CyberJacket

This is the CyberJacket, which was built with the express purpose of looking as cool as possible. Essentially it is a programmable LED leather jacket. While I built a jacket, you could easily put these electronics on anything you want as the system is basically just mobile LED control. In addition this design is based on adaptability, so modifications are extremely easy with a small amount of additional hardware

I also made a video about this project if you prefer to just watch, here is the link in case the embedding doesn't work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYvXN1_iXFg&t=2s

1) LED strands 5V: I used 3 and this model:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNXKQCK4?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

2) Jacket

3) Microcontroller, I used tinyCore: https://mr.industries

4) AA batteries and case: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L9M6VZK?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

5) Power regulator: Custom board that can't be purchased, see below

6) Power bank for tinyCore: get a cheap one that outputs 5V

7) Miscellaneous wires and connectors

8) Sewing supplies and adhesives(E6000 recommended)

LED strings don't typically match jackets, I found they blend a lot better if certain sections are replaced to color match. In my case I added white material to the hood, cuffs, and trim to match. This is much easier to do without the electronics installed. DO NOT use a jacket you are incredibly attached to, use something you don't mind messing up if you are not experienced in sewing.

Sew anchor points every so often along the LED strip to help keep them attached. Then put adhesive along the entire bottom. E6000 holds them incredibly well. Try to hide all the wires as needed, I usually ran them the interior. Cut the strands to length, make sure you cut along the specific connection points on the string to avoid issues(If you aren't sure, just look up where your specific model is safe to cut).

There are two main power supplies. The rechargeable power bank gives 5V to the iota core, and the battery pack gives 6V to the power regulator, which passes it onto the leds. Now you might be wondering, if the power bank gives 5V and the LED string needs 5V, why do you need the battery pack. Yeah... I didn't have the power bank when I first started, so it actually probably would work as long as you spliced the USB C cable to the regulator. The more you learn.

This is a custom board I built, it is super simple. If you put in a voltage higher than 5V to about 12V it will regulate it to 5V. It also helps keep the voltage the same even as batteries deplete. The entire board is hand solderable, I have attached a link to a discord that has the schematic and pcb if you want to make one yourself https://discord.com/channels/1313688720771252264/1313689064196669500. As I mentioned above, this is probably unnecessary, just splice and solder a USB C cable to a 5V USB power bank

1) Plug in tinyCore into power regulator

2)Plug in/solder power regulator to battery pack

***The tiny core is so efficient the battery pack may fall asleep depending on which model you got. If that is the case just plug something in that requires more power, I found airpods, or my phone worked great. This will stop it from falling asleep and you wont have interruptions.

3)Plug in rechargeable power supply to tiny core

4)Plug in Led strips to power regulator

This step depends on what microcontroller you have. I programmed using the Arduino IDE. My code is essentially just a modification of the blink program. There are a ton of videos on how to properly LED strings so if you aren't sure what you want I would first look at those. I have attached my code below.

Congrats, you have made a really cool Jacket. This project is very flexible: add control, program to your hearts content, whatever you want you can do. TinyCore can even do wireless control so you could hook it up to your phone. Be creative and have fun.