Cigarette lighter effect?

Greeting, all!
We're doing a high school production that requires kids to light cigarette lighters on stage. I'm trying to figure out a way to do that without involving real lighters and the accompanying flames, etc.
Anyone have any suggetions?
 
Mime it and trust the audience?
Wire up a small LED with a battery and add a pushbutton switch to the prop? You can probably harvest most of what you need from some dollar store trinket.
 
If you look at the flame head of city theatrical's electronic candles, it's 3 grain o' wheat lamps (or 3 LEDs for the low power version) made to flicker by a microcontroller and they look very convincing from more than a couple of feet away. Something similar but simpler could be cobbled together maybe - the main effect is just a couple of flickering lamps wrapped in a plastic that diffuses the light of the "flame".
 
If you look at the flame head of city theatrical's electronic candles, it's 3 grain o' wheat lamps (or 3 LEDs for the low power version) made to flicker by a microcontroller and they look very convincing from more than a couple of feet away. Something similar but simpler could be cobbled together maybe - the main effect is just a couple of flickering lamps wrapped in a plastic that diffuses the light of the "flame".
Here is a write up on using the candle as a lighter. https://www.citytheatrical.com/news_letter/Candle Lighter.htm. Unfortunately the video is no longer available on Youtube. Let me do some digging in our files, I might be able to find it
 
Dont suppose the lamp assemblies can be bought separately, can they? A bit of set fell on one of ours and broke two of the lamps.
 
Dont suppose the lamp assemblies can be bought separately, can they? A bit of set fell on one of ours and broke two of the lamps.
Actually, i think they can. Give me a call on Monday and we can figure out how to get you some.

201.559.4224
 
a 555 timer IC, 3 flickering LEDs , 3V battery back , and a button switch and you are in business.
 
Here is a write up on using the candle as a lighter. https://www.citytheatrical.com/news_letter/Candle Lighter.htm. Unfortunately the video is no longer available on Youtube. Let me do some digging in our files, I might be able to find it
Thanks for the reply. The light looks pretty convincing. I can probably get your kit and put it in a housing. Can you tell me how long the PC board is? I'm trying for a fairly small lighter. Also, are these still available?
 
Does the controller have an onboard regulator? It's easy to get very small 12V batteries, but if the circuitry is designed for 9V I wouldn't want to overdo it by 33% without knowing it was ok to do so.
 
Does the controller have an onboard regulator? It's easy to get very small 12V batteries, but if the circuitry is designed for 9V I wouldn't want to overdo it by 33% without knowing it was ok to do so.
Natively it runs 7V DC and can run at 9V DC perfectly fine. Going to 12V can cause issues, it will run but it will run hot and will die significantly quicker.
 
Thanks for the clarification, if I was going to run it off a 12V battery I'd stick a regulator on it, then. Either a 7809 or a 7805 with the common jacked up with a 2.4V zener.
 

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