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Make a toque with a built in amplifier and LED organ for keeping warm and heating things up. Get the party started and make yours today!
Let me begin by saying that I live in Canada. The Great White North. I know a thing or two about the cold. The best way to keep warm is to dress warm. Dress in layers, this traps air between the different fabrics and helps to hold in body heat.
Here in Canada, there are days however, when no matter how well dressed you are, it is still cold.
So how else can we warm up? You have to keep your core temperature up. One way to create heat is by using energy, just as in a car or anything else, work generates heat. So we need to move our bodies. Our body actually knows this without even consulting the brain, this is why we shiver. Our bodies are trying to create some heat by forcing movement, so when our core temperature starts to drop, our meat screams for some hot flowing blood and we start to shiver to keep things moving.
It is a well known fact (or myth) that we lose a good portion of our heat out through our head. We know this up in the Great White North, and this is why we are so partial to our toques. A toque to a Canadian is akin to a towel for a hitchhiker, you don't want to leave home without it.
For those that don't know, a toque is a wooly and warm winter hat. If you are planning on going somewhere cold, get yourselves a decent toque.
Another well known Canadian secret to keeping warm is partying hard. You see, two things happen when we are having a good time. Number one, we are usually moving around in some capacity, especially when fun is being had out of doors. Number two, and perhaps often overlooked, but our tolerance for the cold actually increases. We become less bothered by the fact that we are cold because we are having a good time.
Some-days, it is just too plain cold, and everyone by extension just sort of slows down and shuts off. When this starts to happen, it is usually time to get a party started and get people cheered up and forgetting about how miserably cold it actually is.
What is a fairly universal party starter though?
The one thing that nearly all parties have in common is dancing and music. Another thing that seems to appeal to the human condition and almost universally cheers us up, surprisingly enough, is blinking lights. I imagine it dates back to an earlier epoch when the Gods liked to mess with us more.
With winter here it was time to address this problem, people thinking about how cold they are just look miserable, and miserable looking people get me down. 'Tis the season and all tha,t so I thought it high time we start addressing winter depression in new and creative ways..
Thus was born the Portable Party Toque.
A toque which no-one should be without in the cold of winter.
An amplifier, on which one can play music from a portable media player, to help get people moving.
Last but certainly not least, an LED organ for setting the mood, and getting the party started.
There is also ample room to stash a few other party supplies such as a couple of airline booze bottles, a deck of cards, or a small breadboard and electronic goodies.
The wearer can't help but enjoy themselves. People around them can't help but smile. It look's hot, is comfortable and functional tat the same time. How many garments have all that going for them? The personal touches warm the soul while the scientifically centered sound source makes one feel as though they are the life of the party. With the proper selection of music loaded into your personal media player, it becomes the plaque that makes your booty move, and this triggers the bodies own heating functions. You'll stay warm and maybe even tone up a little in the process!
Anyways, you don't have to take my word for it, we gave one Portable Party Toque and a digital camera to one unsuspecting passerby, and we asked them to make a video telling us how the toque made them feel, and we have to admit, the toque is certainly making them look hot! ;)
Let me begin by saying that I live in Canada. The Great White North. I know a thing or two about the cold. The best way to keep warm is to dress warm. Dress in layers, this traps air between the different fabrics and helps to hold in body heat.
Here in Canada, there are days however, when no matter how well dressed you are, it is still cold.
So how else can we warm up? You have to keep your core temperature up. One way to create heat is by using energy, just as in a car or anything else, work generates heat. So we need to move our bodies. Our body actually knows this without even consulting the brain, this is why we shiver. Our bodies are trying to create some heat by forcing movement, so when our core temperature starts to drop, our meat screams for some hot flowing blood and we start to shiver to keep things moving.
It is a well known fact (or myth) that we lose a good portion of our heat out through our head. We know this up in the Great White North, and this is why we are so partial to our toques. A toque to a Canadian is akin to a towel for a hitchhiker, you don't want to leave home without it.
