The second part of a question and answer session.
Feel free to ask more questions down below in the comments.
Here's the link to Mouse's wearable supercomputer badge on Etsy:-
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Flashything
And Evilution's PCBs for the hexagonal supercomputer:-
https://www.etsy.com/shop/hexled
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.
#ElectronicsCreators

Questions and answers video part two, more questions, more answers, and if you have more questions, remember you can go down into the comments and ask them down below for a future video, possibly answering your questions, while making a project before anybody asks this little badge. I'll put a link down to it. This is made by mouse a regular viewer, it's based on the super computers, but it was a little tiny, wearable one very nice. I wear it during the live streams.

He is making them and selling them an etsy. It's very neat first question: james rafferty says i have a 12 volt motor and a battery 12 volt. Of course i need to set the system up to use near water. What is the safest way to do this and we don't need to cut off between the motor and the battery the motor driver, propeller any ideas.

Thanks clive, i would recommend an isolator, definitely some easy high current isolator to protect the motor and suitable fusing protection. But waterproofing is the most important thing in shielding deflecting water because uh the biggest risk the risk of shock at 12 volts is low, but the risk of elect electrolytic corrosion is huge when water gets into dc electrics, particularly salty or dirty water. So those are the most significant factors. Mcmovmk says sorry to the smash hits one clive, but i am genuinely curious.

What kind of music are you into the most and what you're currently listening to my preferred? Music is edm electronic dance music. Just because of the era, i grew up in uh when the electronic revolution happened, and it was just such a new thing um, but uh. I don't have any particular favorites. I have a playlist on big clive live of music, but it's just a random selection.

I put in there i don't generally play music when i'm designing or working stuff, because i find it a distraction when i'm doing bulk assembly of things i'll often put music on the background and it could be say, for instance, cfx crew. Just one of their live acid mixes that they do just because it's a continuously morphing thing being mixed, live in there in their videos, but that's a good, a good ambient background noise and they they last a long time, because it is a continuous mix. David case has not a technical question, but i recently heard a scotsman try to say purple burglar alarm and now i need to hear you and rafa try the same now. This was discussed recently in a live stream, because if i because i'm scottish, we have a guttural stop.

So if i say that it comes out as purple burglar alarm and people might not, you know, people think you just can't say: purple burglar alarm, purple, burglar alarm and the reality is. If i went up to another glaswegian and said, do you have a purple burglar alarm? They would know exactly what i was talking about just because. Well that's our accent. It does sound very odd.

It is quite hard to say mustafa's flea says a mythical gentleman going by the moniker mac reynolds once stated in any status hungry culture. The level of man is a sign depends on what people think he is not what he is, and that of course means that the only deliberately phony has real status, most celebrities, the the most popular ones, the most obnoxious and in your face ones. This is also why people try to dress in business, suits to actually raise their visual status to make themselves look more important and why the pope wears a big huge hat. It's all about show and uh making yourself look important.
That's that's true! It's how it works. My preference is, for i mean i tend to judge people purely on their their contribution to society, whether it's ability to write software or design stuff or run cables or fix cars or create wooden structures or build things. I tend to go and our cleaners, our painters, all the trades and services that keep the world running. That's that's how i judge people casey schmidt says: what is your guess prediction about the next implementation of leds and consumer products, for example the led neon coming about a few years ago? Where will it go next? I didn't really predict that led and i was surprised it's very nice um and it's really come down in price and it's been refined, the design of it's refined and it's very hard to see where it's going to go next.

I know where i'd like it to go next: i'd like it to go into fully serviceable lamps with swappable modules. The light industry is not going to go with that. They want the money, dylan dixon says: have you got any tricks or advice for sourcing, rare or obsolete parts? Google and ebay, particularly things like you'll, find that say, for instance, obsolete chips are readily available. Like the lm3909, you can go on ebay, you can buy one.

