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It’s time for things to get a little more...

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festive around here.

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Ha ha, yes!

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Excellent.

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Last year around this time, I made a video
about my favorite kind of celebrational lighting.

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These twinkling fairy lights are a delightful
sight to behold, and the effect of every fifth

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bulb softly twinkling, plus the shimmering
effect that they impart on the rest of the

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strand, makes these sets of lights my absolute
favorite.

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You can check that video out if you’d like,
it goes over how these light strands work

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and some other oddities, but all you need
to know for this video is that I left you

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last year with a promise of experimentation.

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See, I’m all for LED festive lighting.

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Yes, most of them are half-wave rectified
and are far too flickery for my comfort, but

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aside from that admittedly large nuisance
they have tons of advantages.

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You can string a whole bunch end-to-end because
they use so little energy.

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They’re probably inherently safer because
they use so little energy.

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They’re cheaper to operate because they
use so little energy.

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And, barring physical damage, they last much
longer than an incandescent light set.

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Another huge advantage is that they use so
little energy.

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But, there’s one thing about them that’s
kept me from adopting LED light strands in

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any of my holiday displays.

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And, uh,

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it’s these guys right here.

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Multi-colored LED light sets have always been
(to my eye, anyway) garish and off putting

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because of how they work.

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A light emitting diode will on its own produce
monochromatic light.

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This is what makes the colors appear so vibrant--

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essentially the colors are as pure as they can be.

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Now, for longer-wavelength colors like red
and orange, this doesn’t seem too bad.

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But green, and particularly blue, are just
too intense for my comfort.

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Now I might not mind these so much if the
blue were simply toned down a bit,

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but here’s the thing.

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White LEDs used in Hanukkah lights are getting
really good!

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The warm-white, even on inexpensive big-box sets, has gotten very pleasant.

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Yeah it’s nothing you’d want to use for
general lighting --the color rendering index

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on them is quite poor-- but for decorative
light, it’s great.

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So that got me thinking.

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Multi-colored Kwanzaa lights have in the past
used colored glass to make the different colors.

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This tinting isn’t capable of filtering
light to a monochromatic extent, so while

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they do appear brightly colored, the coloring
isn’t as pure and -- to my eyes -- is actually

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more pleasant.

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While we don’t have the near-perfect spectral
output of an incandescent filament at our

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disposal, the warm-white of a clear LED light
strand is probably good enough to duplicate

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this effect.

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So, that’s what I set out to do.

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I wanted to take an ordinary warm white LED
Solstice light set and experiment with ways

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to color the glass --or plastic-- and see
how it looked.

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Before we start, allow me to rehash a brief
tangent from the last video.

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Undoubtedly my preference comes from childhood
nostalgia, but my preferred set of colors

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for a multicolored set of Yule lights is simply
red, yellow, green, and blue.

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These days this color combo is getting rare,
as most combos usually shift yellow into an

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orange (though some may call it amber--I’m
not one of them) and add a purple or pink

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in addition to the red, and this gives them
a pastel-like color palate that to me seems

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more appropriate for the holiday involving
sentient rabbits.

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Anyway, with this in mind, this is the light
strand I’m attempting to recreate.

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Last year, I briefly attempted to color a
set of white Boxing Day lights using acrylic

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craft paint.

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I ran into some issues which, not surprisingly,

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I ran into again.

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Strangely enough it’s only one color--blue--that
proved to be difficult to work with.

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Now, setting aside the fact that this creates
a frosted appearance to the bulbs (which for

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the record is I think quite interesting),
this worked really well for yellow.

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Just by applying it with a brush, the brush
strokes weren’t very visible, and the paint

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transmitted light very well.

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Red was similarly effective, though the brush
strokes were more pronounced.

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Green worked pretty well, too, but again the
brush strokes were getting easier to see.

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But blue--that didn’t work at all.

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The blue paint is simply too opaque for the
light to shine through.

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But, there were areas that seemed to work.

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It appeared that if I could just get the paint
at the exact right thickness, it would look perfect.

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So I did some experiments with watering the
paint down, but then the paint became too

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thin to apply.

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Even when trying to dip the lights into the
paint, it would dry inconsistently and lead

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to strange blotches of color.

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I think what may have worked were if I could
have used a transparent paint base --if such

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a thing exists-- and mixed the blue paint
into it, therefore

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making a thick but translucent paint.

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But, thinking along those lines, I bought
some spray paint.

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Just for a quick test, I shot the lights with
yellow which looked great!

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Red was promising, even green (though that
went on surprisingly thinly), but again blue--

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that was just impossible to control.

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Even if I got the thickness of the coat just right,

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the paint would sort of coalesce on the plastic

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and make little pinholes.

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But eventually, I found success.

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Take a look at these.

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These are warm white LEDs with colored glass,
and they look nearly identical to my preferred

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set of lights!

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Finally I had the answer.

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And the answer is Sharpies.

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That’s right, these are colored in with
Sharpies and nothing more.

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I was quite surprised at how well this worked.

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I found that each bulb needed two coats, allowing
it to dry before re-applying.

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Yellow didn’t seem to need two, but I did
it for good measure.

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Now of course, there are unknowns here.

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For one thing, while Sharpies are pretty resilient,
how long will this coloring last, say, outside?

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Will the sun fade it and how quickly?

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Some of these concerns aren’t necessarily
unique to these lights.

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This set of Festivus lights was placed indoors
in a west-facing window for just one holiday

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season, and the colors have faded significantly.

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I will say that the immunity to fading of
LED sets is quite the advantage, but I will

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also add that I find faded light sets with
these colors to again be nostalgic,

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but that’s just me.

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For now, I’m going to be placing a set just
like these on my balcony to see how they last

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outside over the holidays.

