**Soldering and Spot Welding with the Alienware KWeld and Black Box**
In this episode, we'll explore two popular products for soldering and spot welding, both of which can be found on Aliexpress. The first product is the Alienware KWeld, a tool that makes soldering wires around components easy and efficient. However, after practicing with it, I realized that there are some advantages to using a dedicated soldering tool like my kWeld. For example, its precision and ease of use make it ideal for tiny SMD soldering.
Another product that caught my attention is the Black Box, a small device designed to create spot welds for custom battery packs. Initially, I was skeptical about its price point of around €21, but after trying it out, I can confirm that it's a great option for those looking for an affordable spot welder. The Black Box comes with an integrated 5.3Ah Lithium battery, which allows it to make multiple spot welds without needing to recharge. To use it, simply long-press the button and press it six times to enter the highest power mode, then apply both pens to the metal surface to create a weld.
One of the benefits of the Black Box is that it's designed specifically for creating spot welds in battery packs, making it an excellent option for DIY enthusiasts or professionals looking to upgrade their tools. In comparison to my kWeld, which still creates better welds, I found the Black Box to be more than sufficient for most applications. Additionally, its build quality is quite good, considering its budget-friendly price point.
**Makita Battery Pack DIY Kit**
Another product that piqued my interest is the Makita Battery Pack DIY Kit, a DIY kit that allows you to create your own custom battery pack using spare cells and other components. The kit itself costs around €17 and comes with all the necessary parts, including cells, connectors, and an adapter. To assemble the kit, simply follow the instructions provided, which are relatively straightforward.
Using the DIY Kit allowed me to create my own Makita Battery Pack out of spare cells that I had lying around. The charging system works perfectly well, and the battery pack can be used with official Makita tools just like the original product. However, it's worth noting that if you already have spare cells, using this kit might not be the most cost-effective option.
**Aliexpress Power Bank: IP2368 Mini**
The final product in my Aliexpress haul is the IP2368 Mini power bank, a small device with USB-C and XT-30 ports. At first glance, it looks like a smaller version of the same PCB that I used in my DIY 100W Power Bank. In theory, this mini board should be capable of powering up to 100W, but after trying it out, I discovered that power regulation is missing on the board.
When I attempted to connect the Makita Battery Pack to the IP2368 Mini, the device overheated and exploded while charging, rendering it unusable. This suggests that the power management system was not designed for higher output currents like those required by my battery pack. As a result, I would not recommend this product for anyone looking to create high-power devices.
**Conclusion**
Overall, I'm pleased with most of the products in my Aliexpress haul, and I think they offer great value for their price points. The Alienware KWeld, Black Box, and DIY Makita Battery Pack Kit are all excellent options for soldering and spot welding, respectively. However, it's essential to be aware of the limitations and potential drawbacks of each product before making a purchase. As always, I appreciate your support through Patreon, and I look forward to exploring more products in future episodes.
WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enAs you might know Aliexpress is a great place to find awesome deals on unique electronics stuff. But then again also lots of garbage gets promoted there which is why it is my job in this video series to test all the Aliexpress items I think are interesting and telling you whether you should check them out or simply ignore them.Let's get started! This video is sponsored by Elektor and Arduino and truth to be told I have been reading the Elektor magazines for years now because they come with awesome articles and DIY projects all about electronics. That is why I was very excited to hear that Elektor collaborated with Arduino to create a special guest edited version of the Elektor Magazine. On 140 pages you'll find many projects and tutorials with Arduino boards including for example the new Portenta X8. If you are interested then I am happy to tell you that Arduino offers a digital version of the magazine for only 1€ to my followers. So click the link below and enjoy the magazine. Now the first item I got this time definitely falls into the category „Why does this even exist?“.And at first sight you would think we got a big spiral like copper conductor that acts like an antenna and then some electronics on the side that create a rectangle waveform for the antenna and truth be told that is really all the product does. By checking with my oscilloscope we can determine an oscillation frequency of around 9.5Hz which we can fine adjust down to 7.8Hz.That is by the way the frequency the product description advertises with and as you can see such a device is called Schumann Generator and you can get it for around 9€.The electromagnetic field it radiates that was also kind of hard to pick up supposedly consists of Schumann Resonances about which you can read all about on the backside of the PCB.But in a nutshell the product claims that such frequencies around you reduce insomnia, improve work efficiency and much more. So I actually set it right next to my bed before sleeping to test it out and let me tell you that the only difference for me was that the blinking LED annoyed me. So yeah I didn't pick this product for its mains purpose but instead for its coil design which sadly though after some measuring and testing is also not suitable for wireless power experiments. That means all in all I can not recommend this product and I am very concerned why there are so many 5 star ratings for it.Moving on to the next product though which is this lovely PCB with metal core for better heat transfer. I think you already saw that this is a so called ideal Diode and you can get one for around 13€ so not that cheap.Its job is like the name implies replace a traditional diode which not only let's current flow in only one direction but also comes with a noticeable voltage drop.Thus by multiplying that with the flowing current we get a power loss