I recently had the opportunity to test out some new gadgets and tools for electronics projects, and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by a few of them.
First up was this Electrician Twistertool that you can get for just 4€. The idea is that you can insert 2, 3, 4 or 5 copper wires and then simply twist them together to create a permanent connection. And I got to say that after using this tool for a bit, I was actually pleasantly surprised because it works like advertised and you save a bit of time by not having to strip the insulation off every wire.
Now granted the results can look a bit messy, but the copper connections were all very strong and solid. So I bet this connection method comes with a lower contact resistance than when using my favorite Wago connectors. But I would still prefer using those because I feel like that with enough cold hot cycles this mechanical connection can lose a bit of tension, while the Wago with its spring loaded connector will always hold on tight.
And also keep in mind that this twistertool does not work with stranded wire as well as too thin wire. So in conclusion Wago is king; but I feel like this twistertool could be the next best thing so I kind of have to give it a thumbs up as well.
Moving on to this coin cell like thingy which I got from holyiot and it is actually a Bluetooth Beacon that you can get for around 11€. I got interested in it after I did a video in which I used a future tech Bluetooth board as a positioning system that sadly though was very expensive.
So I thought maybe this thing can do indoor location detection for cheap and to find that out, I of course firstly had to open it up, be happy about the good quality PCB, insert a coin cell, download the given app for it and then connect to it. And it seems like the accelerometer on the board as well as the push button seems to work just fine.
But sadly all temperature related stuff didn't work even though the production description made it look like that should work too. Even worse I still had no idea how to do location detection because as it turns out for that I required another app. Even with that and after doing some calibrations, the accuracy of how close I was to the beacon was all over the place and certainly not precise at all.
So I don't know; I don't really see the point in using such a beacon even when it is truly low power and thus only requires around 20 to 100uA. But if you got a good application for it then definitely let me know in the comment section, but for now it is a thumbs down from me.
Last but not least I got myself this beefy 12V power supply here and stop closing this video because this is not your ordinary 12V power supply since it is completely adjustable and can be bought for around 58€. Now for a power supply with a 500W power rating that is still pretty expensive; but after hooking it up, you can see that by using the potentiometer here, you can easily fine adjust the output voltage between 0V and 14.5V.
I think this is really handy if you want to use it as a universal power supply for various different projects. And I know that you can hack a normal power supply to also make it adjustable; but let me tell you that this solution right here is much safer. So I did some testing with 3.3V, 5V and 12V as the output voltage and drew various amounts of current on the output while looking at the output noise as well as the required input power.
And I got to say that the output noise was never a problem, but I was not super happy with the efficiency of the power supply especially at low output voltages in combination with low currents. But then again on the plus side, it was super simple to adjust the maximum current limit meaning this product is a bit of a mixed bag but I still give it the thumbs up.
And with that being said we are done with testing for now and I am happy to say that I found some new hidden gems you might see in future videos. And like always this is not the end of the show because there is so much more stuff to go through, so stay tuned for the next episode. Until then don't forget to like, share, subscribe, hit the notification bell and consider supporting this show on Patreon to keep it going. Stay creative and I will see you next time.
WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en“Mysterious guests under the table” isjust one weird product description of manywhen it comes to products from AliExpress.But even though the descriptions are sometimesconfusing, I still loving shopping there becausepretty much only there you can get the newest,weirdest and sometimes also super useful stuff.But getting those useful hidden gems can bea gamble sometimes because there is also lotsof garbage out there and that is why in thisvideo series I will once again have a lookat 6 more products in order to find out whetheryou should check them out or simply ignorethem.Let's get started!This video is sponsored by Rohde & Schwarz;one of my trusty test equipment manufacturerswho not only create awesome gear but alsopublish super useful information for freeabout certain electronics topics.And today I want to show you their definitiveguide to understanding the technology behindvector network analysis that you can downloadas a PDF.Now granted this subject is not super simpleto grasp; but with this PDF you get one stepcloser to understanding the black magic technologyknown as radio frequency.So have fun with it.Now the first thing I got actually needs twoproducts to function which got recommendedto me on my discord server.And those products are a 9.7 inch replacementLCD for an ipad 4 that you can get for around26€ and the other item is of course a fittingdriver board for that LCD that you can getfor around 16€.So combined this set costs around 42€ whichis quite a bit cheaper than other premade10 inch screens you can get on the market.And not only that, this put together set alsocomes with a higher resolution of 2048 by1536.That means it could be promising for gaming,raspberry pi projects or generally as a portablemini monitor.So let's finally stop talking about the theoryand finally connect the LCD to the driverboard and power it all with a 5V Power Supplyand USB C cable.And initially I thought my LCD was damagedbecause nothing happened.But soon I realized that I was being stupidand inserted the flex connector the wrongway around which immediately fixed the problem.So for a first test I hooked this screen upto my PC and powered it all with a powerbank.And I got to say this worked beautifully becausethe whole screen got used, the colors werecrisp and vivid, the possible viewing anglewas quite big and you can fine adjust themost important settings in the menu.Combine that with the fact that the screenonly requires around 1.2A maximum at 5V andyou got yourself an awesome mini screen thatin combination with my PS5 can also be usedfor gaming without a problem.And the last positive thing I want to mentionhere are the 4 mounting tabs of the screenwhich makes it very simple to create an enclosurefor it all.On the negative side though, I have to saythat the speaker output comes with a gentlebut annoying high pitch hum, listen:So here I would definitely recommend usingthe 3.5mm audio jack instead and