Battery Powered LED Matrix - T-Shirt Build
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 พ.ค. 2024
- In this video I'll cover how I created a wearable, battery-powered LED display. I'll talk about the LEDs, battery sources and expected runtime, how to sync with your other WLED projects and how you can control your wearable display when WIFI is not available. I'll also provide a couple of quick updates to the prior LED curtain project.
You can see a complete written step-by-step guide to this project, along with wiring diagrams and more: resinchemtech.blogspot.com/20...
Chapter Links
=============
00:00 Introduction
01:13 WLED MoonModules
02:31 WLED and xLights
03:32 LED Overview
04:19 Power Draw and Voltage Drop Testing
09:03 T-Shirt Design Part 1
12:11 The WLED Controller
15:27 Battery and Expected Life
16:43 T-Shirt Design Part 2
17:39 Joining two LED strips
24:00 T-Shirt Design Part 3
25:39 Synching to the LED Curtain
28:14 Putting it all together
28:40 Using without WIFI
31:36 Wrap Up
Parts Used or Shown
===================
BTF Fairy Lights: amzn.to/44jicJ6
10,000 mAh 5V USB Battery Pack: amzn.to/3Echq66
Mini ElectroCookie Prototype Board: amzn.to/3Pa8Qee
ESP32 Mini: amzn.to/3YON8Qd
SN74AHCT125N Level Shifter: amzn.to/44ojMJB
Alternate I2C Level Shifter: amzn.to/418Gq94
Normally Open Push Button: amzn.to/3qLQDKM
20 gauge solid core wire: amzn.to/3Paz9kD
22 gauge stranded wire: amzn.to/45CxsBK
Kapton Tape: amzn.to/45RL6kU
USB Connector Kit: amzn.to/45FsDru
JST Connectors (3 wire): amzn.to/47Ep1Yy
1/4" Braided Sleeve: amzn.to/3sqSXr8
Heat Shrink Tubing: amzn.to/45p6CgL
Fabric Glue: amzn.to/45mAWJb
Silver Sharpie: amzn.to/3E5wtP5
USB Tester: amzn.to/3sodKvo
3D .stl Files for Enclosure and Belt Holder: www.thingiverse.com/thing:619...
Some of these links may be Amazon affiliate links. Use of these links will not affect your pricing, but as an affiliate this channel may earn a small commission if you make a purchase.
Additional information and links
================================
WLED Standard Version: kno.wled.ge/
WLED MoonModules: mm.kno.wled.ge/
xLights: xlights.org/
@IntermitTech Video on Alternate non-WIFI Use: • 💡QuinLED💡Best way to u...
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#led #wled #wearabletech - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Great idea,have you considered wearing a white t shirt over the top to act as a defuser,liking your videos.
I toyed with all sorts of ideas. As I mentioned in the video, there are probably many ways to install/apply the LEDs to clothing other than the way I did it here... working with fabric is not something I normally do. Honestly, I didn't expect it to turn out as well as it did when I first started. But my goal here was to hopefully just provide some general insights on how you can create a battery-powered display and let those with more creativity than me figure out the best way to use them or apply to fabric/clothing.
Thanks for watching, the idea and taking time to post a comment.
Thanks for actually showing the ammeter for the effects demo. I think this will help some viewers! It isn’t about the meter as much as showing it real time.
I actually had a segment filmed where I also showed the amp draw as compared to standard WS2812b LED strips (but cut it due to length). If I recall correctly, I believe at full bright white, 100 WS2812b LED strips were pulling somewhere between 3-4 amps... or 3 to 4 times the power of the fairy lights.
Nice stable video work by Mrs. ResinChem! Nice outdoor shoot!
Ha! I will let her know. It was actually dusk out, although it looked like full daytime. She did do a pretty good job especially considering she had to walk backwards while trying to hold the camera steady.
Great video! I am building a E bike and want to incorporate WLED this has given me some great ideas thanks!
Nice! That's what I hoped to do with this video... inspire other ideas for battery-powered uses. As always, my viewers continue to "wow" me with their implementation and improvements to the projects I present in my videos.
Thanks for watching and taking time to comment.
Hey, Thanks for the shout out! Sorry it took me so long to comment. Great Video. I love the idea of using the smaller pixels.
