For several fancy dress and halloween parties I had incorporated some form of electronics into costumes in the past. While scouting the internet I came across a tutorial on how to make costume goggles with leds that are individual addressable. If your interested in having a look at what inspired me to work on this project, click here. After heaving a read through of the project I made the personal conclusion that the original is to easy and no personal challenge of my skills at all. So what could I doe to make it more interesting. I have seen several Bluetooth modules that are easy to interface with microprocessor and I have used them in projects in the past. Unfortunately this was already implemented in an advanced tutorial too. But what had not been done before was to use two different size led rings and create a sense of depth.
The Project Scope
Although I will probably add more functionality and hardware over time the first iteration is going to be the most complex. The main functionality will consist of:
1x 16 LED ring and 1 x 12 LED ring per eye
3D printed mounts and spacers to hold the rings in place
Microprocessor
LiPo battery
Future upgrades will consist of:
Bluetooth control
Manual controls, buttons, potentiometers
Ultrasonic rangefinder
The challenge
What makes this project a bit more complex is the limited amount od space available for mounting and soldering the hardware. To make assembly is easy as possible several components were first drawn up in SolidWorks. This gave an idea on how parts would come together and where clearance was needed to be able to solder the power and data wires. The 3D printed insert holding the LED rings in place also has the purpose to shield the wearers eyes of most of the sideways dispersed light from the LED's. This should allow you to safely wear the goggles when activated without getting blinded.