Kind of message to "China" the "make" factory of our world. The video shows how I re-mounted and changed a LED clip (used around your arm to be visible in the dark) that originally was made with a Lithium button cell of 3 Volt.
I changed it into a circuit with a battery holder that holds two normal batteries of 1,5 Volt each: in series 3 Volt. These 2 batteries can give out much more energy over a longer time, compared to the 3 V Lithium button cell and can be easily replaced. Soldered to the print of that LED unit, + and -.
Inside that battery holder there is a switch (physical) that via a 4,7 Ohm 0,3 Watt resistor supplies the two LEDS & the chip. That chip had a “button” switch, that was bridged by a wire, to make that the LEDS were “on” constantly, when 3 V was applied via a mechanic switch.
By the way: that 4,7 Ohm resistor of 0,3 Watt makes a “burn out protection” when a consumer by accident uses NiCad or NiMH cells of 1,2 V and there is a shortcut in the LED circuit. So that small value (also in terms of Watts) resistor is a safety device, the resistor will burn out in a shortcut situation, protecting against fire, scorch, etc.
In the original LED unit with that 3 V Lithium button cell here was no physical switch, so when that LED unit was “off” a leak current flowed into the electronic circuit and drained out the 3 Volt Lithium button cell.
Perhaps a leak current in the Pico Ampère range (?) but I found after 2 days “on” that the 3 Volt Lithium button cell was completely depleted. Of course: that was my fault, but anyway: it is not good.
So, China, why don’t you mount a physical switch?
So not an electronic one, relying via (Mos)FETS or type-like FETS that, when they are “off” via a voltage on their Gates, have only a leak current in the pico Ampère or even smaller ranges?
So, Chinese engineers, related to the practical use by consumers and the storage time (read: use time): was your conclusion, after all, that it did not matter to use a physical switch or an electronic switch?
Such a simple physical switch means that you can really switch the electronic LED light “on” and “off”, that means that your battery can never be drained out when it is switched “off”, no leak current flows, etc.
And people will act “better”, seeing that the light is “on”, giving the consumer a moment where he/she decides: I have to switch my light “off” with that switch.
Of course: when you forget to switch your LED light “off” all batteries will be depleted.
Given the enourmous amount of cheap LED units sold over the world made in China, such a physical switch can save a lot of energy, say thousands (?) of Watts or more when people can decide to switch an electric or electronic circuit physically “off”. So
no “stand by”.
My opinion is that there is an enormous spillage of electronic circuits all over the world + spillage of energy that can be saved via this way. Many electronic devices are thrown away due to minor defects that are easy to repair.
Or discarded due to depleted batteries (or accu’s) that can easily be replaced, at least when that is possible and it is possible to open the circuit with screwdriver and without costs!
In the Netherlands we have now (october 2019) an action of “SIRE” to repair instead of throwing away.
Problem is, however, that in the Western world the costs of labour are so high that it makes no sense to repair (at least in the Netherlands) + the problem that the big electronic factories do not as a first idea focus on repairable circuits.
In a certain way: that is logical due to the very fast developments in (consumer) (audio & more) electronics (also professional) of new electronic chips doing “more” (and to a lower cost) of earlier (say: too early obsoleted….) chips, but it is a kind of rat race.
Focusing on our environment protection and the earth that we want to give to our children, that is a serious issue: preventing cheap electronics that have in fact not a big value to our life and/or are not made in a durable way. They have to last in fact for (minimum) 5 years. It is not a problem when these circuits are thrown away (=recycled) after 5 years of use.
Upload 25 october 2019
0 Comments