Tron Legacy Costume

[mbielaczyc]

Hey everyone, new update from us at aradani. My brother has been hard at work modding a bunch of disks and he recorded it to show others how we modded ours. Click here to see his video collection.

In other news, the new disk holder is all molded up and should be in production tomorrow.

 

[games001]

I did want to use one of those little 12V car batteries (A23 size I believe) to power my Lite Tape, but when I soldered the battery cage on for it and put the battery in, it was not as bright as the battery cage which holds the 8AA (1.5V) batteries which is the same 12V.

Has anyone else tried a small 12V car battery out? how does it look? I would like to use it because it's so small and compact to add to my costume instead of this huge 8AA battery pack.

Unless I am insane.. you are speaking of the 'small' A23 Batteries? If so, they tend to have about a 20-40mah rating, so they would last (if they can light up your suit at all) about 10 minutes. You would do far better, as noted above, with a simple 12v 2000mah pack of Ni-MH or Li-Ion batteries as I am using. My 2 packs are about the size of a pack of cigs (a tad wider and a bit shorter) and last about 8-10 hours of constant use. Charge time is about 2.5 hours on my Ni-MH's.
All-Battery.com - 12v 2000mah Ni-MH Battery Pack (was in stock and $15 when I got them back in Dec 2010)

Hey everyone, new update from us at aradani. My brother has been hard at work modding a bunch of disks and he recorded it to show others how we modded ours. Click here to see his video collection.

In other news, the new disk holder is all molded up and should be in production tomorrow.

AWESOME!

 

[techfreek]

LuminousFilm.com El Panel/Lite Tape only lights up on one side.

The Phosphor material is not side to side, you will have less than 1/4" unlit clear plastic insulating strip on either side. You can cut it down slightly but you need it there or even cut it down almost all the way off but you must add some clear plastic tape to cover the edges to protect the phosper strip not to mention not electrocute yourself





You can not see the scribe line from far away. I have attached a photo here of my white LuminousFilm.com strip flat. You can't see the line, only close up as seen in my previous photos I posted to demostrate how you can bend it at 90 degree angles.

I don't like the Scribe line myself on the LuminousFilm.com El Panel, but without it there I wouldn't be able to do my new Quorra lighting work. I will get into that in my next post why, but for my needs, it is the most cost effective way for me to go.




You will have to solder on your own 9V battery cap (RadioShack has them) to the inverter's leads then attach that to a 12V battery cage that holds 8AA batteries, that is how I am doing mine.

I did want to use one of those little 12V car batteries (A23 size I believe) to power my Lite Tape, but when I soldered the battery cage on for it and put the battery in, it was not as bright as the battery cage which holds the 8AA (1.5V) batteries which is the same 12V.

Has anyone else tried a small 12V car battery out? how does it look? I would like to use it because it's so small and compact to add to my costume instead of this huge 8AA battery pack.

If you are looking for battery packs, check batteryspace.com its where I got my battery packs from and they have a lot of battery packs

 

[CelticRuins]

Awesome answer to blueblade's question, gams! I was JUST about to ask a few questions about that, and it mostly covered it.

I would like to know how many inverters you used, and where you can get longer wires to run from the tape to the inverter?

 

[Icey]

I can't answer the inverter question, but the lead wire is typically just speaker wire which you can find in any electronics department. It's what I'm using to connect my el wire.

 

[games001]

Awesome answer to blueblade's question, gams! I was JUST about to ask a few questions about that, and it mostly covered it.

I would like to know how many inverters you used, and where you can get longer wires to run from the tape to the inverter?

Any wire will do. I used 14g black coat speaker wire for my body harness (to give it that needed strength for movement options), 18g Quick Connects with black leads heading to the glow sections.

I only use One Inverter (10'-60' Sound Driver) at the moment, with all of the sections webbed into the body harness along my back and rear of the arms/helm. The whole system is run by 2: 12v 2000mAh Ni-MH batts for about 8-10 hours of run time.

 

[twinight]

I did want to use one of those little 12V car batteries (A23 size I believe) to power my Lite Tape, but when I soldered the battery cage on for it and put the battery in, it was not as bright as the battery cage which holds the 8AA (1.5V) batteries which is the same 12V.

Has anyone else tried a small 12V car battery out? how does it look? I would like to use it because it's so small and compact to add to my costume instead of this huge 8AA battery pack.

You can try this battery pack.
DC 12V 3000mAh Super Rechargeable Lithium-ion Battery | eBay
It's only 2"x3"x9/16" and last as long as a (8)AA pack.
I got the 6500mah one powering my backpack/disc.

