LED Holiday Light Experiments (for color)

Alec, there is another solution. Over here in the UK we are starting to get LED light strings where *all* the LED are phosphor based (like the white ones) and they are far more consistent in terms of light output and less strident colours. Probably why it's happening is it makes all the LED colours behave the same electrically (as they are all essentially blue) and that makes manufacturing and circuit design much easier. Essentially I think they are doing what you suggest, just with phosphor not plastic. Until then I've also found that colouring in inexpensive dollar store USB white lights works remarkably well for personalised designs too. Cheers, Charles.

Charleso

When I was a kid I had great success using "Revell Email" paint on tiny light bulbs to make police lights for a model. Specifically their "transparent" red and blue worked great on 6V incandescent bulbs. Their paint comes in mini paint cans, maybe 1/2 o, it's intended for painting models they also market. Email is a German word for enamel, don't worry you won't have to configure POP or IMAP.

Found some warm white twinkles and multi color ones (with yellow! ) at my local Target. Fancy a drive to the outskirts of Philly?

Thomas Young

Have you considered driving LED lights with a candle flicker LED like what is shown here?: <a href="https://www.instructables.com/id/High-Current-Flickering-Pumpkin-LED-Driver/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.instructables.com/id/High-Current-Flickering-Pumpkin-LED-Driver/</a> This could be used to emulate the 'shimmering' in twinkling lights.

cinder_block

You were trying REALLY hard to avoid using the word Christmas and Easter. As for LED lighting, the flickering issue is just going to get more widespread as manufacturers forgo adding the rectifier, capacitor and other associated electronics to save a little bit of money to get more people to adopt them. You'll just have to spend the money on higher quality LEDs

Blackspots

<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/rqlc329pt6mbgwj/2018-11-26%2020.40.18.jpg?dl=0" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/s/rqlc329pt6mbgwj/2018-11-26%2020.40.18.jpg?dl=0</a> the yellow might be a little more orange than you prefer, and there's purple. they are at least full wave rectified, there may also be a cap to smooth it out more. they have colored plastic bulbs, though I don't think the diodes are all white (I haven't opened them to find out though). These are a couple years old from GE.

adcurtin

Alec, This is the BEST video that you've made so far.

Joey Kendrick

I love it. Great video, Alec, Many (many) years ago, I had a mobile disco and I used to dip my own pygmy bulbs. I used to be able to buy coloured bulb lacquer in metal cans. I even mixed my own colours a purple and another half blue half green.

Stephen Bell

translucent coloured heat shrink?

TL:DR: Different colors of LED's have different properties, and so twinkling LEDs don't work well with multiple colors. Colored white LEDs would fix this. Apparently, different colors of LED's have different "voltage drops". That means that the voltage to run different colors of LEDs is different, and so twinkling affects red, orange, and yellow LEDs a lot, but barely affects green and blue LEDs. I am no expert though, but I think that's why the blue and green light don't twinkle as much. Of course, using exclusively white (or blue) LEDs with different color filters (or phosphors) would solve this very easily, an additional benefit of using white LEDs like you suggested! <a href="https://www.radio-electronics.com/info/data/semicond/leds-light-emitting-diodes/characteristics.php" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.radio-electronics.com/info/data/semicond/leds-light-emitting-diodes/characteristics.php</a>

Wrenly Bewick

I hear what you did there!

Jamie Magin

Someone has probably mentioned it but you can get glass paint for making fake stained glass windows. It's a durable transparent paint . Just dip and dry.

Wim

And about the "twinkling": I don't like them, but maybe I'm too European for that :-P

MrHammond

Oh, hey! I think those are. Supposedly my store has them in stock, so I must have missed them when I checked.

Technology Connections

Could you take a quick look at this set and see if it appears to be the correct type for the most pleasing form of twinkling? <a href="https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Accents-Holiday-150-Light-Miniature-Twinkle-Light-Set-TY150-TWC/205092367" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Accents-Holiday-150-Light-Miniature-Twinkle-Light-Set-TY150-TWC/205092367</a>

Bill Basch

Nope! Probably worth having a look into.

Technology Connections

menards is life

Technology Connections

Have you looked into specialised lightbulb paint? The brand I'm familiar with (in the UK) is Hatolite.

“These sets are still going for $4.99 where you save big money.” Love that you threw in the Menards ad reference! Made me go and watch old Menards commercials with Ray.

watch Mat's new Mission Impossible video if you haven't seen it, just mind blowing!

Bill Basch

Heh, very nicely done... on a few levels. I honestly thought you'd have to switch to a solvent-based paint and use thinner - extra on the blue - but at the risk of the plastic. Nice to know in any case... as I'm pretty tempted to find some twinkling lights myself. (I'd overcomplicate it, of course.) Anyway, thanks.

Ta-da!

Technology Connections

I tried to look for some in stores but it's hard to find. I've been so behind for this month that I wanted to rush this, otherwise I would have ordered some!

Technology Connections

weird that you should release this today, because I had just re-watched your fairy light video earlier today, to know what to shop for, and I NOTICED you saying that you would make the follow up, and I was thinking "hey, he never made the follow-up!" - lol

Bill Basch

There MUST be some reason they aren't doing exactly what you say. Are colored leds somehow cheaper? Try using "stained glass" paint for tinting lights!

Lucas Bennetts