bigclive

A closer look at the LED Indian amulets

Added 2024-09-01 19:39:43 +0000 UTC

A closer look at one of the Indian amulets we were maintaining during the run of the show. For its cheapness and simplicity, it gives a stunning effect.

The performers with these had one on each wrist, and turned them on at a key point in the act.

They are literally just nine strips of 12V blue LED tape wired in parallel, and powered via a standard PP3 9V battery and a button that is glued on top of the LEDs at one corner.

The parallel bus wires are at the ends, but covered in rubber glue making them hard to repair, so we just soldered insulated bridging links part-way along the strips.

The most common issue was wrist clashing during the act, breaking LEDs. The fix was to carefully cut out individual groups of 3 LEDs and solder in a replacement section.

I think the original bussing of the strips had positive at one end and negative at the other. The power was supplied to the other end via the first strip.

They did not fit my wrists at all!

https://youtube.com/shorts/DmN2eB1l7ts