Lightacles | Magnetic String Lights
Light, Connected by Magnet
Lightacles String Lights are an indoor decorative LED string lighting system with magnetic quick-connect joints, allowing a user to extend or reconfigure a chain by clicking strands together rather than threading plug-and-socket connectors through the dark. The product targets homes, offices, and event spaces where flexible, reconfigurable string lighting is needed without the fragility and complication of traditional connectors. Lightacles came to Enki through Gembah needing the magnetic connection mechanism specified, the electrical architecture designed to support extension across multiple segments, and the whole product taken to a basic schematic that a contract manufacturer could quote.
The challenge
Why String Lights Stop Where They Stop
Traditional indoor string lights are sold in fixed lengths because of how the electrics work. The lights run as banks of parallel LEDs in a series circuit, with flashing controlled by switching voltage polarity, and that architecture cannot be cut or extended without breaking the circuit. The brief asked for daisy-chainable indoor string lights with magnetic connectors that handled the electrical continuity automatically, used off-the-shelf components wherever possible to keep cost in check, and sat in a price band that competed with Amazon-tier decorative lighting rather than premium architectural fixtures. Compliance was a quiet but real constraint: indoor decorative lights need UL listing for the US market, and any magnetic connector touching mains-derived voltage has to be designed around fault and tampering scenarios that consumer use will produce.
The solution
The Magnetic Joint, Done Properly
The architecture moves the lights from a series circuit to a re-spliced series-in-parallel arrangement that supports extension through a Magnetic Splice without breaking the chain. Each segment runs banks of series LEDs in a series circuit, terminated at both ends with a magnetic connector that polarity-aligns automatically when two strands click together. The number of additional segments is bounded by the output voltage of the transformer, which we held at a low-voltage standard suited to consumer use, and the End Cap on the final segment closes the loop electrically so the chain works at any length the user has connected. Component selection prioritised existing platform parts: an off-the-shelf transformer, standard LED banks, and a magnetic connector pulled from established consumer-electronics catalogues. The factory works directly with the customer rather than through a separate contract manufacturer, which kept the schematic deliverable focused on what the manufacturer needed to quote against rather than a full mechanical design pack.
There is a filed a provisional utility patent as well as a design patent filed for this design.
The outcome
Our Role
Enki provided design and engineering advisory to Lightacles, delivered through Gembah, focused on the electrical architecture and the magnetic connector specification rather than full industrial design. Scope covered the splice strategy, transformer voltage planning, component schematic, off-the-shelf component selection, and a basic schematic ready for the manufacturer to quote and build against. The programme was a focused engagement (one week of engineering time) rather than a full end-to-end product development, demonstrating Enki's ability to scale scope to the brief.
“A schematic that lets a factory quote correctly is worth more than a deck full of renders.”
- Ben Jones, Founder, Enki Product Development
