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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Cosplay creation: Like Halloween all year
 
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roobots
Dec 4, 2006

You can only think of Halloween until you die.
Looking for a little LED wiring advice!

I'm making a Space Dandy cosplay and he has a neat little bracelet/language interpreter that lights up green when active. Every Dandy cosplay I've seen is lacking a bracelet that lights up, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to do it. Right now my plan is to get a wood bangle off Amazon, dremel an inset all the way around and drop an LED strip into it. What I'm having a hard time figuring out is finding a power source small enough to also integrate into the bracelet. Any thoughts?

Bangle and Space Dandy for reference:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CIU968M/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ADML478TUTAQA
* # ¿ Aug 20, 2014 18:38
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# ¿ May 20, 2024 11:48
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roobots
Dec 4, 2006

You can only think of Halloween until you die.

The Repo Man posted:

LED strips are usually really power hungry and typically require a wall outlet. First you would have to find out how much power you need to run one, which you can do here: http://www.superbrightleds.com/power_supply_calculator.php. You would probably need 12V power supply and an AC to DC converter with an LED strip. If you can bend some acrylic into a band and leave an open space at the ends, you can put two LEDs on each end in the center and that would light the band up pretty good. It's like those awful light up rave visors you see at every convention now. I've never used them before, but some 5050 SMD LEDs can get pretty bright and don't use too much power, I think. But that's the harder way of doing it.

Easier way: http://www.amazon.com/CoolGlow-LED-Bangle-Bracelets-White/dp/B00KLMX4NW. I don't know what color the bracelet you want lights up to, but since this is white it's easy to get whatever color you want. Cover the areas you need to light up in a specific color with contact paper, then use a colored sharpie to get the color you want. I did that to make a pair of red glowing eyes before, and it works really well. You can paint over the rest of the bracelet to make it look however you want.

Awesome advice! Right now I'm looking at going with using one of those pre-made LED bracelets and then just building the rest of the bangle around it with foam. I think that'd be the easiest thing at this point.

* # ¿ Aug 21, 2014 22:46
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roobots
Dec 4, 2006

You can only think of Halloween until you die.

TwystNeko posted:

I do an awful lot of blinky things these days, and looking at the bracelet Dandy wears, it's definitely chunky enough to hide all kinds of mechanics.

How much time do you have?

My suggestion:
Make the bracelet out of EVA foam so you can make it hollow.

2) get the following (all from AdaFruit, shipping is a bit much, but getting it in two days is awesome)

Micro Lipo charger - https://www.adafruit.com/products/1304
500mAh LiPo battery ( it's about 1.25" square) - https://www.adafruit.com/products/1578
3.3v GEMMA - https://www.adafruit.com/product/1222
30 LED/Meter LED strip (1M long) - https://www.adafruit.com/products/1376

If you want it sound activated, you need this as well:

Mic board with amp - https://www.adafruit.com/product/1063

The rest of it is pretty simple. The LED strip gets wired to power, ground, and D1. The mic would go to power, ground, and A1. Plug in the battery to the connector, and the hardware is done.

For the software part, you can go with this: https://learn.adafruit.com/led-ampli-tie/the-code
(note: written for the Flora, which is the "big brother" of the Gemma, so it needs minor changes - Mic Pin is A1, LED pin is 1)
... Heck, I can write you up some code for that if you want, make some changes to it so it fits better.

Now, I do have a small chunk of high-density LED strip leftover from my UberLED Tie. It's 6" long, and has 22 LEDs. If you want it, PM me and I'll drop it in the mail.

Given my time constraint (Dragon*Con in just under a week oh my gawwwdd...) I'm gonna make the cuff out of EVA foam and just rig it on top of a green light up bracelet. Not the nicest or most elegant, but it'll do the trick for now. I'll definitely keep this in mind for making a nicer one in the future though!

* # ¿ Aug 22, 2014 18:04
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Cosplay creation: Like Halloween all year