Hi. I just got two of these Elgato key lights. uh for my desktop, uh, recording. These will uh, light up my face when I do my talking, uh, dave head like screen capture, uh type stuff and well, it's a nice bit of kit.

It's a, uh, just under 200 Yankee bucks each. So they're not the, uh, cheapest key lights out there. But basically what a key light is is basically to light up, uh, the subject that's on camera. That's just the industry term key light and I guess I don't know.

Yeah, they got no trademark because you can't really trademark the term keylight. I guess because it's an industry uh term. Anyway, it's not the cheapest out there, but it feels like a quality. a bit of kit, so I thought we'd just do a quick teardown of this.

Now you can see the specs here: 2900 kelvin to 7000 kelvin. So adjustable color temperature. In my lab here, I've got all my lights set to 5000 kelvin. It's also high Cri as well.

92 percent color rendering. uh, index? You want that, uh to reproduce good colors and not uh, quite as good as um, what I use. What? I'm actually shooting either side of my camera at the moment in addition to my overhead lights. Um, well, I'm using.

I'd normally be using two of these and I will in a minute. Um, these are Aputure Amaran hr672cs. I think they're technically discontinued now, but once again, these are adjustable color temperature and I think these will do like 4 800 lumens or something like that. Um, these ones are 2800 lumens There is a smaller version of this available I believe, but I've got the uh larger one.

So anyway, it's got on off and uh, reset. I thought when I first looked at this I didn't see reset. I just saw that it's got the um the two symbol on there so I thought oh, okay, uh, you know, low light level and highlight level but nope, nope, that's just a generic Um switch. They didn't bother getting that change so they just used it even though the two is not really appropriate there for the reset.

Anyway, a 13 volt 4 amp plug pack jobby and it's a Um, a really nice bit of kit. It feels really good, the heatsink fins and the anodized aluminium frame with an aluminium backing as well. none of that aluminum rubbish. And as you can see on the front here, it's actually all the leads are around the outside and then they point inwards like this, so it's actually you get a nice diffuse, uh, look like that because if I use Um these which I currently do, I currently like move one of these just in front of me when I shoot my talking head uh, videos and these are direct Leds that come out.

It's got a kind of a kind of sorter, a little bit of diffusing on the front, but these are very like harsh and they actually create a more harsh light than you'll get with like a really nicely diffused um, thing like this with the leads coming in at the side. So hopefully these will be like less harsh on my eyes and hopefully create kind of like less harsh shadows. but I I don't think there's probably much in it. we'll see anyway.

Anyway, it does feel like a good solid bit of kit for your 200 us dollars, so you can't actually get much. uh, cheaper lights. But yeah, these are like a lot of the gamer kitties use these anyway. Let's crack it open and here's the wall wart for you.

Uh. plug pack aficionados? Uh, made by uh, Shenzhen Zinpower Technology Co. Um, I assume that's like a in line ferret? I don't know. Anyway, it's got all the requisite, uh, standards and everything.

They've probably got slightly above average, uh, quality here. and you know, for the money, it's not like you're buying some cheapo no name. So Elgato is actually a division of uh, Corsair Memory. so they're in Fremont, California.

but uh, Corsair is actually um, in the Netherlands. so hi to all my viewers in the nether regions. Made in Taiwan. Now that made in China? Rubbish.

A little ripper. So obviously we're going to have all our driver stuff in here, so let's whip that out. Let's lift that off. There you go up, we're in there.

you go. Some big power resistors. Oh wow. and yep, of course this has, uh, the newfangled, uh wi-fi rubbish that yeah, you hook these lights up so there's no controls on here.

This is the thing there's only like on off and uh, reset. So yeah, I would have preferred to like just have the color control and the controls on the back. But anyway, this is all designed to go into the app and you can get those elgato um touch and desktop touch, light thing, buttony things, you know, hot button things, whatever they're called, I don't know and um yeah. you can control your lights that way or via an app or via the Pc or whatever.

Well it's exactly what you'd expect in here. We've got our processor which is our wireless lan chip and our Led Pwm Led driver for the processor and wireless. we've got a single chip solution which is a real tech Rtl8711 which is part of the Amoeba series um, system on chip. It's designed for your Internet of Things grown um and this is a Cortex M3 and it's got of course, uh, the wireless uh, lan and all the Rf and everything uh built into that and is that our little antenna over there? So yeah, not much doing and they've done that as a separate board.

I don't know if you can buy this whole thing as a module you might be able to. I don't know. in that case they just plonked it in there. Otherwise, they're um, just taking the functionality of that putting it on a separate board so that uh helps when you know you don't have to respin this main board.

