Rechargeable camping light with weird design flaw

After the initial disappointment of finding out that this light was about half the size I was expecting, this light just kept delivering hand-to-forehead moments.

Spoilers below:-

The solar panel. It's tiny, with about 20mA output, which is going to take a while to charge the 2200mAh lithium cell. But that's probably a blessing in disguise, since there is absolutely no overcharge protection for the lithium cell from the solar panel.

This light has all the obligatory flickery dim modes, annoying strobe and the worst implementation of an SOS mode I've ever seen. The circuitry uses a P-channel MOSFET switching to the positive rail, but the software appears to be designed for an N-channel MOSFET switching to the negative rail, which means off and on are inverted. This doesn't show on the main modes that have been shuffled to fit, but the SOS mode doesn't actually flash the SOS code, but blinks the light out for dots and dashes instead.

Given that the dimming options are just full half and quarter, the PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) routine doesn't have to be complicated. It could alternate toggling the LEDs on and off with switch tests and still achieve a very high PWM speed on a slow processor. This software has very slow PWM to the point of being unpleasant.

The light does have some plus points though. The cell capacity can be doubled, and the 5V power bank mode puts out 5V all the time, albeit at just 800mA. But it does mean the light could be used to power low current LED strings for a long time without going into standby.

With a voltage of 4V the LED current measurements were:-
Full 900mA
Medium 450mA
Low 236mA
Strobe 450mA (50/50 ratio)

There's no magical keyword to find these lights. The title is a fairly generic string of words:-
USB LED Rechargeable Outdoor Camping Tent Lamp Lantern Hiking Ultra Bright Light

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

Видео Rechargeable camping light with weird design flaw канала bigclivedotcom