[Cyborg] wizard costume w/ staff

[Eric Boyd]

http://www.digitalcrusader.ca/2010/10/wizard-costume-with-illuminated-staff.html

More tech details: I also had a 3-axis compass chip in the circuit (the 
circuit was actually my old 3-axis prototype North Paw circuit), but it 
turns out the same lesson that Skory and I learned ages ago still 
applies: if the battery is too close, it messes up the compass readings! 
  Because the laser-cut enclosure was just-big-enough, there was no way 
to get the circuit far enough from the battery to get decent compass 
readings, so I had to give up the idea of a compass mode where the 
colors would correspond to the direction the staff was turned.

Also fail: the mercury tilt switch (I can't believe they can still 
legally sell these things - but they have like 50 on sale for $1.25 at 
the local home hardware!) triggers fairly often when you're walking with 
the staff, so you can't just leave the staff in the accelerometer mode 
while walking, which is too bad.

Finally, I put a "backup" white illumination on the bottom of the staff 
(with a third battery), because I was worried that the batteries of the 
primary illumination might not last a whole night.  But I didn't end up 
having to use it - battery life is at least 5 hours!

I am ridiculously happy with how well the staff came out, it was about 2 
solid days of work, but it looks exactly as I hoped it would.

Chung-Hay suggested that I should add a sound-reactive mode, I agree: 
that would be awesome.  So maybe next year I'll pick up this staff and 
improve it some more :-)

Eric