The Efficient Charger Board Review

In this episode, I had the opportunity to test and review several products that caught my attention on Aliexpress. First up was an efficient charger board designed for charging lithium batteries. The product description explained how the board functions, utilizing a switching regulator to efficiently convert the 5V input voltage to the required Constant Current Constant Voltage for the battery. This new design improves upon the original TP4056 IC-based charger, which works in a linear fashion and dissipates excess voltage as heat, resulting in inefficiency.

I connected a battery to the board to test its performance, and I was pleased to see that it could efficiently charge up the battery without getting hot. The measured efficiency was also impressive, indicating that this new design is a step in the right direction for efficient charging. The board's ability to decrease the charging current, set the cut-off output voltage, and ensure proper charging was all demonstrated during my testing.

One of the standout features of this charger board is its ability to reach high measured efficiencies without overheating. This makes it an excellent option for anyone looking to efficiently charge lithium batteries. I highly recommend this board to anyone in need of a reliable and efficient charger.

Next, I took a look at a 20W Emergency Hand Crank Generator that caught my eye on Aliexpress. The product description was straightforward, explaining how to use the system by selecting the desired voltage output for the USB ports and left binding post. While the system did produce the correct voltages, I couldn't help but feel that it should be illegal to output more than 5V through a USB port, as this could potentially damage devices.

I was curious to test whether this generator could actually produce 20W of power, or 4A of current at 5V. To do this, I attached a suitable resistor to the output and started cranking. However, my testing revealed that the handle broke before reaching the maximum output power of 8W. It became clear that the weld connection was too weak and that this generator is not recommended for general use.

Despite its internal structure, which includes a DC motor, gear system, and switched mode power supply, I couldn't recommend this product unless it's intended for use with specific attachments, such as a drill.

Finally, I took a look at an Anti Spy RF Signal Detector that was also caught my eye on Aliexpress. The product description claimed to detect wireless signals in the range of 1MHz to 8000MHz, but I wasn't convinced by its accuracy. My testing revealed that the detector never reliably triggered, and most of the time it would randomly beep.

The internal build quality of the detector was not terrible, but I felt that the two Op-amp circuit was not up to the task of detecting RF signals. As a result, I couldn't recommend this product. However, I did get a new LiPo battery for future projects out of the deal, which is always a bonus.

