Light Flicker Detecting Top

Use this device to identify energy inefficient light fixtures by their low frequency flickering! All you do is spin the top and look for a blinking bluish line to see if you could be using a better light fixture!

Why This works: Fluorescent light bulbs flicker at twice the AC frequency because the magnetic ballast driving them is directly affected by the AC current peaks. So 60 Hz AC = 120 Hz flicker. Newer more efficient solid state fluorescent tube lights flicker at a much faster rate. This top has high contrasting colors spaced in such a way that when spun at low speed it will create a frame rate interference, just like when you look at your TV through a digital camera.

The photos taken with the bluish lines are what you see with slow flickering light, the other two photos used sunlight which doesn't flicker and just makes a red white blur.

NOTE: Some LED's have low flicker rates and will give you a false positive. Don't throw away your energy efficient LED's!

You have to print the 'top body' with a high infill to make sure the top layer doesn't have any gaps which will make it hard to paint and degrade the flicker effect.

The top handle and tip both require some light support generation. I would recommend printing them with no less than 30% infill so you they don't get broken in use. I also super glued the top and bottom in place but they are sized for a functional press fit.

Note from the last two photos that you could just as well use a pen to get the same effect, you don't have to make it into a top.

For the best results use high contrasting colors such as black and white. (Red & white worked just fine for me.) I used white out to paint the top surface.

EDIT: I added a quick video explanation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvpb0BYwnmw&feature=youtu.be