Last Moto G4-plus video?

The direct connection from the jacks to the battery pack is very common. I've already found my brother charging a work light with the first power supply he found that fitted. A 12V one! Most of these units do have battery protection circuits in them, but it's not ideal. The USB charge current will vary depending on the charger and cable used.

Big Clive

This video inspired me to pick up a rechargeable work light on Amazon, and I've found it a bit interesting. It has two DC barrel-plug inputs, and they're both right across the li-ion pack (3 cells in parallel). It comes with a USB->barrel-plug adapter, with which it will happily draw 1.5A at 5V straight into the pack, which seems like a disaster waiting to happen. It also includes an AC adapter, and at first I thought it was just a regular 4.2V voltage-regulated supply, but measuring its voltage and current connected to the light, it actually seems to be doing constant-current charging! I'm not entirely sure how they managed it, since the only silicon components are 4 transistors, 2 diodes, and an optoisolator. Any chance you'd want to take a look at one?

Good tip on the lights - picked up a couple from the East Kilbride branch this afternoon, and there seemed to be a few left if anyone wants one and is quick.

Paul Smith

Something of a generalisation don't you think? Muggles are sadly constrained to the world afforded them by the manufacturers, Android tablets, like Windows PCs, often as not arrive laden with space wasting, battery sucking, performance sapping bloatware. But for us wizards, an Android device can be made to outperform anything Apple produce.. And you can choose any app you like, replace any part of the system, reload previous versions of the OS or apps, all things strictly forbidden by Apple and strictly enforced..

Gordo

Yep, time for a new camera

Bill Kerr

after watching this this morning I raced to my local b&m. nope not got them. a whole shelf dedicated to eveready, but no work light.

Neil Tonks

Hi Clive First I want to congratulate you for your awesome channel, you are one of my few favourite YouTubers. About the phone, I would like to share my experience with you. I had two Moto G4, one for me and another one for my fiancee, booth of them ended up overheating so much that the screens got image burning.... As the phones where still in warranty period, Argos swapped them by two new Moto G5 [...] What can I say [...] Lenovo changed the awesome camera by a crappy one, the sound quality is terrible and one of the phones got returned again to Argos because de eMMC got corrupted... Long story short, I would not touch a Lenovo again, not even using a long stick! My replacement have been a OnePlus 5T, I know, it is another price level, but for the price, the One Plus provides you a very good camera, near to an iPhone one and very good sound quality. Good luck!

elias

A good place to buy second hand electronics (phones, tablets, laptops, games consoles etc) in the UK is CEX - they include a 2 year guarantee on everything, which no one else does. You can buy online or in one of their many high street stores. You can also sell to them.

Gadgetman

I would consider using an iPad for the videos as you used to, or an iPhone, or even an iPod Touch (around half the price of an iPhone). People talk about anti-virus slowing down and/or overheating their Android devices, but you don’t even need it on Apple devices. I had 2 Samsung phones and a Samsung tablet in the past with problems. My friend has a Samsung tablet, and my God it is soooo slow and sluggish compared to my iPad which is really slick. I have therefore correctly concluded that Android is complete and utter rubbish! 🗑

Gadgetman

sorry about the phone Cool light though

Michael Thompson

When I get a new phone I usually scan it and then remove the antivirus again. I'm also very strict about not using high risk apps.

Big Clive

Yeah, the acronym COB is being dropped everywhere, despite the fact it's just the cheapest way of making an LED array.

Big Clive

I would advise that anybody who has an android phone checks if it can be upgraded to LineageOS. They update *weekly*, you get the monthly security updates AND quite often you go up an android version number. It is much more configurable than stock android. You can root it easily, uninstall bloadtware or not install it in the first place.

I have a Moto G5 Plus and find the camera a bit disappointing, so you're probably wise to steer clear of newer versions.

<a href="https://youtu.be/hRbnK4cDXPY?t=4m54s" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/hRbnK4cDXPY?t=4m54s</a> Great channel btw

Paul Schuur

OFF TOPIC Teardown of an LED Traffic Light Module <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRbnK4cDXPY" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRbnK4cDXPY</a> He needs Your expertise.

