FireWalker Shoes NeoPixel Durability

EL Wire/Tape/Panels, LEDs, pixels and strips, LCDs and TFTs, etc products from Adafruit

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tripflex
 
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Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2015 2:11 pm

FireWalker Shoes NeoPixel Durability

Post by tripflex »

So I built my first pair of firewalkers about 4 months ago and they worked great, unfortunately as many others have experienced, after some wear and tear (especially if you shuffle), the neopixel strips end up no longer working due to the strip cracking, completely breaking, or what I believe is just a loose connection.

Anyways, I was wondering if anybody has come up with any good solutions for making the neopixel led strips any more durable by coating them in something, or any other methods?

I've already had to cut out the strip where the shoe bends (thankfully i didn't glue it) but unfortunately other parts that weren't even at the bend have started to no longer work :(
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It seems like when some of the strip doesn't work, if you press down on the part of the strip you can see in the image below, it will sometimes start to work. I'm not sure exactly what that piece is and why that would happen, but just what i've experienced so far:
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The reason I ask is I ordered a product off KickStarter called Rayger and it came with some standard LED strips that seem to be a lot more durable than the neopixel strips. Now these only used one color and you can't program them like the neopixels, but the coating on the strip makes it bend very easily and seems to be very durable. I thought about maybe just using a hot glue gun and trying to make something similar to this, but figured I would ask to see what others have done.

Also, I know the tutorial shows using the 60 LED strip ( http://www.adafruit.com/products/1461 ) ... has anybody tried this with the 144 LED ( http://www.adafruit.com/products/1507 )?

What about using DotStars instead of NeoPixels? https://www.adafruit.com/products/2329

Thanks!!

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Franklin97355
 
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Re: FireWalker Shoes NeoPixel Durability

Post by Franklin97355 »

The chips are capacitors for noise reduction. You could try to hit the ends with a soldering iron and see if the solder has cracked. If you would consider a less dense pixel placement you could use individual pixels connected with our silicone wire

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