instructables

Clapper LED Candle

by sbkirby

Three years ago I saw "My New Flame" by MORITZ
WALDEMEYER, INGO MAURER UND TEAM 2012
at the museum gift shop, and feel in love with the
idea. I hoped to recreate something mesmerizing,
enjoyable, functional and interesting to watch, but
with a slight twist. I certainly couldn't make anything
comparable to the their beautiful work of art.
Therefore, I created a Clapper version of an LED
Candle. Clap twice to turn the candle ON or OFF. The
Clapper feature is optional, and can be turned ON or
OFF if included in the build. Or, this feature may be
omitted from the build entirely.
There are seven of these around my house which I
use as ornamental candles and night lights. I keep
them plugged into a 5 VDC Cell Phone Charger to
power the unit, and to recharge the Li-Ion battery.
One charge can last around 18 hours, which makes
them great for emergency lighting.
Note: The Candle in the video on the right side with a
cover isn't a Clapper Candle.

Clapper LED Candle: Page 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwkaySPtAGk

Clapper LED Candle: Page 2

Step 1: Parts and Tools

Parts Needed for Project:

1 ea Lumiere Candles Smooth Resin Candle - 6" H x 3" OD

1 ea Arduino Pro Mini Board ATMEGA328P 16MHz 5V
1 ea LED Charlieplexed Matrix - 9x16 LEDs - Yellow [ID:2948]
1 ea Adafruit 16x9 Charlieplexed PWM LED Matrix Driver - IS31FL3731 [ID:2946]
1 ea Adafruit PowerBoost 500 Charger
1 ea 18650 Li-Ion Battery
1 ea 18650 Battery Holder
1 ea SPST Toggle Switch
1 ea Custom Printed Circuit Board
Clear Acrylic Plastic 6mm

With Clapper (Optional):

1 ea ATMEL / Microchip Technology DIP-8 ATTINY85-20PU

1 ea DIP-8 socket
1 ea LCB710 Solid State Relay
1 ea High Sensitivity Sound Detection Module
1 ea 220 Resistor
1 ea Sub-Miniature Toggle Switch 2MS1T1B1M2QES ON/ON 3P-SPDT
1 ea Custom Printed Circuit Board

Tools:

1 ea CP2102 Micro USB To UART TTL Module 6 Pin - ebay.com

Soldering Iron

Clapper LED Candle: Page 3

Step 2: Acrylic Base Assembly
Using the PDF Vector drawings supplied, the tool
paths for cutting out the acrylic can be created. Each
PDF file contains Top, Bottom, two Sides and a small
rectangle that is used as a spacer underneath the
Sound Module. This part is not needed if you're
building the non-Clapper (without Sound) version of
this LED Candle.
I used a 1/8" end mill to cut the majority of the parts,
and I ran a finishing pass with a 1/16" end mill. The
1/16" end mill is required for the narrow slots on the
sides and top.
Clapper LED Candle: Page 4
The mounting holes were manually located and
drilled by hand. Some of the holes should be drilled
prior to assembly. For example, the holes to mount
the PowerBoost board.
Sand and test fit the all the pieces. I recommend
using Plast-I-Weld to bond the pieces together.
Note: The diameter of the top and bottom must be
sized to the inside diameter (ID) of the resin candle
bodies you purchase.
 Download
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Clapper LED Candle: Page 5

Step 3: Circuitry With and Without Clapper

The basic LED Candle circuitry consist of a battery,
switch, power supply and Candle Printed Circuit
Board (PCB) with a LED Charlieplexed Matrix,
Charlieplexed Matrix Driver and Arduino Pro Mini 5
VDC. An assembled version of the Candle Circuit
Board can be seen above. The only connection to this
PCB is 5 VDC provided by the power supply. The
battery is connected to the PowerBoost power
supply, which can charge the Li-Ion battery, and
provide protection for a low voltage battery. The
power supply also provides a means of switching the
Candle ON or OFF by grounding the EN connection
via the switch.
The Clapper PCB includes a solid state relay
(LCB710) and microcontroller (ATTiny85) to process
the signals from the Sound Module and control the
power to the Candle PCB. The ATTiny85 is
programmed to listen for two loud simultaneous
sounds, and toggle the relay ON or OFF.
Unfortunately, this configuration cannot distinguish a
clap from any other loud sounds, therefore, the circuit
will activate if any two loud sounds are heard
simultaneously.
I installed a DIP-8 socket on the Clapper PCB to
make it easy to install or remove the ATTiny85. All
other components can be soldered to the board.
Connect pins 1&2 of J1 for normal operation.
Secondly, connect the + & - pins of the Clapper PCB
to the + & - of the Candle PCB. Connect the 5V &
GND of the PowerBoost power supply to the + & - of
"PWR IN" connections of the Clapper PCB. Connect
the Mini Toggle Switch SPDT to the "CLAPPER"
connection. Connect the pole of the switch to C and
the other two connections as desired. Finally, connect
the VCC and GND of the Sound Module to the + & -
of "SND MOD", and the OUT to the Out connection
of the Clapper PCB.

