Testing of LEDs and Fiber Optic cables

Testing of LEDs and Fiber Optic cables

William Truslow

My initial plan for the gloves involved utilizing several LEDs as the light source which would be powered by a AAA battery. However, It became apparent that the AAA battery could not power more than a few LEDs. As an alternative I opted to utilize Two LEDs attached to Fiber Optic Cables which would conduct the light and thus increasing their overall brightness. Yesterday I began to test this by sewing two fiber optic cables to a small but rigid piece of scrap fabric. In order to properly secure it, I had to use something stronger than thread, Fishing Line. After the cables were secure, I sewed a couple of small LEDs to each end and attached them to a AAA battery. This proved to be effective with the Fiber Optic Cables conducting the light beautifully. Today I ran a similar test in which I sewed a strip of LEDs to a similar piece of fabric with fishing line. I then attached a lilypad arduino to the fabric and sewed the appropriate connections to eachother. The - port on the arduino connected to the ground connection of the LEDs, the + port on the arduino connected to the 5V connection on the LEDs, and the 3 port on the arduino connected to the Digital-in connection of the LEDs. After downloading an LED code off the web and syncing it with the arduino software, I ran an strandtest and changed the parameters to my specific situation which proved successful. The LEDs are now lit and change color at random. When a Fiber Optic Cable is held up to each light, it produces a bright, colorful, and a perfectly visible effect. While this test was interesting, I don't think it's entirely practical to incorporate an arduino into the final product. I think that the lights in the glove will be much more similar to the setup used in the first test.