[Cyborg] flexible EL in shoes

kristinneidlinger slimavocado at gmail.com
Tue Nov 9 17:33:02 UTC 2010


hi all,
I have been futzing with RGB LEDs too.

Eric, I have the same problem with them. They are best displayed in the
dark, but then when you take photos it like monsters of rock.
The light shines from below onto the face and well, it's creepy.

I am now using cotton bating and fused plastic to diffuse them. I'll post
this stuff soon...and I'll bring it in to NB to get some feedback.

!
kristin




On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 9:00 AM, Sean Cusack <sean.p.cusack at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'll try to come by and say hi next time I'm in Toronto! (I go there for
> work a *lot*...should be there end of this month)
>
> The wizard staff was sweet BTW. Interesting to hear that the RGB LEDs still
> needed super darkness to work. Although I'm using white LEDs to get the best
> brightness bag for my power input buck, it sounds like it may be unlikely to
> see mine in daylight too (doh). I'm hoping at the very least though I'll
> have a sweet light up tron suit that looks respectable when its not pitch
> black (the EL wire version looked pretty shitty in normal lighting - mostly
> because you could see all the wires coming off the suit in areas where your
> body bends too much :) ).
>
> I have a blog/website in the making that I'm throwing all my maker stuff
> on. It should be done soon, and I'll start posting the how-tos on this guy
> there.
>
> Sean
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 8:31 AM, Eric Boyd <mrericboyd at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Wow, that sounds so awesome.  I'm living in Toronto now but I'd love to
>> see blog posts or videos about your work on this. Are you trying to have the
>> costume ready for the opening night so you can dress up for it?
>>
>> My wizard staff had the same kind of problems with strong light - the 1
>> watt white LEDs are strong enough to be seen in bright indoor light, but the
>> RGBs just can't be properly seen unless it's club-level dark.  And that's
>> already using TWO "super-bright" RGBs.  I'm actually thinking for next time
>> it might be better to just use multiple white LEDs and have some e.g.
>> tissue-paper filters.
>>
>> Eric
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 11/9/10 11:17 AM, Sean Cusack wrote:
>>
>>> FYI Eric - its the 17th in the US too! Anyways, I have/had a tron v1
>>> suit that used EL as the base technology. It was pretty cool on a lot of
>>> levels, but it just wasn't robust. It was difficult to wash (I had to do
>>> it by hand in my bathtub to prevent it from kinking too badly), and in
>>> order to keep the bend radius wide enough around the elbows and whatnot,
>>> the EL wire had to come off the suit quite a ways. Also EL just ain't
>>> that bright. It looks awesome in a dark room, but you just can't see it
>>> in daylight. Also, hiding EL inverters in clothing is an interesting
>>> trick (I plan on trying to make a soft circuit version of one of these
>>> soon btw to conquer that problem at least).
>>>
>>> Although its totally awesome that this stuff conquers (sort of) some of
>>> the washability problem, its a shame it doesn't fix the underlying
>>> brightness problem, or the inverter problem. On a sidenote, I'm making a
>>> tron v2 suit (using the new movie designs), but with silicone
>>> encapsulated LED strips as the underlying tech (they look to be quite
>>> bendy and waterproof).
>>>
>>> I've laser cut faux leather in the required patterns. This will get
>>> attached to an old base layer I have from REI (really thin
>>> cotton/spandex that wicks moisture like mad). and then am going to mount
>>> the silicone LED strips under the leather, on the backside of the base
>>> layer (facing up towards the leather). The kicker is, I'll have the LEDs
>>> slightly offset underneath the leather bits, so you can't see the direct
>>> light of the LEDs, but you can see the diffuse glow. I've tested this
>>> out (just yesterday), and as long as the shirt is nip-hugging tight,
>>> this works great - the LED strips form to your body, but also act as
>>> "risers", pushing the base shirt up from your skin just a tad, thus
>>> creating a little pocket of air between your skin and the shirt where
>>> you can get a sexy, diffuse, *bright*, glow.
>>>
>>> I've got the laser work done now, so I'll probably be doing a fair
>>> amount of the assembly at noisebridge. If anyone is interested in
>>> observing, lemme know!
>>>
>>> Sean
>>>
>>>  On Nov 9, 2010 6:21 AM, "Eric Boyd" <mrericboyd at yahoo.com
>>>> <mailto:mrericboyd at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://www.fashioningtech.com/profiles/blogs/flexible-el-for-wearable-tech
>>>>
>>>> They look damn sharp, I'd love to have a pair.  Can't seem to find them
>>>> for sale though, must still be in product development.  Actually I found
>>>> a page which said they should be available when the movie is in
>>>> theatres, that's supposed to be Dec 17th (in Canada).
>>>>
>>>> See also Janet Hansen's shoes:
>>>> http://www.enlighted.com/pages/shoes.shtml
>>>>
>>>> Eric
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Cyborg mailing list
>>>> Cyborg at lists.noisebridge.net <mailto:Cyborg at lists.noisebridge.net>
>>>>
>>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/cyborg
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>
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