"What happened to LED candle flames?" Topic

For a few years, before the COVID pandemic, I was seeing more and more gaming tables featuring flickering LED candles converted into miniature fires with towering columns of cotton/polyfill smoke. They seemed to be all the rage; now I never see them. Where did they all go?

I liked this trend, and I was hoping it would lead to more innovative creations with lights and electronics and miniaturized mobile militaria. Immersive toys are a part of our pastime, and cheap tech keeps giving more options to creative tinkerers.

Instead, the LED flames seem to have disappeared, while painted cotton and pipecleaners have proliferated. Note that I'm not complaining about painted cotton and pipecleaners – my own collection is full of that stuff. I'm just disappointed that what I thought was a harbinger of the next level of miniature gaming FX turned out to be a passing fad. I really don't mind having all my last-gen miniature stuff superceded by better crafters. Our hobby comes up with some really cool stuff, and I like it when a good idea spreads.

FWIW, I have my own collection of flickering LEDs, cheap LED candles in various states of cannibalization, miscellaneous tiny batteries, and bits of wire, spread around drawers near my craft desk. I have a few starts on different types and sizes of fires, all stuck at different stages of development and set aside until inspiration sparks some more activity. Maybe this is what happens to these projects – stalled by an underprovisioning of perseverance. Or maybe the batteries just run out, and that's that.

- Ix

I haven't made any, but I did embed 2 LEDs into a Reaper fire elemental (both run off of the same battery.) It flickers nicely from within… ;-)
What I'm waiting for is small panel-like LEDS that I can incorporate into my 3-D Doom and Space Hulk tiles. I figure something like that will show up in the dollar stores eventually… ;-)

… the batteries died?

YA, I think a bit of the sensation maybe wore off.

Perhaps at work too – we've downsized post-pandemic.

Downsized to needed kit, and even to scales that those LED candle lights are too big for.

I bought some of those strip volley lights that Warlord sold for a bit – great initial fun – then they just became a hassle needing to turn on and off for marking reload actions. Inevitably during a game, we just reverted back to the cotton wool strips, and got the game on.

I never pulled the trigger on any of that stuff. It looks neat, but you have to hide the battery/electronics somewhere, which resulted in a larger base.

I designed some custom gaming tables, around five years ago, working with a carpenter trying to break into the business. I saw the LED strips around the inside of the game well, I heard/read the hype about how "wonderful" they were for mood lighting, etc. Truth was, and still is, they were a gimmick: their light levels (Lumens) are actually quite low, with their light only effectively reaching across the table surface for 6-12 inches, and the game wells are more like 36-48 inches across, so the centers would always be dark, if not illuminated from above the tabletop (overhead ceiling lights, or floor lamps); they also glare into the eyes of the persons viewing the game well from the opposite side/end. There were, and there still are, a lot of gimmicky features on custom gaming tables which will become outdated in a matter of years: sound systems, Bluetooth (current version is 5.3, and it started out as 1.0…), wireless charging ports, USB charging ports (A, B, C, or ____, in the future?).

I focused on the non-electronic stuff, the parts of the table that will last many decades, possibly becoming family heirlooms to pass on: the wood, the mechanical parts [pull-out drawer rails, electronic lift system using standard AC wall power and plug (basic AC wall power cord connections have gone unchanged for 40+ years, within the USA)].

I take the same approach with my models: I avoid electronics of all sorts. I want my figures to function properly, 20 years from the date I finish preparing them for the tabletop. Simple outlasts the latest-greatest fad, in the long run. Cheers!

Sarge, I'd be real happy if they could design a gaming table that would deactivate all cell phone electronics within 12 feet of it! :)))

a gaming table that would deactivate all cell phone electronics within 12 feet of it!

It's extremely easy to do, and a voilation of federal law in the US. There is no exemption for private property.

I knkow it was a joke, but you need all the technology of a grade school science fair radio transmitter and some more specific knowledge that you could find on the Internet relatively easily. Don't try this at home, kids.

Despire my earlier joke, I like the ones I have and have replaced the batteries. I am going to use something like it on an upcoing project. This guy (and his green-eyed brother) still rocks his LED on the table top …

inlgames.com/polyphemus.htm

While I still like and use the ones I have done, they are a niche decoration for terrain. Needing a new battery every couple of years is some sort of a logistic overhead.

I never pulled the trigger on any of that stuff. It looks neat, but you have to hide the battery/electronics somewhere, which resulted in a larger base.

This is precisely where all my LED fires are stalled.

I bought the smallest possible batteries (which work!), but then I'm left having to make a base from scratch that is:

• sturdy
  
• weighted (so it stands up)
  
• allows either easy insertion/removal of the battery, or has an on/off switch

I'm sure I can do it, I just haven't figured out the "right" way yet, so the project languishes in corners and drawers for months at a time until I find the inspiration to work on it again.

I used to be an Electronic Technician. The LED's need power, but that power can travel along thin wires. In other words, you could put the battery in a separated terrain piece, nearby: a tree trunk, a boulder, a stump, a small hillock, a bedroll/pillow/sack/etc.

Create a thin cardboard runner (textured/decorated to blend in) between the battery portion, and the LED campfire, running two thin wires between the two pieces. LED's are polarized: they only light up when the battery is connected with proper polarity, otherwise, they will remain dark. Keep the 20-28 gauge wires under 12" in length, and you should be fine, but do not remove the circuitry that drives the LED -- do not directly connect the LED to the battery. LED's are current-driven devices, and they require a current-limiting resistor, in series, or they will quickly flash bright and burn out.

It is actually pretty simple to do, unless it is all Surface Mounted Devices (SMD) on the circuit board. Most LED's require a circuit to make them flicker, and that is why these are so big. If the LED cannot be separated from the circuit board, I would forget everything I said. LOL! Sorry, SMD's are not easy to alter without destroying them. Cheers!