Work in progress. The flexible LED Matrices will go around the top hat soon.
I have yet to figure out how to power this beast properly (512 LEDs!)
Ooooh that’s going to be fun. 
Strap a 1kW generator to your back and you’ll power it for eternity … or till the fuel runs out, which ever is first.
I think that’s going to draw about half an amp even when it’s just displaying solid black.
(Check my math: you have 512 WS2812 pixels there. Each draws about 1ma when idling at 0x000000 black. 512 x 1mA = 512mA ~= 0.5A )
@Gottfried_Mayer is going to need a taller hat to house all the needed batteries.
Nah, that’s where a couple of fanny packs come into play.
2 words: Mr. Fusion… This is cool, I have a 64 LED hat (made from strip) and I’ve been wanting to do these flexy panels…
My eventual plan was to wifi enable them (esp8266)
Nice! Where did you get the LED matrices?
I would recommend the Limefuel Blast series (http://www.limefuel.com/pages/product-blast) but do NOT connect the + outputs of two ports together (you should connect the ground/- outputs together btw.)
I would also recommend using FastLED’s current limiting feature to limit your output to max. ~2A per panel, otherwise nobody will be able to look at you
If you’re going to have a power cable going from the hat down to your pocket (rather than mounting the battery in the hat itself—it’s quite heavy), make sure the wire gauge is pretty thick.
Careful, those are not what they say they are. Think about it for a minute. Even a standard 18650 power cell (not to be confused with a regular 18650) can only provide 20A in burst mode and that thing isn’t anywhere close to the thickness or shape of several 18650 in line. Those so called “power banks” have a simple LiPo in them that provides a few Amps at best. There’s a video on YouTube of someone doing a teardown of a similar one that has a solar panel on it. It’s like discovering a 50cc engine inside of a monster truck.
The old adage of “If it’s too good to be true …”
That’s why I recommended the Limefuels. I have tested them running continuously at their rated spec and they can do it—note it’s 2.4A max per port and 4.2A max over both ports total.
Hi, it looks nice… which power supply are you using in your test setup?
Now, if you really want to give them the whole 30A they crave you’re looking at some very exciting remote control car LIPO batteries and a couple of these: http://us.tdk-lambda.com/ftp/specs/iaf.pdf
Note I have not attempted this yet…
I have lipos that I use for gravity checks with my homemade quadcopters. i haven’t done a large-scale project powering yet, but it’s definitely in the future. If you decide to try a lipo, make sure you get a lipo monitor ($2-$3). You can’t run a lipo all the way down, or you’ll kill it. The monitor tells you when to disconnect.
@Mike_Thornbury_Snr that’s never 50Ah - its a fake
Thanks for all your comments
@Derek_Wilson I got the matrices off ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/8-32-256-LEDs-Full-color-WS2812B-WS2812-5050-RGB-Flexible-Pixel-Panel-Light-DC5-/251698964775?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a9a6d6927
I power(ed) my current hat (32*3 LEDs) with 5V USB batteries I usually put in my back pocket, but the cable broke about once every six months. For this project I am planning on putting two batteries inside the hat (powering the two panels separately) so I should not have the problem of cables breaking, but I will have much more weight on my head… I guess I have to try it when I am finished building it.
@Robert_Atkins , did you ever have problems with cables breaking in your LED suit?
@Rodrigo_Cortes I use a 10A 5V supply from china, the LEDs are running at setBrightness(32).
No I haven’t had problems with cables breaking, but I am looping them around for strain relief—search back in my posts for a photo.
For my 180 LED hat, I’ve used Li-Ion cells and a 40 Watt UBEC (http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__6233__TURNIGY_8_15A_UBEC_for_Lipoly.html).
And for cables, the REAN mini-XLR connectors carry 3 or 4 lines, plenty of Amps, and critically have really good cable clamps.
(http://www.happyinmotion.com/?p=1242)