A random collection of photos/videos from building a 300led walking stick/staff
What I didn’t get pictures of, but will try to when I take the thing apart next (which I have to do - while threading the leds/batteries into the tube, the led strips twisted a bit, the lines aren’t quite as straight as I’d like) - i’ll get a picture of the MCU/radio/accelerometer bundle. It’s a bit on the messy side, messier than I’d like. I’m considering drawing up a PCB to act as a daughter board that I can just plug the MCU, radio, accelerometer into. That would make things a bit more compact and let me get the led-less portions of the setup even smaller. (Even better would be if I could get the MCU’n’friends as well as power switch/recharging port embedded in the leds as well. That’s proving to be a little trickier, though.
that’s pretty cool man
I really want to make one for walking around at festivals
That’s how I got started doing them - when I went to burning man in 2003, something about the desert ground fucked with my feet big time, so I decided to use a walking stick to help out with that - but, it being burning man, it needed to light up 
The first few years worth of walking sticks were pretty standard wooden walking sticks w/probably about 20’ of el-wire (multiple colors) wrapped around in different ways, along with reflective tape for spreading the light around, and some other diffusion stuff, 2-3 sound driven drivers, etc…
In 2009 someone asked me where I brought my setup, and having a stupid point of pride about building my own, I decided that if people could just buy what I had, then I had to up my game on what I was building.
In 2010 I was introduced to the HL1606 and programmable LEDs, but hated most of the sample code that was out there, which is how this library got born. The very very first LED walking stick that I did was a large, thin-walled acrylic tube, with a strip of leds in it (40 leds total), and stuffed with styrofoam for diffusion. Alas, it died a pretty horrible death when I let some drunk kid convince me hew knew how to spin staff :).
In 2011/2012 I did a few more builds, with the same basic core (arduino pro mini, 40 HL1606 leds), trying various ways of getting a battery in there , as well as trying to make it sturdier and stronger - having played with square acrylic tubes/rods, as well as large blocks of space on either end for the battery.
The current one has a core of a 1/2" solid acrylic rod (except for the portion taken up by the 1/2" 4Ah battery), that the four strips of leds are wrapped around. That is then slid (very carefully!) into a 3/4"ID acrylic tube (1/8" walls), which I then sanded the everliving fuck out of to try and diffuse a bit. That core has connectors out of either end (for power and MCU). And that core is then slid into (with some judicious use of WD40) a 1"ID acrylic tube (again, 1/8" walls), with some spacers to keep the leds/batteries from sliding into the 5v buck converters, the MCU, etc… Then everything is capped off - and that outer tube is, itself, sanded down from here to mars.
For the next version I want to have everything encased in LEDs, and I’m also starting to think about different ways of arranging the leds in the stick itself to get slight shifts in patterns. I’m also seriously considering that 144led/m stuff. However, I think i’ll need to massively up the battery capacity for that :).
This version, running the test program that you saw there, runs about 4-8 hours on the battery that I have in there now.
I’m using some 144/m ws2812’s for my poi and also used them in a led hat made for jumbie art. If you dont know abou it check it out. Its mindblowing!
I have only been into this stuff for about a year now. I build a led dance floor using ws2801’s last year using dmx512 and madrix it was a pretty crazy first project.
I would love to see your WS2811 high density poi, pretty please!
Hey @Daniel_Garcia , how long is it, end to end? And how much does the whole thing weight, battery and all. I’m assuming the USB plug on one side is for programming while the barrel connector on the other side is for recharging the battery, yes?
It’s just under 5’ long - I think next time i’ll scale back to just 1m of strip instead of 1.25m of strip. Also - the led-less ends are closer to 5" each, and i’d love to see if I can squeeze those down as well.
The thing weighs about 3 lbs. overall. And yes - the USB plug is for programming and the barrel connector is for recharging. I want to start researching lithium options and see about getting a USB charging circuit up and running in there. My existing clunky NiMH charging setup charges at about 2.2A, so being able to flip to a 2A USB charger (iPad wall warts, FTW!) would be really nice.
I’m using Li-Ion batteries, 18650 3.7V/1.4Ah. The specific one I’m using has a diameter of 0.71", so it can fit inside a 3/4" tube. It also has a 20A burst discharge, so it’s great for those sudden, brief blinding effect. And I just got a single charge/boost circuit from SFE that I’m going to try with these batteries, see how well they work for charging them.
Im using this Ashley
http://www.batteryjunction.com/prcimopcbfor.html
Im also using the same batteries as you. I haven’t figured out a method of charging them yet but i have the circuit in my hoop.
Right now I’m charging mine with the charger they came with, but ultimately I will switch to a design I can put in the tube, with the battery, just leaving the barrel connector available to connect to.
Also, the problem with using a circuit like the one you linked to, is that it only allows you to pull a max of 8.5A from the battery. My poi baton design has 192 RGB LEDs which, at full duty cycle, will pull 11.52A. Add the controller and SD reader and I’ll be hovering around 12A. Granted, it will only be a brief burst, but it’s enough to cause the circuit to cut out as that’s above it’s limit.
One could still use that circuit only for charging, and use raw battery power to discharge. Setting the BOD on an Atmel means you can safely cut the unit off when the voltage drops too low.
Also, @Daniel_Garcia , the reason I was asking for length is because I’ve been asked to research the possibility of creating a light up flag pole for one of the groups at school. The problem, or more like problems, is/are that it needs to be 6 feet long and fairly rigid. They have a 3ft wide by 6ft long flag on each pole that they spin, twirl, and toss up into the air. So not only do I have to figure out how rigid a 6ft long, 1" diameter piece of polycarbonate tube is, but I also have to keep it light and balanced, while at the same time, able to withstand a few drops without breaking. I do like your idea of encasing one tube inside another. I may have to try that both for rigidity as well as protection.
I only have to light up the bottom 3ft of the pole but I may as well do the whole thing, easier to balance that way.
I had ordered an SFE original Pro Micro but those things have a rather flimsy USB connector on them that mine broke after just a few uses. I’ll get a genuine Arduino Micro since I know those have a much stronger USB connector on them. Thinking I may also incorporate an ADXL345 for some fun stuff.
Ashley, Do you have a link to a better suited charging circut? Also what voltage are you running on your design? Mine currently is running @ 3.7
Any single cell Li+ charging circuit would work, including what you posted above (assuming you only have one battery.) However if you are pulling more amps than the circuit will provide, then you need to bypass it and power your circuitry with raw battery power. I don’t have mine handy right now, but what I did was isolate the charging circuit and have it connected to the battery only. Then from the battery I go straight to a buck/boost circuit that gives me a steady 3.3V to power the Atmel and SD card reader (card readers are very picky about their voltage.) The battery also feeds raw power to the LED strips which the Atmel turns on/off via a MOSFET.
The buck/boost will provide a safe cutoff when the battery gets too low.
I’m currently using 4 battries ran in parallel. I also only have my battery circut connected to the battries.
Four of those 18650?? That’s a lot of juice!
Yeah, I used them for balancing weights.
Plus I wanted it to last as long as possible. Sometimes its impossible to charge something at a festival.