Now quite expensive, but they were always expensive. That's a led blinker that runs off 1.5 volts by the way, but things like micro, microcontrollers, the russians cloned a load of like american and british microcontrollers, and they go under a different name. But there are comparison, charts and sometimes those russian microcontrollers which are still readily available - the microprocessors uh. They will just plug straight in and place the existing processor.

So you can find interesting stuff. The problem is that for really rare and obsolete parts they become collectible, and that means the price goes further. If robo says what are your thoughts and everything moving into microcontrollers and software uh, it helps make it easy for cottage industry maker types put together products quickly, but ultimately reduces their maintainability in the future. I've seen so many things that have been rendered obsolete because a microcontroller got damaged, say, for instance, uh some light controllers.

They used to work on particularly italian ones, that used to flash over onto the uh 5 volt rail uh. When something blew up because they didn't afford protection, it would take out certain chips. The 5 volt rail one of those was a microcontroller. You couldn't get the microcontroller because it was custom software, it was dead.
Controller gets scrapped, uh elevators uh under factory machines that have battery-backed plcs, but they never actually put the the program into non-volatile memory, particularly in older units where it wasn't really terribly viable. At that time you can have a controller that you go. You there's a power cut. Power comes back on, that's that machine obsolete because it lost the program and the option in the plc's is rewrite your program from scratch, which would mean completely reverse engineering.

The machine, a huge task it'd, be like developing an entire product from scratch, not viable um but uh, but the other option is uh well replace the machine. Fundamentally, that's it's disappointing. When that happens, one option there is to actually see if you can find equivalent machine and get a software dump off that, but the the worst thing that can happen here is you go to try and take a software dumb off the other machine, and it loses This program as well and you've just destroyed someone else's machine. I don't like it when that stuff happens, but uh you see some stuff, that is, it doesn't need a microcontroller, so people just say: well, i'm not using microcontroller.

That's good makes it serviceable, as mike page says in here, but he also says: what's the next layer up, it's the next layer is integrating well they've done it already integrated to analog and digital everything and the wi-fi everything's done in a single chip. Now it's pretty impressive wim says: can you describe inductance? Oh, can scientists describe inductance, i mean you can go through that principle that current is flowing along wire. It creates a magnetic field, rotating one direction and induces current flow in another wire um. But in reality they don't really know quite why it actually happens but um.

So from our perspective, you just break it down to the fact that if you have a coil of wire around a core, when you pass current as it tries to magnetize that core, it will initially reach a sort of push back. It will limit the current going through because it's working to actually induce that magnetic field and where one didn't exist, and then likewise, when, when it's fully magnetized as far as it can go, it tends to let a lot more current through. So it's good for taking spikes out and filtering, but also then, when you turn the power off the magnetic field collapses and it induces voltage in the wire it's interesting um. But it is quite a difficult concept.

Sometimes get your head around, particularly the switch wood power, supply, transformers, rafale, says uh, purposely flame weary, and it was. There was a whole flaming section after this in the u.s wall socket. Should the outlet be oriented to have the ground pin located at the top? Above the mains pins at the bottom, conflicting views, some people say it's better to have the earth pin at the top in case something falls down, goes behind the plug and could become live at a live, pin or or jewelry could drape into it um. But it's a controversial thing.
I think i'd put the earth pin at the top the ground pin at the top, and then i scroll down through all the arguments for above um for for and against osha apparently recommends ground up, but it never really made it to the nec. So you've not got a standard for that. That's interesting, andrew donaldson says which electronic magazine projects did you find the most satisfying to successfully build some that come. Some that come to mind are the direct ion, which was a really compact compact ionizer.

That kind of, like just blew electrical separation principles out the window, so it wasn't that great for spacing between tracks, but it fitted a 30 capacitor multiplier and a tiny little box. It was a really neat project. I bought some kits and it was fun to build another one. I liked was the uh.

Well, the jewel thief was done. It was not as a project just as a circuit example and well. I gave it the name a couple of years later and what year is that i gave it the name. I can't remember 2002, not sure um or was it no, i'm not sure if it was in the 90s can't remember, but another project.

