Light It Up
Around Halloween last year, one parts order brought together two completely different projects: a light-up dress and a thunderstorm for a model train layout.
Two LED projects for light and sound
Lead Image © Dietmar Hoepfl, 123RF.com
Last fall, I heard from a long-time friend that he needed help with an LED project. He was taking his daughter to a concert, and she wanted to wear a light-up dress. The girl's grandmother had made the dress, but they needed help lighting it up. After we discussed the possibilities, I ordered three spools of cool-white LED strips to get started.
LED Fashion
When the LEDs arrived, my friend and I used the dress itself to measure the strips. Each LED strip shipped with a connector already installed, as well as an extra connector in case you cut the strip apart. With a total of six "loops" on the dress, the design worked out perfectly. The top of the dress has four LED strips and the skirt has two (Figure 1). After testing each strip, we sent the LEDs to be sewn into the dress.
The top and bottom of the dress are completely separate, each with its own battery packs. Each loop of LEDs has its own power feed to the batteries; nothing was daisy-chained. To wire everything together, I used push-in connectors (Figure 2). Each connector will accept up to four wires and although I probably could have doubled up, I added a second connector to accommodate the extra connections that the top of the dress required. A final connector between the battery boxes finishes the circuit. Each battery box has a switch, so I didn't have to include one in the circuit.
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