Faux Candles or Celebrating the Season . . .

[Greg]

I tend to over analyze things, sometimes it helps other times it hinders.

I read in Application Note FX00001: Faux Candles (05/05) that a 470uF capacitor adds to the realism with the discharge of the cap - Got it!

I read in Nuts & Volts Column #140 Celebrating the Season (12/06) that a 330 uF capacitor is the way to go - OK!

The question is not what the difference in uF will do but what is preferred?  I'm sure some of you can sympathize with my low budget "don't irritate the wife by buying twice the amount of capacitors really needed" approach.

I acknowledge that it is really a personal preference type of question but I'm curious what y'all think.

Thanks for the opinions.

Greg in Oregon

[JonnyMac]

There is no particular magic here, Greg, either is fine -- use what you can find in the range of 220 to 470.  The purpose of the capacitor is to smooth the digital output of the controller to make it less digital (i.e., snapping on and off).  The idea is, of course, to mimic a candle that varies its intensity smoothly