LED clothing

Well not solar yet but I have seen this coming and soon a solar shirt :)

e-textile DIY - light up your clothing
Posted by eric
on March 28, 2009


e_textile_DIY_fur_scarve.jpgOur e-textile DIY project tip for this weekend has been around for more than a year on Instructables posted by Enlighted the company that is producing and selling a wide range of illuminated clothing and other fashion items.

There are two highly interesting aspects I found in the ‘Color-Changing Lighted Faux Fur Scarf‘ instruction: the use of color-changing RGB LEDs that have a built-in flashing or fading circuit and the use of buttons to support and place LEDs onto textiles.

The color-changing RGB LEDs are very interesting as they do not need any circuit to fade through the color spectrum, you can just put them in parallel, connect them to a battery between 3V and 9V and up you go.

No additional resistor or any circuit is needed! Sure it will go through the same light changing sequence without the option to change that but given the simplicity of getting color changing pattern is great, especially for a quick, simple prototyping project.

The other tip I find highly interesting is the use of conventional buttons as platform/holder for the LEDs but I can imagine this principle can be useful for other electronic components that need to be fixed on textiles.

e_textile_button_holder.jpg

Two great inspirational ideas ‘hidden’ in the ‘Color-Changing Lighted Faux Fur Scarf’ Instructables. Maybe because I am not a fan of this kind of scarf I have overlooked for so long the two highly interesting smart crafting tips.