last butnot least I have to say that I was not ableto inject a video signal through the givenUSB C port.But besides those nitpicks, this screen isdefinitely usable for tons of projects meaningit gets a big thumbs up from me.Ok moving on to a product that is maybe notthat spectacular, but for me as a maker theseUSB C connectors, that you can get 10 piecesof for 1.56€, just looked amazing.I mean it is pretty simple stuff, you gota USB C socket into which you can plug yourUSB C Cable and then you get 5V on the outputthat you can use to power your projects.But the little details here that the socketis well bonded to the mounting PCB and thatyou can use M2.5 screws to attach it to ahousing for which the product descriptionalso offers mechanical dimensions, makes itsuper useful to me.But sadly this product is not perfect becauseits maximum current output is limited by theUSB-A output of your power supply and it doesnot work with the USB-C output.To get around this limitation though we canget ourselves the connector with the datapins broken out.Here we simply have to add a 5.1kohm resistorbetween each data pin and GND and short thisone data pin to its neighbor CC pin and badabumbadabang we can use USB-C power supplies anddraw the maximum available 5V current.So yeah like I said, this product is not perfectbut certainly nice to have around if you area maker.And with that being said we come to the thirditem which is this beefy hidden wireless chargerthat supposedly can do long distances andyou can get it for around 24€.And yes this was the product with the mysteriousguest under the table and it is apparentlyalso a black technology blessing, whateverthat means.So let me spare you from the rest of the productiondescription and summarize that this thingcan do wireless charging alone up to 25mmbetween charger and phone and up to 45mm wheninserting this pad in between phone and charger.Now I initially got interested in this productbecause I always use wireless charging tofill up my phone during the night since thatputs less strain on the USB C connector andthus therefore will hopefully hold up longer.Only problem is that this charger needs tobe extremely close to the phone to work, makingit impossible to hide it in a drawer or similar.So this product could be a remedy for thatand coincidentally I had a 24mm thick pieceof wood laying around for testing the smallerdistance and my 41mm thick workbench for testingthe bigger distance.And long story short I was pretty disappointedbecause the maximum charging distance withoutthe pad was only around 15mm and chargingthrough my workbench was not possible at all.And worst of all while charging through thepiece of wood with the given extension pad,my power supply required a total of 22Wh toget my phone from 50% to 100%.In comparison my so far used wireless chargerrequires 18Wh for this job and a normal USBC cable only 11Wh meaning this long distancecharger does not only break its descriptionpromises, but it also quite inefficient; meaningthumbs down from me.The only thing I found interesting was theconstruction of the extension pad which isbasically just a coil with attached capacitorto form an LC resonance circuit.Ok; next we got a product that I have seenon Tiktok and it is this Electrician Twistertool that you can get for just 4€.The idea is that you can insert 2, 3, 4 or5 copper wires and then simply twist themtogether to create a permanent connection.And I got to say that after using this toolfor a bit, I was actually pleasantly surprisedbecause it works like advertised and you savea bit of time by not having to strip the insulationof every wire.Now granted the results can look a bit messy,but the copper connection were all very strongand solid.So I bet this connection method comes witha lower contact resistance than when usingmy favorite Wago connectors.But I would still prefer using those becauseI feel like that with enough cold hot cyclesthis mechanical connection can loose a bitof tension, while the wago with its springloaded connector will always hold on tight.And also keep in mind that this twister tooldoes not work with stranded wire as well astoo thin wire.So in conclusion Wago is king; but I feellike this twister tool could be the next bestthing so I kind of have to give it a thumbsup as well.So moving on to this coin cell like thingywhich I got from holyiot and it is actuallya Bluetooth Beacon that you can get for around11€.I got interested in it after I did a videoin which I used a future tech Bluetooth boardas a positioning system that sadly thoughwas very expensive.So I thought maybe this thing can do indoorlocation detection for cheap and to find thatout, I of course firstly had to open it up,be happy about the good quality PCB, inserta coin cell, download the given app for itand then connect to it.And it seems like the accelerometer on theboard as well as the push button seems towork just fine.But sadly all temperature related stuff didn'twork even though the production descriptionmade it look like that should work too.And even worse I still had no idea how todo location detection because as it turnsout for that I required another app.But even with that and after doing some calibrations,the accuracy of how close I was to the beaconwas all over the place and certainly not preciseat all.So I don't know; I don't really see the pointin using such a beacon even when it is trulylow power and thus only requires around 20to 100uA.But if you got a good application for it thendefinitely let me know in the comment section,but for now it is a thumbs down from me.And last but not least I got myself this beefy12V power supply here and stop closing thisvideo because this is not your ordinary 12Vpower supply since it is completely adjustableand can be bought for around 58€.Now for a power supply with a 500W power ratingthat is still pretty expensive; but afterhooking it up, you can see that by using thepotentiometer here, you can easily fine adjustthe output voltage between 0V and 14.5V.I think this is really handy if you want touse it as a universal power supply for variousdifferent projects.And I know that you can hack a normal powersupply to also make it adjustable; but letme tell you that this solution right hereis much safer.So I did some testing with 3.3V, 5V and 12Vas the output voltage and drew various amountsof current on the output while looking atthe output noise as well as the required inputpower.And I got to say that the output noise wasnever a problem, but I was not super happywith the efficiency of the power supply especiallyat low output voltages in combination withlow currents.But then again on the plus side, it was supersimple to adjust the maximum current limitmeaning this product is a bit of a mixed bagbut I still give it the thumbs up.And with that being said we are done withtesting for now and I am happy to say thatI found some new hidden gems you might seein future videos.And like always this is not the end of theshow because there is so much more stuff togo through, so stay tuned for the next episode.Until then don't forget to like, share, subscribe,hit the notification bell and consider supportingthis show on Patreon to keep it going.Stay creative and I will see you next time.
