? What do you use to program the discrete chips if not using development bords?

I'm likely to be putting up Christmas or something. Will try and pop in to say hello though as I've grown to really enjoy the streams and love the technical family. I never have any good technical questions. I tend to go with the flow here and save all my hard driving technical concerns for my Amateur Radio communities. Plus I'm hit or miss technically due to a lack of formal education but I follow along or do my best to.

Michael Thompson

A specific question; did you try the ‘3 phase’ to low voltage power supply on 240v ? You said you were thinking of testing it on lower voltages. The build quality looked great

RDM

I do enjoy those videos and still will hunt them out to put on while working on something. Lighting controllers generally, yep 👍

RDM

How about a chat on EMC testing, and how difficult it is to pass it...

Have you explored the channel "Look Mum no Computer" and be amazed on what 1000 Oscillators played at once can do? Or the other creative electronic projects he has made or altered like the Furby organ or Gameboy synth?

Bungeeskunk

Kid's soundbox toy: Reverse engineer and find secret functions that are not available unless you short some pad to ground. Any Easter eggs?

Bungeeskunk

One of my favorite videos is Big Clives Story Hour and your best ever job at George Square.

Never mind, I see that you already made a video in 2014: https://youtu.be/W507C1qfXGM

BC did some talk about how it extrapolates or something for the shapes. It went way over my head heh . Think like those EEG machines, mathematical model for real data

Cerity

I always enjoy your old stories, there's always something funny or interesting to get out of them. So i'd love to hear more of these!

Don’t those have big ceramic capacitors that buzz❓

Cerity

Can you explain how star/delta motor starters can damage motor shafts?

Mike Hanley

GaN or SiC?

I would like to know a better understanding of OpenSCAD and why you use it. It (from my newbie usage) it's hard to embrace... A walk through would be great!

That one job out of many that make you do the teeth sucking sound, but that ONE that was just so terrible you said something along the lines of "holy crap" out loud in front of the customer. Things like terrible rack wiring, super dodgy electrics that sort of thing

GL_1_Code1_1A

Not a hard and fast rule, but typically PS's are sold as having a given voltage, while drivers are sold has having a given amperage (and the voltage could vary wildly to maintain that current)

Dustin

What's the difference between a driver and a power supply? Thanks.

Seconded! I love Raspberry Pi. My Pi 400 hasn't shipped yet.

While going thru some junk I found an ultrasonic bug repellent device my wife must have purchased at some point, its a Black and Decker branded MDL310. I opened it up to see whats inside, how it works. Curious if they actually do anything, kind of an oddball device. Probably other similar devices, you probably have something like it somewhere. :)

question! When do you buy from official suppliers instead of eBay. Why and what?

Simon Hopkins

Oooh external triggered patterns instead of mastery of the PIC logic BC has 👍

Cerity

To do a backup for only specific circuits requires a rewire and subpanel for those circuits. ☣️For those who have solar or alternate source, and don’t want so called NEM (net metering) there’s a disconnect added upstream prior to the main house panel to eliminate all doubt that your backfeed could electrify the lines with ... dirty electricity🧲 BC do you have any inclination to do a progressive ‘lesson’ on how our power distribution system is run. You cover leading and trailing capacitors or motors pretty regularly.

Cerity

It would be neat to discuss how to do simple electro-mechanical light patterning with Christmas lights. Im imaging clever ways to use up some salvaged motors and gears mixed with switches and timers.

Myrk

I live rural and have regular power cuts and i want to install a 3kw back up generator with a switch over on my consumer unit to power just the lights and oil heating boiler, There is not much info on this in the uk any suggestions to do it safely would be much appreciated.

Jamie

In your own circuits - eg lighting, audio hacks eg make an adjustable analog control for Bluetooth audio etc

Discuss use and difference between Trimpot and Potentiometer

Oooh, yeah sortof like the paradigm, we have more computer in a calculator thn ENIAC had — except it was the size of a train car

Cerity

A clear lesson on Vf for LEDs and resistor sizing for BigCliveDotCom electronic newbies ... there must be a fair few of us now ... ?

Does it take more time to setup the fairgrounds or tear down ❓ crews I’ve been in always give short-straw the cleanup job — solo

Cerity

Yup a BCDC overview of a UPS would be muchos más welcome!

Mustafa's Fleas

Extra sensory body modifications are intriguing 👍. Learning about some technical knowhow needed for mesh wearable body sensors... 🎁and how that doesn’t turn us into Borg would be a cool theoretical ‘TED talk’... I don’t know of any hall effect sensor implants, but there is a determined subset of the body modification culture who have had coated magnets implanted in their bodies for a decade. Pretty sure I got that from Popular Mechanics 🦾 thinking about different ways to interact with the environment, or how perceptions leave us vulnerable and/or blind to experiences (think Riddick for the infra- and ultra- visual bands)

Cerity

Battery to Battery 12V charges ... why and how :)

How a switch mode power supply works or where babies come from. Either one is fine...

Lostngone

Mains 5 Volts USB power supply: buy it or make it ? (high current for power-hungry devices)

Carlos Capriotti

Why don't we start talking Pi. Maybe fire that thing up on the stream.

Scrufdog

https://www.facebook.com/Pip-Costa-Cat-1473243389649290

Big Clive

More Christmas Lights! I miss the old videos with you converting light sets. I'm just about to start experimenting with the new Bipolar led sets, and a H Bridge Driver+Arduino... Just to see if it's feasible to use those sets on a large scale.

Stuart Goggin

Smart Bricks, which could store a substantial amount of energy, and be recharged hundreds of thousands of times within an hour.

Andrew Donaldson

How about chronological teardowns? A "thing" that uses vacuum tubes, then a 1980's-ish "thing" that does the same thing, then a modern "thing" that does the same thing?

Phil Moyer

PINBALLLLLL!

What's the worst work you have ever seen done

Private Private

Cats.

Scrufdog

Remake a past project while you talk to us on stream, like an ioniser or a light and if people have the same things as you they can follow along lol

Hmm, UPS (or other power) transfer switches? One of the lockpicking channels, Bosnian Bill or the LPL, recently showed picking an interlock device that looked like it was part of a transfer switch.

Paul Ste. Marie

The best place to get a breakfast, be it Scotish or English :)

Robert Morley

A subject that I don't believe you have covered is electroluminescent wire and/or panels. A fascinating technology.

How about RFID and NFC implantable chips. I just did mine on Monday I did a NFC RFID chip and and RFID LED

Carbonation of Mead?

Entertainment/event lighting power distribution

Christian Elzey

Most dramatic failure at the tattoo.