L.E.D. Dress Project

[laurenlucia]

I'm unsure of all the supplies I'll need for this dress, as it's something I've never attempted before. The idea is to sew about 80 L.E.D.s to the dress in a scattered pattern from hem to waist. The dress will be on display for a runway show, and I want the L.E.D.s to light up with the sounds of the music.

So far the main concerns of mine involve batteries (which one, and how many), and whether I'll need the flora or the gemma, or one/multiple of each.

Any advice, suggestions for other supplies, or help that you can offer will be appreciated.

Here is my list of supplies thus far:

Flora RGB Smart NeoPixel version 2 - Pack of 4 (I'm ordering 20 of them)

Photo cell (CdS photoresistor)

Gemma Starter Pack OR FLORA - Wearable electronic platform: Arduino-compatible

Stainless Thin Conductive Thread - 2 ply - 23 meter/76 ft

Lithium Ion Polymer Battery - 3.7v 1200mAh OR Lithium Ion Polymer Battery - 3.7v 100mAh

USB LiIon/LiPoly charger - v1.2 OR Adafruit Micro Lipo - USB LiIon/LiPoly charger - v1

Electret Microphone Amplifier - MAX4466 with Adjustable Gain

Pocket Autoranging Digital Multimeter

[adafruit_support_bill]

You list of supplies sounds good. You might consider adding a power switch. https://www.adafruit.com/products/1092

Either the Flora or Gemma will be capable of driving 80 pixels. Battery selection will depend on what kinds of patterns you plan to run and what kind of runtime you will require. Assuming that your pixels will be (on average) run at 25% of their maximum output, you would need 1200mAh of battery capacity for each hour of run-time.

Another consideration with that many LEDs is power distribution. It is a good idea to run power to multiple points in your chain of LEDs to minimize the voltage drop due to the resistance of the conductive thread.

[laurenlucia]

Thanks for your response!!

The power switch is a good suggestion. The dress will be in a runway show, so it'll only really need power for about 5 consecutive minutes, and possibly more after the show if the model is asked to walk around in it.

If the gemma and flora are interchangeable, which one do you think would be best? I noticed that the flora was a bit larger than the gemma, so does that mean the flora is capable of something more?

I also think power distribution will be my best option. Picture a circle skirt. Closest to the hem will be where the pixels will be the most dense, and as you go upwards towards the waist I plan on scattering them a bit more. They'll go all the way around the skirt. For 80 pixels, how many batteries would you suggest I buy to distribute the power supply evenly?

[adafruit_support_bill]

The Gemma is designed to be as small as possible. It is the ideal processor for simple projects and can handle up to 100 or so pixels. The Flora is a more powerful processor with more memory. It is capable of controlling several hundred pixels and has room for more complex programming.

For power distribution, I would use a single battery for simplicity. But I would run copper wire (instead of conductive thread) from the battery to at least 4 or 5 points on your pixel strand to assure good low-resistance current flow to the pixels. You can use lightweight (22 - 24 ga) stranded wire for fexibility, or one of our wire ribbons:
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1437
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1373

A 500mAh battery would be compact and should give you about 20 minutes of run-time - depending on the light patterns you will be running with it. https://www.adafruit.com/product/1578

If you haven't already, you may want to review our Sparkle Skirt tutorial for some ideas on how to put it all together: https://learn.adafruit.com/sparkle-skirt