Fitting LEDs to a helmet

monkimark

I have an old helmet lying around at home and I'm thinking about making it a winter commuting helmet by attaching a load of small LEDs in the vents all the way round. Probably just order a bunch of components from ebay and make it up as I go along.

I have vague recollections of the relevant formulae from my (long gone) college days and I'm sure I can find relevant information on laying out the circuits online but I wondered if anyone else has done anything similar and had any tips.

Current (very vague) plans involve a few red leds in the rear vents, white in the front vents and maybe yellow on the sides with a battery pack & switch wherever I can fit them. The helmet is purely going to be for winter commuting so it doesn't have to be a work of art and it's all going to stay put once it's installed so no need to make it easy to remove. I guess that once I've worked out what I need and where to put it, waterproofing is going to be my main problem.

Tips and advice greatly appreciated.

giantsbrae

What about sticking some of them on,ready made,no faffing about.

jomoj

silicone rubber loop lights like the knog frog are pretty easy to attach to helmet vents. Unless you're keen on the whole illuminated helmet idea as an electronics project. You could just buy some LED xmas tree lights and adapt those for a sparkly halo effect.

t4tomo

jomoj wrote:

silicone rubber loop lights like the knog frog are pretty easy to attach to helmet vents. t.

this ^^^^ just attach a red one on the back

jockywilson

You can get rear (red) LED's off the shelf, unless you're specifically set on building them yourself:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bus ... t-ec012209

Review on bikeradar here:

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... s-09-33412