I really liked was the envirosynth, which was a no microcontroller, just purely oscillators and linear feedback shift registers to create white noise to influence a randomizer, whether something was rising or falling and uh create white noise like wind and rain, and you could tweak and it made Sort of sounds like storms and rain, but you could hack it. You could like bridge resistors in and you could get real whipping howling wind effects out of it. It was very nice. It was fun to play with eric carson says.

I've heard you mention the lock pick in the past, specifically lock picking lawyer. Have you gotten into the hobby much at all or just experimenting to me? It's just a novelty. I would i've not really gotten to the same level as the lock-picking lawyer, who is so into it that you know he's concentrating clicking. He knows what's inside, that lock and intuitively and he's just clicking and picking and tweaking those little pins up and feeling when they latch i'm not that far into it but yeah you don't have to be from any locks.

It's just it's novel, it's quite fun. To pick a lock, particular stuff, that's available on uh ebay, raphael says how about any discussion embedded projects. Anything arduino issue i do have arduinos are quite a few arduinos but they're novel, but i've never really found a project to use them. I tend to revert back to microcontrollers, like pic maker controllers programmed in assembly code, because for me it's often easier just to use my library of routines i've already written.
Actually, if i really got into it's like the 3d printing, i would get into arduino and click with it, but i've just not clicked it. I've never really had the patience to sit down and basically start from scratch with arduino. It's something that's a good thing. If you're getting into computers the first time, arduino would be excellent because you'd be starting fresh and you'd be learning from scratch.

Steve prichard says i've repaired a football subsport and replaced two six-volt lead acid batteries. The charger was lost, but a 12-volt supply fit the socket and seemed to do the trick, but i was wondering why it was like that two six-volt batteries in series would actually need more than 12 volts to charge them. It would require 13.8 volts out of the box. Both batteries were measuring at around 6.2 volts across the terminals.

With a multimeter. I wasn't sure whether i was getting a higher reading expect because there's no load or whether it would really need more than 40 volts to charge properly, technically speaking, you're not going to get the full capacity of those batteries uh. If you just charge at 12 volts, it will put a charge in, but not a lot, it'd be better, getting a proper plug-in with the same little jack plug a proper 13.8 volt sealed lead acid battery charger they're very common and they'll have the system that they'll Do a bulk charge to a certain voltage level and then they'll do a trickle charge up to when they reach 13.8 volts, and you know they change the charge level and then do a maintenance charge and they will give you the longest run time from those batteries. Dave davis says i've had a few tingles off high voltage during my career.

Do you think that having experienced a few shocks makes you more resistant to them? I had a colleague in her peer lab about 40 years ago, who seemed almost immune and would grab a live wires for fun. I could grab a live wire now and not get a shock. I could grab a live wearing an earthworm. I would get a terrible shock um.

The first shock is without doubt, if you get a strong shock when you're young and it's your first shock, it's traumatic, it's a something. You've never experienced before that sudden whoosh of energy through your body as the electrons should go backwards and forwards, and in your body um you cannot become immune to electric shocks, but as you work in the electrical industry, you get little tingles from time to time. You get less worried about them, but you shouldn't get complacent with electricity. As i say, you can get immune people who claim you know they're they're immune to electric shocks because they get so many.

They work live all the time. They're, probably working indoors getting slight tingles, because there's no good return path if they work outdoors in a wet environment and they've got wet hands and they touch a live connection. They're going to get a very harsh lesson, but um, certainly with time and experience you get less alarmed about getting electric shock, you're more likely to laugh off than be like panicking flustering robert says: what's your favorite tool for measuring well, first of all, the multimeter is Really good but he says capacitance resistance or even length and girth: okay, uh capacitance resistance, the multimeter, obviously any multimeter. But as long as it's got, my favorite two ranges a continuity in diode, which is one range for just beeping things out and tracing things and look checking diodes or what's inside particular packages and the 20 volt dc range.
They are by far the ones i use. The most uh other measuring device uh, the digital calipers - are fantastic. I use them all the time, particularly for the 3d printing. I keep a set through here and it keeps you set through next to the 3d printer.