that we can feel in the form of heat.But In comparison if we do the same 1A current flow test with the ideal diode then we can measure a voltage drop of only 0.27mV which equals a power loss of almost nothing. Of course as you can see the ideal diode still acts like a diode by letting current flow in only one direction and the only real disadvantage so far is that it only works with a voltage of above 9V because it uses additional circuitry to basically emulate a diode. And during my tests that seems to be correct because with lower voltages the voltage drop either increases drastically or the diode function does not work at all. At this point I was already thinking about for what fast switching rectifier applications I could use this diode but then I realized that the product description says not to use it for rectifier circuits.That of course was an invitation for me to try it out and as you can see already at 10kHz the diode can not block the reverse current flow at all meaning this ideal diode is really useless for rectification. But then again there are other use cases like with these 2 diodes here that I use for my two 100W solar panels.By replacing them with ideal diodes I could save around 4W of power while charging up my battery system. So in all I think even though they are a bit expensive such ideal diodes are definitely worth it if you got a fitting application for them.And since I just talked about solar power, why not try some wind power next with this wind generator I got for 235€. The one I chose outputs 12V and at first sight comes with some promising sounding features and useable wind speeds and best of all the included MPPT wind controller that later charges the battery should also work with low wind speeds.But that really wasn't true for me because after assembling the wind generator, getting a bit creative with the stand and ultimately hooking up all the electronics components, nothing worked at all. I tried and measured pretty much everything possible but at no point was I able to charge up my battery even a tinsy tiny bit even though the charge LED of the controller lit up at a rather fast speed.So if you advertise your product with such a rotation speed and I get absolutely no output power when going I think a bit faster then this is a product I can sadly not recommend even though I had high hopes for it because its quality is not half bad.Moving on though to this really weird looking product a friend of mine mentioned while we were still in university. It is a so-called Flying Pen and you can get it for around 13€. After unpacking it we can open up its lid and thread the given enamelled copper wire through all the parts of the pen in order to ultimately put the spool inside it and close everything up. And as you would have guessed this pen lets you basically dispense enamelled copper wire which makes it possible to easily connect tiny SMD components to one another on a PCB. In theory that does sound awesome but even after removing the lid to get better control of the spool and thus wire, it was still difficult for me to melt the varnish around the wire to make a successfully solder connection. But after a bit of practice I can certainly see the advantages of such a tool and that is why I would definitely recommend it when you are into tiny SMD soldering. OK next I got myself this black box with two wires coming out of it and its job is pretty much the same my kWeld can do and that is creating spot welds for custom battery packs. And so far my spot welder was always a bit too expensive for the average viewer and thus I was happy to find this black box one on Aliexpress for only around 21€. According to its description it comes with an integrated 5.3Ah Lithium battery. So before using it I had to charge it up with the given USB cable and according to the charging current that should take a while. After 3 hours the charging was done and it was time to long press the button on the box to power it up and then push it 6 more times to get to the highest power mode. And all I had to do to create a spot weld was simply pressing both pens onto the metal and the device automatically noticed that and pumped out a current for a short amount of time to create the weld.And best of all the integrated battery was enough to make all the spot welds for this battery pack and a couple more later one that prove that the welds truly penetrated not only the nickel strip but also the battery cell. So in comparison I think my Kweld still creates better welds but the Aliexpress ones are definitely useable.And since the build quality of black box insides are not half bad either I would highly recommend it if you are looking for a budget spot welder. Now I already partly presented the next item to you because the custom battery pack was part of it and it is this DIY Makita Battery Pack kit that you can get for 17€. Long story short; using it to create my own Makita battery pack out of battery cells I had lying around was pretty easy to do.And as soon as everything was assembled, the charging worked just fine as well as using the battery pack with official Makita tools. So I would definitely recommend this product, but only if you have spare cells because if you buy them extra then the cost of DIY and Buy are almost the same. And by adding such an adapter to the battery pack which allows us to tap into the 18V power we finally get to the last product which is this IP2368 mini that you can get for around 25€. If we look inside then we can find a PCB with USB-C port and an XT-30 Port for the battery and this PCB is pretty much the same as I used it in my DIY 100W Power Bank, just in another form factor.So in theory we should be able to hook up the Makita Battery pack up to it to turn it all into a 100W powerbank. But sadly the 100W of power was too much for the small PCB and I heard something explode on it while charging which I sadly didn't capture on camera. So yeah it seems like power regulation is missing on this board which its big brother though definitely comes with and that is why I can not recommend the mini version to others. And with that being said my Aliexpress Haul is done for today and I gotta say that I was happy with most of the featured products.But do not worry I got lots more interesting items in my back pocket so look forward to future episodes. As always if you enjoyed the show consider supporting me through Patreon to keep it going. Also don't forget to like, share, subscribe and hit the notification bell. Stay creative and I will see you next time.
