ALDI's 400mm (16') inflatable glowing aqua orb - with schematic

When I bought this I knew the remote control light puck was going to be small. It seems to be a common thing with these devices. But the ball itself can accommodate a custom light and power supply, so it can be made better. Perhaps even modified to have a remote solar panel.

The circuitry did throw up a couple of surprises though. Notably the LED that was completely upside down.

This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.

#ElectronicsCreators

[chrishartley]

Perhaps you should check whether the battery in the "standard" remote is still good, it's not unusual for them to arrive with dead batteries despite the protection tab.

[clivequinn]

It’s illegal to swallow those batteries, if you’re caught the police put you in a dry cell overnight and charge you in the morning.

[aerogfs]

The upside down led is for Australian market

[richcolour]

Cannot see the word 'schematic' without hearing it in Clive's voice.

[worldofrandometry]

Get one now. They are going up with inflation.

[arturtrzebinski]

Lol, that was a wild ride! LED upside down, zener diode draining batteries (two CR2032 have total of 6, 6V if fresh!), high quiescent current! Whew, I sweated watching this video. 10/10 thumbs up.

[mxslick]

As deep as the hole was, that threaded piece was intended to be stuck up there after the light module so it could be pole mounted.

[BRUXXUS]

Impressive how they managed to hand solder a component onto that PCB not not notice the RGB LED somehow stuck on upside down and turned 90 degrees...
Or... maybe they did notice and just didn't care.

[MrBobWareham]

Clive you are ace, so you go out and point your remote to displays to change the colour when no one is looking very entertaining.

[thomasking]

Interesting tear-down; thanks! I'm a bit surprised you didn't tack that LED back in place. :-)

[mikeselectricstuff]

Two fresh 2032's could hit about 6.4V - I wonder if the MCU freaks out at that high a voltage, or the LEDs pull so much that the MCU browns out.

[iangrice]

Imagine seeing that blowing down the road 😂 The prisoner 😮

[bandit]

Next time, remember that you can just turn the remote control up towards the camera and see if there is signal/power as you know! 😊

[ZeedijkMike]

Don't put a tea-candle in the little hole though 😀

[SeanBZA]

Zener diode was there for reverse polarity protection, that it was a zener is merely that this morning at the big market the reel of recycled diodes also had in it some zener diodes, and a batch of same shape regular diodes, going very cheap. This one got a zener, coinidink that it was 6V2, the next one might have a 100V regular diode, and the next one a 3v3 zener diode, and the one after that a 500pF varicap diode, because they all come in the same case size.

[charmio]

A tip for if someone does swallow a battery: CHOP and NCH research found ingesting honey after swallowing button battery reduces injury and improves outcomes. Apparently, it prevents local generation of hydroxide, thereby delaying alkaline burns to adjacent tissue. You still need to get to hospital though.

[markthintie]

@0:10 The classic remote control from China. I have these in Various devices in my Flat and they Always interfere with each others Devices :(

[wisheruk]

Great little light very effective Clive thanks 😊

[phils]

Our local ALDI did a very nice rectangular rigid, floating solar "pool light" running off an internal (though easily accessible) 18650. Really bright output, and a pretty decent run time overnight too! Get yourself a nice Chinese LCR P1 transistor tester - they can decode the output from any IR based remote handset (host address and data). Also very neat for measuring ESR on sus. electrolytics (and of course testing transistors, etc).

[radry]

A pool party where the whole pool is filled with these things set to strobe must be pretty sick.