I've featured these lights before, but it's surprising that they are still being sold on the eBay platform.
Presumably these are based on a real product, and this is a minimal clone. Every corner has been cut, meaning that if you try charging your phone from this device while it is plugged in, it could make your phone live at full mains voltage.
I tested the cable at 5A, and it burst into flames:-
• Cable test ends in flames
eBay has no obvious way to report blatantly dangerous products. Over the past decade the number of directly imported killer products must be massive. Sometimes I wonder how many shocks and fires are caused by the grey imports.
It would be really nice if eBay had a way to report dangerous products from the listings. But they seem to have everything else but that.
The "NiMH" cells are very suspicious. They have the seal at the negative end which is odd as NiMH cells usually have it at the positive end. I'd normally expect NiMH cells to charge to around 1.5V when freshly charged and then settle down to about 1.2V, but these ones are showing a higher voltage than expected from a product that has been through storage and shipping.
Further testing indicates that they are NOT rechargeable cells and therefore risk pressurizing internally and exploding if left on mains-charge.
The super thin copper coated steel wire is quite impressively too. Basically a combustible fuse. I've subsequently tested it, and at 5A the cable was smoking significantly and the cores were glowing red hot.
I like eBay, but I wish they'd clamp down on some of the dangerous items that are aimed at non technical consumers.
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