[Noisebridge-discuss] [Noisebridge-announce] wearables workshop

[Christie Dudley]

Having the simple stuff would be pretty trivial.  EL wire wouldn't wear well
under road conditions, but I think it'd be pretty easy to just sew it on as
piping and light it up.  On any garment you could sew piping to.  It's not
easy to work with, but once you get the hang of it, it's just a matter of a
lot of hand stitching.

Making it flash and change?  That's a bit harder.  Because of the weird
transformers that it needs, I'd probably just want to interrupt the battery
circuit for switching on and off for signalling.

Check out Cool Neon's catalog for interesting ideas.  They have all sorts of
glowy-blinkies.  You can also get all sorts of crazy lights for your
motorcycle, from neon spark plug wires to LED strips designed to run off
12V.  You might check into the legality, but from the look of these mod
kits, I'm thinking that it depends on HOW the lights are used as to what you
can do with them.  For example, you could probably have red EL piping all
along your jacket and it would be fine as long as it didn't get beyond a
certain brightness.  But of course, it probably wouldn't hurt to check.

Christie
_______
Getting to the bottom of the hill is convenient. The view from the top of
the hill is stunning. Where would you choose to live?


On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 4:51 PM, Sai Emrys <saizai at gmail.com> wrote:

> This reminds me of something I was thinking about recently.
>
> How hard would it be to make an EL-wire (or functional equivalent)
> vest suitable for motorcycling?
>
> A basic version would just have state-approved colors facing front and
> back and an onboard power supply/controller.
>
> One could get fancier and e.g. try to have it integrate into turn
> signals, brake light, or headlight modulation; have more extensive
> lights coverage (e.g. on legs, arms, head); have a breakaway
> connection to on-bike power / controller (are there commercially
> available parts functionally similar to the Apple MagSafe plug?); etc.
> Not sure if it'd be worth the extra effort though.
>
> I do think it'd probably be easier to make it as just an independent
> harness/vest rather than trying to sew it into my leathers; the latter
> seems problematic to do without impairing function. OTOH, I could try
> sewing it to what I use now, which is just a generic yellow
> reflective-stripe traffic vest.
>
> I've never worked with materials of this sort though, so I don't even
> know if EL wire per se is the correct tool for the job.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> This is hardly an original idea, but I've not found any kits or
> commercial products that do this after a quick search, which I found
> somewhat surprising given its (IMHO) obvious utility.
>
> - Sai
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