Show HN: Making a flexible "neon" t-shirt with LED filaments (scottbezek.blogspot.com)

67 pointsby scottbez15 hours ago13 comments

buredoranna 9 minutes ago

This is great, because the one problem I have with the cyberpunk dystopian future we live in, is the disappointing lack of neon.

scottbez1 5 hours ago

Author here, happy to answer any questions!

verdverm 5 hours ago

Have you thought about ways to make the lights detachable so you can wash the garment? Or is the trade off at a point where redoing it is easier overall?

scottbez1 5 hours ago

It’s maybe plausible to gently wash it with the filaments still attached? I did actually use connectors so the shirt could be detached from the drive electronics, though I’d be a bit worried whether the stitches would survive and corrosion on the solder joints. Adhesive/waterproof heat shrink could maybe help?

The other option is maybe attach the filaments to an embroidery style patch instead of the shirt itself and then attach it with Velcro to the shirt?

bigwheels 2 hours ago

Just want to say- this is a really neat idea and project!

p.s. thanks for the additional sourcing details

scottbez1 2 hours ago

AliExpress and Adafruit, e.g. https://www.adafruit.com/product/5867

ipsum2 an hour ago

I wonder if white thread would've been more invisible, the black thread seems more obvious against the LEDs? Being nitpicky, its a cool project for a single night.

scottbez1 an hour ago

Or color matched. Hadn’t even thought of that to be honest

d3Xt3r 43 minutes ago

There's actually a specific transparent thread you can use for this, it's called a monofilament polyester (aka "MonoPoly") thread, in clear or "invisible" variant. Would be perfect for this project.

embedding-shape 10 minutes ago

I was gonna say maybe fishing line would work, but I think maybe some fishing line is some sort of monofilament polyester?

danilafe an hour ago

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing.

4d4m 5 hours ago

The pwm animation/flicker/ramp up was a REALLY nice touch

Razengan an hour ago

Reminds me of a Japanese tech demo on YouTube I can't find right now, of projecting a flexible hologram on to a t-shirt with invisible markers.