Overall, my experience with these products was mixed, but there were some notable standouts. While not all of the products I tested were successful or well-designed, I was pleasantly surprised by the selection and looked forward to exploring more options on Aliexpress in the future. I encourage viewers to share their own product recommendations and suggestions for future episodes. Additionally, consider supporting me through Patreon to keep the show going. Don't forget to like, share, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to stay up-to-date with my latest content. Stay creative, and I'll see you next time!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI simultaneously love and hate Aliexpress which for those who  don't know is a website where you can order all kinds of products directly from China. What I hate about it is that the search engine is sometimes  completely broken and shipping can also at times take forever. But normally you get your stuff within 2 to 4 weeks and what is so great about  the products especially the electronics ones is that they are offering the newest  boards and technologies based around brand new ICs that you often find nowhere else. And that is of course super exciting for someone like me which is why I recently searched through  Aliexpress to find the most intriguing products which of course includes electronics circuits  but also pretty much everything in between that I think could be useful. So in this video I will have a closer look at those products  to ultimately decide whether you should check them out or simply ignore them. Let's get started!INTRO This video is sponsored by JLCPCB who not only make PCBs for you and populate them if you want  but they also offer a 3D printing service. So if you do not have a 3D printer at home  or want maybe another stronger material; then they offer SLA, SLM, SLS, FMD and MJF which initially  sounds a bit confusing but trust me those printing methods are worth it. So check out the link below  to upload your 3D model files and enjoy their low prices as low as 1$ and fast delivery time. To start things off I got myself this interesting looking 5V Super Capacitor  Power filter cube that cost me almost 30€.At first sight I was honestly not sure what to use  it for and the product description was certainly not helping by stating that after using it,  the detail and dynamic range will increase.I think what they are trying to say is that  when for example using this thing to power an audio amplifier, it can increase its detail and  dynamic range a bit since the filter is getting rid of the noise of the input power supply. You see, as a power source we often use small switched mode power supplies, which like the  name implies, do a lot of switching on the inside to create a useable low DC voltage at the end. But the switching of course creates quite a bit of  unwanted noise that is especially noticeable when drawing current. So this filter might be capable of getting rid of that by simply charging up its  internal super capacitors out of which we can then draw clean noise-free power. Let's try that by connecting the 5V power supply to the input, a constant load to  the output and let's observe the output and input voltage while for example drawing 500mA. And yes, the filter does in fact reduce the noise problem. But while going up with the current draw I noticed that the output voltage dropped a bit while the  filtering still worked out just fine.The reason is that the supercapacitors  obviously come with a limited capacity which reduces their voltage level at a  higher output current meaning this product is only suitable for low power filtering. Of course besides the filter feature this product can also be used as kind of a buffer if for  example your Raspberry Pi requires small current spikes that your power supply can not offer. And yes, I only know that because someone on Twitter told me about it. So overall this product is not half bad if you are facing filter or buffer problem  and since its overall build quality is also rather professional I kind  of recommend it even though I think you could DIY it for a bit cheaper.Now the next product which got me interested was this Water Flow Hydro Generator for around  10€ which as you would expect you only have to add to your faucet and turn on the water  to generate voltage at the output wires.Initially I wanted to use such a generator  for my Online Water Tracker project because the description of the article stated that  it can output max. greater than equal 220mA.Not entirely sure what they meant by that but  I hoped that it would be enough for the 100mA current demand of my water tracker  which coincidentally also requires 5V to work that the generator can also output. So after doing a practical test with a 1W high power LED I was very disappointed to find out  that the generator can at best only output around 380mW which is quite a bit lower than advertised  and certainly not enough for my water tracker.That also means directly charging a mobile phone  with it is definitely not possible because the generator is not build  in a way to produce lots of electricity.But what did I expect from an article that  interrupts its product pictures with a picture of a mill, overall definitely not recommended. And speaking of water flow; next I got attracted to this Electric Drill Powered Water Pump because  why should I always fire up my big mains powered water pump when I only have to water some plants. I got it for 19€ from Aliexpress and while its online description didn't say much;  the packaging told me a quite a bit about its features which seemed reasonable. So after opening it and having a closer look at it, I connected a hose to its input,  attached my drill and threw the other side of the hose into my pond to give it all a try. Aaaaand yes it seems like my 1m deep pond was too deep for the water pump but it  can certainly create some bubbles in it.And since I am not looking for a way to  distribute the water from my watering can, I can not really recommend this product. But the rabbit hole of drill powered things was not closed for me yet because I pushed my luck  next with an Electric jigsaw adapter for 12€.In a nutshell attaching it was super simple and  using it was also pretty straightforward and worked surprisingly well. I basically only have to get used to that you need two hands for this thing meaning  next time I should clamp the wood piece down.But the cuts itself look pretty good and this  positive trend actually continued with the last drill attachment I got which  was this chainsaw one for around 18€.Now assembling it took a bit longer with  around 5 minutes but its cutting power was way more brutal than I anticipated. So both products definitely delivered here even though I can not say for sure how long they will  hold up, but either way I would recommend them.But getting back to electronics with this  3A Lithium battery Charging board that you can get for only 70 Cents. I got interested in it because so far I was pretty much always using a Lithium  battery charging board based around the TP4056 IC which do work without a problem. But as you can see the IC dissipates quite a bit of heat while charging up a battery  and its charging current is limited to 1A which sometimes takes forever with bigger batteries. The reason is that the TP4056 works in a linear fashion meaning it simply gets rid  of the excess voltage by dissipating it as heat which is of course also not efficient. This new board though is based around the IP2312 IC which utilizes a switching  regulator to efficiently convert the 5V input voltage to the required Constant  Current Constant Voltage for the battery.The product description also explains  nicely how the board functions, how we can decrease the charging current,  what efficiency it should be able to reach and how we can set the cut off output voltage by  either shorting or opening up the VSET pins.And so I connected a battery to the board  to take it for a test riding while measuring its input and output power. Now at first I was disappointed that the input current was not 3A but as it turns  out without my power meter in the way it can easily reach this value, awesome. The board also didn't get hot while charging up the battery, reached pretty great measured  efficiencies and in the end cut off the charging at the right point meaning I can  highly recommend this board to anyone looking to efficiently charge up lithium batteries. Moving on though next I got attracted to this 20W  Emergency Hand Crank Generator that you can get for around 43€. Its description and how to use it is pretty straightforward by simply selecting what  kind of voltage you want the USB ports and left binding post to output and then simply  start cranking with the given handle which you obviously have to attach beforehand. And yes the system does certainly output the correct voltages while cranking but  I feel like it should be illegal to output more than 5V through a USB port because that  can certainly destroy some devices.But anyway I was curious to find out  whether this thing can really output 20W of power aka 4A of current at  5V which I tested by attaching a suitable resistor to the output and start cranking. Now as you can see I only reached a max output power of 8W before the handle broke. Needless to say this weld connection was way too weak and because of that you can  not really do much with the generator any more.So even though its internal structure with DC  motor, gear system and switched mode power supply is not half bad, I can not recommend this product  unless you maybe want to use it with a drill like with the other attachments before. And the last product I want to have a look at in this video is this Anti Spy RF Signal  detector that you can get for around 20€.As the name implies it is supposed to detect  wireless signal in the range between 1MHz to 8000MHz, but the description of  the product itself is also not sure about that.Only problem is that no matter what signal source  I presented it to, it never reliably triggered and most of the time was just randomly beeping So even though the internal build quality is not terrible I feel like this two Op-amp  circuit is just not up for the task which means I can not recommend this product but I at least  got a new LiPo battery for future projects.So all in all the featured products in this  episode were mostly not half bad and I was pleasantly surprised with this selection. But of course there are way more interesting products on Aliexpress  which I already have partly lying around so look forward to another episode very soon. Until then feel free to let me know what other products you would like to see here. Also consider supporting me through Patreon to keep the show going. And as always don't forget to like, share, subscribe and hit the notification bell. Stay creative and I will see you next time.