Fiber Optic Galaxy Hoodie With 8 Patterns

The goal of this project is to expand upon what you can do with fiber optic cables in wearable aesthetics. While there are resources like fiber optic fabric, its purpose isn't to highlight the end of the cable. I've always enjoyed looking at galaxy prints, themes, and images so when I discovered no one had made a galaxy hoodie with the stars lit up, I had to make one.

Step 1: Gather Supplies

The materials used in this project are as follows:

1x Galaxy Hoodie M
0.75mm Fiber Optic Filament
1x Arduino Uno
4x WS281 Neopixel LED strip 8
1M 22awg wire
Soldering Iron+Solder
Hot Glue Gun
3D Printed LED casing
Black PLA
Needle
Two old shirts

Step 2: Design and 3D Print Casing

Because this project is illuminated using fiber optic filament, a casing is needed in order to hold the strands to the LED. The neopixel strip measures 56.5mm X 10mm. I designed a simple casing on tinkercad and after a few prototypes, I got a print I was satisfied with.

Here is the Casing model

NeoPixel LED 8 Strip

Step 3: Identify Filament Locations

I intend to use 4 Neopixel sticks (each containing 8 LEDs) in my hoodie. After a quick test with the finished casing, I found that 18 filament strands fit snuggly in each of the 32 LED holes. This means that I can attach a total of 576 filaments to my project. The pictures above are the layout of my hoodie and roughly where I plan to have lights. I put 288 dots on the front and 288 on the back to make sure that I have enough Neopixels for full coverage.

To be honest you could probably skip this step and wing it -If you have enough filaments It probably doesn't matter where they are placed as long as it's an even coverage.

For the rest of this project, I will refer to the filaments as FOFs, short for Fiber Optic Filament

Step 4: Get Hoodie Measurements

The main image (A) shows the circuit plan that will be attached to the hoodie.

Image B&C is the hoodie stood up on a stand made with tripod, tape, and sticks... >.< Janky right. Doing this makes it easier to visualize where I want the LED neopixel sticks to go.

I measured a diagonal length of 66cm (26in) for my M hoodie, so I cut out 3 wire strips to that length. For this project, you need a Ground, V+, and Signal wire. The next step has an image where you can see the wires

Link to image of human model https://www.3dcadbrowser.com/th/1/57/57136.jpg

Step 5: Solder LED Circut

Soldering time! String together all NeoPixel sticks with 66cm of wire strip between them. You do Not need the last Neopixel Stick to be connected back to the Arduino board because the Ground and 5V wires create already create a closed circuit :)

Tip: Hot glue is a good insulator, I used it to cover the exposed wire on the Neopixels. This ensures that I will not have to deal with wires touching each other causing a short circuit.

The next step involves gluing the LEDs to the hoodie, so make sure to mount the casing.

Step 6: Mount LEDs Onto Hoodie

Glue the LEDs into the hoodie turned inside out. I hid the front and back LEDs in the bottom rim fold.

Step 7: Bundle Fiber Optics

Instead of randomly gluing FOFs everywhere (Which you could do but I wouldn't recommend), I am going to bundle sets of 18 FOFs together at 9 different lengths so that I can get even coverage of each LEDs color over the hoodie. The main image (A) is the composition of each bundle next to a ruler.

2x 60cm cable
2x 55cm cable
2x50cm cable
2x45cm cable
2x40cm cable
2x35cm cable
2x30cm cable
2x25cm cable
2x20cm cable

Total of 18 cables(filaments) at different lengths

To complete the bundle, I zip-tied the cables together (making sure the ends were flush) and wrapped electrical tape around them. (Image B) If you want extra security, add a dab of superglue before wrapping it with electrical tape.

Image C is the bundle stretched out, you can see the different lengths

Now for the fun part... REPEAT THIS STEP 31 MORE TIMES!! (Image D)

Step 8: Mark Your Stars

To align the filaments to the star pattern on the outside of the hoodie, mark each star's location with a dark marker. (Image A) Using a flashlight, I backlight under the hoodie to better see where to mark the filament locations. (Image B) is 144 dots on the front piece of the hoodie.

Step 9: Install Optic Bundles

Glue all your bundles into the respective LED casings.

Step 10: Thread Fiber Optics Through Marked Dots

Use a needle to poke holes through the fabric, and thread the filament through. Keep the hoodie stretched out so you can ensure the length is correctly running flat against the fabric. This way, the filament won't be too short or too long. After you have threaded the filament to the desired length, dab hot glue and hold for 15 seconds. The next image is the hoodie turned right-side-out after all fibers have been glued. Trim excess length to get the ends of the fiber close to the star location.

Step 11: Line Hoodie With Spare Cloth

I found an old shirt I wasn't using and glued it to the inside of the hoodie so that I wouldn't get tangled up in the filaments while putting it on.

Step 12: Install Code on Arduino

(Image A) This program works by switching between different pattern codes whenever a button is pressed. Each tab on the Arduino app (apart from the first one) is an LED pattern. You will need to place each pattern on a different tab. Download the code and patterns here LED hoodie code

(Image B) Circuit schematic