Look  at the little gem I discovered at my hackerspace while picking up some books on robotics. It’s the Dazzler, and it was created by fellow robot lover, Michael Barretta. Michael has a soft spot for his girlfriend and wanted to bring one of her fave things to life.

The bracelet was a gift for my girlfriend for her birthday. She is a fan of the Xmen, especially  the Dazzler, whose superpower is the ability to turn sound into light. I wanted to print her something to wear for a long time and came up with the idea to make a bracelet that would mimic the Dazzler’s powers. It turns out this idea has been around for a while in the form of a light organ but I think I’m one of the first to adapt it into a bracelet (I could be wrong though).

Michael also loves 3D printing, so armed with his Makerfarm 8″ Prusa i3, he set to work. The toughest part about the design was creating something large enough to hold the electronics, but something that would still look fashionable. Once size was established, then the wiring became challenging.

Tucked neatly inside is an Adafruit GEMMA microcontroller, a Microphone Breakout Board, and NeoPixel RGB LED strips, all powered by a LiPo battery. For more details on the build, check out his Thingiverse write-up. One of Michael’s favorite parts about exploring the info about the parts was discovering light organs.

I think the coolest thing I learned was the history of the light organ. It apparently was all the rage in the 70’s for disco and such. The light organ is a fun little project that I’d recommend any hobbyist try.

So, you are probably wondering what the birthday girl thought of her gift? She definitely got a kick out of it, although she had to put up with a lot of teasing along the way. That was Michael’s method of getting information out of her for the design. I would definitely be willing to put up with teasing for a bracelet like that. Of course, I’m empowered to make my own, just like you. It’s probably best to start reading our tutorial for a Light Organ.  Then you can set up your own disco, hang posters of John Travolta and practice The Hustle.

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. 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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