Category: Wearable Electronics

I made an X-mass scarf today…

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With family coming in for Thanksgiving from all over, I wanted to make a holiday scarf that really slapped people in the face with a big sack of JOY! Something not so annoyingly gaudy that I would not go out in public with it, but at the same time visually irresistible.

So the Ultimate Holiday Scarf is born.

This scarf is designed to look like a Christmas tree with all the trimmings. Aside from the glittery tinsel, I added some NeoPixel LEDs from Adafruit to really brighten the mood. Upon startup, the scarf will play a holiday tune to get you going while putting on a colorful LED light show. People love the scarf, then drop their jaws when it is turned on.

Super Low Budget Wearable Tech

I love doing wearable electronics and the price of entry for making wearable tech is supper low. Anyone can make something cool with the Adafruit GEMMA for about $20. However, my work with STEM Paths presents the challenge of trying to create an interesting project with a shoestring budget.

So, with that in mind, I give you my plan for the ~$2 wearable electronics kit. Well… this dose not include the price of conductive thread, and it dose require some pre soldering for the sensor… but $2 for a kit that will light up 6 LEDs when the lights go out.

So here is how I plan to do it:

  • SMTU2032-LF_SPLI found this lovely battery holder on Mouser that has the perfect holes for stitching to fabric.
  • Then I found these $0.08 LEDs in Red, Green, and Yellow.
  • That is enough to make a light up wearable, but I really want this kit to do something other than just turn on when a battery is added.

DiagramThanks to Evil Mad Scientist, I added a phototransistor, NPN transistor, and a 1K resistor that will create an ambient light sensor. So now the LEDs will only light up when it is dark or during the night time.

Click the URL for a full list of parts that can be ordered from Mouser.com

http://www.mouser.com/ProjectManager/ProjectDetail.aspx?AccessID=8a33709065

The Sparkling Chameleon Fur Wrap

This is a variant of the Adafruit Chameleon Scarf that I recently made. I made the color fade and randomly twinkle rather than stay on all the time. I also added a button to restart the color sample sequence as well. To include some motion feedback, I used a Fast Vibration Sensor Switch to increase the number of pixels that go bright when it is triggered.

Continue reading The Sparkling Chameleon Fur Wrap

LED Matrix Pendant

I made a pendant for my girlfriend as a Halloween present. The animation was changed to an eye that blinks and looks around. I really wanted it not to just loop the same animation so I set out to create a few animations for the pendant to cycle through at random including a few longer blackout periods. I am still rather new to the coding side of this and didn’t understand some of the code, but here is the version I have working as of now. Continue reading LED Matrix Pendant