Several years ago, when LEDs were just becoming popular, we bought a bunch of LED Christmas lights. They were OK but not as bright as the old style incandescent ones. They still had issues with bulbs coming loose so half a strand would go out. And of course the usual tangles.
This year, after Christmas, I decided to buy a new set of LED lights to see if they would be any better. The new LED lights have more colors and are brighter, but seem to be more flickery than the old ones. My mom says that's not a problem- twinkling lights will look good on the tree. But it bothers me. So I decided to look at the wave patterns with my Lighting Analyzer and oscilloscope.
The wave pattern is not a sine wave or a half sine wave- it is pulsing. This explains why it looks flickery. To compare the frequency to 60 Hz, I added an antenna wire wrapped around the oscilloscope power cord (the purple line) because mains power is 60Hz. Next, I tested the old string of LED lights. It turns out that the old strand is exactly the same, just dimmer. So that's why we didn't notice the flicker on the old lights.
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