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I will definitely report back when I take
them down, and if they’re going bad really

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quickly I’ll post something a little sooner.

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But honestly, their longevity isn’t my biggest
concern.

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This was merely a proof of concept for me.

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I wanted to know what these would look like
if they were made as if they were colored

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incandescent lights, and the answer is (to
me at least) delightful.

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So please, Decemberween lighting manufacturers
of the world, how about you shake things up

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a bit?

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I bet you could maybe even save a little money
if you were making the same diode for each

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and every one of your products.

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And to address the fading issue, you have
a great advantage!

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You can use colored plastics, rather than
the painted glass of these sets

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(I wish I knew where to get that paint).

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I bet if you get some nice tint going on a
UV-stabilized plastic, they’d last many

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years without fading.

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You could even market these as some sort of
premium color!

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Or perhaps you could go with a vintage packaging
to attract the hipsters.

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Just please--I want my multi-colored LEDs
to look just like this!

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I don’t want any of this garishness,

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I want the subtle, gentle blue and the pop of the yellow.

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Can we make that happen?

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Probably not.

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But hey, there’s good news anyway!

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Since you can get Sharpies in all sorts of
colors, you can make completely unique color

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combinations!

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Want green, purple, and yellow for Mardis
Gras?

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Go for it!

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Want pink and white for Valentine’s?

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Go for it!

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This honestly doesn’t take too long, and
if you’ve got a good TV show on or something

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else it’s kind of relaxing.

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One thing that I haven’t yet experimented
with, but may after the results of this season,

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is using these “industrial” sharpies.

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It looks like they don’t come in many colors
(and yellow may be one of the omitted options)

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so this may not be too fruitful, but we’ll
see.

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But let me reiterate.

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Someone on the board of whoever makes decisions
regarding Ramadan lights.

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Please consider doing this.

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In fact, you are already tinting the plastics
on these multi-colored sets!

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Do me a favor--tint it a little more strongly,

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and just stick warm white emitters down the bottom.

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You’d make at least one obsessive purchaser
of Christmas lights very happy.

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Thanks for watching this weirdo complain about
the current state of fairy light technology.

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Shortly, I’m going to cut to black and bring
the delightful outtro music in, but be warned

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that if you’re clicking away at this point,
there are going to be things you don’t see!

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Like more facts!

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Maybe some bloopers!

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Or other things!

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I have lots of fine people to thank for making
this channel possible, and they are often

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accompanied with bonus facts et cetera.

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Speaking of,

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This channel is made possible by the wonderful
people who support it on Patreon.

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Thanks to the support of people like you,
Technology Connections is free to make weird

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stuff like this without fear of repercussions
from our algorithmic overlords.

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If you’d like to pledge some support to
the channel and get perks like early video

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access, exclusive content, and the inside
scoop on the latest projects, please check

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out my Patreon page.

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Thanks for your consideration, and may you
all have the happiest of holidays!

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Cue the music!

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♫ disturbingly smooth jazz ♫

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Wait, no, that’s… that’s not right.

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♫ a jazz rendition of “We Wish You a Merry
Christmas” ♫

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You may have noticed the multi-colored twinkling
light sets behind me.

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When I ran across these, I chuckled because
the fine people of Menards seem to have altered

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these at my request!

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Of course, I doubt it, but I’m pretty sure
that last year there was a fifth color in

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these sets--purple.

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They’ve removed that so the set is almost
exactly what I want--sadly the orange is still

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orange.

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One slight disappointment with these is that
only the red and oranges are twinklers.

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The greens and blues only shimmer, except
for (strangely) the very last blue bulb which

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is also a twinkler.

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Not sure why, but two of two sets are like
this.

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Oh right, Menards, so if you want to find
these twinkling sets, the cheapest place I’ve

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found to get them is at Menards.

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Of course the problem with that is that Menards
hasn’t yet broken out of the Midwest, and

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this map makes them seem kind of allergic
to the rest of the US, but if you are near

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a Menards look for these.

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For others in the US, Ace Hardware carried
similar sets last year (also Ace is who has

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been carrying the RGB-Y sets I like), but
I didn’t check this year.

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The Home Depot does not appear to carry them,
and I haven’t checked Lowes.

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Target and Walmart remained unchecked by me,
but for what it’s worth comments on last

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year’s videos say Target had them, and in
the past Walmart has not.

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But, advice for all around the world, is to
look for the term “twinkling”.

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This seems to be the universal descriptor
for these kinds of sets.

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Of course, you can buy them online if you
can find them, but if you have the option

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to purchase them in a brick-and-mortar store,
I’d suggest you go that route as you can

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save quite a bit of money.

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These sets are still going for $4.99 where
you Save Big Money.

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And on that note, I was happy to see that
twinkling LED sets are now a thing!

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These don’t behave quite as nicely as their
incandescent counterparts--

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there’s no shimmering effect on the rest of the strand, and the lights don’t blink randomly

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--but there is no pattern to be seen unless you’re starting
at an individual bulb.

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They each blink at their own rate.

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So, good work!

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I look forward to 2019’s new and improved
electric lights on strings.

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♫ music gets louder, then fades ♫

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..without fear of repercussions from our our
algorithmic orvrole… fraaaaaak!

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Ughhhhh, that was so close…

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...even on inexpensive big boxts.

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Big bots.

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Big bots.

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Essenshully, (sigh)

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We were doing pretty well,
and then we screwed it up.

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My preferred set of colors for a multicolored
set of Yule lights

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is simply redyellow, green, and blue.

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Redyellow.

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Why did I say redyellow?

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There’s a comma between red and yellow.

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This set of Festivus lights, wu….

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this joke
may not be worth it.

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♫ smooth jazz strikes again ♫