leadedsolderDec 3, 2024
Dave Griffiths
TIL those flickering LED tealights are often made with music chips from old greeting cards as the source of "randomness" https://www.instructables.com/Listen-to-a-led-tea-light/
Listen to a Led Tea Light

Listen to a Led Tea Light: Holiday Season is coming. Christmas decorations are everywhere. One of the gadgets that can be found everywhere are led tea light candles that really flicker. They are cheap, clean and not as dangerous as real candles.But how do they work?I read somโ€ฆ

Instructables
Dec 3, 2024 at 11:40amWeb
Show threadHolgerDec 3, 2024
@nebogeo Oh, interesting! I wonder if that's still the case 17 years on or maybe there's some other cheap chips they use these days.
Show threadStarkRGDec 3, 2024
@nebogeo If it works and you've got a ton of those blob chips lying around, why not?
Show threadLeonard RitterDec 3, 2024
@nebogeo heh i wonder if you translated the flicker back to sound you'd still get intelligible lowpass filtered audio
Show threadDeveloping Stacy Dec 3, 2024

@lritter @nebogeo

I want to stick an ldr on a battery and speaker now to find out....

Show threadranjitDec 3, 2024

@The4thCircle @lritter @nebogeo yes, it actually works!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ranjit/16310883440/in/album-72157650187562490

instrument-a-day 10: candle with a secret!

Flickr
Show threadCoprolite9000Dec 3, 2024

@ranjit @The4thCircle @lritter @nebogeo

I do like that you tested with a conventional tealight candle, just in case...

Show threadranjitDec 3, 2024

@coprolite9000 @The4thCircle @lritter @nebogeo it would've been so great* to discover secret music hidden in an ordinary flame!

___
* scary

Show threadDeveloping Stacy Dec 3, 2024

@ranjit @coprolite9000 @lritter @nebogeo

Cosmic horror.

Show threadranjitDec 3, 2024

@coprolite9000 @The4thCircle @lritter @nebogeo although I did use this trick earlier this year to make candles with a secret chord!

https://moonmilk.com/2024/02/08/performance-foulbrood-orchestra-saturday-feb-17-at-biobat-art-space-brooklyn/

Performance: Foulbrood Orchestra, 5PM Saturday Feb 17, at BioBAT Art Space, Brooklyn | moonmilk

Show threadCoprolite9000Dec 3, 2024
@ranjit @The4thCircle @lritter @nebogeo
That looks - and sounds - fantastic!
Show threadranjitDec 3, 2024
@coprolite9000 @The4thCircle @lritter @nebogeo thanks! For the actual performance we had the candles in paper bags like New Mexican luminarias and it was so pretty!
Show threadDavid Mitchell Dec 3, 2024

@coprolite9000 @nebogeo @The4thCircle @ranjit @lritter

A secret chord that pleased the Lord? Play that candle David, Halleluia!

Show threadLeonard RitterDec 3, 2024
@ranjit @The4thCircle @nebogeo really cool :)
Show threadkitDec 3, 2024
@ranjit holy shit
Show threadranjitDec 3, 2024
@kit that's what i said!
Show threadJari Komppa ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ฎ (has moved)Dec 3, 2024
@nebogeo o_O
Show threadpenryuDec 3, 2024
@nebogeo @wingo That's probably for the best. Truly random so rarely appears organic.
Show thread๐ŸŽ€๐“€๐’ถ๐“ƒ๐‘’๐‘’๐“๐ŸŽ€Dec 3, 2024
@nebogeo the postal card that keeps on postalcarding.
Show threadJobDec 3, 2024
@nebogeo I was half expecting the answer would be the Quake 1 flickering lights code again
Show threadBill SeitzDec 3, 2024
@nebogeo Rickrolled again!
Show threadMatt BrailsfordDec 3, 2024
@nebogeo @joe reminds me of the TRS drawbot that uses audio to drive servo motors to make drawings. https://makezine.com/projects/trs-drawbot-2/
TRS Drawbot

The TRS Drawbot uses free software to turn line graphics into sound files that make almost any audio device into an on-the-go robot controller.

Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers
Show threadKara GoldfinchDec 3, 2024
@nebogeo I heard a recording of one that made train noises.
Show threadRenรฉ Moser (resmo) ใƒฌใƒDec 3, 2024
@nebogeo wtf ๐Ÿคฏ
Show threadBodhipaksaDec 3, 2024
@nebogeo Well, playing the sample really got my dogs' attention!
Show threadHammiDec 3, 2024
@nebogeo i remember this. As a child I took one apart and connected a speaker to it. Mine was โ€žfรผr Eliseโ€œ
Show threadJohn Carlsen ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บDec 3, 2024
@Hammi @nebogeo that's what I thought I heard just now!
Show threadchollingDec 3, 2024
@nebogeo Shaking my head at the fact that they referred to basic, non-Bluetooth, 3.5mm-connector headphones, which have been around since at least 1979 with the introduction of the Sony Walkman, as "MP3 player headphones". That marks the author as both too young to know about CDs or cassettes, and too old for Kids These Days to know what they're talking about.
Show threadStarstorm/CyberluxDec 3, 2024
@nebogeo Heh, now I gotta try this with some of the dollar store tealights we got
Show thread~nDec 3, 2024
@nebogeo I betโ€ฆ once heard, it can't be unseen :D
Show threadtrusty falxter ๐Ÿง Dec 3, 2024
@nebogeo
Every time I look at one of these, I think about how I would have done it myself and imagine how I would have captured a real candlelight with a photodiode or so. But as always, the reality is much better than the imagination.
Show threadMarisaDec 4, 2024
@nebogeo I hope @clive sees this ! ๐Ÿ•ฏ๏ธโœจ
Show threadClive ThompsonDec 4, 2024

@nebogeo @marisa

omg SO good!!!!

Thank you for bringing this to my attention!

Show threadpetes_bread_eqn_xlsDec 7, 2024

@clive @nebogeo @marisa

Not all of them, though.

See post by @scruss

https://xoxo.zone/@scruss/113591741820155082

Stewart Russell (@scruss@xoxo.zone)

that thing about LED flickering tealights re purposing melody chips to make their flicker pattern? It's bollocks. I took an LED tealight apart and put the output across a small speaker, and if that's music, youse aw must like screechy wee goblin tunes

XOXO Zone
Show threadlevampyreDec 4, 2024
@nebogeo Oh noez, now I will hear x-mas songs everytime I look at one of those lights. ๐Ÿ™ˆ
Show threadMaryana AlegroDec 4, 2024
@nebogeo noway!! I had a bunch of those cards when I was a kid lol. That's a cool use for them
Show threadnyckiDec 6, 2024
@nebogeo oh wow, that's a real thing?! there was a level about that in the Zachtronics game "Shenzhen I/O", where you make a "spooky doll" using an unlabeled "leftover" chip as a source of randomness. It never occurred to me that manufacturers would actually have piles of leftover chips like that, but it makes sense!
Show threadร–lbaumDec 7, 2024

@nebogeo @inthehands A colleague was asking my advice on how to make a thunderstorm simulator for her friendโ€™s kids who moved to a country where they donโ€™t really have storms and miss it. It would be a box with a button, and when you press it a light flickers and then a thunder sound plays.

One of my ideas was a cheap audio player with a channel driving a speaker and the other an LED strip. This way no programming needed, just producing suitable audio files.

Show threadThe GoldfishDec 8, 2024
@nebogeo I saw this toot a few days ago and since then have explained what I learned to almost everyone I've spoken to.
Show threadCode of Amor ๐Ÿ’˜Dec 8, 2024
@nebogeo @Tattooed_Mummy Makes sense. Brilliant reuse. The only thing I find hard to believe is that is actually being done. Reuse and recycling is so rare!
Show threadCode of Amor ๐Ÿ’˜Dec 8, 2024
@nebogeo @Tattooed_Mummy I am curious, but at the same time, I feel like this would be a great way to rickroll people unwilling to do the analytical electronics work.
Show threadTats ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿซ–Dec 8, 2024
@codeofamor @nebogeo ๐Ÿคฃ
Show threadCode of Amor ๐Ÿ’˜Dec 8, 2024
@nebogeo @Tattooed_Mummy And no, I am not dumb enough to click on the uploaded sound file either. The benefits? of a career in cybersec are that you suspect everything. I was paranoid BEFORE I entered that sector! ๐Ÿ™ƒ๐Ÿ˜„๐Ÿ˜œ
Show threadTats ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿซ–Dec 8, 2024
@codeofamor @nebogeo ๐Ÿคฃ