Video Below:
The LED (Light Emitting Diode) candle has become ubiquitous and has been around for several years in various forms. The principle is simple; make a yellow LED flicker and look like a candle. Although there are several price points and aesthetic designs, the form differs from tea lights or votives, all the way to massive column shapes. And, many of the more recent iterations have real wax exteriors in an attempt to look more “natural”.
However, the technology to make the LED’s flicker like a candle flame has changed over time. The earliest examples used discreet parts like transistors, resistors, and capacitors to effectively mimic the movement of a burning flame. Then, integrated circuits became the default technology, and soon they were miniaturized to fit into the LED itself! And soon thereafter came the next innovation; an LED candle that can be turned on and off with a breath of air. I do have the ability to extinguish a candle with air, but I have not been able to re-ignite it in the same way! And that is the subject of this post and video.
I have received several questions as to how the blow on/blow/off candles operate so it was time for a tear down. Although I typically do not try and “reverse engineer” products, I thought a video might explain how these candles work. So, enjoy the destruction and explanation…
The LED (Light Emitting Diode) candle has become ubiquitous and has been around for several years in various forms. The principle is simple; make a yellow LED flicker and look like a candle. Although there are several price points and aesthetic designs, the form differs from tea lights or votives, all the way to massive column shapes. And, many of the more recent iterations have real wax exteriors in an attempt to look more “natural”.
However, the technology to make the LED’s flicker like a candle flame has changed over time. The earliest examples used discreet parts like transistors, resistors, and capacitors to effectively mimic the movement of a burning flame. Then, integrated circuits became the default technology, and soon they were miniaturized to fit into the LED itself! And soon thereafter came the next innovation; an LED candle that can be turned on and off with a breath of air. I do have the ability to extinguish a candle with air, but I have not been able to re-ignite it in the same way! And that is the subject of this post and video.
I have received several questions as to how the blow on/blow/off candles operate so it was time for a tear down. Although I typically do not try and “reverse engineer” products, I thought a video might explain how these candles work. So, enjoy the destruction and explanation…
This is the mini-amp that I used to amplify the electret microphone signal from the JFET that did not show up in the video.
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