It's just useful to have them in different rooms. They're, cheap and they're accurate-ish, i have to be careful. I say there excuse me. I have to be careful what i say about accuracy, because uh i've described them as precision in the video, the cheap plastic ones from china and the machinists were not pleased.

A little speak of coffee, judith d'souza says how would you solder terminals onto a piezo and is there such a thing as a conductive epoxy glue? Yes, you get conductive, glues, they're, not designed for high currents, but for signal connections they're not too bad. The paints and glues are quite expensive. You get a tiny amount, they're, usually silver loaded, which is what makes them conductive. However, you can solder with uh onto piezo.

I've done it, but it requires a bit of technique. It's very easy to damage it. Uh, not just damaging the crystal in that area by making it lose its piezo crystal quality, but also the metallization surface can actually well away from where you actually put the soda blob. It's a kind of technique with ordinary solder.

It's very much a quick dab on so it just the tiniest amount of heat and then tina wire place the wire on and then just dab again just to stick it on to the soda, not very professional. But that's how i usually do it, but also you can use a lower temperature soda if needs be. I think that's what they do commercially our tiesland says. Is there a safe, proper way to build a protection circuit for devices that tend to blow the fuse on power on? I have an old laser printer that tends to blow the fuse about 50 times.

It's turned on, that's not normal. I assume it's lacking or has an adequate inrush current limiter. I don't want to open it up and modify it, so an external inrush protection unit would have been nice. Would such device even make sense first thing to do.

Try and look on the the case for the fuse rating and type. It's really important because say, for instance, if it was a 5 amp. You get t 5 amp time delay designed to handle a slight inrush current and you get f5 amp, which is pretty much quick below instant blow if you use the wrong one, if there's a transformer or some other load, that has a higher interest current. If you use the quick blow fuse, it will usually just blow it.
It needs that slight time delay in the fuse also make sure you're using the correct fuse value. If you can't find that information on the unit on the label, the data label uh check online for a manual for it, but there is another way for devices that are causing nuisance. Tripping. I've done this for friends with big building site transformers that when they plug them in to the wall sockets, they trip the type p breakers.

Normally you for inductive loads you'd want a type c breaker in the uk, but what you can do is you can put a bit ceramic terminal block inside and you can put one or two ntc in rush limiters which look like ndc's black or green. But they look roughly like this a little disc thermistor and what it does you get different ratings you. They tend to be uh, measured by the diameter and uh the start, resistance or the the hot resistance, but um they start off with slightly higher resistance and as they heat up that limits, the inrush current as they heat up the resistance drops down. So they don't dissipate too much and they reach an equilibrium point james margerson says: have you seen the evolution of the led neon i've seen it evolving the standard, either the single-sided or the double-sided type, but uh he said as soon as being sold in al-express.

Now comes a different shape like guides for directional light output. I've not really seen anything like that. That comes to mind. That's interesting.

I have to keep an eye out for that, but i do like i like led me, and i know it's not real neon, but in many applications like theater, signage or signage, that's going to get vandalized or or bumped about it makes more sense than glass neon. Uh but glastonian is better to some other applications where you want longevity and real neon style. Andrew donaldson says: which tools do you find? You have doubled up on the purchase of side, cutters and screwdrivers most things. To be honest, if you have a favorite tool, i tend to buy a couple or of each or more say, for instance, the little poundland screwdrivers i'll have a couple dotted about here, then everywhere, sometimes a pair with the flat blade and the cross head.

So i don't have to even swap the tips, but also the side cutters. The standard, cheap side cutters from ebay that are shipped from china buy lots because you will break the blades by cutting things you shouldn't have cut with them um and it's always good to have some fresh, sharp ones. Elbrate says it made me smell: you got so excited, as you realize. The potato fish in the last stream would be a good title background thumbnail.
I appreciate it difficult to continue up with new backgrounds. It is for the live streams. It's quite tricky. Coming up with the thumbnails, but you know i'm getting all right with that.

