Although this USB rechargeable strobe is probably intended for bikes, this could also be used as a warning beacon for other purposes.
Note that it has a very small rechargeable lithium cell in it, so it's not really going to be very useful for 24 of its 31 modes, but the short duration double pulse modes in 7 colours should have a decent run time on a charge.
Yeah, that's 31 modes! And you're gonna have to mince through them ALL to get to the one you want. But fortunately it holds the last choice in memory.
A long press turns it on and off, while short presses step through all the modes, which are:-
Low current short double strobe in white
Flashing in white
Static white
Then the same again for red, green, blue, yellow, magenta and cyan.
Double white flash and single red flash.
Double flash sequencing through all colours.
Slower double flash sequencing through all colours.
SOSOSOSO (SOS?) in white, red, green, blue, yellow, magenta or cyan.
The keywords to find this type of light on eBay are:-
7 colors usb strobe
Reference price is 3 to 5 £$€.
The lithium cell has a capacity of around 35mAh as opposed to the 90mAh stated in the data sheet. It charges at a squirmy 10C (350mA).
The case is not waterproof, so moisture will inevitable creep in when used outdoors and potentially cause corrosion.
The circuitry is very typical of this style of unit, with the classic SOT23 charge chip and ubiquitous 8 pin microcontroller. The use of A2SHB MOSFETs is nice.
The module itself would be useful for pairing with a larger lithium cell.
I specifically avoid using intrusive mid-run video adverts for a more relaxing viewing experience.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar or two for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
https://www.patreon.com/bigclive
Patreon supporters get early access to advert-free videos as they are made, and also regular live streams.
The Patreon support keeps the channel independent of YouTube's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
Other contribution options are available at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
#ElectronicsCreators

A very, very tiny, rechargeable bike light that could have other uses. But what's not about this one is that it's not just white or red. it's red, green, blue, uh, and white. So it can do a whole range of colors. Let's Zoom down this because, well, that's something where you're going to see it. it is. Tiny So this thing unfortunately has 31 modes and you have to cycle through them on. Some of those modes are incredibly useless. Let me start by turning it on by doing a long press on this. I Should have warned you, it's going to strobe. There is going to be strobing. Uh, quick double strobes. They're so brief the camera isn't picking them up. This is good because I can see them to the naked eye and that's going to result much better battery life. Second press: much longer duration flashes. third press: uh, continuous fight. and then it does the same for red, green, blue, yellow, magenta, cyan. and then after that, it goes into white. flash one red Flash Quite long duration. they're being picked up in the camera. Then it goes into uh, flashing all the colors. Then it goes into flashing all the colors slower, bigger gap between them, which could be quite good for longevity. And then it does the most awful thing ever. Uh, let me think, what's the next mode in this? Okay, it's now gone into the SOS mode, but it's actually SOS so it's not SOS but it's now going to do that in every color it can muster. So if you particularly wish to have a pink SOS light, then this could be it. Well, a pink, so so so loud. Okay, that's enough to turn it off, press and hold. It comes a little rubber bands for attaching it to your bike frame and it also comes with what appear to be velcro pads I'm guessing yes, they're velcro pads for sticking onto surfaces as well. Claims to have a 90 milliamp hour rechargeable battery and it's got a little micro USB port and a connector here. I've left on full white. Maybe it just didn't like the high current, but it went dim very quickly and when it went, um I put it on charge and only took uh, what was it about 35 milliamp hour capacity? I'll do the test again, but I'll do it fairer by not leaving it in full way. It only lasted minutes before it was actually dimmed way down because the white is very intense when you put in charge. It charges at 350 milliamp, which is quite high for such a small cell, but as a result, it does charge quite quickly. Let's open it. So out comes the spodger. Uh, discussions recently. lots of clones of these. The Isisamo spudger. Um, one place you can probably get it and they're not a sponsor and neither is is a Samo is I fix it. You can probably get the real thing there. I Would expect them to sell the real thing. Well, that comes apart quite easily. It comes apart absolutely totally easily. Here it is right. Well, that is a very very very very tiny little cell that's one of the tiniest cells I've seen. Could be useful in its own right in devices that require tiny cells. Uh, initially, I'm seeing the back four transistors, which surprises me. the chip that controls them, The two LEDs a little charge controlled chip and the button. Okay, well, you know what happens now. I'm going to take a photo of this and then we can examine it and reverse engineer it one moment. please. the reverse engineering is complete. Let's Zoom down onto this and take a good close look at the circuitry. I've got both sides the circuit board visible here. They're not flipped, there's no need to flip them. And besides, because there's components on each side, it just makes it easier to look at in this particular scenario. So we have the USB connector at this end and we have a charge control chip. It says Ltho Lth7 equivalent to type chip. It has two 50 50 LEDs with red, green, blue, and white chips. The uh, the white chip is actually a thin layer of phosphor over a blue or Violet emitter and there's two of those in parallel. We have a little push button on this side. This circuitry is so simple. And then we have the microcontroller, the classic eight pin with the sort of Pic 12 layout, so there's options to reprogram if you wish. well to replace it with a different Mac controller and then it's got four of my favorite transistors, the Chinese favorite, the A2shb are ridiculous little mosfet and then one, two, three, four resistors and the majority of their 4.7 ohms except for one which is 10 ohms, 4.7 for green, blue and white, 10 ohm for the red. and then there are 10 K resistors to pull the gates of the mosfets down to the zero volt rail effectively to make sure they're turned off when not needed. Let us bring in the schematic. The Lithium cell is currently on a test cycle just to see what its capacity is. It's not looking good. I Think it really is 30 milliamp hour. The USB connector is here. It's a classic arrangement of this classic charge chip with a 1K resistor. I mean all the components have chosen are what you'd call Textbook 1K resistor for the LED A single red LED that just shows its charging. a 3K resistor sets the charge current. in this instance, 350 milliamps which is quite high for the little dinky. What? I think is a 30 milliamp hour cell. I Shall put a note down in the description seeing what the capacity of that came out at at the end of the test. There are two decoupling capacitors on the 5V input and the output to the lithium cell. I've shown them to avoid drawing lines down the drawing of showing them connected to the zero volt rail which is this little Mark here, the sort of ground reference the zero volt reference of the circuit. the microcontroller has its connection to the directly across the lithium cell. It's got a button going to the zero volt rail. It has then four of these circuits which is the two LEDs in parallel one resistor either. 4.7 ohms for the majority of colors, but 10 ohms for the red because it's got a lower forward voltage of about 2 volts as opposed to three volts to others. And then it's got the mosfet. It's driving the gate directly via the microcontroller pin, but with a 10K pull down resistor to make sure they're turned off at other times. I tested the currents. they're ridiculous if you put it in static mode. the white is 190 milliamps. Keep in mind that's a little 30 milliamp hour cell. it goes down quite quickly. This was tested at 4.2 volts on the bench power supply. red was 150 milliamps, green was 130 milliamps, blue is 150 milliamps, and then when you chose colors like sand magenta, yellow, cyan was 300 milliamps which is about 10 times the capacity 10 times at the C value of that lithium cell. magenta was 310 milliamps which was the highest and yellow was 290 milliamps. However, when you put it into the mode and this is what I'd recommend if you've got one of these where it just does that so well. You saw it when I was testing it that the camera is barely able to catch up. That's it. Did it. Strobe that is so low that they meet the bench power supply. It's uh, it didn't really show any consistent current for that I'd Guess it's probably just a couple of milliamps. And in that sense, if you put it to that very brief double pulse strobe mode, the Lithium cell is going to last a decent length of time. uh, anything else worth seeing? Not really. There's not really much to say about it because it is a tiny little thing. Uh, but that is it. The Little Bike Light: I Mean in the sense, if you use it in that double stroke mode, it's going to last a decent length of time on a charge and the bite. The constant white mode is useful for a brief use as a flashlight, but the battery will go down very quickly. All the other modes are really gimmicks, but they include them anyway as a novelty as a selling feature, which is kind of counterproductive to its actual function. but that is it. The little, uh, strap-on That's not the correct wording to use. The little strap-on uh, rechargeable Bike Light I Mean when it's using strobe mode, it's actually okay. It's pretty good.

