Luminous Loafers
For sale here on Tindie!
On the behest of my girlfriend I decided to build a kit that can be attached to her shoes and will light up as she walks. I have to thank Adafruit for the initial inspiration but since buying the materials from them would cost a lot more than I was willing to pay the Luminous Loafers were born.
This kit includes 2 small pcbs, pre-programmed attiny85 microcontrollers, “Neopixel” WS2812b led strips, foot sensors, battery packs and various components.
The kit uses ws2812b based leds, these are great and using just 1 data line can be programmed to any colour you would like. The microcontrollers come pre-programmed with various colour options: blue, green, red, pink, white, orange and yellow. The colours can be selected by pressing a tactile button on the board. They can easily be re-programmed with an arduino if you would like to add you own colour or pattern, and the sketch is open source and available to download and modify. If you hold the button down for more than 1 sec then this sets the LEDs permanently on in a scrolling rainbow pattern. See this video for a demo!
For flexibility the board has been designed to be able to deliver up to 2 amps, more than enough to drive a meter strip of LEDs. Provided in the kit is 2 short 10 LED length but this can be replaced and up to 60 LEDs driven from the board*. To do this the 2 jumper pads need to be connected. This can be used to wrap the entire shoe in LEDs.
*Obviously by reprogramming the board more than 60 can be driven but the board is only specified to 2 amps and more LEDs can draw significantly more than this.
The kit includes all these goodies (x2!)
By follow my simple instructable you’ll be up and glowing in no time!
Robin Sterling 