No problem. Thanks for bringing up xLights. I messed with it a number of years ago but had no idea that it now natively supported WLED and WLED matrices. I did play around with it a bit using the LED curtain but simply didn't have time to include that in this video.
I was pleasantly surprised at how little power these fairy lights used, yet they are still plenty bright. I have had numerous requests over the past couple of years for an LED display that was battery operated, but felt like anything of significant size using standard WS2812b was just going to eat the batteries too quickly. But these fairy lights definitely make battery power an option.
I appreciate you watching, and as always, for taking the time to comment.
A lot of energy in the power pack, and 5 and 12 volt shorts get hot fast. You want some good protection between this and your body, and it'd be a really good idea to make the entire shirt tear away with velcro seams in case it catches fire.
Low chances if the electronics are well done, but if it does short or catch fire you will want the t-shirt off and away from you much faster than you could possibly take it off normally.
Wow! You never cease to impress me, with your ideas, and technical skills in design and implementation. I am not sure I have a "use case" for this but it was a great video. I would also like to compliment you on the amount of material you covered in a relatively short period of time. As you know I really prefer in-depth videos and the time frame is not even a consideration for me. So, once again, thanks for everything you do, here on the channel and IRL!
I really appreciate the comments. I know these long, in-depth videos aren't everyone's cup of tea, but that's why I always try to include the chapter links to let someone jump around to the parts that might be of interest, yet provide all the details for someone that might want them.
To be honest, I'm not sure I have a real use case for this either outside of maybe Halloween night. But I have had a number of questions in the past about battery-powered LEDs, so I thought this might work as an example of how you might build something like that... and how much battery life you might expect. I also build plenty of other things that are primarily just for the "video value" and I don't truly have a personal use case for them. This t-shirt is likely something I'll only pull out of the closet once or twice a year.
As always, thanks for watching and taking the time to post your comment. It really does mean a lot!
Cool video. I built a wearable with a safety vest outlining the reflective bands, but used the same seed lights as your wall matrix and folded the wires onto themselves and sewed them down, tightest spacing I could get with the standard 10cm lights was about 1.5”, my ESP32 and mic went into the ID pocket of the vest and battery bank on an inside pocket. Sometimes I put a white t-shirt over the vest which definitely diffuses the LEDs and changes up the look. Bored with it I’m in the beginning stages of doing a matrix shirt too, but full shirt and both sides, I found the seed lights in 15, 20, 25, 30, 50 and 100mm pitch……once I figure out which spacing will be best that’s the pitch I’ll buy so I won’t need to fold excess wire and space the rows equal to the pitch. Looking into around 1000 per side, possibly, depending on how they look under diffusing, may not be able to get as tight as I hope.
Great video and gives me more inspiration to move this project forward for next years camp parties
I was thinking a bit about the safety feature of these, but I was thinking about Halloween costumes for kids. But your idea adds a lot of other potential uses... bikers, walkers, etc. As I discovered during just a bit of the outdoor filming I did for this video, wearing a bunch of flashing LEDs on your clothing does get the attention of others!
Using LEDs with a smaller pitch would definitely be recommended! I did a little bit of searching, but because I needed them pretty quickly, I had to settle with what I could get in my available time frame for the video. Wearing under something like a white t-shirt would help to hide all that extra wiring and the diffusion would make it look different. I might actually give the extra t-shirt a try... thanks for the idea.
And thanks for watching and taking time to comment. Good luck with your project. 2,000 total LEDs would look amazing! If you end up posting photos or videos of the completed project somewhere, please let me know. I'd love to see it!
If you made this on a separate square of fabric you could snap, Velcro, or button it onto the shirt so you can wash the shirt normally. I love the idea though. Great concept!
Yeah... I mentioned that in a response to another comment that I considered putting the LEDs on some sort of "panel" that could then be velcro'ed to the shirt. But with my very limited skills working with fabric, sewing, etc. I went the simple (lazy) route and just slapped them onto the front of the shirt. To be honest, I will probably only wear the shirt once or twice a year for short spells (like Halloween).
But I really appreciate the recommendation and that you took the time to post it. Thanks!