If for some reason you want to change your processor or you can't get the right part or something like that and you know you just need to change your product around, you can do that without a re-spinning But anyway, yeah, so Cortex M3 More than enough. It's got, um, internal, uh, like hardware security and stuff like that. I don't know how secure these lights are. You could probably you know, hack into someone's uh lights or network and flash their lights in their Um studio or something while their gamer kitties live streaming.

That'd be cool if any has anyone heard of that happening. Where like a stream has been like going and somebody like flashes morse code on the key lights in front of them? That'd be hilarious. Anyway, that'd be a great hack. Then for our lead driver, we've got a Pca 96 32.

that's an Uh 16 channel I squared C, uh driver and like eight bits for um, each lead. so you can drive each Led up to, uh, like totem pole output. 25 milliamps for these 16 Leds, up to 8 bit Pwm resolution on those because these things are continuously, uh, adjustable. and of course, um, when we tear down the rest of it, we're probably going to see like, uh, two different, uh, color leads in there.

There will be. and then they just mix those. Um, these things won't have full Rgb color leads in them. They will just be like a dual color thing.

And they mix them. Uh, to get the different, uh, color temperatures. That's how my aperture amaran lights work and many others. Anyway, apart from that, looks like we've got our four strings here.

Um, with eight, uh, with uh, two series resistors I guess in each um, string like that. Although why? they need, uh, five watt, uh, dropper resistors in there for the lead string. When I don't say, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, there we go. I was going to say, um, there's our extra looks like they're not using the internal ones.

It looks like, uh, the internal totem pole drivers for only 25 milliamps? It looks like they're using these little external, um, So23 jobbies. Those things are, um, absolutely wimpy for what is this? uh, like 50 watts over 50 watts? Uh, total or something. So yeah, I'll take the board out, see if there's anything on the bottom, but I don't think so. Nope.

Absolutely nothing on the bottom. Single-sided load jobby. So that's it. That's all she wrote.

Um, yeah, we've got uh, dropper string resistors like that, and um, the the little So 23 external power transistors. but I'm sure they're not cheaping out. They've done their calculations and they're dropping, um, all the power in the power resistor there instead of the power transistor. uh, driver.

So yeah, four channels make sense because you would have a strip on the top and bottom, and left and right. I assume left and right. It have, uh, fewer leads than the others. Anyway, these claim to have Osram leads in them.

they branded on the front, Um, proudly got Ozrum quality leads in them. So yeah, let's take it apart and we'll just see four different strips. That's it. A few capacitor brand aficionados, Um, stone? Yeah, nah.

And by the way, they have paid attention to detail. Of course, we've got a uh thread in the top and bottom and also in the side if you want to mount it vertical as well, so it doesn't matter which orientation you want. I'll actually probably mount mine upside down because I want to physically access the switch and it's pain to reach under so it's easier for me to reach over these lights and go down like that. So yeah, I'll mount mine upside down.

So yeah, that's a nice touch. And because some people want to see the wanky pattern they've etched into this thing. uh, it's kind of groovy. Well, I was wrong.

wasn't I? Um, no. they've got two strips. They've got one strip you notice that starts over here like this and then goes bendy bendy bendy. Because you can actually bend Pcbs if you get them thin enough.

This is an aluminium backed or one of course and we'll check. Oh, look at that and that's a bit how you're doing anyway. Talk about that in a second and it ends over here. So there you go.

Um, that's one strip and then the other one is in the top half of it. Now here's where it's a bit how you're doing. There's our leads down in there and nice aluminium backed pcb that they're on to get the heat out and they're just leaving that flapping around in the breeze. So that's just gotta like radiate from it from the back of the strip to the uh, you know, very nice, uh, thin heatsink that they got around the outside.

So they get like the thermal um, resistance of this gap here is absolutely enormous. So that's I. wha. that's terrible.

I expect an I expected thermal adhesive to the back of there and like, unbelievable. Have they done it anywhere? Nope, Nope. They haven't done it anywhere. It's like sure, if you know tension on that, actually you know, pushes out and you've got some sort of contact on there.

But yeah, nah. um, disappointed by that. So the actual, uh, the dye on the leads that's actually going to heat up more than it should if they could effectively couple and reduce the thermal resistance. I've done a whole video on thermal resistance and looking at it from an electrical analogy.

Um, it's really a good video. I'll link it in. Very old, but very good. Um, and how like no, no, no, no, no, no.

