Magnetic base LED machine light - WARNING MAY BE UNSAFE

I've just bought two, if they kill me I'll let you know

Ditto

And me.

Haha. Bloody hell. Despite 30 years developing mains powered power supplies, battery chargers, motor inverters, telecoms rectifiers and automotive drives for sale in markets all over the world, I seem to have been educated here. And there was me thinking an LED was a DC component!! No, the thing driving your LED may have many names but inverter is not one of them, you can take that as a fact.

All of the products I've developed in the last 15 years or so have been manufactured in China - and CE / UL / CSA etc approved. There are many perfectly good manufacturers supplying safe products - but if you want to explore the other end of the market, buying unbadged products direct from an anonymous ebay dealer in China would be the way to go.

No idea how the Zafira crept in?? As for toroids, you can make them just as hazardous as any other type of transformer. But let's not let facts get in the way of a good bicker!

For the curious this appears to be identical to the circuit board inside a Jansjo:

Ebay: **LINK**

Jansjo: **LINK**

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 11/04/2016 20:55:39

I ordered 3 from the seller cskwin2015

paid and today got this message :-

Sorry to trouble you.

We are so sorry to tell you that the item has been sent back to the suppliers to test again,we are not sure when they can finish the test,so we can't send it to you at present.In order to protect your profits and save the time,how about we refund to you first?And if you still want it,you can buy later.We are so sorry about this problem and we promise that we will improve in the future.

If we do not get your reply in 48 hours, if we have solved this problem, we will send the item to you, if we do not deal with issue at that time(the period we suggest you to wait) , we will cancel the order and refund to you.


We apologize for you again and hope can hear from you soon.

Regards

Has anyone else ordered and got their item?

I got a message at 11:00 from ciskwin today saying mine had been dispatched

I got the dispatched message at 10.26 am today.

I wonder if the other 271 buyers did as well ?

Phil

Muzzer

If you are claiming bragging rights, I've got 15 years on you in electronic design.

As a converter, by definition, applies to a SMPS as it converts AC to DC. An inverter takes a DC supply and converts it to AC. You may be too young to remember rotary converters/inverters used during WW2, or even the vibrator.

You demonstrate you lack of ability to read by suggesting that I indicated that the LED was anything other than a DC component. Did you miss the anti-parallel diode, it means a diode, in parallel with the LED connected the other way round, ie. with cathode to LED anode and anode to LED cathode. It protects the LED from reverse polarity. The energy lost due to its presence is small if, by design, the AC supply to the LED is asymmetric.

The Zafira is an example of a lethal motor vehicle that complied to all international standards, but still burst into flame giving people 10 seconds to exit.

Ian

Perhaps they have run out of stock due to our activity, but don't want to admit it.

Edited By Malcolm Parker-Lisberg on 12/04/2016 00:15:56

Come on guys - it's a light innit - not as complicated as a hypervapotron.

Plug it in, if it works it lights up. If it don't - throw it away.

Is there anything more to be said?

.

Yes ... I'm afraid so ...

What if it lights up, AND is electrically unsafe

MichaelG.

.

P.S. ... Hopefully, someone with the appropriate knowledge might see fit to dismantle the 'base' and give an opinion. [with the proper caveat of "no liability expressed or implied"].

Michael - like you do with other things you buy - TV, radio, dishwasher, car? You pull it apart and ask everyone if it is safe?
This is just a light. Take it out of the box. Use and enjoy.

.

Clive,

I have no 'axe to grind' on this one ... I don't need a light like this, and won't be buying one.

I simply answered your direct question; and my response was informed by the rather heated discussion that had already taken place. ...

MichaeG.

If only that were wholly true. Patently unsafe electrical devices continue to flow out of sweatshops in the far east. Spending five quid on a mains powered lamp or a USB power supply to charge your phone could prove to be the very worst decision you ever made, so bad that you may not be around to make another bad decision.

Like the marks of formal approvals bodies or other forms of self certification a CE mark often means nothing, you can easily buy the stickers online in rolls of thousands for a dollar or two delivered. In many cases the CE mark doesn't even conform to the strict form and dimensions specified for its use. From a reputable supplier / importer who actually has the processes in place to perform the necessary checking and has the ability and skill to examine internal construction standards then it certainly carries some weight, from a supplier on ebay or aliexpress or whoever it often means nothing other than a fraction of a cent for the case marking.

The design may be inherently unsafe from the first moment the designer sits down at a keyboard, often it appears the designer takes a datasheet from a manufacturer, they know the envelope the design has to be fitted into, and they will, for unknown reasons, totally ignore really basic design rules. The design then gets farmed out for manufacture to the lowest cost supplier maybe with component substitution or omission.

The result could be internal components may not be rated for use at mains voltages, or adequately protected by fusible elements, mains pins might not be adequately restrained within the plug. Crack the lid open and you might find internal clearances between the mains and low voltage side of the equipment could be sub 1mm, covered in stray microblobs of solder stuck to uncleaned flux residues. The LV side having exposed metal such as a plug or other structure (like the gooseneck on the lamp in the first posting) that may become live at mains potential at any moment. Add coolant, stray bits of swarf etc and it only gets worse.

Maybe you'll get away with it if you have an RCD but in recent days elsewhere on this forum there has been mention of removing earths to avoid nuisance tripping of RCD's For the vast majority of equipment and applications the earth conductor and connections are there for very sound reasons. Removal to prevent nuisance tripping of an RCD falls into the category of insanely stupid.

Large corporations like Apple etc have had issues in the past with electrical safety on many items of kit. one thing for sure is they are certainly more wary now than previously. But it's a fact that large swathes of what should be extremely low risk equipment are potential death traps. There are very few suppliers of USB power supplies that I would ever consider. Those from elsewhere that somehow fall into my possession are sometimes dissected but mainly just destroyed and binned to prevent their use. After a while you get a feeling for knowing what crap lurks inside.

Would I consider using a mains powered lamp, of unknown construction standards with a high possibility of poor isolation between the mains and low voltage sides, with no IP rating, without proper certification, with unearthed exposed metalwork that may rise to mains potential, in an environment with moisture and swarf?

The answer is no.

That seems like a reasonable summary of my position, too. I just wasn't expecting such a vicious trolling for saying it!

We have dozens of wall warts and similar devices for charging and running electrical stuff. Some comply with the regs. and some probably do not. Nothing in house or workshop is left on overnight or unattended. This includes washing machines, dryers tvs etc. Common sense.

No fridge or freezer?

Andrew

Ah, yes, glad you spotted that. Both, with one or two other things, on own ring with low amp breaker.

2013-14 statistics:

Accidental dwelling fires
Accidental dwelling fires were 4% and 28% lower in Great Britain in 2013-14 compared to the previous year and ten years before respectively. The main cause of accidental dwelling fires remained the misuse of equipment/appliances (13,300 fires), while the main source of ignition was cooking appliances (mainly cooker including oven) which accounted for more than half of all accidental dwelling fires

Faulty appliances and leads. These have fallen by 23% compared to the figure in 2003-04;

The figure was 7,200 caused by faulty appliances or leads.

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fire-statistics-great-britain-2013-to-2014

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 12/04/2016 20:05:52

I've just bought one of those tiny magnetic DTI stands from Ebay. It arrived with a broken switch, so I fire off a message to the seller and they offer 50% refund. Looking closer at the item it really is poorly made. For the moment I've super-glued the switch back on and squared up the base and sides that were previously machined flatish with a linisher

Another project on the todo list is to repair a light I used to use on a painting easel, which could become my lathe light. As Jeff says you can never have enough light!

Ed.