Keith of “Keith’s Test Garage” wanted an LED candle. While somewhat realistic flicking units are easy to find, he was in search of something much more like the actual thing, and after several years of work has come up with a rather amazing replica.

The device’s wax-embedded glass enclosure houses an Arduino, along with a series of six  RGBW LEDs inside that randomly flicker away to simulate a flame. This effect is triggered via a real match, which is sensed by an IR module. To stop the effect, one literally blows out the candle through a microphone input that picks up on this action. 

Most impressively however, upon putting out the faux flame, a length of resistive wire heats up glycerin and smelling oil on a wick, producing a puff of smoke to end the light performance.