A while ago I took a look at some Led Flames that were basically a little microcontroller and some LEDs and emulated the sort of movement of a flame and I was wondering how long it was going to take before they ended up inside an actual glass bulb. Now this is designed to emulate the classic new flicker flame. This one is terrible. This one was bought online and ideally with the these NE flickerflame ones, they've got the two electrodes and they're supposed to be some sort of insulation in that they don't actually glow in the inside, but these this one is actually I think a lot.

The light is actually completely invisible cuz it's inside. So this is currently drawing 1.35 wats very good power factor mean because it is just a resistor inside to drop the current through the neon and uh, 5 milliamps but it is. As you can see, it's not that great in effect. They're usually better than this, but they usually also get quite hot because there is most of the certainly in the UK.

Most of the voltage is being dropped across a resistor in the Bas and it does get baking H Here's the new super duper LED version and uh, it's double-sided as you'd expect, but it's doing that because it's only LEDs oneid and it's got the two layers of phosphor and a sort of semi-translucent PCB But you can see that's quite a good effect isn't it? It gives that sort of licking sort of flame and the power consumption is between 0.25 and3 Watts So let's just say qu a watt 2 milliamps terrible power factor Point 43 Uh, bouncing up and down just because it is a little switch mode Supply inside. Okay, let's uh, explore further. So I shall uh, just unscrew this? Put the anti out the way for those wondering, the hopp meter is still here. It's just not very good at the super duper low power levels.

It wouldn't show anything for this because it was so low power and I should get this out the way as well. This rather neat little flame which has plummeted in price since the when I first reviewed it. she'll put that purse playoff too. So by the wonders of only being able to buy this in a pack of four, I have already taken one apart.

So here is the actual glass globe and the circuit board inside is pretty much as the other one. it's but they' put a little bit of white heat shrink around I Don't know why that is, but there is a little eight pin chip and that is all that's on the board along with the LS And if we take a look at the socker tree, the LED itself I shall put this sideways now. I've put it long ways. Yeah, I'll put it long ways.

it kind of fits. It has six sections of LEDs That makes sense because it's an eight pin chip. It's got the plus Supply volt. It's got zero volt and then it's got six spare pins.

so it uses them in this staggered effect. So most of the time the lights are undulating down here, but every so often they'll lick up a wee bit higher to this one and then it will sort of flick right off by uh, lighting that one, then making extinguish it and uh, lighting the top one which is seven LEDs just to give that sort of like the flame darting off the top effect. So I'll just pause momentarily I shall zoom in a little bit. In fact, I shall pause momentarily though, so you can Marvel at uh, the layout of the LEDs the circuit board for the power supply looks like this: It is based on uh BP 8521 which is a classic little Buck regulator with an inductor here.

Um, and it is uh, programmed set by default. It's set to put out 3.3 volts and you'll often find this circuitry inside the little smart lamps where they have a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth module. and that's what this chip is for. It's it's made by Bright Power who make basically chips for LED bulbs and uh, the main components.

You've got the bridge rectifier here. You've got a resistor here which is 33 ohm fusible resistor. the rectifier, uh, a smoothing capacitor. Just 1 microfarad 400 volt.

I shall write that on 1 Microfarad 400 volt. This is also 1 Mard 400 volt and that is 220 megard at 10 volt. Uh, so there's an inductor. There's a capacit, then inductor, and then the capacitor.

This is for filtering. Then we get the little unit. Not sure what the value of this inductor is I shall draw it as an inductor. Um, not really referenced in the data sheet, but there is a 1K s a load resistor applied across that and that, just.

that's it. There's not really much else to see. I shall show you the schematic and how it differs from the official schematic. So I shall zoom in a bit.

Here is the bright Her data sheet BPS Confidential Sh Don't share it with anyone. There's the Uh reference to 3.3 Volts. Here is the schematic which just shows the bridge Rec far, smooth capacitor, the chip itself uh, output, capter, inductor, and the resistor. But the main differences here are they have added that extra protection of the in Rush limiting 33 ohm resistor that also acts as a fuse.

Now if you imagine that the UK Supply um, this unit will operate from about 100 volts up to 240 volts. but the UK Supply at 240 volts, the peak of the S Wave is about 330 volts. So if this 33 Ohm resistor means that if the power gets turned on at the peak of the S Wave while these capacitors are discharged, then it will limit it about 10 amps. It just takes that Spike off the iner current, but it also acts as a fuse.

If things go horribly wrong, there's a brid direct far. There's the first smooth capacitor. An inductor. Quite high value.

It looks like red red, red. It's green with red tax in it. Hold on, that looks like red red red doesn't it? I think it is. Yeah, um, but that would equate to 2,200 microhenry which is 2.2 mli.

Henry That then goes to the chip, which is just one chip does all. Uh, it does have another pin for a feedback, but that's this one. Goes to that via a diode just for the fixed voltage feedback. back.

uh, there's the inductor of unknown value. If I was designing a circuit, I'd just buy someone else's circuit, take the inductor out and measure the value of it. that would help you calculate the value of the inductor. And there's the smoothing capacitor and a little load resistor just for stability.

and then it goes out to the circuit board. And I've not taken the circuit board out the globe because I know fine, well, what's on it. There's nothing. There's nothing hiding under this heat shrink other than the chip.

There's not even a capacitor. It's just the chip and the LEDs And that's it. And is the 3.3 volt Supply 0 volts the microcontroller. The LEDs will almost certainly be referenced to the positive Supply Uh, and the channels have five LEDs 5, five five five and s in parallel clusters to make up that sort of flame effect.

and uh, that uh, it's all done by software after that. To get this picture, it was quite handy I jittered the power supply and caused it to crash. and when I did that, it meant that uh I was able to actually just take a closeup picture of all the LEDs at once. And it's worth mentioning that because there's more LEDs at the end, they're seven as opposed to five.

It just makes it look a bit dimmer at the tip, which it would naturally. anyway. Uh, very simple, very clever, and very neat. It's a good effect, not bad at all.

It's it's fairly subtle. It's not being too sort of like stroby and flickery. Let me show you again. I Should just bring in the pink plug I Was looking for another one of these I've got better ones than this, but this one is crap.

that's why it was on eBay I guess. But yeah, not bad. not bad indeed. It is a fairly subtle I mean the pattern does repeat as these things often do, but it's fairly ambient.

It's uh, in a chandelier or a candelabra. with loads of these lamps, it would look quite good. I should provide a link to the listing I Could only find one listing for these and only a multiple of four. Um, but I'd Guess that you know it's a fairly new product and that as time goes on they'll the price will come down as they become popular.

This one is marked H Ewa H Tech Tec H but look of It kind of mtled and then it says 100 to 240 volts LED c35 2 Watts it's not. it's quarter 40 Lum goodness knows what the intensity is 1,800 K that's of Warm White Uh, But there we go. It's nice. It's a nice implementation.

It was only a matter of time before they actually came out with them. Uh, I Suppose the most complex thing would have been the low voltage power supply in the base and that's easy now because of all the smart lamps with the 3.3 volt Supply that is designed for powering things like the Wi-Fi circuitry. But there we have it. A neat little lamp.

I Like it a lot.