Introduction: Electronic Candle Noisemaker
Step 1: Materials
You will need:
Electronic flickering candles, about $3 each from a hardware or department store
Photocells, one per candle
Toggle switches, one per candle plus one for power
Nine volt battery and holder
Speaker or output jack
Alligator clips, for testing
Enclosure, I used a junction box
Heatshrink tubing
Step 2: Open the Candles
If you remove the battery from the candle, there should be two screws. Remove these and the electronics will slip out.
Step 3: Test the Circuit
The circuit is actually pretty simple. Basically, the battery is hooked up to the speaker or output jack (I started with a speaker but switched to an output jack due to low volume on the speaker) with a photocell interrupting the negative wire. The photocell is then attached to the LED by means of heatshrink tubing. Slip a small piece of heatshrink over the LED and place the photocell, face down on the LED. Use a lighter or heat gun to shrink the heatshrink. Put the circuit together with alligator clips. Each candle is made with the exact same circuit and attached to the same output jack or speaker and battery.
During troubleshooting, I noticed I could only hear the sound clearly if my finger was bridging the output jack's two contacts, so I added a potentiometer at near full resistance between the contacts.
Step 4: Solder Together the Circuit
Solder all the connections you laid out earlier. Cut one of the wire on the battery holder and solder on a toggle switch. Cut a lead to each LED and install toggles there, too. These are your power switches.
Step 5: Case Closed!
Mount everything on your case. I use a small drill bit then use a tapered bore (pricey, but worth it) to enlarge the drilled hole until the component fits. Use pliers, wenches or socket drivers to tighten the mounting hardware.
Step 6: Going Further
This could be expanded in unlimited ways. You could add more candles to increase the number of sounds possible., you could add momentary pushbuttons to trigger the sound in short bursts, you could mount an LED on the case to flicker with the sound, the possibilities are endless! If you try this, let me know how it went and post pictures!
Participated in the
4th Epilog Challenge
Be the First to Share
Recommendations
Game Design: Student Design Challenge
Make It Bridge
Big and Small Contest
6 Comments
11 years ago on Introduction
I have done something similar to this, i.e. using a light sensitive transducer, specifically a small piece of silicon solar cell, to listen to the signal of a flickering light - as sound. Here:
https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Listen-to-Light/
The amplifier module helps a lot. With the setup I am using there is no need to put the light source and sensor in intimate contact inside a light tight box. Just a few cm of distance between the light source and the sensor is usually close enough to get a clear, audible, signal.
11 years ago on Introduction
Those candle things look really fun to take apart and experiment with.
The fact that they all produce different tones makes me suspect that they have a lot of analog circuitry to them. I'm gonna try and pick some up tomorrow and see what they've got inside them.
Reply 11 years ago on Introduction
Okay, it turns out all the circuitry in mine was All inside the LED, so I couldn't get at it and take a signal at all.
Reply 11 years ago on Introduction
I don't know how well you read the tutorial, but mine was just the LED and a battery. You get the sound by attaching a photocell to it. It's all in the instructable.
Reply 11 years ago on Introduction
I read how you did it, I was just trying to figure out if there was another way, or anything that could be done to modify the electronics that generate the pulses.
11 years ago on Introduction
pretty cool