LED and Microwave?

[Jamer508]

I heard that led lights can be turned on by microwaves and other high frequencies. Is there a way to test this or does anyone know?
I debunk ghost myths and I am trying to debunk the most recent ghost hunters episode, the flashlight turns itself on. The flashlight that turned on was a led, i thought that possibly the frequency matter was a possibility.

 

[HKJ]

I heard that led lights can be turned on by microwaves and other high frequencies. Is there a way to test this or does anyone know?
I debunk ghost myths and I am trying to debunk the most recent ghost hunters episode, the flashlight turns itself on. The flashlight that turned on was a led, i thought that possibly the frequency matter was a possibility.

Most flashlight can not be turned on by microwaves, but enough power might be leaking into the flashlight to light up a led or even blow the led or electronic.
Another possibility is that the microwaves would fry the power switch and permanently turn on the flashlight.

Some flashlights does not have a power cutting switch (one of these are NovaTac), with this kind of flashlight it might be possible to turn it on with microwave radiation.

 

[Jarl]

incan's can be turned on by microwaves, not LED's though. I remember someone put a T1 in a microwave just for the hell of it- nothing happened.

 

[Jerb]

A little off topic but heres a scenario for you sciency types:

A while ago I built a negative ion generator using a simple diode ladder. the end of the circuit ended with a needle so I could "shoot" ion rays (st. elmo's fire / corona effect ) allowing myself to light up florescent bulbs with seemingly so circuit present.

Could the same principle apply to LEDs?

(the other fun thing about these was that if you isolated yourself from ground using rubber soled sneakers and attached the needle to your leg or flank than you could charge yourself and repeatedly shock people, if someone was standing in one place for a while you could charge them too )

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Chances are the incandescent and those fluorescent tubes lit up by ionizing the gas inside the bulb. LEDs don't have any gas and thus won't have the same reaction.

I agree with others here that it's more likely that the flashlight had a high impedance "softswitch" rather than a physical on/off switch that actually breaks the circuit. High impedance CMOS circuits can do all sorts of wacky things when hit with enough RF or microwave energy.

 

[thermal guy]

I tried to debunk that flashlight that was on ghost hunters myself and could not That flashlight was an inova X5 witch i believe is just direct drive nothing fancy.I set my tail cap so the light was just off and would turn on at the slightest touch put it on the floor and tried to get it to go on by walking around it witch they didn't and nothing.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

There are some Inova knock-offs out there that look fairly close to the real thing. Could it have been an imitation?

 

[1 what]

Hi Jamer 508.
Since I was the guy who put the T1 in the microwave I felt I had to try to answer your question.

Behold the test rig:

Dont ask me re the design engineering (none I'm afraid) but YES the led did light for a very short time. I'll leave it to others with more time to perfect the circuit design . Hint: Larger current limiting "R" and more insulation. Good luck with the ghost busting.

 

[aussiebob]

Theres vids on youtube of peoples puting incan globes in microwaves and they lighting up, buggered if i know if its legit thou.