Sewable 5mm LED mount

thingiverse

I needed a quick way to mount standard 5mm LEDs on my wearable project - a Santa hat. To do this, I created these small, sewable mounts and printed them with NinjaFlex (using Semitransparent White, available from Adafruit, adafruit.com, product PID# 2445). The groove inside the mount holds the ridge on the LED, while the hole in the middle is tapered for easy insertion of the side with the mounting ears. Please note that these mounts are not designed to be used with conductive thread; you will need to use a conventional wiring technique such as wire wrapping or soldering instead. I used SparkFun's COM-12986 addressable LEDs (compatible with Adafruit's Neopixels) for my project, but the mounts should work just fine with standard 5mm LEDs. If you are using conductive thread to create wearable technology, be sure to check out our tutorials and resources on working with these materials! You can print these parts with any 3D printing filament. For the examples provided here, we used a Cura slicing program with 100% fill settings (these parts will use relatively little material). Once you've printed your mounts, it's time to assemble your project. Insert your LED into one of the mounting grooves, then push the leads through the fabric to attach it to your wearable. If desired, you can add some heat-shrink tubing for a clean finish. We used NinjaFlex with 100% fill and it printed quickly and cleanly - if you're in a rush, this might be a good option! I'd advise experimenting with the size adjustment to fit the fabric. If you have many of these mounts to make, it may be quicker to print them at once, though it does require some post-processing cleanup. Here are a few quick notes on our wearable's technical specifications: We sewed in each mount individually using thread, after we inserted the LEDs into the grooves, then soldered the wires together for the Neopixel effect. For more on wearable technology and making these connections, please refer to other Adafruit tutorials! In conclusion, mounting LED lights can be a challenge but with creative DIY approaches like NinjaFlex, you can achieve desired results!