The first iteration of this project went from initial idea to working prototype in about 4 hours, a new record for myself and a testament to the power of open software/hardware. I had been teaching at the FSU STEM Camp all week with my usual geek attire (8-bit tie, PCB tie, LED Lab coat) and the kids asked me what ‘outrageously cool’ thing I was gonna wear on the last day. The problem was I had nothing left in my closet and feared I would let them down. So when I went home exhausted that night (it’s tough teaching over 100 8th graders to solder!) and sat down at the work bench trying to decide what I could do in a night. Inspired by Adafruit’s Amplie-Tie, this is what I came up with.
This will be a short post as this is only revision 1 and I plan to vet this out to a more thought out project at some point. Here’s a video of what I had at the end of the night: (skip to bottom of page for newest video)
The tie is made out of 80 WS2811 based RGB LED pixels and is driven by a DigiSpark microcontroller. I pulled in this library written in assembly to drive the display and modified this tetris engine heavily to suit my needs. With limited RAM I had to strip out unneeded features and optimize the code that runs the game similar to Tetris to make it work, I also converted it to support color values as it was originally monochrome only. The code is a definite WIP but posted on here on Github as I play with it in the future. Game moves are random and I plan to attempt some puzzle solving algorithms soon. I had all parts on hand and total project cost comes in around $50.
It’s powered by 2 18650 Li-Ion battery cells in a battery box I used for my Wedding Suit and had lying around. They are installed in a 3D printed battery box with switch.
Battery box and the original suit it was designed for.
Structurally it’s just two pieces of card stock with fun bits sandwiched between and taped to a cheap clip-on. I plan to revisit the design and embed the strips directly into a fabric tie for long term use. Remember, I only did this in a single night. The kids loved it and the mission was accomplished.
Future Features
Next I’d like to add a basic AI to play the game, and/or a bluetooth connection for a human to play the game using a smart phone.
Update 1
I’ve restructured the tie so that the LEDs are now embedded into the tie instead of pasted on the front. It looks much cleaner now, thought the LEDs are dimmer, diffused by the fabric. I’ve also rewritten a new program that simulates a firework display, in time for Independence Day parties.
Update 2
I’ve built a second tie run by an Arduino Pro mini with all electronics and battery built into the tie itself. No more extruding wires. The battery is an older aftermarket Samsung Galaxy S1 cell phone battery, and I designed and printed a battery holder with my Makerbot. The LED driver library has been switched to Adafruit’s Neopixel library, and a AI player has been written by Mofidul Jamal.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
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85 Comments.
Hello Bill, I really do like this tie and think it would make a great XMas present for my dad (who works at an elementary school). Do you sell these? If so, how can I purchase one?
Fantastic tie. Are these for sale anywhere or is it staying just a home project?
Not for sale anywhere, I plan on first making a proper video tutorial for those to make there own with minimal soldering experience required. If interest grows I may thing about approaching a resaler or doing a kickstarter.
Please please please do a tutorial. I really like your work, but I don’t have the experience to do something like that myself. Thanks!
I will buy one from you!
I want to throw my money at you to get one of these!!!
Status on the kickstarter and/or the tutorial on how to make one?
Hi!
I love your tie and tested the code on my arduino. I loved it, but never saw a red brick. So I checked the code and found the random part.
currentBrick.type = random (0,6)
When you change the “6” to “brick_count” you have all 7 block-types!
Wow! Apparently I didn’t realize the random function goes from min to max-1, which means you are right, no red bricks! Fixed now.
[…] $50 From Billporter […]
I really would like to either buy or make one of these. Please either do a kickstarter, just sell them or put up an instructables on how to make one.
The tie is amazing. You are very talented.
Should be a hot seller. Let us know when this is available. Nice work!
Do you still have the code for the fireworks?
Just checking on the kickstarter/tutorial concept… Any progress on either/both? But it does inspire to take a short-course on this sort of stuff so I would know the basics to make one myself.
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Where can I buy this tie?? I’m getting married in 2018, I’ll pay for you to make one for me.