Holiday Light Necklace/Bulbs

thingiverse

During November Six Flags and many other theme parks sell necklaces of full sized battery-powered C9 lights that flash as souvenirs for their winter festivities. I asked the vendor how much they were: $15!!! I think I'll save those $15 and use what I have at home to get something even better. That's where these files come in. I mocked up the base and bulb of the lights and to light them I used 120LED/m WS2812B addressable LEDs commonly sold as DotStars or NeoPixels. I cut up 12 individual LEDs, polished them on all sides, and re-soldered them with about 3 inches between each LED of 4 wire ribbon cable. I daisy-chained them into the proper locations and connected the first input to D2 of an Adafruit Trinket Pro. The Trinkets can handle up to about 200 sets 3 LEDS(red,green,blue) so 12 should be no problem. Edit the 'strandtest' program on the Arduino IDE by changing the pixel number to 12 and the output pin to 2 (not D2). Do all this while printing the bases and bulbs. Print the bases first at twice the size (the original file is too small for the width of the light PCB) and string them through the hole onto the lights first pushing them all the way to the end and then solder all 12 lights together and slide and hot glue a base to each light. Paint the bases silver or dark blue. Paint, tape or heat-shrink the wires to cover them up (you can use anything just cover any exposed wires). Next, add any functions you want, upload the sketch to the board, connect a cell phone charger with a 5V at least 0.5A output, and then plug in to power via USB cable you used to load the Trinket. You can also plug these into the wall with a regular plug or into your laptop. Finally sit back, relax, and enjoy your little string of programmed lights. Any sized show is a show. The string could be one bulb or hundreds of bulbs. ---Update--- I've now included the custom Gemma Sketch that works for any Arduino compatible board just make sure everything is in order to run the sketch. Disclaimer: By downloading the sketch, you take full responsibility to all effects of the sequence which includes strobing and bright light values. Use responsibly. Printer Settings: * Printer Brand: * Printer: * Rafts: Does Matter * Supports: * Resolution: 0.3mm * Infill: 0% for bulb, 5%-30% for the bases Notes: Print the bases twice the scale because alone they are too small... The bulbs are fine, print them as is... Post-Printing See the WS2812B and Adafruit Trinket soldering instructions in the guide to properly complete this. How I Designed This: Sketchbook Pro, Autodesk 123D Design Free Version, patience, and determination to make something better than a $15 light necklace that will stop working as soon as I leave the park I bought it from.