For my 30th Birthday I decided to have a D-Themed costume party, my girlfriend Kylie and I decided that we would go as Daft Punk. The costumes were quite involved to make, but we had lots of fun and they looked great!
We used a lot of resources from the internet, including a great article on how to stitch EL wire into clothes that I found here: http://www.instructables.com/id/how-to-add-EL-wire-to-a-coat-or-other-garment/.
I also learned a lot about prototyping boards (particularly the Arduino, and its clone the Seeeduino) and really enjoyed tinkering around with LED Arrays, learning the difference between common cathode and common anode, figuring out how breadboards work, and just generally collecting heaps of post at work from various electronics and EL wire companies.
Here's a few videos showing the final result, so you can decide whether you want to bother reading any further:
We used a lot of resources from the internet, including a great article on how to stitch EL wire into clothes that I found here: http://www.instructables.com/id/how-to-add-EL-wire-to-a-coat-or-other-garment/.
I also learned a lot about prototyping boards (particularly the Arduino, and its clone the Seeeduino) and really enjoyed tinkering around with LED Arrays, learning the difference between common cathode and common anode, figuring out how breadboards work, and just generally collecting heaps of post at work from various electronics and EL wire companies.
Here's a few videos showing the final result, so you can decide whether you want to bother reading any further:
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Signing UpStep 1: Ingredients
Quite a few bits and bobs went into the outfits, here's a list of what we used.
Before you start, I'd recommend finding a talented, amazing girlfriend who can sew 100m of fishing wire and 75m of EL wire into two outfits and have the result look just like the Daft Punk originals. You can't have mine though.
Outfits
1. Two Pairs of Jeans.
2. Two Jackets.
3. One Black Fabric Dye Pack.
4. 65m of EL Wire, cut to different lengths and pre-soldered to order.
5. Four KL10 Power Packs for the EL Wire.
6. Four 1.5m EL Wire Extension Wires.
7. Four 1-3 EL Wire Splitters.
8. 100m of Fishing Wire.
9. Two Blunt Sewing Needles.
10. One Box of Plasters.
11. Four 9v (PP3) Batteries.
Helmets
1. Two Black Box WIred Motorcycle Helmets.
2. Two Black Visors (not street legal in the UK).
3. Two 5m Lengths of EL Wire, pre-soldered to order.
4. Two KH4 Battery Packs for the EL Wire.
5. Two Seeeduino (Arduino clone) Prototype Boards.
6. Two Max7221 LED Control Chips.
7. Two Breadboards.
8. Two 8x8 RGB Common Anode (Cathode would have been better) LED Arrays.
9. Two Handfuls of Jumper Wires.
10. Four AA Batteries.
I will upload the code I wrote for the Arduino that controls the LED array so you can use that too if you like. Even if you want to change the display it's probably easier to start with something that works already.
Before you start, I'd recommend finding a talented, amazing girlfriend who can sew 100m of fishing wire and 75m of EL wire into two outfits and have the result look just like the Daft Punk originals. You can't have mine though.
Outfits
1. Two Pairs of Jeans.
2. Two Jackets.
3. One Black Fabric Dye Pack.
4. 65m of EL Wire, cut to different lengths and pre-soldered to order.
5. Four KL10 Power Packs for the EL Wire.
6. Four 1.5m EL Wire Extension Wires.
7. Four 1-3 EL Wire Splitters.
8. 100m of Fishing Wire.
9. Two Blunt Sewing Needles.
10. One Box of Plasters.
11. Four 9v (PP3) Batteries.
Helmets
1. Two Black Box WIred Motorcycle Helmets.
2. Two Black Visors (not street legal in the UK).
3. Two 5m Lengths of EL Wire, pre-soldered to order.
4. Two KH4 Battery Packs for the EL Wire.
5. Two Seeeduino (Arduino clone) Prototype Boards.
6. Two Max7221 LED Control Chips.
7. Two Breadboards.
8. Two 8x8 RGB Common Anode (Cathode would have been better) LED Arrays.
9. Two Handfuls of Jumper Wires.
10. Four AA Batteries.
I will upload the code I wrote for the Arduino that controls the LED array so you can use that too if you like. Even if you want to change the display it's probably easier to start with something that works already.
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I wish we had have bought more wire, as we ran out, only being able to just outline everything. We also went to the op-shop and bought some second hand dinner suits, and put our wire on those. We ran out of time to finish them properly, and didn't even manage to get any of the matrix's hooked up and working. On the afternoon of the formal, we threw together a night rider scanner and sound sensitive jaw of LED's.
I WILL be rebuilding these, using the matrix's, more wire, and maybe even some sequencing...
Thank's for the inspiration!
It does sound like a lot but I'm pretty sure I bought 70m (it was a while ago now) and we used at least 65 of it. That's about 32.5m per costume.
You could probably use somewhere around 25m per costume, but it really tends to go quickly when you're winding it around and making patterns on the sleeves, legs, etc.
Good luck!
I WOULD BE FOREVER IN YOUR DEBT.
Best of luck to you.
cheers,
Mspark400
Would I have to use both the Arduino and the Seeeduino, or can I just use the Arduino?
Oh!!! and by the way, it looks AWESOME!!!!!!!!!