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Step 3Assemble the central hub for the wires
All the LED spokes connect to a center hub near the tip/center of the umbrella. The tricky part is assembling this outside of the umbrella first and then carefully fitting it into the umbrella between the spokes and the cloth. I assembled it separately because it's hard to each the inside of an open umbrella. I also didn't want to risk burning holes into the cloth when soldering.
Make two rings of wire. I used masking tape to hold it's shape while putting it together. The masking tape also served to mark the spacing where each LED string will be attached. The exact size of the rings doesn't matter except that you want it to be fairly close to the center of the umbrella. Do not actually solder the wires into full circle just yet as you will need these to be detached when you fit it into the umbrella later on - just hold the circle together with more masking tape for now and leave lengths of wire long enough at one end to reach the batteries once it's inside the umbrella.
I used the same single strand copper wire as I used for the LED strings/spokes. *THIS WAS A MISTAKE!* Every time you open and close the umbrella, the wires in this hub will flex and this kind of wire will eventually break from the stresses.. bad bad bad. Later on I soldered additional loops of stranded wire onto the hub. These wires are much better at holding up to stresses of repeated flexing. (see photos 7 & 8.)
[edit: The next umbrella I made used *only* loops of wire for the hub - see photos 9 & 10.]
Cut the lengths of wire off the big board (4 LEDs per length). Measure the ends/length/LED placement and start soldering the strings of wire onto the hub. Make sure you get the wire/power polarity right! You can add power to the wires to see if you're getting it right. After all 16 strings are attached, you will have an interesting glowy mess... might be used to make an interesting headpiece or hat, but we're trying to stay focused on making an electric umbrella :P
Make two rings of wire. I used masking tape to hold it's shape while putting it together. The masking tape also served to mark the spacing where each LED string will be attached. The exact size of the rings doesn't matter except that you want it to be fairly close to the center of the umbrella. Do not actually solder the wires into full circle just yet as you will need these to be detached when you fit it into the umbrella later on - just hold the circle together with more masking tape for now and leave lengths of wire long enough at one end to reach the batteries once it's inside the umbrella.
I used the same single strand copper wire as I used for the LED strings/spokes. *THIS WAS A MISTAKE!* Every time you open and close the umbrella, the wires in this hub will flex and this kind of wire will eventually break from the stresses.. bad bad bad. Later on I soldered additional loops of stranded wire onto the hub. These wires are much better at holding up to stresses of repeated flexing. (see photos 7 & 8.)
[edit: The next umbrella I made used *only* loops of wire for the hub - see photos 9 & 10.]
Cut the lengths of wire off the big board (4 LEDs per length). Measure the ends/length/LED placement and start soldering the strings of wire onto the hub. Make sure you get the wire/power polarity right! You can add power to the wires to see if you're getting it right. After all 16 strings are attached, you will have an interesting glowy mess... might be used to make an interesting headpiece or hat, but we're trying to stay focused on making an electric umbrella :P
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