Led chasing USB power cables now a scissor LED But the linearity I'll show you the moment these in the dark. The linearity from one end to the other makes me wonder what on Earth is this material I Think it's cyclo fiber optic, but if it is, it's the best Cipro fiber optic I've seen in a very long time. so these came from one Beyond in the UK formerly called one below the replacement for pound World which kind of went out of business and I Have to say it's one of my favorite shops at the moment. Their stock is very interesting, lots of technical stuff.

so let me cut to the chase here and show you these in the dark one moment please. Here is what they look like in the dark, which is very, very good at note: the linearity of the light from one end. this is the presumably The Source the LED end and at the other end I Don't know if they get LEDs in here as well lighting from that end, but the linearity along the full length is surprising. It's very, very good.

Very impressive. So uh, let's take one apart and see what's inside. Watch your eyes. the light is about to come back.

The light is back. Things worthy of note: The red one only draws 32 milliamps. the blue one draws 68 milliamps now. I Get the film.

There's uh, three LEDs in here, and if that is the case, oh, this one's fairly notably warmer. Uh, if that is the case, then they're potentially pushing them quite hard. But having said that, um, the only one is lit at a time if it's the chasing effect, so that would be roughly about 20 milliamps per. LED Let's take the blue one apart.

Let me see what's inside it. So how well is this going to come apart? I think I show grip it with a pair of pliers. This may result in mass destruction. If it happens, it happens.

I'm not sure if this is the correct way to do this. Oh, it's all very chewy. This doesn't look like it's the correct way to do it. This may be about to cause Carnage Uh I think this is about to cause Carnage Hmm this is causing Carnage I wonder if I can nibble into the metal I Don't think I'm going to be able to easily do that.

Let's just nibble the plastic away and see if we can just tear into it that way. Social stuff. a pair of side Cutters up here and nibble into the plastic. If this starts taking too long.

I shall pause because uh, nobody wants to see some just laughing around with Chewy plastic and destroying stuff too much. Or maybe you do want to see stuff being destroyed I should Zoom down this that is filled with glue which doesn't help. What if I bite in like that? That's quite promising. What if I just heat it up? That might help as well.

Uh I may try heating it up one moment please. Oh well, That went very smoothly lied. Clive unconvincingly. As you can see from all the shredded metal and plastic and stuff like that, What? I'm seeing here already is a little circuit board with a six pin chip in it and some components.

I'm seeing three LEDs and some guides and then what are presumably fiber optics stuck up the end. Let's take a closer look at this circuit board one moment, please. and let's explore. There's a little six pin chip.

There's one resistor. I Thought the resistor was going to be for limited current through the LEDs It does not. I shall zoom in. just a tiny bit in this.

So this plastic housing here has the four pins on the back that's actually part of the connector and on one side it's got four soda pads that go onto the cables. That's the cables here that go straight along the cable, but it takes the negative and the positive and the positive goes straight to the anodes of all the LEDs and the negative goes straight to the chip. The positive also goes to chip via a resistor. Um, and then the negatives of the chips are all switched through the chip to the negative reel.

That's it. really. Here's a little turrets with the that go over the LEDs with the fiber optic, but there's something more interesting about them. Let me show you the schematic.

Not that's really a terribly exciting schematic, but it is a schematic. nonetheless. Uh, Mystery Chip: no numbers: 47 ohm I Guess maybe it's got its own built-in voltage regulator? I'm not sure that's possible. It does just have a little Zener Diode built in it.

The incoming USB Supply jumps straight out to the cables. The 47 Ohm resistor goes to the chip. The LEDs are switched directly by the outputs of the chip to the zero volt rail, and uh, that's basically it. It's just got a fixed chasing three Channel program and it could be a microcontroller.

It could be something else. What's interesting is that the fibers are pushed through the sleeve. Um, here it is here. and they don't just pull straight back out so they're push through the sleeve and then they've clearly been pressed against a very smooth, hot surface and it's caused them to flare out.

and then, uh, they're pulled back into the housing. That means a they don't pop out the housing, but it also means that now you get that flared section to capture the light. Well, as demonstrated here, the LED light is going straight into the end of the fiber optic. It's just catching as much of that light as possible to fire it along.

I Did rather predictably do that Ghostbuster thing and basically unmount my Slinky and I took the fiber optic out of that uh, sleeving and it's fine. It's good. a fair amount of light still comes out the end of it. I Can now demonstrate that one moment fiber optic here with the light showing at the end as well as emitting out the side of the not so visible under the bright bench lights.

But this is just a flashlight pointing directly up the end of that fiber. How does it look off? Yeah, it glows quite nicely off camera, but it's uh, interesting. Unexpected. I mean I'm really surprised by how efficient this fiber optic is and actually spreading the light out the side.

It really does look very linear from one end to other. It's very good. Uh, so that is it. Not bad at all given that it's not a hugely expensive product from one.

Beyond So cold because uh, it's one pound and Beyond and that did not cost a pound. That cost a bit more than a pound. but it wasn't that bad and nice enough. Uh, system I Do want to ponder about this resistor is the does the chip just have that little internal voltage regulator? Um, I Suppose there's one way to find out one moment, please.

So if it didifazine or diode, you'd expect if you went from the negative on the circuit board to the other end of that little resistor there, you'd see the voltage being dropped. So this is the input voltage which is 5 volts and this is the output voltronet resistor which is also 5 volts. So the resistor doesn't seem to be doing an awful lot. I Do wonder if that resistor was originally intended to limit the current through the LEDs because they could have done that if they put it on.

Say the negative and say the positive. It means that the current flowing being switched by the Um by the chip would have gone down through that resistor. But as it is, they're just relying on the internal impedance of the chip. That can be a bit naughty.

But anyway, it is what they've done. What do you expect for the low cost from a a dollar store a pound shop? but that is it. A nice little thing. It's a visual, nice visual effect.

and certainly this one. Uh, it's got lower current. the red one I'm not sure how they're doing that unless they've got extra components in there or they've got to configured differently. but that is it.

the Uh one below or should I say one. Beyond Fiber optic chasing USB charge lead.