Making this CR*P Night Light GOOD

Thanks to https://www.PCBWay.com/?from=atomic for the fantastic PCBs and SMT assembly. In this video, I take apart a cheap motion sensor night light to figure out why it performs so badly… and whether it can actually be fixed. Inside there’s a tiny battery, a mystery IC with no markings, and a very minimal circuit. After reverse engineering the board, I test the power consumption, investigate the design choices, and then rebuild it using a radar motion sensor module and a much larger battery. The result? A night light that actually works properly. Along the way we cover: Teardown of a cheap motion sensor light Reverse engineering the PCB and circuit Testing current draw and LED behaviour Upgrading to an RCWL-0516 radar motion sensor Improving battery life and usability If you enjoy electronics teardowns, reverse engineering, and practical hardware hacks, you’ll enjoy this one. And if you want some lights to mod yourself - you can get them here (affiliate links): Oval lights: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c4KK6t4t Round lights: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c2JvLwPT 00:00 Cheap night lights are… not great 00:17 Opening it up 00:40 What’s inside? 01:22 Tiny battery reveal 01:45 Reverse engineering the circuit 02:40 How the circuit actually works 03:39 Testing current draw 04:18 Trying a radar motion sensor 05:13 Adding a light sensor 05:39 Testing detection + timing 06:39 Adjusting timeout with a capacitor 07:19 Planning the upgrade 08:19 Building the new circuit 09:56 Reassembly with bigger battery 11:13 Final result 11:22 Field test (standing very still 😄) --- If you'd like to help support the channel and help me buy more nonsense - I have a Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/atomic14 We've also got a shop now! https://shop.atomic14.com And if you're shopping on AliExpress or Amazon then if you click on these links I will get a little bit of affiliate money: Aliexpress - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Ac05mF Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/?tag=atomic14-20 You can also join us on Discord here: https://discord.gg/h2DDnDdjD2 There's also the Atomic14 newsletter here: https://atomic14.substack.com/ And don't forget about the MakerNews newsletter - https://makernews.substack.com/