He also asks he's asked loads of questions. I'll just answer a couple, because i, when asking questions down below, don't stack, hundreds end to end uh, just ask one per per input. So to speak, one per comment: otherwise it gets a bit hard to track them. Do you have a favorite, windsock or enclosure for outdoor microphones that may be subject to strong wind blowing rain? I have a little microphone here.

I can't really bring it down much uh. It's got a little foam cover over it, but i don't really film outdoors if i did i'd have to get the proper muffler, but i don't really film outdoors much. Oh, when using thermal cameras do you have any particular technique for avoiding erroneous readings from shiny surfaces? Yeah you just have to get used to it. When you get a thermal camera, you have to realize that sometimes that hot spot in the circuit board is a shiny, soda joint, reflecting something hot, maybe even your body.

So you have to understand that when you're looking at things and also realize that looking at a soldier yarn or a shiny metal thing, that's hot you get a weird reading off. It doesn't seem right because it's the transmissity transmission transmissivity, no, that's wrong! Transmissiveness of the surface is important: they're calibrated on matte black surfaces, and you can put a bit of captain tape onto a surface if it's shiny to get a better reading, you have to get just get used to it. Using a thermal imaging camera involves getting used to how they work, cdc mic says some electronics, youtubers use, measuring equipment, five or more decimals seems like you can't get too many digits. I would classify those as the geeks and collectors.

I know that dave really and likes is like multi-digit displays. For me, the only resolution i need is to a hundredth of a volt purely for the lithium cells, for everything else like it would have been to a tenth of a volt is ample. There are so many questions, i'm also i'm thinking now. Actually, i'm thinking i may have to go on to a third video here, because there are so many questions, uh right say what, because this is at the 20-minute mark again, it's past the 20 minute mark.

I'm going to stop and there's going to be a third questions and answers video just to actually make it into more manageable portions. So that is the end of this one remember you can leave more questions down below in the comments.

15 thoughts on “Q&A part 2”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Robert Huntley says:

    Re the description of inductance, a good analogy would to a mechanical flywheel. It takes torque (voltage) to start it spinning (current), but once this has been down will 'like' to maintain the same rotational speed until friction etc. slows it down. AC current amount to trying to spin the flywheel clockwise, then reverse it and keep repeating the cycle. Try it on something heavy (e.g. rotating the handle of a big hammer) and you can feel the inertia resisting the amount of movement.

    Re sensitivity to electric shock, as an apprentice I was taught by an elderly instructor who used to lick his fingers before touching terminals to see if they were live; he couldn't feel them otherwise. Hardly a good example for young apprentices!

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Chris BigBad says:

    I kinda learned in Germany that the fuses have T for "trรคge" (sluggish) and F for "flink" (fast). that is not too much of a stretch wordwise, but could also be a backronym.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Suesses Einhorn says:

    Joule thief was a project, depending on what resistor or transistor or how you wind the coil, you could get 120V out of that thing, and can draw good amount of power to light up a LED very bright from a 1,5V Cell. But i have a flashlight which does the same, but uses very little power in comparison i think, never measured it.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars jp040759 says:

    WOW. Interesting perspective. All the stuff I have built with micros. If they crap out I may not have the program saved anywhere or a programmer to fix the gadget may not be useable any longer. Micros are great and they can be the weakest link as apposed to discrete component circuits. Never thought about it.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Peter Jennings says:

    I'm afraid I've fallen out of love with cheap Chinese digital callipers. I've found they are short lived, they start displaying strange, unreliable readings after a while. The batteries don't always fit that well and they seem to sometimes drain whist not in use. They often have zeroing problems. Close the jaws, hit zero, open and reclose and they don't always go back to zero. After 2 or 3 cheapies, I bit the bullet and bought a EZ Cal for about 3 times the price, but it's much better made and reliable. It also comes with a calibration certificate that was signed by a human rather than pre-printed. Probably not quite in the Mitutoyo class (at 2 to 3 times the price yet again) but very serviceable for the amateur.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Peter Jennings says:

