I got this a while ago, but after making a video about the real thing I thought it would be good to follow it up with one about the clone.
Right up until I made the video the clone flickered horribly as it rotated. I was expecting a very low grade slip ring assembly, but it's actually not too bad. The flickering may have been caused by the lubricant causing the contacts to ride up on a layer of oil.
I still prefer the neat PCB based slip ring assembly in the Luxa version.
The original also has a spot welded stainless steel frame to protect the prismatic film, but the cheap one has no protection, so it's easy to crease or crack the film.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- https://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
#ElectronicsCreators

You may get a bit of Deja Vu in this video because recently I looked at the original version of this light and this is a cheap clone. It's worth mentioning a couple of differences here. The original did use to use this material cuz it provides a nice subtle effect, but they later went on to using a much coarser Prismatic material that provides a much greater star effect and it uses roughly the same Arrangement but there is no stainless steel frame and that means this is very floppy and it's very easy to break. and I've already cracked the plastic just by picking it up.

It's not strong at all. It's also using a completely different mechanism inside and I shall show you that. right now, let's pop it apart. so this plastic frame is clipped down quite forcefully and it slides off.

and once it has been sliden off, the cover comes off and it looks more or less like the other one. It's the same rotating Arrangement It's also worth mentioning that this one does not have a power supply adapter. it's only, uh, a battery pack. It's also worth mentioning that during shipping at some point, this is at a bump.

and because it's just made of flimsy plastic, the plastic is broken here. Now it's stopped flickering before it was just flickering continually. and maybe the fact I've opened it and poked this kind of it flickering now H has actually done something, but this is a bit more interested in. it's the rotating slippering assembly and when this first arrived, it was just really unreliable.

It was just flickering the time. Let's see if we can find out by taking this out and taking a closer look at it. I Shall just, uh, strip this apart and deso these connections and then we can explore one moment. Please.

Continuing on. Now the solder connections have been removed and the unit has been removed from the unit. Unlike the other unit which used a circuit board for both parts. this is just using uh, plastic assembly with the gearbox screwed onto the back of it here and then, uh, separate plastic wheel.

I'm just wondering how this, oh, this just pushes down. It's just a rod that pushes over this. So now we're going to have to unscrew this to get this off. It is smeared in oil as opposed to this fairly thick grease of the original Luxa unit.

So let's see what this is like underneath so it doesn't look too bad. So why was it making such a bad connection? I Wonder if the this has been pushed down too much? cuz certainly from the arrival, it just flickered all the time and this looks like copper. I Mean it might not be copper. It might be.

Let's see if a magnet sticks to the Copper it might just be copper plated. The other one was goldplated. No, it looks as though it might actually be copper. You'd think that would make a good connection, but uh, maybe the pressure that these tangs are applying they're quite soft was so light that they actually R up over the sort of thickened oil in this.

Maybe it just required something something. although it doesn't feel super thick. um, in a way now I've taken apart. it's better I was expecting, but the Luxa one is so much more reliable.
My apologies if that's triggering certain Amazon devices that sound a lot like Lux Ah, um, okay, let's take the motor off now and just see what's under here. how they're connected on. although I think they've literally just uh, connected on Via the tabs that they've pushed through the plastic and then uh, soldered onto the back. We'll find out when I take this off.

Yeah, just the little copper Tabs are folded over and then solded on. so that's quite odd. I Thought this would have been Fairly reliable now I've seen it. I Guess maybe they just don't have good manufacturing standards.

or maybe this is thickened and since they originally made it and it's that very light pressure these apply I mean these could be bent downwards to actually make a better connection. Having said that, maybe the fact that just copper means that over time in shipping, they've just settled in and uh, or maybe they've just not manufactured very well. I'm leaning towards not manufactured it very well, just buying it out because everything about this was just cost optimized. The hilt.

uh, but there we have it. Um, this might be reusable. uh as a nice rotating transfer base, but the actual unit itself is so flimsy and uh, it's just not as good looking as the original Lux uh one. But there we have it.

Um, a surprise. this is actually better than I Was expecting, but still had that problem that it just flickered continually when it arrived. But you know what? Well worth opening up and taking a look at.

17 thoughts on “A look inside a flickery clone of the luxa starburst pyramid”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @Orxenhorf says:

    Looks like used motor oil.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @davidfalconer8913 says:

    Phosphor Bronze tangs would be more springy ( ? ) .. another excellent product to retrofit with a Lithium battery , but plastic not strong enough for households with ( many ? ) children … Ha – Ha …………. DAVE™🛑

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @hilldrum says:

    Anyone know where I can find this material in bulk? Last year I hacked a tree topper star with seed pixels and WLED; the result was amazing. Would love to build my own designs and maybe sell them.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @miremare9052 says:

    Changing the subject somewhat, I've just removed a failed LED light fitting (3 LED on board with wired connectors) from my Candy fridge CTL552BK (2018MY)

    After searching the web for a replacement with no luck I gave up and spent the next 20mins waiting for someone to pick up at Hoover/Candy, finally a voice but I was somewhat shocked at the official response.

    I could not purchase a replacement component from them direct but they could book an engineer to come out with the required part and simply plug it in (a 60 second job)

    The cost…..£150 wtf

    A brand new replacement fridge of similar quality can be had for around the same price!

    Utter madness.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @kimsleep4111 says:

    Thats not grease, looks like old Diesel Motor Oil

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @fanplant says:

    Slidden? 143 Clive!

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @zsombor_99 says:

    A standard LED "christmas lights" on a slowly rotating shaft connected via slip ring assembly, placed into a really cheap plastic pyramid shape which is quite easy to be cracked. Basically as cheap as possible. This clone has less LEDs than the original version.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @DjResROfficial says:

    It could have been oxide layer on the slip ring that weared out as it rotated._

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @curtishoffmann6956 says:

    It's not as good as the original, making it a clickery flone?

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @redsaxmax says:

    These are very 1970's aren't they? In the 21st century having lights rotating on a stick! What makes them 21st century (rather sadly) is their crap construction…

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @kyoudaiken says:

    Wow, how can they make plastic so weak and brittle these days?

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @samuelfellows6923 says:

    Chineseum crap 😠

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @faumnamara5181 says:

    if there were 3 slip rings i would totally replace the leds with addressable pixels and WLED controller

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @scratchdog2216 says:

    Late some Friday afternoon somebody ran out of oil and unknowingly grabbed silicone dielectric grease for the slip rings.

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @nickk6518 says:

    Speaking of cheap tat, Poundland in Woking are selling boxed sets of three led 'candles' for 50p a box. It occurred to me that, as well as getting 9 cell batteries, the leds could be extracted and used for other purposes (hopefully). They don't flicker and they seem more very bright white than warm white, but 50p!!

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @ValyTGV says:

    The IKEA STRÅLA black led lantern uses the same star diffuse material.

  17. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars @piconano says:

    Me thinks they used regular grease instead of conductive grease like lithium or impregnated copper grease or alike.

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.