Disclaimer: I’m not responsible for any injuries caused by (working) with electronics or home-made circuits. Be careful with these things!

LEDs are fun, but not fun enough to put in each and every costume I make. Hence I know just a little. But it’s enough for me to think a tutorial will be able to help a few people (and remind myself of how I did this). I used Tweaking4All’s ideas and base code for this, so if you want to read into this set-up more, I’d suggest to visit their website. (Also, their site is available in Dutch too, which might be helpful for my fellow Dutchies!)

Shopping list:

  • Arduino Uno, I used ones with an USB-C connector
  • Resistor (470 Ohm)
  • Push button
  • LED strip WS2812B
  • Powerbank 5V
  • Wires

Optional:

  • Male to female connectors

Tools:

  • Soldering iron
  • Scissors

Software:

  • Arduino IDE (latest version)

Let’s get to work!

  • I always start with soldering the button. Connect it to Pin 2 on the Arduino and ground. No resistor needed here.
  • Then we are going to solder the LED strip to the Arduino. Connect it to 5V (red wire) with a resistor in between, Ground (black wire) and either Pin 5 or Pin 6 (the remaining wire). 
  • Time to upload the code and see if it all works. Go to Tweaking4All’s page with all effects in one code. Download that and open in it the Arduino IDE. First make sure to match the #Define Pin5 is where your LED information wire (the remaining color) is attached to, else make it #Define Pin6. Both have the same properties, so if one doesn’t work, you can use the other.
  • When the LED information wire is corresponding with the code, upload the code from your IDE to the Arduino. Check if the software says “Arduino Uno, Com port (number)” as the upload location. The com port number is which USB port your Arduino is connected to. When succesful, the LED strip should light up AND when pressing the button, a new light animation appears. This means you’re basically done. Disconnect the set-up from the computer and connect it to a 5V power bank on where you first connected it to the computer. It should start the LED strip again. 

You now have a LED strip with various modes that is portable. Very convenient for cosplay!

“But Amirine, I want my LED strip to be longer/shorter/adjusted in another way. Can we do that?”

Jup! Thats possible with the right LED strips. I make sure to get LED strips with copper points after each LED. That makes them easy to cut off after where I don’t need them. Making them longer? You’ll need to solder wires between copper points of LED strip A and LED strip B. Make sure to match up the 5V and 5V, Din and Din AND Ground and Ground. Else it won’t work.
And! You could solder LED strips in parallel. This would make the animations split from one strip to two others. Just make sure that the wires are twisted together properly and put heat shrink tubing over the connection to the 1 wire going to the connection point of the LED strip. I expected there to be some kind of catch in this, but nope. My Gold Rathian shield has this and the code works perfectly. It’s some kind of magic to me, so I can’t explain better. I know I am disappointing various high school teachers of mine here. (But then again, they might also be pleasantly surprised that I am actually working with this stuff.)

Basic troubleshooting and editing

  • Not all of the LEDs light up? Adjust the number of LEDs in the code to the number of LEDs you have. 
  • Colors seem switched? Change the GRB definition in the code to RGB. Some LED strips work a little different.
  • Want an “off” mode? So did I. Change the colour of the LEDs to black: ( 0x00, 0x00, 0x00 ).
  • The step above also works for changing colors to match your needs. This site can help you pick the color. You need Hex(adecimal) colors for this code.
  • Too many modes for your needs? You can remove modes: remove the ones you don’t need, adjust the numbers of modes to be adjacent, and adjust the amount of modes to match the total of remaining modes.
  • Need to make the LED strip connect and disconnect for travel? Use the optional connector part! Cut the LED strip where you need it to be cut (mind the marking! Not all strips can be cut everywhere) and solder the connector to both parts. Make sure to color match the wires (Red to positive, black to negative and remaining to the remaining point).