There seem to be quite a few of this style of camping light being sold. Here's my latest find, and rather predictably it has the same dodgy mains-referenced USB connector. This unit is a hybrid of the other two in that it offers the same flashlight function as the gold one with the same area light assembly as the red one.
In this video I also show how to make a crude USB powered charging circuit to replace the dodgy capacitive dropper based one. It's not ideal, but it's better than being fried by your iPhone when you plug it or any other metal bodied USB device into the port of this light while it's plugged into a wall outlet. An improvement would be to use a Schottky diode with a slightly lower forward voltage drop than the silicon diode I used.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random dangerous gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm

18 thoughts on “Yet another death-dalek camping light. fatal shock risk”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Eric Weiss says:

    you said the port is live,and if you put something like this in it,might not be so critical'. Some people may read that as not possibly critical.they might not know ,that it could be critical.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars StatHyena says:

    This type of light, but one that ran on batteries, was the first thing I've ever owned that had an electrical malfunction. Bottom of it set on fire. I wonder why these specific camping lights are so awfully made

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Dennis Young says:

    Given that I want to make a “camping light” for power outages and the like, I’m glad you’re showing what NOT to do.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars John DoDo Doe says:

    Would turning around the mains plug make it significantly less dangerous by only making it live at neutral voltage plus 4V ?

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars RogerRHF says:

    You mentioned you're able to do the hack on the Dalek equipped with the battery compartment, would it complicate things if I left the internal batteries attached?

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Nathan Chowdry says:

    They thought in the 1950's Everyone would have their own jetpack to travel on free energy, wtf went wrong guys.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rusty Broken says:

    Does that mean that Neo was an electron? He returned to the source.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Paul Cooper says:

    We got some of those hot air guns at work. They worked quite well but we did have to add in an earth wire in the base to get the metal heating element shield to pass the PAT test.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Daniel Toffolo says:

    Ah dinnae ken. How is it that 220 Vac is applied to the bridge rectifier, but there isn’t 330 Vdc on its output. What’s missing?

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Emelia S. says:

    What would happen if you plugged that new USB charging cable into the USB port? Just charging but slowly drawing current due to the other components, or a pop?

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rx7man says:

    I see JK rowling writing a trilogy about this "BigClive and the Deathly Daleks"

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Guian Lorenzo says:

    I modified the golden death trap lamp "that exploded" so i could plug a usb micro b to charge the battery and i change the battery to a litium polymer cell with a protection circuit and it works well

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Michael B. says:

    The 2021 versions of these lights are still available for sale on Ebay ( Amazon has the BigClive versions with a USB charging port) though some of them have changed the mains charger to say "DC Charging" or one that has said that the mains charger is a "Micro USB". Sad that this sort of stuff is still being sold.

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Whoisnt Whoisit says:

    Can the solar ever harm the batteries if they are fresh or happen to get enough charge to get full? Just curious as I notice there is nothing between them, I kinda figured there would be several components to keep something like that from happening, would be nice if its not necessary! 🙂 Thanks! Great videos as always!

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Tink S K says:

    Random question not related to video: where can you but bulk LEDs on wire? like Xmas strings only with no plug or circuit so you can use them at what ever length you so choose with a circuit of your choosing without having to stick all the LEDs into an existing string light.

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars KrotowX says:

    Dalek camping lights with extermination feature. Instant like!

  17. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars keith king says:

    in what way can the FLIR be hacked??

  18. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars David Collins says:

    I almost gave my nephew one of those for Christmas. Glad I got him another kind that doesn't use mains.

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