I love this so much. Thank you for sharing and providing inspiration! :)
Thanks. And that was exactly my goal in this video... not necessarily a step-by-step how-to for creating exactly what I created, but to serve as inspiration for others to create their own battery-powered, wearable LEDs. It will be fun to see how others adapt this idea to their own uses.
Thanks for watching!
I like how you explain, that's why I subscribe. good videos!
Thanks! While it makes my videos longer than many others, I always try to explain _why_ I am doing something instead of just showing _how_ to do it. My goal is to share concepts that hopefully others can use to build their own projects... not just an exact copy of mine.
Thanks for watching and taking a few minutes to leave a comment!
I feel like this could also be done with a led matric panel(s) that has more pixel density. you could even glue them onto a shirt poke the jst conecters through and put a diffuser material over them to get a better image without hotspots. Granted they would draw more power they could be run off a power bank also just with less runtime of course.
Yeah.... lots of different ways to make something like this. As I stated in my video, this type of 'crafting' is not my specialty! It was more of a personal challenge to see if I even could do something like this... and a response to multiple requests to create a battery-powered LED display. If I were to do it over (and I have _zero_ intentions of creating a second version!), there are a number of things I would likely do differently.
But I appreciate the thoughts and tips... especially for someone else that might want to create something similar.
Hey, a trick for your curtain we discovered. Try putting fluorescent light box diffuser panels in front of it! game changer!
Thanks for the tip. I'll have to give that a try.
This is similar to a shirt I made last season, except I had to use pixels and I had the back, sleaves, shoulders and front covered. The whole thing ran from a D1 mini and 5v battery pack which I had in my pocket. I had the wires on the inside and had the pixels poking through the tshirt. It was heavy but not that uncomfortable. not bad for a prototype (like Ironman's cave build suit) I think the seed pixels would be an upgrade for sure next time.
I debated about how to place the pixels. I thought about wiring inside the shirt, some sort of "panel" that could be velcro'ed onto the shirt, etc. etc. But based on my skill level (or lack thereof) with fabrics, sewing, etc. I decided to just keep it simple and apply the pixels directly to the outside of the shirt... even it if doesn't look the best under brighter lighting. But it is surprisingly comfortable when standing or sitting and is pretty easy to put on and take off. I do think it would have been tough to squeeze 100 pixels onto the front of the shirt with anything bigger than the fairy/seed pixels... and I was also surprised at how little power they actually drew vs. their brightness.
Thanks for the comment!
Watch out for the Fairy lights, they state WS2812 but some are little different. Some are internally static addressed, which means while they are protocol compatible with WS2812, if you cut the strings in half, the last half even if connected as the first LEDs, they still react as though there are still the original pixels before it. It also means they can be signal driven from either end of the string, and it won't change which is the first pixel. They will work, but something to note if it works strangely after cutting some out.
This was discovered after one set came with the LEDs reversed, so pixel one was on the other end.
Interesting... and thanks for the head's up! As shown in the video, I did cut the JST connector off the end of one strip and the beginning of another and soldered them together and luckily they work fine and as expected. At least with BTF lighting products, I've found that they always use the same standard with the JST connectors... female on the start of the strip and male on the end, regardless of the type of LEDs. But I'm sure there are other manufacturers out there that either use different standards... or no standards at all... which could result in the data flow being reversed from one strand or string to the next.
I didn't cut out any pixels in my case, just joined two full strings together. But what you state is definitely worth noting for future projects with these fairy LEDs if I opt to try another at some point. So, thanks again for sharing the info.
I would like to put lights on my shirt for a Taylor Swift concert. I would like to hack the LED bracelet for this.
(CrowdLED - pixmob led wristband)
Does anyone know if this is possible
WS led to control?
Another great video!! I’m Just getting into the world of wled and have been watching a lot of your videos. Could you have powered this through the mini usb on the board to the usb on the battery bank?
Thanks! You couldn't really power the system via the USB port on the ESP board because that would have required the power for the LEDs to pass through the 5V pin on the board. And if you've watched some of my other videos, then you are aware that the 5V pin on the ESP boards are only rated to handle a few milliamps... just enough to power a very small number of LEDs.
