Light-up Glasses for Halloween Costume

LED all things: even halloween costumes. This project was an idea for a unique halloween outfit that won the "best costume" prize.

I'm a huge fan of wearable electronic lighting. I'm especially a fan of DJ REZZ's LED glasses. While these aren't addressable and can't display fancy patterns like hers can (perhaps a future iteration?), they light up, are completely battery powered and portable, and don't impede vision. Much.

These glasses began life as a $2 pair of dollarama glasses. I 3D printed 2 rings with 5mm holes to fit 8 LEDs in each set. Each LED has a current limiting resistor soldered to one leg, and is inserted snugly into the mounting ring. I stripped 2 wires at alternating intervals to produce 5V and GND rails. These rails then wrap around the circumference of each ring, so that the exposed metal of each wire only contacts the insulated section of the other rail. The two rings are connected at the nose bridge.

Each leg of the LED is bent to the outside face of the mounting ring. Each resistor leg is soldered to the GND rail, while the other leg is soldered to the 5V rail.

Both power wires run down the right arm of the glasses, behind the ear, and to wherever the power supply is kept. Power is supplied by 3 AAA batteries in series, to produce 4.5V. The power pack can easily be hidden in any pocket.

I always underestimate how bright these little 5mm LEDs are. In future, higher value current limiting resistors are in order to tone down the brightness, and improve battery life.