The Disc is made of black and frosted laser Cut Acrylic. Neodymium magnets hold it to the holster on my back, which is bolted through my leather jacket and through a backpack. I left the bottom two magnets out of the holster to aid in removal. The disc contains an Arduino Nano, Wixel, ADXL345 Accelerometer, TCS230 color sensor, 1450mAh 3S Turnigy LiPo, 16 outward facing LPD8806 RGB LEDs, and a 5v switching regulator.
The Jacket has 80 LPD8806 LEDs mounted onto checkout store pricing strip and adhered to the leather with 3M 969 adhesive transfer tape (its good stuff!). White cloth ribbon is used as a diffuser, and the back side of the clear cover is painted white.
Audio from the helmet is ran through two op amps, first a unity buffer, then one set up as a log amp, (both on a TS922, low voltage, rail to rail) and finally though a msgeq7. The analog sections are on their own 3.3v regulator to reduce noise. Automatic channel muting and more level adjusting is implemented in software.
User input is both from the Disc via another Wixel, and from a Wireless Wii Nunchuk (Memorex brand). A level converter is REQUIRED for a Nunchuk, without one a Nunchuk will eventually short out, likely taking your Arduino with it!
The jacket also pairs with my phone via a JY-MCU-HC-06 Bluetooth Radio. A Python script on my phone allows incoming text messages to change the helmet display and my colors. It also replies with a status message with basic statistics.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Motivated to take on a wearable electronics project of your own? Enter the “Get Closer” Wearables Challenge by July 15! Adafruit’s Director of Wearable Electronics, Becky Stern, will host a live Google+ Hangout to answer your questions, so tweet them @element24 or @adafruit with hashtag #getcloser. Already made something awesome? Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Motivated to take on a wearable electronics project of your own? Enter the “Get Closer” Wearables Challenge by July 15! Adafruit’s Director of Wearable Electronics, Becky Stern, will host a live Google+ Hangout to answer your questions, so tweet them @element24 or @adafruit with hashtag #getcloser. Already made something awesome? Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!