• A faux-flame light bulb

    Tim11/23/2023 at 08:58 0 comments

    Next up is a flame light bulb - the "field" has advanced quite a bit beyond the humble candle flicker LED.


    I did a little experiment here: I fed the tear down photos into ChatGPT (GPT4-Turbo with Vision, assumingly) and asked to write a tear down report in the style of a hackaday.com post. I nudged it a little bit to investigate power supply and pointed to the phosphor converted LED, but the rest is as it came out.

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  • Electrical Screwdriver Indicator

    Tim11/02/2023 at 19:30 0 comments

    Here is a product that probably should not be sold, not even at <2 USD. As advertised, it looks like a replacement for a voltage tester or "neon screwdriver".
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  • Equalizer Bar

    Tim10/24/2023 at 22:03 0 comments

    This is a small USB power equalizer bar with an integrated microphone. Different modes and color settings can be selected with push buttons on the rear side. There is also a version with an integrated battery.

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  • Remoted Controlled RGB Light Bulb

    Tim10/23/2023 at 13:44 0 comments

    This isn't a high-tech Wifi, Bluetooth, or Zigbee light bulb but one that's operated with an IR remote control. I purchased it for approximately $2, including shipping. The functionality is straightforward: you can choose from sixteen colors and there are several flashy animation options. However, the dimming function appeared ineffective. I wasn't too impressed with its brightness and felt the colors appeared washed out.

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