You know how you sometimes get a strong desire to attach things to your vehicle dashboard with cheap double sided tape?
Solar powered things that have a chemical disk in them with a nondescript aroma?
And when the sun shines on it, it starts spinning and vibrating at high speed while you're trying to concentrate on the road?
Well here it is. You're welcome.
eBay search keywords are solar power car aroma.
On a plus note, it does have a nice solar panel and motor, although it would probably be cheaper to buy them individually.
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While browsing ebay for weird technical tat, i found this device called a solar power, car aroma and thought this would be worth exploring. Let me get it out and show you what's inside, there is a foil sachet with a chemical aroma and there is the device in question. So the idea is that you peel this off and you stick it onto your card dashboard. This is probably the first mistake and it's got a solar panel in here and this rotates now.

This is reminiscent of a display i used to see in jewelers when i was young, where they had a mirrored turntable, and then there are two chromed disks at an angle so that, as it rotates, it gives this impression that they're actually riding on each other. It's of optical illusion, it's quite neat, but there is. I was expecting this to have a gearbox in it to rotate a fairly consistent speed, no watch this. Let me just stick a light in this and show you that it just basically takes off and the reason for that is very simple.

I can actually feel a bit of air flowing past this, maybe that's the point, so it spins at very high speed and in bright sunshine. It could probably make a noise like a helicopter. However, let's open it up. So the reason for the high speed is because the solar panel here - oh let me get this out - it's not coming out it's out the reason.

The high speed is that another side of the solar panel is just a motor, and the shaft of the motor is actually just into this little hole here. I guess that this is where the chemical aroma is supposed to go in. Oh, that is oh. What is that smell? It's an oriental smell of unknown origin, there's a what is that, does it say apple, i'm not really sure chemical.

It smells like chemical. So that's uh. All that this really is. It appears to be the solar panel with the direct drive, the motor, which is novel in its own right, because, certainly, if you put this back in and you point a decent illumination at it, you know it spins in quite a nice way.

Let me just zoom down in this, so you can see it zooming in an interesting way. It's quite pleasing in a way, but anyway, before i zoom it too much, let's see if we can get into this. I don't know this may be glued or it may be sealed. I don't think this is going to open any further.

Maybe the uh solar panel comes off or something is this a seam here or should i just? I think the solar panel may come out. Is this going to destroy everything it probably is hold on? Let's even get some isopropyl alcohol down the back of this and see if we can encourage it to liberate whatever's inside. Oh that worked. Is this destroying it completely? I don't think it is.

I mean i could be wrong, it might be destroyed completely. Well, that's more or less. It is the motor which they, i think they glued the motor in hold up. Let me try and push they have glued the motor in yeah.

It's kind of a friction fit and then they get the solar panel with a couple of adhesive pads at the side and that's really how the whole thing is held together. Um, it's one of those little tiny, solar motors. That's quite nice! It's a very calm motor. You find them in gearboxes and stuff like that.
It's just one of those industry standard things, so that is it. My hands are now covered in isopropyl alcohol. I can think of worse things than to be covered in, but that is really what we have. We have.

This strange, oh smelly, disc, which is now competing with isopropyl alcohol, which is actually it's hard to tell the difference, and we have uh this. You get your solar panel, you get your little motor and a spinning platform that you could put anything on, but as it is, if you put this in your dashboard in a bright sunny day, it's probably going to look like a helicopter taking off on your dashboard, Which, i suppose is quite an interesting thing in its own right.

18 thoughts on “Ebay landfill – solar power car aroma thing”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Phonotical says:

    Solar powered aroma? How pointless!

    First time I saw the spinning rings I think was in doctor who and when I realised what it was doing, I couldn't unsee it!

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Fat rick says:

    Growing up I always thought electricsions were this low education trade job. Like plumbers they have been given the shaft by pop culture. When I started watching thebigclive and I emailed him asking what somebody who does stuff like him is called and he told me its an electrician! Ever since I have looked at it as a career on par with engineering. He has literally changed my world view with a single email. Such a great guy.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jeremy Boyce says:

    Dammit Clive the โ€œAn oriental aroma of unknown originโ€ got coffee shooting straight out of my nostrils.
    You have a way with words, my friend.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars The Anthony Markley 260 says:

    Yea, I would repurpose that in a heartbeat. Thanks for sharing, Clive! You are an inspiration to all who tune in!

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars GeneSun says:

    Ever notice that everything from China that uses grease, has the same brown grease with the same odor. Plastic or metal, gears, bearings, or just as a rust inhibitor. 1,500,000,000 people. 1 grease guy!

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars JamesAllmond says:

    hmm, I might get one just for the spinning thing, to hell with the stink bomb…
    Shoot, still have the helicopter thing you tested years ago on my desk, still play with it. Pisses the dogs off every time for some reason…that might too…

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Hola! WIDave0311 says:

    As for the "oriental smell of unknown origin" in the heat of a nice hot sunny day, one may have an actual reason to restrict the air-flow to ones face while driving alone. Yet worse than that, having that spinning device on the dash distracting the driver from the real-world goings-on in traffic. There may be a hidden agenda behind the development of this device.

    (Edit: This is the God's Honest Truth! I wrote my comment before reading your video description, Clive.)

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mark Latimer says:

    I thought the video was for an aroma thingy for a Solar Powered Car, what do solar-powered car smell of? – musk, Elon Musk.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mark Latimer says:

    "An oriental smell of unknown origin" – is the feed line for a million jokes, most of them very blue.
    Possible reponses:
    My wife's cooking!

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars straightpipediesel says:

    The packet says the fragrance is called something like "enchantment" or "charisma".

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Thor says:

    Can't say I've had solar power car aroma in my vehicle. But I have had quite a bit of gaseous byproduct of whatever I ate the day before aroma in my car. I'm going to guess that the solar power aroma is probably a wee bit more pleasant. At least to other people anyway.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Anders Juel Jensen says:

    That actually seemed like a decent little solar panel for other uses, and since it was so easy to get off this is most certainly a recommendation for any hobbyist looking to make day-time autonomous gadgets.

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars DeathInTheSnow says:

    Actually misread the title as "Car-orama" and thought the thumbnail image was a suspension spring.

    Oh well, watching you make a tabletop spring-powered launcher will just have to be for a future video. ๐Ÿ˜

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen says:

    The first thing that came to mind for me was the general Zod trial scene in Superman II (1980) as there are 2 containment circles spinning around Zod and his accomplices. ๐Ÿ˜

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars darkworlddenizen says:

    The fact that light from an led keychain was enough to get the motor spinning so fast with such a small solar panel is pretty astounding honestly. Like how much power would that little LED use and how much of it would be transferred to the panel in order to get it to spin so fast and with probably a fair amount of mass.

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rick Seiden says:

    The first time I remember seeing the two ring effect shown here was one of the Superman movies. I think it was Superman II. The one where Zod comes to town.

  17. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jake K says:

    That thing reminds me of those early Superman movies where Zod and his gang were held in those twin hula hoop things that spun like that.

  18. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars simon paul says:

    It would be better with fan blades. It's a stupid device. Imagine if I had it on my dash here during the Melbourne summer.

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