After a few years of The Maze Shirt, I decided it was time for something new. And, since practically everyone else was doing EL Wire I decided it would be fun to explore other technologies.
The theme of 2004 Burning Man was "The Vault of Heaven", so I decided to make a galaxy out of LEDs. LEDs are a bit more of a pain to work with then EL wire, but the effect is rather nice. I ended up with a poncho.
The LEDs light up in flashing patterns. There are actually 4 sets of LEDs. Each set is in a pair, and each pair is driven by a 555 timer circuit. The two circuits are on different frequencies, so the end result is that a varying number of leds are on at a particular time. Compared to some of the computer controlled LED clothes that are out there, this is very simple, but surprisingly effective.
A number of people actually asked me for how to build it (it really is a very simple circuit). The minimun unit is actually a pair of LEDs wired in series with a ballast resistor, which is then wired in parallel the other pairs that make up the set.
LEDs are attached to the poncho by means of Gem Tac, with the leads going through the fabric. Ballast resistors are soldered to half of them and wires soldered on, then each of the joints and resistors covered with heat shrink. You'll notice I'm using twist-locks to wire the parallel pairs together, the theory was it would make it easy to rewire on the Playa. In the picture you can see the PCB and battery pack.
Plans
The circuit schematic was done with gschem from gEDA. The PCB was laid out with PCB
schematic in pdf formatgschem circuit layout
pcb layout