Yeah I do kinda the same but I embed them into latex prosthetics. Like horns or protrusions for the face that you glue on. They're really good for a cyberpunkey vibe. I'm just casting some at the moment actually because we're coming up on Halloween soon.
They look great but they're difficult to solder. Too little heat and it doesn't attach, too much and it damages them. The strip has some annoying coating that repels the solder.
Some of them have metal crimped contacts that solve this but at the expense of end flexibility. And those usually have contacts at each end, i prefer them with both contacts at the same end so I can cut the strips to size.
They're also prone to breaking and the silicone is very resistant to glues and it keeps jumping around when you try to fix it in place. Embedding totally in liquid latex helps but if you use a lot it takes ages to cure.
I tend to just drive them with an ESP powered by a simple power bank. Just like the OP but I tend to leave out the drivers, for short lengths 3V is ok directly on the ESP. The WLED firmware with an ESP-S3 and a MEMS microphone can even do audio reactivity.
I combine them usually with ws2812 strips too which have individual RGB. These flexi strips of course don't.
Ps one annoying thing is that some strips are much brighter on one side than the other, and some are not. But on AliExpress it's really hard to determine which ones you end up getting.
Have you thought about ways to make the lights detachable so you can wash the garment? Or is the trade off at a point where redoing it is easier overall?
It’s maybe plausible to gently wash it with the filaments still attached? I did actually use connectors so the shirt could be detached from the drive electronics, though I’d be a bit worried whether the stitches would survive and corrosion on the solder joints. Adhesive/waterproof heat shrink could maybe help?
The other option is maybe attach the filaments to an embroidery style patch instead of the shirt itself and then attach it with Velcro to the shirt?
You could use shrink tube around the solder connections. That would limit water ingress though it's not perfect. It's what I always do, it also gives more mechanical strength so you don't break off the the wire easily.
Speculating here. The lights and the electronics could be seen onto a fabric envelope, and the envelope could be attached to the final garment through hoops and loops (Velcro).
Cool project. The best part is the actual pictures, you can tell taken with care by a human and the project is well described. So hard to find decent writing these days.
I think for your next big idea create a tee that can match any company's swag brand; I am just tired of managing tees that fill up my drawer, I wish I had one that could be me all. ;)
I wonder if white thread would've been more invisible, the black thread seems more obvious against the LEDs? Being nitpicky, its a cool project for a single night.
There's actually a specific transparent thread you can use for this, it's called a monofilament polyester (aka "MonoPoly") thread, in clear or "invisible" variant. Would be perfect for this project.
this is a really cool project! In the future you might want to print the paper designs in reverse and put it on the inside. Any paper remnants wouldn't be visible. I think that's how a lot of embroidered products do it, and I've had some hats that leave a lot of the material instead of tearing it out.
One of my kids had something like this built into a Halloween costume that their mom procured from Amazon. One of the filaments was blinking out within a day so I started running the length of the filament to figure out where the bad connection was. Unexpectedly it shocked the hell out of me. I put a meter on it and it was 240V. I couldn't believe I got such a nasty poke from 2 AA batteries.
Ooo this is cool, I didn't know these exist. I once half made something like this with EL wire but I stopped after getting an electric shock from some EL tape. Turns out the edges are not at all insulated and you need high voltages to drive them. I'm not wearing that. 24V sounds much nicer.
>"This is how I designed and assembled a wearable neon shirt in just a few days. [...] Of course, the whole thing is quite silly and that was kind of the point. It's not a practical garment, and wasn't meant to be, but I found it to be quite a fun artistic challenge with things I already had in the parts bin. And in case you're wondering, no, it's not machine-washable. Nor hand-washable, really."
I personally think it's a brilliant idea!
And, if you could solve the washability problem, then you could potentially make million$!
EL wire is different, it's higher voltage AC making a magnetic field and exciting a phosphor, it's actually a continuous strip of illuminating material. This is small, dense LEDs in a strip.
LED uses EL effect of diode, EL wire uses EL effect of compounds dispersed in a material. Technically related, but this is based on tiny LEDs on a flexible PCB covered in the yellow LED goo. It's the same type of strip as ones used for retro look LED lightbulbs.
Yes I've used that too but it has some drawbacks. It's way less flexible for starters, and not as bright. It's not dimmable unlike the leds.
Also it needs much higher voltage around 100V compared to leds so you always need some bucket converter. And there's a minor risk too when it comes to wearables though in general the wire is well insulated.
Yeah I do kinda the same but I embed them into latex prosthetics. Like horns or protrusions for the face that you glue on. They're really good for a cyberpunkey vibe. I'm just casting some at the moment actually because we're coming up on Halloween soon.
They look great but they're difficult to solder. Too little heat and it doesn't attach, too much and it damages them. The strip has some annoying coating that repels the solder.
Some of them have metal crimped contacts that solve this but at the expense of end flexibility. And those usually have contacts at each end, i prefer them with both contacts at the same end so I can cut the strips to size.