Step 4: Printed Circuit Boards

Attached are the Gerber files I created with KiCad to order the two Printed Circuit Boards. I recently ordered 10 of
the Candle Flame PCBs for $5. It so happens, I ordered twice as many boards at half the price of my original 2016
order.

Clapper LED Candle: Page 6

Clapper LED Candle: Page 7
 Download
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…

Step 5: Printed Circuit Board Assembly

1. Install the male headers from the back of the PCB with longest portion protruding out the front. Do
not install male header where indicated.
2. Secure the headers to the back, and flip the board. Solder all header pins on the front side of PCB.
3. Trim all pins, as indicated in photo, flush to the board.
4. Orient the Top of the LED Charlieplexed Matrix as seen in photo.
5. Flip LED Matrix over and install LEDs UP, and solder module to pins.
6. Solder header to Arduino Pro Mini Board ATMEGA328P 16MHz 5V and solder from bottom of PCB
with the longest portion protruding from top of PCB. This will be used later to program the Arduino.
After soldering the header, I recommend prying the plastic portion of the header off of the pins. This
is because the length of the pins will be trimmed prior to mounting the PCB in the Acrylic Base.
7. Flip the PCB over to the back and fit the Ardiuno onto the header pins and solder.
8. Orient and mount the Matrix Driver on the pins at the top of the back and solder.
9. Attach the USB to UART TTL Module to the header pins of the Arduino. 5 VDC -> VCC, GND ->
GND, TX -> RX, RX -> TX.
10. Connect USB of module to PC and open Arduino IDE to load program.

Clapper LED Candle: Page 8

Clapper LED Candle: Page 9
Step 6: Programs for Arduino Pro Mini and ATTiny85

Adafruit provides a tutorial on the use of the LED
CharliePlexed Matrix and Driver at Animated Flame P
endant. I used the same sketch for my Arduino Pro
Mini, but change the data.h to a flame of my making.
This tutorial provides everything you need to get
started with the LED CharliePlexes.
The ATTiny85 uses a sketch I found at Henry's
Bench -Arduino Sound Detection Sensor: Tutorial an
d User Manual. This page will guide you through the
configuration and tuning of the Sound Sensor Module
and Arduino. My sketch (ClapperCandle_V2.ino) for
the ATTiny is almost identical to his example.

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https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/F84/YO7T/JR6OCI1H/F84YO7TJR6OCI1H.h
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Clapper LED Candle: Page 10

Step 7: Final Assembly
Once the PCBs have been assembled, they can now
be installed on the acrylic base. As mentioned before,
the drilling of holes is recommended prior to gluing. If
you are building the Clapper version, the rectangular
spacer piece cut out earlier is located on the side of
the Sound Module mounting location. This can be
seen in the photo above. The Clapper PCB is
mounted below the Sound Module and on the same
side.
Wire the PowerBoost 500 power supply to the battery
and main power switch, and if the Clapper PCB isn't
used wire the 5 VDC and GND directly to the "PWR
IN" connection of the Candle PCB. Otherwise, wire
the output voltage of the power supply to the + & - of
the Clapper PCB. Wire the SPDT toggle switch to the
"CLAPPER" connections as instructed previously,
Clapper LED Candle: Page 11
and connect the Sound Module to the "SND MOD" as
instructed earlier. The respective connections (+ -
TRG) of the Clapper PCB are connected to the
Candle PCB. The TRG connection is not connected
to anything.
Check your wiring against the schematics, and when
you're ready install the battery and turn it ON.
The resin Candle requires a hole for the micro USB
cable to connect to the power supply. Therefore, I
mounted these on my CNC and cut a hole the correct
distance from the bottom.
ENJOY!
Love it! Good Job!

This is one of the more interesting and unique projects I've seen. Very realistic!

Thank you!

thank you for response, here is my candle project which i created before Christmas. it just used
attiny13 and coded in assembly, it was planed to be my first project on Instructable website but i
just hanged in trouble for creating a well formed candle cover, i selected many materials consist of
resin epoxy. but no success in building it by self. i think a real candle can be sloted to be used as
cover.

Hi,

i've made those with a little bit more focused to the original design:

Clapper LED Candle: Page 12

https://www.instructables.com/id/Matrix-LED-Light/
Nice design and more like "My New Flame".

You might be interested to replace the 'clap' feature with the 'blow out' feature. Imagine 2 contacts
made of copper foil that are placed inside the candle's body face to a hole. You blow into the hole,
the contacts close, which provokes a 'reset' impulse, then the contacts return to their initial position
because of elasticity. The candle goes OFF, you'll have to turn it ON again with the switch.

Clapper LED Candle: Page 13