Trying to run enough current to light up all the LEDs through the 5V pin on the ESP board is a very bad idea and will likely result in damaging or destroying the board at some point. It might run for a few minutes... or in some cases a few hours depending upon what colors/effects you are running... but it is highly likely it is going to fail at some point. That's why in nearly all of my videos, you will hear me talk about the necessity of running the 5V power in parallel to the controller and LEDs. It's the same case with the t-shirt in this video. Normally, I wouldn't even run the current through the ElectroCookie board, but it was low enough in this case that with an extra wire to bridge the power, I felt OK running the LED power through the ElectroCookie... but still not through the ESP board.
Thanks for watching. I hope that I answered you question and my answer makes sense as to why you can't (or at least shouldn't) try to power the system via the USB port on the ESP board.
@@ResinChemTech Thank you for the quick reply and detailed explanation. I have heard you say in many of the videos I have watched, to run the power in parallel. I haven’t found anywhere what the max milliamp draw an esp8266 board can safely handle. Thanks again for your help!!
Well, I'm by no means an expert... and there are so many variations of boards it might vary. But the official Espressif data sheet on the ESP8266 says a maximum of 12 mA on any single GPIO pin. This isn't necessarily the same as the 5V pin though. For the ESP32, it does list a maximum I/O current output of 1.2A across all pins. Those are for the bare chips however, not the development boards we normally use (like a Wemos D1 Mini). I've seen numerous anecdotal reports that say the max current on the 5V pin is 500 mA... but I can't confirm that via something official.
My rule of thumb... anything that might require over about 250 mA @ 5V, I will power independently, or in parallel, to the ESP board and not via the 5V pin on the board.
These are great videos! I have a little experience with soldering but very little in the electrical aspect of building these things out.
I wanted to use Fairylights and a clear shell for my Fiancé's xbox controller but I wanted the lights to fade in and out alternatively. Is that something relatively "simple" or am I better off buying it from Etsy?
I think the issue for something like an Xbox controller is trying to find a place to stash the controller. You need some sort of controller (not to mention an adequate battery) for the LEDs. These types of LEDs will not light up without a signal from a controller. To be honest, as much as a fan as I am of DIY, in the case of something like an XBox controller, you are probably better off with a retail/prebuilt version. Anything that you DIY using something like WLED is going to require an external controller... meaning wires are going to need to run to the controller... or you'll have to have some big box mounted on the controller somewhere to house the controller and 5V battery pack.
I would guess if you did this process with the shirt inside out then the lights would shine through the shirt just fine
🙋♂
Why connect HV and LV to the Logic Level Shifter? Won't either HV or LV power connection work?
I'm not sure I understand your question. The shifter 'boosts' the data signal from 3.3V (LV) to 5V (HV). The HV and LV on the shifter are for the 3.3V and 5V connections. The data signal is then connected to any of the four available numbered channels (1-4)... incoming signal on the LVx side and outgoing signal on the HVx side. I have a couple of other videos specifically on the level shifter that provide additional details if you've not used one before.
What are the thermals like after wearing it for the duration of the battery life?
I didn't actually measure the temp of the LEDs, but running various effects at around 50% brightness, I did not feel any heat at all through the material of the t-shirt. So, unless you are going to run full white at 100% brightness, I think the heat will be negligible. Even then, because these LEDs are so low powered, I would still expect the heat to be very minimal. But I actually haven't worn it non-stop for the full battery duration... in the case of the battery I used, that would likely be somewhere around 18 hours. The longest I've worn it continuously powered on was for about 2 hours... and again, I did not notice any heat through the t-shirt.
can u make a stick led that when u move u can see text message from far so it can be used for fun too when u want to draw a image too for example your favorite president or i love aything u want to write with your phone?
a back pack for bike usersso it indictes direction to turn left or right led signal,also a hat in case dont use back pack
Another great idea and use case for battery-powered LEDs.
Thanks for watching and sharing the idea!
a necklace for dogs led iluminates strobe effect so no car will not run over dogs if he see a strobe light
There are a lot of potential uses for wearable LEDs. I don't know if this particular design would be the best one for something like a dog collar or necklace just due to the amount of wire involved. But the concept is a good one if you could build something that was a little more self-contained without as many exposed wires.
make a web cam camera conected to a cell phone and to a 1 tera dard drive and a power bank so u can film without been see with your hiden web camera in your hat just activating with your phone or maybe a ring that activates saving images to your phone and your hard drive too