They're also prone to breaking and the silicone is very resistant to glues and it keeps jumping around when you try to fix it in place. Embedding totally in liquid latex helps but if you use a lot it takes ages to cure.
I tend to just drive them with an ESP powered by a simple power bank. Just like the OP but I tend to leave out the drivers, for short lengths 3V is ok directly on the ESP. The WLED firmware with an ESP-S3 and a MEMS microphone can even do audio reactivity.
I combine them usually with ws2812 strips too which have individual RGB. These flexi strips of course don't.
Ps one annoying thing is that some strips are much brighter on one side than the other, and some are not. But on AliExpress it's really hard to determine which ones you end up getting.
This sounds very interesting, do you have any pictures how these look like?
Author here, happy to answer any questions!
Have you thought about ways to make the lights detachable so you can wash the garment? Or is the trade off at a point where redoing it is easier overall?
It’s maybe plausible to gently wash it with the filaments still attached? I did actually use connectors so the shirt could be detached from the drive electronics, though I’d be a bit worried whether the stitches would survive and corrosion on the solder joints. Adhesive/waterproof heat shrink could maybe help?
The other option is maybe attach the filaments to an embroidery style patch instead of the shirt itself and then attach it with Velcro to the shirt?
You could use shrink tube around the solder connections. That would limit water ingress though it's not perfect. It's what I always do, it also gives more mechanical strength so you don't break off the the wire easily.
Magnets?
Speculating here. The lights and the electronics could be seen onto a fabric envelope, and the envelope could be attached to the final garment through hoops and loops (Velcro).
Cool project. The best part is the actual pictures, you can tell taken with care by a human and the project is well described. So hard to find decent writing these days.
I think for your next big idea create a tee that can match any company's swag brand; I am just tired of managing tees that fill up my drawer, I wish I had one that could be me all. ;)
Just want to say- this is a really neat idea and project!
p.s. thanks for the additional sourcing details
AliExpress and Adafruit, e.g. https://www.adafruit.com/product/5867
I wonder if white thread would've been more invisible, the black thread seems more obvious against the LEDs? Being nitpicky, its a cool project for a single night.
There's actually a specific transparent thread you can use for this, it's called a monofilament polyester (aka "MonoPoly") thread, in clear or "invisible" variant. Would be perfect for this project.
I was gonna say maybe fishing line would work, but I think maybe some fishing line is some sort of monofilament polyester?
Or color matched. Hadn’t even thought of that to be honest
this is a really cool project! In the future you might want to print the paper designs in reverse and put it on the inside. Any paper remnants wouldn't be visible. I think that's how a lot of embroidered products do it, and I've had some hats that leave a lot of the material instead of tearing it out.
curious, why use black thread for red light? Haha..
One of my kids had something like this built into a Halloween costume that their mom procured from Amazon. One of the filaments was blinking out within a day so I started running the length of the filament to figure out where the bad connection was. Unexpectedly it shocked the hell out of me. I put a meter on it and it was 240V. I couldn't believe I got such a nasty poke from 2 AA batteries.
was it perhaps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroluminescent_wire instead
Must have been. I ended up tossing it since I'm sure the costume itself was highly flammable
almost certainly, since EL wire has a driver to boost the v
Ooo this is cool, I didn't know these exist. I once half made something like this with EL wire but I stopped after getting an electric shock from some EL tape. Turns out the edges are not at all insulated and you need high voltages to drive them. I'm not wearing that. 24V sounds much nicer.
>"This is how I designed and assembled a wearable neon shirt in just a few days. [...] Of course, the whole thing is quite silly and that was kind of the point. It's not a practical garment, and wasn't meant to be, but I found it to be quite a fun artistic challenge with things I already had in the parts bin. And in case you're wondering, no, it's not machine-washable. Nor hand-washable, really."
I personally think it's a brilliant idea!
And, if you could solve the washability problem, then you could potentially make million$!
Anyway, a brilliant idea!
The pwm animation/flicker/ramp up was a REALLY nice touch
Reminds me of a Japanese tech demo on YouTube I can't find right now, of projecting a flexible hologram on to a t-shirt with invisible markers.
Is "LED Filament" the same as "EL Wire" ?
EL wire is different, it's higher voltage AC making a magnetic field and exciting a phosphor, it's actually a continuous strip of illuminating material. This is small, dense LEDs in a strip.
LED uses EL effect of diode, EL wire uses EL effect of compounds dispersed in a material. Technically related, but this is based on tiny LEDs on a flexible PCB covered in the yellow LED goo. It's the same type of strip as ones used for retro look LED lightbulbs.
No, those are more similar to old fluorescent bulbs.
We old timers used to use EL wire for this.
Yes I've used that too but it has some drawbacks. It's way less flexible for starters, and not as bright. It's not dimmable unlike the leds.
Also it needs much higher voltage around 100V compared to leds so you always need some bucket converter. And there's a minor risk too when it comes to wearables though in general the wire is well insulated.
Looks solid, best of luck with it.
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
That's a nice wearable!
This is great, because the one problem I have with the cyberpunk dystopian future we live in, is the disappointing lack of neon.
looking great!
want!