It’s the time again and I bring you an update to my ever aging ‘Mad Scientist’ Halloween costume. What started out as a college budget built led labcoat with just a clock and 4017 decade counter has evolved to include now two Arduino micro controllers. One runs the individual LED rows you see running random patterns. The second runs the scrolling marquee hanging off my chest. Everything is run off a 14.4V Li-Ion battery pack that I custom built.  Even the LED Marquee is custom built.

There are a dozen different patterns chosen at random for the LED rows, and over 30 different quotes and animations stored in the marquee, also chosen at random. I chose quotes related to science, or giving homage to someone in science. More info on the base jacket (including source code) can be found around my blog.

The specs of the jacket are:

• 76 individual LEDS
• 7 Bi-color LED matrices
• 2 Arduinos
• 2 Switching voltage regulators
• one 14.4V 2.2Ah battery pack
• Over 100′ of wire
• The sweat, blood and tears of a goofy looking engineer