Space Ghost Glove

A Space Ghost Glove - this project was for me to practice button activated events but I thought others might like it.

Step 1: Ingredients

You'll need the following:

Arduino board (I used an Uno during prototyping but would probably go with a Lilypad, Micro, etc.)
LED strips (Neopixel strips would be cool too but I used standard strips so they'd all light at once)
Pull-up button
Wire
Battery
Battery harness
Glove
Soldering iron and wire
Wire strippers

Step 2: Wiring It Up

The most difficult part of this build is the soldering. The LED strips require a delicate touch. I recommend you apply some solder to the contact pads first and then solder the wires to the pads. It's probably a good idea to try to protect these confections, maybe use electrical tape or hot glue. I didn't make mine as a long term project so I didn't do this.

The strips I used are common anode but it was easier for me to wire them up backwards and reverse the code. In other words to light the strips I used digitalWrite LOW. To turn them off use digitalWrite HIGH. this also means that we use analogWrite 0 to make each color full brightness. (at least I think this is why I had to change the programming haha)

After you solder the strips you should solder the R, G, B, and + wires together in groups (all the Rs, etc). Now you can connect them to the Arduino.
Connect + to the + of the battery. The - of the battery to ground. Or if you will run the Arduino off the same battery then spice the + from the battery harness so you can run one lead to the lights and plug the other end in.

Connect Green to Pin 6 or suitable PWM pin.

Connect Red to Pin 5 or suitable PWM pin.

Connect Blue to Pin 3 or suitable PWM pin.

Connect one side of the button to one of the GND pins and the other to Pin 2

My strips are also 12v so I used a 9v battery, it also powers the Arduino.

Step 3: Programming

I borrowed code from Adafruit (https://learn.adafruit.com/rgb-led-strips/example-... and (https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_NeoPixel/tree... and mashed them together. I made a few changes and this is the result:

// color swirl! connect an RGB LED to the PWM pins as indicated
// in the #defines

// public domain, enjoy!

#define REDPIN 5

#define GREENPIN 6

#define BLUEPIN 3

#define BUTTON_PIN 2

#define FADESPEED 5 // make this higher to slow down

bool oldState = HIGH;

int showType = 0;

int r = 255;

int g = 255;

int b = 255;

int f = 0; // counter for flashing lights

void setup() {

pinMode(REDPIN, OUTPUT);

pinMode(GREENPIN, OUTPUT);

pinMode(BLUEPIN, OUTPUT);

pinMode(BUTTON_PIN, INPUT_PULLUP);

}

void loop() {

bool newState = digitalRead(BUTTON_PIN);

// Check if state changed from high to low (button press).

if (newState == LOW && oldState == HIGH) {

// Short delay to debounce button.

delay(20);

// Check if button is still low after debounce.

newState = digitalRead(BUTTON_PIN);

if (newState == LOW) {

showType++;

if (showType > 4)

showType=0;

startShow(showType);

}

}

oldState = newState;

}

void startShow(int i) {

switch(i){

case 0: digitalWrite (REDPIN, HIGH); // Black/off

digitalWrite (BLUEPIN, HIGH);

digitalWrite (GREENPIN, HIGH);

delay(500);

for (f = 0; f < 4; r++) {

digitalWrite (REDPIN, LOW); // White - blink 3 times

digitalWrite (BLUEPIN, LOW);

digitalWrite (GREENPIN, LOW);

delay(200);

digitalWrite (REDPIN, HIGH); // Black/off

digitalWrite (BLUEPIN, HIGH);

digitalWrite (GREENPIN, HIGH);

delay(500);

}

break;

case 1: digitalWrite (REDPIN, LOW); // White fade to red
digitalWrite (BLUEPIN, LOW);

digitalWrite (GREENPIN, LOW);

delay(500);

analogWrite (REDPIN, 255); // Red

delay(2000);

digitalWrite (REDPIN, HIGH); // Black/off

digitalWrite (BLUEPIN, HIGH);

digitalWrite (GREENPIN, HIGH);

break;

case 2: digitalWrite (REDPIN, LOW); // White to green
digitalWrite (BLUEPIN, LOW);

digitalWrite (GREENPIN, LOW);

delay(500);

analogWrite (GREENPIN, 255); // Green

delay(2000);

digitalWrite (REDPIN, HIGH); // Black/off

digitalWrite (BLUEPIN, HIGH);

digitalWrite (GREENPIN, HIGH);

break;

case 3: digitalWrite (REDPIN, LOW); // White to blue

digitalWrite (BLUEPIN, LOW);

digitalWrite (GREENPIN, LOW);

delay(500);

analogWrite (BLUEPIN, 255); // Blue

delay(2000);

digitalWrite (REDPIN, HIGH); // Black/off

digitalWrite (BLUEPIN, HIGH);

digitalWrite (GREENPIN, HIGH);

break;

case 4: // fade from blue to violet

for (r = 0; r < 256; r++) {

analogWrite(REDPIN, r);

delay(FADESPEED);

}

// fade from violet to red

for (b = 255; b > 0; b--) {

analogWrite(BLUEPIN, b);

delay(FADESPEED);

}

// fade from red to yellow

for (g = 0; g < 256; g++) {

analogWrite(GREENPIN, g);

delay(FADESPEED);

}

// fade from yellow to green

for (r = 255; r > 0; r--) {

analogWrite(REDPIN, r);

delay(FADESPEED);

}

// fade from green to teal

for (b = 0; b < 256; b++) {

analogWrite(BLUEPIN, b);

delay(FADESPEED);

}

// fade from teal to blue

for (g = 255; g > 0; g--) {

analogWrite(GREENPIN, g);

delay(FADESPEED);

}

break;

}

Step 4: TEST!

make sure everything is working correctly and fix any problems you might have

Step 5: Stitch It Up

once everything is tested you can stitch it up and take it out and play! For more fun you could add a buzzer to get that PEW! PEW! PEW! sound

It shouldn't be that hard. It might be easier with half-finger gloves or starting from the end of the LED strips back towards the wrist.