Intriguing USB powered UVC "steriliser" (Patreon)

Published:

2023-03-19 00:53:57

Imported:

2023-03

Content

This is one of many products that popped up during the pandemic to cash in on the craze for sterilising groceries and other things.

In reality, it's output is far too low to be useful for the claimed purpose.

But at least products like this helped create a market for this new type of LED that does have real applications.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpESuQKB54E

Files

"pandemic theatre" USB sterilising dongle

Since proper UVC sterilisation of a surface requires a decent output power and exposure time, I'd rate this dongle as being a useless piece of misleading theatre for non-technical people. But on a plus note, it has helped establish the market for these tiny UVC LEDs which do have some genuine uses for sterilisation of very small areas in equipment. The numbers on the USB power bank are a record of its diminishing capacity over many charge cycles. The circuitry is a bit weird, with slight overkill for the visual near UV indicator light and a small boost circuit to allow the UVC LED to be powered from 5V by boosting it slightly. Because of the very destructive nature of UVC energy, the LED has a metal case with a quartz window to allow the UVC to pass through. A normal resin LED would block the UVC and also degrade rapidly, probably going brown in the vicinity of the UVC chip. If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty. #ElectronicsCreators