 

[games001]

You can try this battery pack.
DC 12V 3000mAh Super Rechargeable Lithium-ion Battery | eBay
It's only 2"x3"x9/16" and last as long as a (8)AA pack.
I got the 6500mah one powering my backpack/disc.

6500mAh.. talk about overkill. :love

 

[twinight]

6500mAh.. talk about overkill. :love

It's in a backpack, so you can't go too big.
The inner ring of my disc has about SMT 45 LED's.
I had to face the LED's perpendicular to the ring otherwise you get blinded by the light. If you were standing behind me.

 

[tim]

Unless I am insane.. you are speaking of the 'small' A23 Batteries? If so, they tend to have about a 20-40mah rating, so they would last (if they can light up your suit at all) about 10 minutes. You would do far better, as noted above, with a simple 12v 2000mah pack of Ni-MH or Li-Ion batteries as I am using. My 2 packs are about the size of a pack of cigs (a tad wider and a bit shorter) and last about 8-10 hours of constant use. Charge time is about 2.5 hours on my Ni-MH's.
All-Battery.com - 12v 2000mah Ni-MH Battery Pack (was in stock and $15 when I got them back in Dec 2010)

Yeah, the A23 batteries can't push enough current (unless one were to hook a bunch of them in parallel). For the money, a NiMH battery pack with suitable charger should do the trick (could probably just buy any pack designed for RC cars of proper voltage). Li-ion batteries go boom if you don't charge them correctly.

 

[games001]

Yeah, the A23 batteries can't push enough current (unless one were to hook a bunch of them in parallel). For the money, a NiMH battery pack with suitable charger should do the trick (could probably just buy any pack designed for RC cars of proper voltage). Li-ion batteries go boom if you don't charge them correctly.

Li-Ions do have a chance of going on fire or even exploding if charged incorrectly or for too long.. just be wary of that note.

RC Car, Airsoft Gun, almost any Ni-MH battery and charger set can be used up to around the 3800mAh range, then you tend to only find Li-Ions in the 4800mAh+ area.

It's in a backpack, so you can't go too big.

The inner ring of my disc has about SMT 45 LED's.

I had to face the LED's perpendicular to the ring otherwise you get blinded by the light. If you were standing behind me.

That's a great pack. Well done both on style and on blinding everyone in the room.

 

[colonelmasako]

I couldn't help but notice a LOT of responses reiterating what I said earlier. No big deal, but good to know we all agree on it

 

[Pizzacat]

Has anyone tried using both reflective tape and the frosted transparency / shower curtain technique?

Results? Good? Waste of time?

 

[Annisse]

If you can find some safe way to solder ELTape, I am all ears. Soldering ELTape will burn the tape, destroying the layers and I would think make it difficult to hide the damage.

Usually, given enough space and the like, you can use ETCO Clips to secure the wire to the tape, else do as I did and E6000 the wires directly to the tape and clamp until dry and secure. I did this both on my chest and helm sections and they are nearly as strong as a soldered connection would be.

What size width is your El Tape? Is it from Glowhut? I see they only have one width avaliable on their website and Ebay which is 13/32".

after the connector is cut off, I was told it was difficult to solder/attach new lead wires.

I see what you did here with the lead wires and E6000 glue. Now I thought there needed to be a center Scribe line as Luminous Film has on their product to attach the lead wires to get it to the EL Tape to light up.

I see two white lines on your green El Tape, one on either side, are those considered the Scribe lines on the Glowhut product?

I am still trying to understand the differences in all these EL Tape/Light Tape products.

Anyone have any White El Tape from Glowhut or another company they can sell to me? I am really curious how it looks compared to the Luminous Film product.

Hey everyone, new update from us at aradani. My brother has been hard at work modding a bunch of disks and he recorded it to show others how we modded ours. Click here to see his video collection.

In other news, the new disk holder is all molded up and should be in production tomorrow.

Thank you for your MOD demo! and I am definately ordering a couple white disc holder hubs from you. My friend and I will need them for our upcoming Siren costumes for SDCC PERFECT!

Unless I am insane.. you are speaking of the 'small' A23 Batteries? If so, they tend to have about a 20-40mah rating, so they would last (if they can light up your suit at all) about 10 minutes. You would do far better, as noted above, with a simple 12v 2000mah pack of Ni-MH or Li-Ion batteries as I am using. My 2 packs are about the size of a pack of cigs (a tad wider and a bit shorter) and last about 8-10 hours of constant use. Charge time is about 2.5 hours on my Ni-MH's.
All-Battery.com - 12v 2000mah Ni-MH Battery Pack (was in stock and $15 when I got them back in Dec 2010)

AWESOME!

