Some interesting little USB lights with magnets on the back so they can be attached to steel surfaces, or other surfaces if the self adhesive pads are used either directly or with the small steel disks.
They're both of similar construction with a chunky alloy housing and translucent dome with one resistor per LED and an array of 8 LEDs.
The small version has a simple on/off switch, while the bigger version has three intensity levels including the slightly excessive 4.5W mode that causes it to reach temperatures in excess of 60C!
You can find these lights on ebay by searching for USB magnetic LED.
If you enjoy my videos you can support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and gadgets to take to bits at https://www.patreon.com/bigclive

14 thoughts on “A look inside some magnetic usb lights.”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars MrUltralight55 says:

    I wonder if you drill a couple holes in the metal if it would cool it a bit

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Roy Tellason says:

    A while back my lady burned her arm on the small (incandescent) light that she had above her desk. I grabbed a bit of scrap aluminum out of the "Heatsinks" box, a DC connector, a small module built around an LM2596-ADJ, and a 10W LED. Put all this together and adjusted the module to deliver about 300mA, so roughly 3W, and it's completely and totally cool to the touch no matter how long it's been on. I'd build me two more of these planning to use them in my ham shack, but it turned out that one provided quite sufficient illumination so the other one is laying here on my desk and will probably end up being used here.

    There's no reason that LEDs should run that hot, unless it's so improve the continuing sale of crap like this, when the first ones you get burn out. People expect lights to burn out I guess, so they're not gonna get upset, they'll just get another one and use that. Properly designed stuff shouldn't be that way.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars NightshadeLenar says:

    A2SHB, a standard N channel MOSFET, capable of switching 2.5 amps with a max voltage rating of 20V

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Colin Overton says:

    Dear Clive, So this is another LED light that gets very hot. Is there a way of trying to calculate how much of the input power gets converted into heat and how much to light for an LED?

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars henry bracey says:

    being on a metal surface might help with cooling.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars SHAKEU WAKEU says:

    Thanks for the video i was looking for something exactly like these lights!
    Unfortunately i'm still not sure if it'll serve my needs…. Sorry, but most of us don't give a crap about what's inside as long as it serves our need for what we need it for. The video would be more useful if you turned off the lights and shown us how bright they are in total darkness, also if you showed the location of the switch on the cord. All of us have different needs and we need to see the details to make sure its worth getting it. Ebay has a lot of similar items, with very different prices and they also don't show the cord opened so i could see where the switch is located. Bummer 🙁

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars realflow100 says:

    an LED with 4W or more can light up a room. regardless of how much voltage its being powered by DC or AC
    if you modified it so the LED is more close to the light diffuser and less recessed into the case. and plugged into a big beefy power pack it'd run for hours if you needed a bright emergency light or you could use as a flashlight.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ronald Youvan says:

    It's too bad that you/he doesn't look at the output of the lamp drivers with a 'scope to see if they are analog or Pulse Width Modulated technology.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars thurman says:

    I grabbed one of these. I think mine is the smaller one. Mine is great. Nice little accent light to relax my mind.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars James Lewis says:

    Surprisingly, if you stick them onto a substantial chunk of metal they stay very cool indeed… although I can only speak for the smaller one the difference is startling.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars James Lewis says:

    These will happily run on 4 AA rechargeable NiMh cells and continue to work right down to 4v and below as the battery dies… smaller ones can run for 10 hours on a good set of NiMh AAs.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars areodim says:

    When I put it on an actual metal surface it doesn't seem to overheat since the metal acts as heat dissipator

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Super Loops says:

    I want one but I dont need one :/

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars BlackWing88 Cyper says:

    is tempted to buy these and use my own thermal compound left over from my gaming pc i built it is antec formula 6 nano diamond

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