Ballin led tutu plan needs some help

[onesillyanna]

My plan for the summer is to have a black lace tutu filled with uv leds for good fun times at Bonnaroo.
I want to glow as purple as possible. To cause the people around me to feel like I brought the rave. As though I were smuggling huge blacklights in my tutu. Thus I want them to be as bright as possible but still semi cheap.
Part of why I am wanting uv is because lots of people bring things that already are glow in the dark and it would be awesome to make their glow hyper under my glow.
I do hope someone can help me achieve this magical goal. Or point me in the right direction.

 

[the15thwiseone]

Re: Halp

My plan for the summer is to have a black lace tutu filled with uv leds for good fun times at Bonnaroo.
I want to glow as purple as possible. To cause the people around me to feel like I brought the rave. As though I were smuggling huge blacklights in my tutu. Thus I want them to be as bright as possible but still semi cheap.
Part of why I am wanting uv is because lots of people bring things that already are glow in the dark and it would be awesome to make their glow hyper under my glow.
I do hope someone can help me achieve this magical goal. Or point me in the right direction.

I suggest you change the name of your post to something along the lines of what you want to do: like "Laser laced tutu" or something like that....grab peoples attention first, then the people on this site will be able to help you out better.

press "Edit", then click "advanced edit" on the first post, rename the title that way.

Hope that helped .

 

[onesillyanna]

Re: Halp

Thanks!

 

[HIMNL9]

Uhm, perhaps you need UV leds in industrial quantity, black coated thin wire, and a lot of work in soldering and sewing .....

LEDs are not a problem, cause it's not a professional application, you can get them from ebay or DX relatively cheapy (just examples)

Then you need to sew them (or get some help doing that) on the dress, connect all them and sew also the wires in place ..... you can, as example, use a wire for the border, one for the top, and connect the LEDs in stripes from one to the other, each stripe with its own resistor ..... then just get a battery holder with a switch, and you're ok.

About the batteries, i will suggest you to use 4 Li-Ion cells in serie, also cells like 14500 (AA size), cause the battery holders are already available almost everywhere, and 4 cells gives you around 14V, so this will permit you to place at least 4 of them for each strip, reducing the connections complexity and the total current from the battery pack (usually UV leds needs around 3.3V each, and working around 12/16mA they have a decent efficency)

Anyway, don't expect to find pure UV leds ..... they are still blue/violet color, not "deep purple" like normal UV lamps ..... well, they do exist in "pure UV" range, but the costs are absurdly high, and don't worth the usage you want to do.

 

[onesillyanna]

Oh I'm a kick ass seamstress. Attaching them is not a problem.

I intend to get individual batteries for each. To treat them sort of like throwies. I don't want wires. There will be sweat, water, and lots of dancing. I'd rather shed a few than short them all out.

Selecting the best possible leds is the trouble. I don't want to buy 100 of something and hate every one of them for not being what I expected.
I've looked at them on ebay and I just want more info before buying any. Like what size, shape, and other specs to look at when purchasing. I don't want to get ripped off.

 

[anselm]

Hello and welcome to the LPF!:wave:
I want pictures of you in your glowing tutu, when you're done with it!

I don't want wires.

Well since the air doesn't conduct electricity too well you're going to need them wires.

Listen to HIMNL9, he knows a lot about electronics.

Try these, they are so cheap:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/5mm-uv-led-emitters-20-pack-2398
Shipping will take 3~4 weeks though.

If you want individual lights with batteries, try these:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/uv-money-detector-led-flashlight-keychain-10-pack-3414

 

[Lumin]

Hi, cool-sounding project! I hope you'll post pics when you're done too!
I found some conductive thread at sparkFun for a similar project my girlfriend's doing... she recommends hand-sewing the stuff as it's a bit rough to get through a machine... it's pretty durable though, and it's an alternative to bulky wires.
They have a bit more resistance than "normal" wires, but for your application you shouldn't notice a difference...

They have a couple options so I linked the search page:
(We got the red spool)

Search Results - SparkFun Electronics

Good luck!

-----
little disclaimer:
Yes, it's my first post here, and no I don't have anything to do with sparkFun. Except that I've ordered stuff from them. And think they're cool.

 

[HIMNL9]

Well, "no wires" will constrain you to use them with 3V lithium batteries (like, CR2032 cells) ..... but this also needs a lot of batteries, and will give you very short duration.

Not speaking about the fact that you need to connect and fit each one when you want to "turn on" the dress ..... very impraticable, imho.

There is also a more "professional" possible solution, using conductive sewing wire, but this can cause problems of a different type.