I really like that pack, eliminates the battery plastic holder bulk and will be much easier for me to find a project box to fit that battery pack. This is perfect.

I wish they were not out of stock. Yeah, I really don't want to stack a bunch of A23 batteries together to get more juice. That defeats the purpose of me wanting less battery bulk. But to power all that El panel, the 8AA batteries (12V) is the way to go.

If you are looking for battery packs, check batteryspace.com its where I got my battery packs from and they have a lot of battery packs

Thanks and this is the bulky little battery pack I currently am using on my Quorra costume. Holds 8AA batteries.

Battery holder: 8 x AA (4x2) With 6" 26AWG Wire Leads - RoHS Compliant

It's in a backpack, so you can't go too big.
The inner ring of my disc has about SMT 45 LED's.
I had to face the LED's perpendicular to the ring otherwise you get blinded by the light. If you were standing behind me.

WOW!!! nice work on your backpack! Take that to ElecTRONica on Tron Day April 10th

Don't know whether this helps, Annisse, but here's a list of sources I found for EL Tape:



Electroluminescent sheets, tapes and EL inverters (Split Electrode)

Large Electroluminescent Panels and Strip Lamps - LED Panels - LUMINOUSFILM.COM --USA (Split)

Home

Top Right Optoelectronics LTD. (Haven't checked yet)

Electroluminescent Manufacturer - FLATLITE EL lamps, panels, and strips (Again, haven't checked)

Light Tape® - Bring your imagination to light! (The actual source used for the costumes in the film)

Thank you. I have seen most of those sites

 

[CelticRuins]

Awesome! Thanks so much, Icey and gams!

 

[MisterDigital]

Ok guys. I made my first EL product purchase and am patiently awaiting its arrival. I plan to knock out the boots first. I have my discs all planned out and I pretty certain they will work fine. I'm just trying to decide on boots, and how to mount them.

1. What do you guys think of this as the boot style (pic)

2. Any ideas/experience mounting the EL discs on? I'd like a way that doesn't permanently alter the boot. But as even sticky back Velcro would damage the leather, I may have to give up and go all or nothing. I might just cut out the section and stick the disc into the leather. Thoughts?

 

[games001]

What size width is your El Tape? Is it from Glowhut? I see they only have one width avaliable on their website and Ebay which is 13/32".

Yes, it's the same size as the tape they sell on their eBay listings.

after the connector is cut off, I was told it was difficult to solder/attach new lead wires.

'Difficult to attach' is a relative term these days. :lol The hard part is getting the glue to set enough to keep the wire in direct contact with the phos material surface, once the back coating is carefully peeled back away and the wires are in place. It's a bit of an experiment with placement, pressure, stable glue addition, and waiting 3-5 mins for a base setup.

I see what you did here with the lead wires and E6000 glue. Now I thought there needed to be a center Scribe line as Luminous Film has on their product to attach the lead wires to get it to the EL Tape to light up.

I see two white lines on your green El Tape, one on either side, are those considered the Scribe lines on the Glowhut product?

Yes, the white lines seem to be the scribes for this particular type of tape. As you see, I have the wires, one touching each area on a side of the 'middle' white line. That does make placement and size of wire used a bit of a consideration as having one of those wires touching both sides of the phos material causes a short and it starts to burn the tape with a slow arc. :unsure

I really like that pack, eliminates the battery plastic holder bulk and will be much easier for me to find a project box to fit that battery pack. This is perfect.

I wish they were not out of stock. Yeah, I really don't want to stack a bunch of A23 batteries together to get more juice. That defeats the purpose of me wanting less battery bulk. But to power all that El panel, the 8AA batteries (12V) is the way to go.

They may be out of stock here, but any quality site with 8xAA Battery Packs in a 12v configuration will offer these same basic battery types. You can find them in flat 1x8, rectangular 2x4, even round layouts to fit your needs. (i.e. 12v 10xAA 2200mAh Ni-MH Battery Packs)

 

[mbielaczyc]

New disk holders are available! They are in production now!

http://www.aradanicostumes.com/disk_mount?keyword=disk%20holder%20mount&category_id=0

 

[DannyO]

You can try this battery pack.
DC 12V 3000mAh Super Rechargeable Lithium-ion Battery | eBay
It's only 2"x3"x9/16" and last as long as a (8)AA pack.
I got the 6500mah one powering my backpack/disc.

Nice find! Thanks for that, I originally went with the 8aa's and don't like it, switching to this definitely. In the words of Charlie Sheen, "WINNING!" :lol

 

[games001]

New disk holders are available! They are in production now!

Disk Holder Mount

How much do these little buggers weigh? I am not able to be throw screws and bolts through my jacket/mounting area, so this is a big deal.