    A friend of mine worked as a maintenance electrician in a car manufacturing plant in the 1970s. He talked about "Old Joe" from the paint department. Joe had been handling paint, thinners and other industrial solvents for years, and consequently the skin of his hands was devoid of oils and moisture. He was able to grab live wires with impunity and was sometimes asked by the electricians to test cables for them when they hadn't got a meter to hand. Unfortunately, sometimes, Joe's sense of humour got the better of him and he would grab a wire, shake his head and then hand a live wire to the electrician.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars SH99 says:

    Have you any plans to make any more story videos? I quite enjoyed the videos where you made something and told stories. The full video where you told a story about the decorations in George Square was nice too.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars pmailkeey says:

    Microphones – outdoors – you called it a muffler – I'm not going to argue about that but I'd like to point out the fact so many seem to be calling windshields 'windsocks'.
    A windsock is a thing on an airfield which shows approximate wind speed and direction and is nothing to do with microphones – and this does annoy me ๐Ÿ™‚

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jason Halverson says:

    worst shock i ever got was in technical college, i was fixing a washing machine, had a jumper cord hooked to a solenoid and the wire came loose and touched a live wire. the jumper cord was unplugged but the other end touched a live wire and i got shocked backwards while holding the plug end…. all the while standing in a puddle of water! By the time the breaker finally tripped my whole hand hurt and i didn't feel well. that was my biggest scare. my classmates gave me the name "sparky" after that!

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars pmailkeey says:

    Charging (lead-acid) batteries – where did you get 13ยท8V from ? I can't remember what my friend's alternator charge voltage was but it was around that – 13 something. She had battery problems and in the end would leave her car keys with me and while away on holiday, I'd have her car to charge the battery up PROPERLY. It typically took a week ! My charger output is over 14 volts – where it should be. If a charger is adjustable, I'd set it to 14ยท6V as that's the correct charging voltage.

    Now, what's with all these charging names – like bulk charge, trickle charge and chargers outputting different voltages (or currents) at different states of charge ? As far as I'm concerned, you connect the charger up with adequate leads and check the output is 14ยท6V. If the charge current is then 3mA – that's fine. If the charge current is 150A, that's fine. The battery itself will regulate its charging – all chargers need do is provide the constant voltage.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Pat O Mahony says:

    @bigclive. Was scratching my head initially at the term EDM. Until now I thought you were on about Electro Discharge Machining.
    In the past while tinkering at a project would often play various kinds of music , more often than not these days I play a rerun of one of your live streams.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Tom Miller says:

    NTC for a 2000 KVA 240V/110V transformer that makes an annoying not to mention worrying thump?
    This would avoid a relay cut in circuit once energised. I was originally thinking of just a 0.2R ww resistor but the NTC seems a better option.

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars diff mull says:

    I have a small HP laser printer that causes my small UPS (universal power supply) to power-off due to an overload when I iturn the printer on. I put the printer on a power meter plug/socket and it recorded a peak of 777Watt when first switched on! It actually only needs about 20Watt when printing, so it must be the heating element getting turned on with no protection. The doc says max 200Watt when printing, and 2.2Watt otherwise, so I was bit surprised it crashed the UPS, but the label says 2.6A/240V which I suppose is more accurate. It is now no longer protected from power cuts…

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Dave Kennedy says:

    Ah Clive, you just gave me flashbacks of growing up in the NE England living in a badly earthed house. For many years getting great big shocks from the tap (faucet) on the back of the house very regularly especially in summer when filling waterbombs and waterpistols. ๐Ÿ™‚

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars carlu bambi says:

    We have the same problem with many old plc machines, once they get smoked they are prety much garbage, you can't even clone the PLC, you need to make a copy on another identical unit, if and when you could find one, the worst part is that some don't even use the same language and you need a product specific cable to program them

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