How to Make Awesome LED RF Brooches on the Cheap #WearableWednesday #wearabletech #3dprinting
This brooch project caught my attention, not only because it has a great video detailing the build, but also because it shows a smart fix for coming in on budget for a client. Designer Luis Guajardo Diaz wanted to create LED RF pins for Mujeres Influyentes, an event honoring women. After spending considerable time creating an original circuit design, Luis discovered the cost for the pin wasn’t going to make the cut. So, he found inexpensive bracelets with RF controlled LEDs and hacked them! A new pin base was created to match the new board shape using Autodesk Fusion 360. As for 3D printing, you could say it was an epic event just to make the 150 flower shaped brooches.
Four designs were made by students of UDD (Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile) for the tops and we 3D printed all of them over two weeks on 3 different locations; I printed the 150 cases on my printrbot metal within 5 days printing 2.x units/hour.
The finished flower pins were the perfect flourish for the special night and Luis was able to control their lights with the console that came with the original bracelets. He was able to match colors to what was going on in the program leaving the best for last—random color display. It looks like it was a spectacular evening and I’m so glad that Luis was able to pull it off. Sometimes it is better to not re-invent the wheel, especially when time and money are not on your side. If you would like to try making your first piece of LED jewelry, check out our FLORA Pixel Brooch. Make an organic shape with wire and code the Neopixels with your fave colors. It’s your jewelry, your way.
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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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.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: CircuitPython 9.2.1, What is DMA, PyConUS 2025 and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
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!