For those that don't know, a toque is a wooly and warm winter hat. If you are planning on going somewhere cold, get yourselves a decent toque.
Another well known Canadian secret to keeping warm is partying hard. You see, two things happen when we are having a good time. Number one, we are usually moving around in some capacity, especially when fun is being had out of doors. Number two, and perhaps often overlooked, but our tolerance for the cold actually increases. We become less bothered by the fact that we are cold because we are having a good time.
Some-days, it is just too plain cold, and everyone by extension just sort of slows down and shuts off. When this starts to happen, it is usually time to get a party started and get people cheered up and forgetting about how miserably cold it actually is.
What is a fairly universal party starter though?
The one thing that nearly all parties have in common is dancing and music. Another thing that seems to appeal to the human condition and almost universally cheers us up, surprisingly enough, is blinking lights. I imagine it dates back to an earlier epoch when the Gods liked to mess with us more.
With winter here it was time to address this problem, people thinking about how cold they are just look miserable, and miserable looking people get me down. 'Tis the season and all tha,t so I thought it high time we start addressing winter depression in new and creative ways..
Thus was born the Portable Party Toque.
A toque which no-one should be without in the cold of winter.
An amplifier, on which one can play music from a portable media player, to help get people moving.
Last but certainly not least, an LED organ for setting the mood, and getting the party started.
There is also ample room to stash a few other party supplies such as a couple of airline booze bottles, a deck of cards, or a small breadboard and electronic goodies.
The wearer can't help but enjoy themselves. People around them can't help but smile. It look's hot, is comfortable and functional tat the same time. How many garments have all that going for them? The personal touches warm the soul while the scientifically centered sound source makes one feel as though they are the life of the party. With the proper selection of music loaded into your personal media player, it becomes the plaque that makes your booty move, and this triggers the bodies own heating functions. You'll stay warm and maybe even tone up a little in the process!
Anyways, you don't have to take my word for it, we gave one Portable Party Toque and a digital camera to one unsuspecting passerby, and we asked them to make a video telling us how the toque made them feel, and we have to admit, the toque is certainly making them look hot! ;)
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Things that you will need to make this project
A suitable toque
An awesome patch (optional, but it does add street cred.)
A needle and thread
For the amplifier you will need
for the LED organ you will also need
Tools
A suitable toque
An awesome patch (optional, but it does add street cred.)
A needle and thread
For the amplifier you will need
- A small 8 ohm speaker (an old computer speaker works well)
- A tin, to house the speaker (altoids or similar)
- A protoboard, small
- A LM386 op amp
- 100 uF cap
- 220 uF cap
- 10 uF cap
- .01 uFcap
- .47 uF cap
- 10 ohm resistor
- a on/off button
- hookup wire
- an old mono earphone connector (stereo is fine too, but attach both signals together as this is a mono amp)
- A 9 volt battery connector
- A 9 volt battery
- a scrap of foam or felt
for the LED organ you will also need
- an LED
- TIP120
Tools
- A soldering iron
- ability to read a circuit diagram
- hot glue gun
- wire clippers
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Well, thanks for the compliment, from a fellow Canadian, it means a lot! I got some partying to attend to, it's freezing!
Funny enough there are 3 acceptable ways to spell it...
Toque, Tuque and Touque
I'm not sure of their exact origins, but there are many words that have an 'English' form, French-Canadian form and also Canadian-English form.
A good example is the word neighbor - this is the English-U.S. version, in Canada, we spell it neighbour. (A real pain with spell-check if it's not set to Canadian-English).
would have been nice to get a better look at your LED... you mention that it makes the bot look like its singing, but you can't tell from the picture or the video. (I don't mean to sound critical, just making an observation).
The end result is still great. - Cheers!
Cheers.
You can see the general performance of the lamp in step 3, but it is a dark video and you don't see what you were hoping to any better.
I will try and take a better video and update tonight.
Glad you enjoyed it. (and yes it is me in the mirror, pretty sad I know, but I did not trust my two year old to film me)