Assignment: Create an artificial candle or lantern using a NeoPixel jewel or other programmable LED. Your candle should include a base and a shade or diffuser. Try to capture the colors and behavior of a real candle in programming your candle.

For this assignment I created an acrylic “candle” made up of rings of acrylic with dichroic film on them arranged in the shape of a flame. I nested the flame portion inside a disc of dichroic which reflects the colors from the bottom of the candle. The reflected colors are greenish blue. The candle appears to have a yellow/red gradient from the side, a red to green gradient from the top, and a blue/green to red gradient when viewing the reflection of the candle.

The code I wrote tries to mimic a flame being ignited when the candle is turned on, after the ignition phase, there is a flicker, then the candle moves to its default state where there are minute changes while the program loops. Periodically a flicker occurs.

I sanded the insides of the rings perpendicular to the light source so the light travels vertically through the fixture. The tops of the rings are also sanded to diffuse the light filtered through the dichroic film. The outer edge of the bottom piece of acrylic is sanded so that the base catches light and illuminates.

The following pictures show the first attempt at the candle with regular acrylic unsanded, then sanded. Bottom pictures are lasered dichroic rings and the diffused sanded acrylic candle with dichroic.

Below are the pieces that were fabricated on the Othermill and a picture of the led candle next to it’s inspiration.

Arduino code available here