EagLED Illuminated Headgear
Add a sparkle to your next costume headgear with the EagLED and Rainbow LEDs
Written By: Cherie Tan
Difficulty
Easy
Steps
7
Create your own LED headgear for your next party or birthday!
In this guide, we will show you how to make your own LED headgear out of felt fabric, the EagLED, and a set of rainbow LED modules.
Complete this guide to start creating your own LED wearables in a few simple steps.
In this guide, we will show you how to make your own LED headgear out of felt fabric, the EagLED, and a set of rainbow LED modules.
Complete this guide to start creating your own LED wearables in a few simple steps.
Make a colourful headgear for your birthday or party this year. In this guide, we'll show you how to create one with the EagLED, and a set of rainbow LEDs. Don't want to wear a headband? No worries, follow the circuit diagram and just sew the LEDs onto the fabric and design of your choice.
Design a shape for your felt fabric headgear, then draw it on a piece of paper.
Plan out a colour scheme as well as any decorations you would like to add to it.
Once you have decided on a colour scheme, with a sheet of paper, cut the design out to be used as a template.
Then, trace its outline on two sheets of felt fabric with a fabric marker. One sheet will be used as its front and the other its back. Here, we have used two sheets each for each ear.
With regular thread, stitch the front and back sides of the felt fabric cut-outs together.
To minimise any hassles, we will first plan out the circuit design. Without doing so, you may run into trouble i.e. creating short circuits or having unnecessarily long stitched lines.
Place the components on the felt fabric headgear. In this guide, we have placed the LED modules such that all '-' sew tabs are facing upwards toward the pointy end of the ear, and all '+' sew tabs are facing downwards. This will simplify the stitching process and prevent any short circuits; the '+' and '-' connections cannot touch.
Place the components on the felt fabric headgear. In this guide, we have placed the LED modules such that all '-' sew tabs are facing upwards toward the pointy end of the ear, and all '+' sew tabs are facing downwards. This will simplify the stitching process and prevent any short circuits; the '+' and '-' connections cannot touch.
In this guide, the EagLED main board will be placed on the back side of an ear. A 180mAH LiPo battery will suffice, and will be placed behind the EagLED.
Five LED modules are placed along the bottom edge of an ear. Place it however you want to.
Don't want the stitches to show up on the front side? To hide the stitched lines from showing up in the front side, use a thick piece of fabric or felt and simply stitch only partway through the inside of the felt fabric, with each stitch.
Connect all the '-' sew tabs on the LED modules together with conductive thread in a single line.
You can connect the negative end of multiple components using the same 'GND' pin on the EagLED.
Poke the needle through to the back side of the felt fabric, and connect it to a 'GND' sew tab on the EagLED.
Next, connect all the '+' sew tabs on the LED modules together with conductive thread.
Again, poke the needle through to the back side of the fabric, then connect it to '3.3V' on the EagLED.
Next sew the EagLED into place with regular thread. Here, we've connected regular thread to a GND sew tab and #12.
Finally, we will attach each fabric ear to a thin headband. Make a hole on each end of the felt fabric ear and insert the metallic headband through, secure with superglue if necessary. Do the same for the other ear.
Then, gather any accessory pieces you'd like to add to the headgear. Attach them onto the felt fabric with a dollop of superglue.
