Some questions prior to purchasing

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

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StellarNoise
 
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Some questions prior to purchasing

Post by StellarNoise »

Hello, I am so happy to have found this community! Asking the pros directly is the most efficient means of getting the information I need!

Anyways:
I'm working on a project(hero-prop level) that requires 2x of your 332 LED-per-Meter Silicone Bead LED Strips(PID: 4865). I'm limited in my options for strips, as I have less than 4mm of space to diffuse the light. So a high density is absolutely necessary. The fun part is that it also needs to be portable, compact, and include interchangeable batteries/powerbanks.

Would I be able to run them BOTH on an ItsyBitsy 32u4 - 5V(PID: 3677)? Or would I need to go beefier? Maybe even introduce a power boost like I've seen people do to trinkets? I intend to power them with a 30,000mah, 5V/3.4a power bank as well.

Is there another approach to powering and controlling such high-density strips with a small footprint? I am open to stepping down to your 144LED/m strips as well, though I'd like to hear from you guys first. Please do excuse any ignorance, I have a limited amount of time and money to complete this project so I figured I'd ask directly prior to purchasing the components.

I've attached a render of the assembled hero-prop to better communicate the task at hand.
Thanks!
Attachments
500mm of led strip on each side.
500mm of led strip on each side.
Helmet_2022-Sep-14_06-14-21AM-000_CustomizedView16196715059.png (845.88 KiB) Viewed 73 times

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Some questions prior to purchasing

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

I'd go with a 3.3v processor and power everything directly from 3.7v LiPo pack. Although designed for 5v use, we have found that Neopixels run just fine on 3.7v. And powering that way eliminates the bulk and inefficiency of a voltage boost circuit. If you look through our tutorials, you will find many portable Neopixel projects are designed that way.

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StellarNoise
 
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Re: Some questions prior to purchasing

Post by StellarNoise »

Thank you Bill I shall!

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michaelmeissner
 
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Re: Some questions prior to purchasing

Post by michaelmeissner »

One thing to think of in doing these types of projects is how many LEDs will you need, how bright do you need them, and how long will you be running the prop.

If you go pedal to the medal and get 2x of the strips, you are talking about 332 or so pixels that have to be illuminated. That can take a lot of power, particularly if you run them at full power.

For cosplay, I typically think of things in the 1 meter, 10 meter, and 100 meter frame. If you are talking to people in a room (i.e. people seeing you at 1 meter or less), you don't want the lights to be bright enough to blind them (or you for that matter). And please have an easy on/off button for the lights so that you can easily turn them off if requested. I've had people ask me to turn off the lights while I was talking to them.

I tend to also incorporate a push button that when pressed will reduce the patterns that I put out to be solid patterns instead of doing lots of blinky lights. When I'm walking around and further away from people, I can then press the button to go back to the patterns. That can be very helpful, particularly for people that are bothered by flashing lights.

If you want to be seen at a small distance, you will need more power (i.e. people will be seeing you at 10 meters or so). Finally, if you are in a competition on a darkened stage and the audience is further away (i.e. maybe 100 meters in large halls), you need to crank up power to max. The more you crank up the brightness, the bigger battery you will need. Likewise if you only have the lights on for 10 minutes, you will need less time than if you want to have them on for an entire day at a convention.

This guide from the learning guides tries to give you some ideas about reducing the power level. Generally, it is hard to say how much power you need. You typically have to iterate to see what works for your props.

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StellarNoise
 
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Re: Some questions prior to purchasing

Post by StellarNoise »

Okay, that's some valuable info. I'll combine yours and Bills advice by starting with a 5v itsybitsy and the power banks from OP. Then I intend to step up in power if I cannot maintain the brightness for however long I need.

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