Wyrmhand

Clive ..... I’m not sure about the Moto updates, but I work where large quantities of Sony phones are repaired daily, and some of their models have been returned recently after similar overheating and battery draining symptoms following an update. The problem is with AVG antivirus hogging resources. The temporary fix for the Sony’s is to re-flash the phone without AVG until a new firmware is available. I don’t know if the Moto has AVG, but it might be worth a look and uninstalling it if it does. Just a thought ....

After you replace it, you could try rooting the G4+ then try out some other ROMs for it and see if that makes any difference. Worse case you brick a phone the thing you're not using anymore; best case, spare camera for filming explosions.

Kadah

Time for a dedicated camera.

Adam Baxter

2012 Nexus 7 will eventually cark it. 2013 Nexus 7 still going.

Adam Baxter

They have been a little jumpy at times.

Richard Boyce

"COB Technology"... WTF? Marketing wankers have been watching youtube?

Scott Miller

You should try customizing a heat sink. I mean just that alone could make for an Interesting video if you are going to use something else in the meantime.

I hope yo do decide to get a dedicated video camera for your videos (your content certainly warrents it!), but if you do use a phone again, I would suggest getting one with a good custom rooted OS support (such as the Samsung galaxy S or Note series). Once rooted, you can easily flash an unlocked kernel which gives you FULL control over how fast the phone is, how hot it gets, how much it should care about how hot it gets, etc. It is then, for example, very easy to create a profile that trades increased power consumption for buttery smooth, high quality video recording (you basically force the CPU to stay awake and run at its rated clock speed, while also setting the I/O governor to something like NoOp, so that it continuously streams video data to the SD card).

Might want to look into something like the new Nokia phones from HMD. They're supposed to be killer for the price point.

The really annoying thing is that I used a base G4 for most of my other videos until I cracked the screen. I'm seriously considering getting another G4 and not updating it.

Big Clive

I always have the phone unplugged while recording. I know what you mean about cheap chargers causing screen glitching due to the radiated RF confusing the touch-screen.

Big Clive

I really think there are major issues with the G4 Plus sadly. I bought one for my Mum as a present to replace an aging G1, and it was nothing put trouble from the start. If she used it while charging it would start "ghosting" as she called it, basically it seemed the touch screen was getting fake inputs and causing apps to launch, phone calls to initiate.. Not very good when you pick it up at 2am to check the time and it starts phoning people! Forums imply it's an overheating issue while charging and seemed a common problem. It even apparently occurred during general use (unplugged). I think it deserves a tear-down and some investigation if you finally get rid of the thing!

Jon Hammond

Whatever works. Sometimes the ugliest fixes are the best because they put function before form.

Big Clive

Within reason, you'll see a few videos recorded with a different phone soon and can let me know what you think. I'm still looking for the best options.

Big Clive

Dam planed obsolesce tills the Moto G4-plus

God 420

I feel your pain! My Nexus 7 is overheating, running v_e_r_y s...l...o...w and often freezing. Something to do with the type of storage and poor cleanup algorithms, plus the rapid degradation of that type of storage. Maybe you would be better served by a dedicated camera/recorder.

I imagine you've exhausted this possibility already, but does the glitchy issue happen only when the phone is plugged in? I discovered that my G5 Plus is very finicky with power supplies whilst recording video. My OEM "TurboPower" aka Qualcomm QuickCharge 2.0 adapter causes similarly glitchy video. Said adapter is audibly noisy when active, seems to be very loud coil whine, so I don't put much faith in it. A variety of other adapters make my phone laggy when plugged in, mostly cheap shitty ones. Some do not, including a friend's Moto TurboPower adapter and my Anker dual type A QuickCharge 3.0 car adapter. Purely on battery, the phone performs quite well for video recording, but I find that it gets rather warm and a little laggy if image stabilization is left turned on in the Moto camera app for an extended length recording. It's purely software stabilization, so I surmise the extra load heats things up and causes it to throttle the processing cores.

Somewhere I have photos of the jankiest heatsink that I ever made. It was for an MPEG2 decoder card. I made the heatsink out of a Coke can folded several times to make "fins." It was hilarious, but it actually worked quite well! I'll try to find the photos of it. :D

Martel DuVigneaud

as long as you keep making the videos, it doesn't really matter what its recorded on

Neil Tonks