About the diode types, there is not too much to do ..... standard sizes for these LEDs are 3mm dia and 5mm dia ..... wavelenght is, as said, usually between 390 to 410 nm, not precise as a laser diode, cause LEDs have a lot of tolerances, and also not completely monochromatic emissions ..... also, for a "human" price, you can only find LEDs like the ones i linked ..... for get "professional" units in the "real UV" range, you need to ask manufacturers like Nichia, that have prices that are "inhumans", if you're not a big company ..... as example, they have this one (datasheet) that is 5mm plastic 375nm model, and in the datasheet you can find all the specifications (by the way, the mechanical dimensions are practically the same for any 5mm LED, if you need them too), but Nichia can easily ask you 15/20 $ or more EACH, for samples, and they usually consider anything under 1000 pieces a sample

Or in alternative you can get a pair of UV flashlights and dismantle them.

There's really not too much to choose.

 

[onesillyanna]

Thank you everyone.

I realize that I might be getting in over my head, esp being that I have no real knowledge of electrical workings.
I looked at the datasheets for Nichia and admittedly couldn't understand what any of it meant. Nor could I find purchasing information.

I know I'm shooting for at least 100 leds. I'd probably be even happier with 200.

As far as individuals go, what is the expected battery life span? The initial plan is to only wear it once or twice over the weekend.
Though it's massively possible that I will change my mind as soon as it's lit up and too late. It could very easily end up being a favorite clothing item.

My concerns with wiring are mostly about myself and any of the eighty to one hundred thousand people spilling beer on on it and shorting it out. I haven't a soldering junt so I don't know if I can use any wire without it.
Also the potential bulkiness factor. It is, after all, lace that I am using.
Another concern falls into the form of the tutu. I'm using 6 inch wide strips of tulle. It's the width of the tulle I have and strips make for extra full very fun and funky tutus.
In trying to use wiring, it will be nearly impossible to get it to line up and not look like a 5yr old made it. Individuals would be easier to attach.

Here's some pictures of the material I'm using if that helps.

Raw material.

Splayed out a bit.

And bunched up about how it will look finished.

 

[the15thwiseone]

vf= 2.xx volts (closest to 3 volts) current is usually small. Roughly 10mA.
^^so you look up your battery of choice, take it's ma per hour. Multiply it by the total voltage of the battery. You will get mw per hour for your battery.
Take for 1 diode, the watts per diode, and use that number to devide your battery life by: vwala: you found for 1 diode and 1 battery of your choice. (for multiples, multiply each by the numbers corresponding to the desired amount) for 100 it's 10ma times 100 times the voltage (might not be as big as 10mA)

 

[onesillyanna]

I feel like a jackass for saying it but I don't understand that at all.

I suppose screw it on the individuals. From what I had researched in October (which was very little research), battery life was really pretty decent but I suppose not.

 

[the15thwiseone]

Sorry, was on my phone: let me refraise:
take a look first at your battery. A battery will give you 1 of 2 things:
A voltage, and a mAH (milla-amperes hours). To determine the power hours(watt hours).
VxmAH=WH
Next: look at the data sheet for your desired diode: it should tell you 2 things:
Voltage, and current. :
VxI=W(watts)
then you take equation 1 and divide it by equation 2:
(V-b*mAH)/(V-d*I-d)=hours of operation
this again is for 1, to get more you would multiply the # you desire to the diode side. Example: 100xV-dxI=Watts for 100 diodes
If= Voltage if the battery is 9volts with 600mAH then WH=5.4 watt hours
And: voltage diode=3v current diode=1mA watts=3mW
5.4 watt hours divided by .003watts= 1800 hours for 1 diode at 9 volts which is:75 days.
Just an example.

 

[onesillyanna]

Awesome. I'll keep that in mind.

I guess I'm shooting for more info on wiring at this point. So I can make the most informed possible choice on which route to go.

 

[Kevlar]

Would using one or more flexible UV LED strips be an option?

Flexible LED Strips

Flexible Led Light Strip - 24LED - UV

 

[anselm]

About the wiring: I think the most professional look could be achieved by using that conductive
thread another member gave a link to above.
Then you could carefully incorporate this wire into the lace, disguising it as part of the
pattern on that tulle on your pictures.

Make two close parallel lines, one for positive, one for negative.
Then install the LEDs in strategic places along this track of conductive thread.

You will have to do some math though to work out how many LEDs you should
put on each "track" and if you will put them in series or parallel.
That will depend on your choice of batteries as well.

 

[onesillyanna]

Alright. I think I'm going to go with wired leds.

Can I get info on where to get battery packs?