Oh, actually I was wrong. Again, it's actually one large strip. It's just that the break is over here. like this on this side.

but this side over here is. well, it's one physically large Pcb strip. Wow. that is absolutely enormous.

Um, but yeah. anyway. Um, they do have a mix of leads down here and this is how they get the color. You can see that they've got 6 500 kelvin and 3 000 kelvin leads on there.

two different colors and they mix those they pwm uh the two of those to get any of the color in the range. But there you go. So electrically, it's not one big string, but it is actually one big string according to like the Pcb. So anyway, yeah, that just pops out.

Look, look, the whole thing's just popped out Now There is definitely there is no thermal adhesive on the back of that at all. It's just one big strip. Unbelievable. All right.

So let's have a look at the diffuser here. and yep, just what I thought. It's just one big thick acrylic piece with uh, like a like diffuser material on it. Um, no.

they actually add. Oh okay, that is actually patterned in there as well. That's actually patterned on the back as well. And I'll have to link in some videos where I've discussed that.

Um, I'm sure. So yeah, they've actually got the design. pretty funky there, so there's actually more technology than just an acrylic in there. They've got the patterned backing which helps out diffuse and scatter the light out the front.

So yeah, that's pretty groovy. So it's basically, um, what four major pieces? We've got the aluminium bracket like that, then this just sits in here like this and then they just bring in this and they just bend it around. I'm sure they're flat at the factory and then somebody just bends them bit how you doing and they just i just manipulate that into position. That's actually a little bit tricky.

I can probably see why they don't use thermal adhesive because it's just like it's just tricky to do I guess. So I think you've got to get one end down first and then the other end. Yeah, so it looks like they're going to have one strip in there for the orange ones and one strip in there for those yellow ones the uh channel. and then they would split those into two halves which is why they need the four channels.

otherwise you need too much compliance voltage to make that work. bloody white solder mask. Anyway, if I tilt that the right angle, you might eventually see the traces in there. So whilst I think like the build quality of this is like the outside build quality and everything is excellent, I'm sure they uh, perform absolutely brilliantly pun intended.

I'm here all week. Um, yeah I uh, just yeah. just the lack of somebody could have gone around with a snot gun and just like at least put at least attempted maybe um to put some, you know, some thermal gunk around the outside of that, um but then I guess. but then you've got a like your risk at getting in here and it's all messy and it's an extra step process and I guess um they you know maybe they've done their Uh measurements and the leads aren't getting that hot and just the radiation from the lead strips is like enough to come out here.

I'm you know these are like I'm sure these would have been engineered fairly well so you know, like if I was designing this I would have had like a temp probe on the Uh leads themselves and actually bring that out. um so that once you've sealed it up and everything, um and then I drill a hole in the back, do whatever, um and then get some leads out for a little temp probe to see how hot the leads in there are actually getting compared with the outside because the actual dye temperature is going to get pretty high and that's going to reduce the life of your leads. I don't know if that's you know going to have a huge impact but I would have expected some thermal bond in there. That's all.

and well there you go, It lights up and I haven't connected these things via wi-fi so I've got no idea. Well reset it. There you go, that's brighter and then you turn it on and it goes on and off and then should go back on. Hopefully no.

Yep, there it is. Yeah, it faded up there. Um, and yeah. the pattern is like very nice.

I can see a slight shadow over there, but apart from that, um yeah, it's brilliant pun intended. So anyway, that is better than uh. these. This is a smaller version of the aputure Amaran um, that I've got.

I use these for a little task lighting. once again, adjustable color that's overexposed though to see the dual colors in there. There you go. If I adjust the color, you can see how that changes the color based on, um, because this is right down at zero.

unfortunately. Otherwise, it just looks way too bright on camera. It's hard to catch leads on camera, but there you go. Hopefully you can see the color change like that.

And these Elgato ones, um, work exactly the same way. It's just less harsh. So yeah, these are because like as a creator, you've got to stare into these bloody things. Or at least like they're at the side of you and they're lighting up your uh face.

And I've got two because you want to light, uh, like evenly from both sides. And then they also light up your green screen in the background as well and stuff. And yeah, you want them bright, but not too bright that you get absolutely blinded by it and you're squinting when you're talking into the camera. So anyway, I think these are decent quality for your 200 bucks.

I don't know about the app thing, but everyone uses these. I'm sure they're I'm sure they're pretty good. Um, and it's a decent brand. So yeah, don't buy it like cheap Led lights.

Um, just at least get like a decent name brand Led lights. They're just more better. Anyway, if you like that little tear down, please give it a big over exposed a thumbs up. And as always, discuss down below: catch you next time you.