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Project: LED Jumpsuit Summary: This glowing jumpsuit was inspired from two experiences I have had with electric clothing. The first was the the more comfortable the outfit is the more likely I am to wear it. The EL pants were so fragile, and made me compromise my body movements to prevent destroying the pants. The other was a desire to wash my electric clothing. I needed a way to detach the sensitve electronics so the clothing could be laundered. Preferably just thrown in a washing machine. My solution was to use four layers of velcro, and a rather comfy full body jumpsuit I had purchased from a nearby military surplus store.The hope being that I would wear this jumpsuit frequently and not be limited by the weather or type of event. Its actually worked just as well as I hoped. I am able to wash the suit (detaching the electronics). I've also had success wearing this suit without any failures on several bike rides approximately twenty miles in distance each. The four layers of velcro was not entirely necessary it just made things more convenient when detaching or re-attaching the electronics. The first layer is stitched directly the jumpsuit. I had to slice the seems of the pants and arms and used a sewing machine to stich on the first layer. The second layer is stitched to the third layer of velcro with their non "sticky" backsides pressed together. The second layer is what detaches from the suit when I go to yank all the electronics. The third and fourth layer encapsulate all the wires and LEDs. These are only to be seperated should a short or some like electrical problem occure. Some other small steps forward with this project were the use of mercury switches to control the lighting. As my body moves the light patterns can change. The use of input buttons to control the lighting. This project is also significantly "neater" as far as wiring. All the wiring between LEDs is hidden within the velcro. All of the wire connections from the velcro to the PCB use a rather densely pinned connector. There are thirty-two LEDs on the suit in total, made up of four diferrent colors (pink, UV, blue, and green). schematic (PDF) Movies |
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