Light up Your Summer With DIY Flashing Shoes!
Embrace your inner child. Want to strut your stuff in some custom flashing shoes?
I thought about making a simpler version of the Adafruit Firewalk LED sneakers as part of a STEM outreach project. If you have more time or want to code to make your LEDs to do cool things, I recommend checking this out. Knowing that my time was limited, I decided to pilot a project which combined elements from the Adafruit version (such as the velostat pressure sensors) with this much simpler Hallmark DIY project. I don't have too much detail in terms of the instructions because the links above are really quite good, but I do have list of what I used and a few additional thoughts.
To make my flashing shoes I used:
- Waterproof LED strip lights with adhesive backing (get it here)
- Adafruit Pressure-Sensitive Velostat Sheet to make sensors (get it here)
- 9V snap connector with wire leads (get it here)
- Adafruit Medium Thickness Stainless Thread (get it here)
- Sneakers
Other things that might be handy:
- Soldering iron
- Wire stripper
- Extra Wire
- Electrical tape
- Aluminum or copper foil (if you choose to incorporate into your sensor)
- Extra adhesive, such as super glue
Here is the end result:
A few tips / tricks:
(1) use 2+ pieces of velostat to create the sensor... I found that adding a few layers in the middle to increase resistance helped me dim the LEDs a little more when the shoes were just on.
(2) don't let the thread touch if connected to +9V and - terminal ... you might see a small flame if you do this. ;-)
(3) I used electrical tape to keep my pieces of conductive thread laying flat in my shoe and to keep them from accidentally sliding / touching one another.
(4) the LED strips won't sick by themselves or with hot glue -- for me they held up for about 3,000 to 5,000 steps when I tried this. Electrical tape can sort of work, if you're willing to reapply often, but superglue is probably best or use what Adafruit suggests: Permatex 66B adhesive
(5) the most comfortable place to hide the 9V battery (for low top sneakers) ended up being about midway up the lacing. Where they are in the photo got annoying when walking or running.
(6) To make multiple smaller LED strips out of one reel, simply cut and scrape off the silicone. Then, solder on some new wires. I recommend hot gluing and taping to reinforce these new connections. If you don't do this, the wires will crack off and the LEDs will start to randomly flicker because the connection is breaking.
I used colored electrical tape to hide the wires and the lights are always on a dim setting, unless I step.
If you're looking for a cheaper STEM project inspiration... you could just make pressure sensors:
To make these, you need some foam, wire, velostat, LEDs, and batteries. If you decide to go with single LEDs, a 3V coin battery would work really well. I used a 9V here because I had it lying around. For more information on how to make the sensor: https://learn.adafruit.com/firewalker-led-sneakers/make-velostat-step-sensors Or follow my instructions here. This is how I put my sensor together:
If you're new to this, be aware that LEDs have polarity. See this video below to make sure you connect your LED correctly. (or if it doesn't work, flip it).