When I was young I bought a few of this style of plug-in night light. They were very simple inside. Just two neon lamps with a resistor in series. I modified some with different colours of neon lamps.
I recently spotted identical looking lights and bought one to see if they had changed. They have, and not in a good way. At some point a huge BS 1362 fuse has been added to the design, which blocks out half the light from the neons.
I don't think it's needed, but there's a good chance that to comply with the increasingly officious British Standards it was required to make the unit "compliant".
I get the feeling that this is yet another example of safety going too far and impairing the functionality of a product to tick a box.
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I recently spotted identical looking lights and bought one to see if they had changed. They have, and not in a good way. At some point a huge BS 1362 fuse has been added to the design, which blocks out half the light from the neons.
I don't think it's needed, but there's a good chance that to comply with the increasingly officious British Standards it was required to make the unit "compliant".
I get the feeling that this is yet another example of safety going too far and impairing the functionality of a product to tick a box.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
For BS standards, are you talking about British Standards, or Bulls**t Standards?
Think that's also fused on the neutral to add insult to injury, not that the fuse is needed at all
In the early days these neon diodes were the zener diodes of the day. That use was forgotten over time. If you have a 48 VDC PSU they could be used as a very fast transient protector. You would have to experiment to know if that can work. If a faint glow is seen you are in business. I doubt the current would be a problem. A 10R resistor might in series do something. I think the fuse is to please new engineers when CE testing. CE testing being like bitcoin for the involved.
So some jobsworth says it must have a fuse and then puts it in the neutral — the L and N on the silkscreen and reversed.
RS do a surface mount fuse – Littelfuse 1A Surface Mount Resettable Fuse, 240V ac/dc
I hate that expression, lead free solder. If there is no lead in it, it's not solder as solder is an alloy of lead and tin.
You've done a few night lights now so clearly there's an interest, or dare I say an obsession? 🤔 As a retired electronics teacher I'm interested in what's inside a 'Eufy' one from Ama… in a cheap three pack. I suspect a cheap programmable chip but with some odd things going on in the input logic department. Can you do a truth table and teardown to find out why it does strange things like turning on if dark but with no people about, but only sometimes… All three of mine do these kinds of supernatural things. Programming nesting loop problems, or bad interrupt command positions perhaps? (Can't attach a photo so hope you find them…try "eufy night light T1301" )
Converted to LED and put 4 or 5 in it 😈
They put the fuse on the neutral side
I never had one of those.
Now I probably need to build my own.
The fuse has a wifi logo on it 🤣
poundland auto switching nightlights definitely dont have a fuse like that in, the one using filament bulbs has a 'shaver adaptor' 20mm 1 amp in, the led ones , a tiddly glass cased thing one about the size of a half watt resistor !
I wonder if there has ever been a recorded incident envolving neon nightlights ?
I wonder why use a full size fuse, when smaller standards-compliant ones are used and acceptable in shaver plugs? Perhaps these are much cheaper at volume?
Can they no just increase the thickness of the plug? Fuse on the underside of the board, light source and resistors above?
In the real world, a short piece of reasonably narrow PCB trace will act nicely as a very cheap fuse, granted it's not so good on the self-quenching front as that BS 1362. I am guessing though, that common sense no longer has anything to do with British Standards?
Well instead of impacting the function of the device. Showing they been going for years.
Id extend the lenght of the plug and add the fuse under the pins. You could probably get 2 extra neons in.
Now obviously they would need new molds and pcbs. But id much rather my product worked well.
If only the regulations let you use glass fuses.
Why do companies ship electronics with flux residue?