Friday, November 02, 2018

Blinking Lights and Duct Tape Make Everything Better

Last year, on the day before Halloween, I ordered this strip of LED lights for same day delivery. I wasn't quite sure what I'd do with the lights, but I figured they'd dress up any costume idea I'd come up with.

The LEDs showed up, and worked great when plugged into a phone-power pack. The provided remote control allows cycling through many color, fading and brightness options. Ultimately, I wrapped the LEDs around a broom handle, put on my Moroccan Djellaba, and ventured into the night as a wizard with a lit up staff. The LEDs were practical, though the effect wasn't as impressive as my mind's eye imagined. Meaning, they looked like a strip of LEDs wrapped around a broomstick, not some magic light emitting staff.

This year, I again found myself on October 31st with no idea what to do for a costume. I knew the strip of LEDs had possibilities, but I wasn't sure how or where to mount them.

Finally, a solution hit me. And of course, it was duct-tape based.

I laid out a strip of duct tape, lay the LEDs on one edge, and then folded over the other edge on itself. The result was a strip of LED lights with an adjacent bit of material.

I then grabbed my trusty Djellaba, and pinned the strip of LEDs into the hood (the qob, if you will):

While trick-or-treating, I could put up the hood, plug the LEDs into my backup-battery pack, and the result looked something like this:

Because the light was defused, it was more impressive than just seeing the strip of LEDs outright.

The result was certainly eye-catching, and more than one person commented on it while we were out trick-or-treating. Smaller kids were specially entranced by the effect. Oncoming traffic couldn't miss me. The only down side: depending on the brightness and positioning of the LEDs, I managed to totally blind myself. But hey, a small price to pay for looking cool, right?

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