How To Sew NeoPixels with Conductive Thread

What’s a wearable project without LEDs? Designed specifically for wearables, bright RGB LEDs are paired with a constant-current driver chip. The contacts are easily sewn with conductive thread. Use this guide to test your first pixel and start on a blinding wearables project with Circuit Playground Express, FLORA or GEMMA!

Each pixel draws as much as 60mA (all three RGB LEDs on for full brightness white). In theory, FLORA can drive up to 500 pixels at 30 FPS (above which it will run out of RAM). Circuit Playground Express can drive more than that.  However, above about 20 pixels (and/or if the overall length of conductive thread exceeds ~6 feet/2 meters), the nontrivial resistance of the thread adds up and can affect the power supply. For large quantities of pixels over 20 or if you need to insulate your circuit, you should upgrade to silicone coated stranded core wire, which will provide better conductivity for the pixels – the current draw will add up fast!

Before you begin, familiarize yourself with the following tutorials:

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Unicorn Horn with 3D Printing & NeoPixel LEDs

Searching for a simple costume project to bring your Unikitty or Lady Rainicorn to the next level? 3D print a flexible unicorn horn and illuminate it from within with NeoPixels and a GEMMA M0, GEMMA v1 or GEMMA v2 based microcontroller. Or forget the electronics and use glow in the dark NinjaFlex filament for a green glow with no batteries required.

This is a pretty quick soldering project that is suitable for attentive beginners! Prerequisite guides:

For this project you will need:

Unicorn glamour shots by Andrew Tingle.

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