15 thoughts on “Tiny rgbw strobe light teardown with schematic”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars DIY IN THE GHETTO says:

    Second use for this will be the Holidays when you need to keep track of your kids from far away and attach one each to the back of the kids jackets or halloween costume. Pink for girls Blue for boys Or red for girls and green for boys on Christmas at night time.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars DIY IN THE GHETTO says:

    Maybe it should be called the strap on light.
    That's what she said when she ask can you see now.
    Just saying this light got it's uses.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Hola! Cucumber Man says:

    Looks a cool gadget maybe run a few on an 18650 by modifying the usb socket to just power it and remove the tiny battery….the possibilities are endless thanks Clive

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Kevin says:

    Life is stressful enough as it is, any light that has more than a simple on off, it’s too much anxiety for me… The guy that designed this light was truly a disturbed sadist…

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jay Are says:

    It is a little bit cold i-… you mean the light!

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars ELBERTO says:

    May have to try one on the dogs tail and watch him run round in the dark

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ed ash says:

    I'd put a better battery on it.. This isnt good enough to be a bike light.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jim Pook says:

    I have 2 of these lights, and have another 2 in the mail. I like them. They are cheap and have an interesting flash pattern. I use them on my electric scooter. I think their maim purpose is to be used on small quadcopter drones due to their small size.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars der.Schtefan says:

    It's not an SOS mode, it's for mothers wanting to morse "Told ya so so so so so so so so" from afar.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars sjhall2009 says:

    I was just looking at buying these. Any easy mods?

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars s6edge7 says:

    Disco was the name of a lorakeet down my street , and it has a rainbow mirror , I wonder if that bird wants that light

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars WaschyNumber1 says:

    Does it make coffe too 🤔

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Droning on uk says:

    Get yourself a flytron c1 tiny little strobe for drones and available in white/red white/green an other colours and can be seen for 3 miles all in a package the size of your thumb

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Kevin Burton says:

    Alright there clive and fam .I have SIM ones on my scooter built into me mud guards. Verry effective for there size . I ain't never seen the rgb ones tho . Nice 😉

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Phonotical says:

    If its all pwm, id like to hear the output on a speaker

    Battery is ALMOST as bad as the one from my electronic smart meter, you can guess why I made it accept an 18650 😑

    I'm description, did you mean the charge speed at 10C?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.