It's a lamp... It's a tutu... It's KNAPPA TUTU!

I hacked this iconic Ikea lamp and LEDs together into a tutu that glows in response to your moves! Learn how to make your own and light up the dance floor!

Step 1: Get Ready

I was wandering around Ikea one day and thought 'That lamp looks oddly like a skirt!’ 50 bucks later, I was putting the petal of the beautiful knappa lamp together into a tutu. And since it was a lamp, of course it needs some lights… rainbow blinky lights!

Excited? Let's get dressed! Gather:

Two Ikea Knappa Pendant Lamps www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60071344/
Adafruit NeoPixel Digital RGB LED Strip http://www.adafruit.com/category/168
I chose the White 60 LED version
Sparkfun Arduino Mini Pro 5V, or the equivalent http://www.adafruit.com/category/168
Sparkfun ADXL335 http://www.adafruit.com/category/168 USB cable (to plug into external battery pack and power the system up )
14 gauge wire, or other stiff wire 3mm in diameter, about waist circumstance in length.
Zip ties

Step 2: Assemble the Lamp

The Knappa lamp has a few parts in the box. We are only using the soft petals and the C-shaped rigid connectors. Assemble them as illustrated by Ikea into a long open hoop. Use the 14 gauge wire to hold all connectors together like a belt.

Each lamp comes with 40 petals and 16 connectors. I used one and a half lamps to assemble a hoop that wraps around my waist. Try it as you go. Save the spare parts.

Step 3: Profit

Well not yet. Let's put together the circuit. This is the DDR (Dance Dance Recognition) circuit that would sense your dance move and power the LEDs. Solder the components together as indicated by the circuit design.

If you want to know more about how they work, here are already excellent tutorials on the accelerometer http://wiring.org.co/learning/basics/acceleromete... and on the Neopixel https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide/overview

Note that instead of soldering on a battery pack, we want to cut a USB cable and solder its power and ground thread onto the circuit. Later, you’ll plug in a portable USB battery. You'd appreciate this design when you plug in the backup battery in a 5 hour dance party.

Add a stiff backing (I am using a scrape perf board and ample hot glue here) so the they can survive dance impact. When the circuit is ready, zip tie everything to the belt wire on the back of the Tutu.

Step 4: Dress Up and Debug!

Now it's time to add rainbow colors to your dance moves!
Adafruit offers a ready-to-use mesmerizing Neopixel library, and I did some simple threshold mapping from the accelerometer reading and shared them here: https://github.com/cheeriocheng/knappaTutu

Your move might be different, so I suggest try on the tutu and tweak the numbers to work best for you!