DIY HACK – HOWTO build an LED Hat!

by max on Friday, October 19th, 2007

LED Hat

Check out this awesome LED Hat you can make for Halloween! There’s some construction notes that you can refer to build one yourself.

I think this was originally because I was planning to go to the Burning Man festival, in which being covered with lights is a practical way of keeping track of your friends. But the idea was a bit beyond my expertise for a long time, and it took about two years before I found someone who said they would help me with the electronics side and I decided it was worth the risk of buying the kit to try.
I started work six weeks before Glade 2006, i.e. about June. I also optimistically hoped to finish something basic in time, but it took until about February 2007 before I had something which was self-contained and wearable. Obviously not all of this time was spent soldering LEDs, but soldering and testing those and about 400 wires was the biggest job.
Then progress stalled for a while, since I was a bit sick of LEDs at that point, but if I wanted to take it to Glade 2007 I needed to finish it off: some decent patterns and a button to switch between them, which I managed about 4 hours before having to get up again to catch the train there. And it was a success! Despite ridiculously heavy rain leading to a big mud bath at the festival, the hat did it’s job without breaking and the most common response was, “Wow, cool hat! Where did you buy it?”