Played with LED strip and noticed some diodes glow when we touch them with fingers. The strip is not connected to anything. On one hand, I understand that the electric energy comes from somewhere around. On the other hand, I don't understand what exactly is happening there. Can we leverage this effect somehow? :)
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@caujka The energy is coming from the case of the computer where some of the power is being transmitted through capacitive coupling or similar.. you are acting as a path to ground and thus allowing enough energy to flow for the glow.
I am fairly confident this wouldnt work if you werent touching the led or yourself to the computer.
@freemo actually, diodes blinked even without touching the pc. This might be static discharge, but I wonder, where the difference in potential comes from, and how much energy is needed to excite the diodes.
@caujka afaik it's from the energy in the air such as cell towers, wifi, etc.. where your hand bridging the connection is enough to make the LED to glow a bit.
There are solutions designed for this kind of workflow as well such as
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/15/18183456/wiliot-bluetooth-chip-paper-thin-battery-free-low-cost
@caujka To confirm this hypothesis you could try to go somewhere where there isn't any cell phone, bluetooth, wifi, etc.. signal and it shouldn't glow anymore
@kreyren if the behavior was reliable... :)
Well, it just became even more interesting. We have a piece from circuitscribe that shines red or blue depending on the current direction. We made it glow red AND blue.
I would not believe this myself if I did not see. Look at the scheme of the circuit. I could not take a picture, the effect was not stable.
My guess is, static charge shifts an electron-hole balance and leads to weak recombination.
Pity the effect is so weak and unstable. We can observe it at night, and when we are not ready with instruments.