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Hey Phil, you're looking so serious, why don't you lighten up?
It's easy to mod your sneakers to light up when you walk. Today we'll show you how to
add NeoPixel strip and a simple sensor to detect your steps, with FLORA, Adafruit's
wearable electronics platform.
For this project we'll be using Velostat. What is that? Velostat is a material that
becomes less resistive when it's pinched, so we made a basic sensor from it to detect
each time your weight comes down on the heel of the shoe.
Just tape one piece of conductive thread to each side of a small piece of velostat, forming
a loop under the tape. Then pick up the tails with a needle and stitch them up the side
of the shoe, connecting one to ground and the other to an analog input on the FLORA
board.
Each time FLORA sees the resistance of the velostat drop, it knows you've stepped on
the heel sensor, and it triggers the LEDs around the sole to animate, lighting up your
stride. We prototyped the circuit with alligator clips before attaching everything to the shoes.
Put your shoes on and bend your foot as though you're standing on your tip toes. Mark off
the parts of the shoe that bend the most, and skip these spots when it's time to glue.
This will reduce the likelihood of cracking the flexible circuit board when the shoes
bend.
Now we need to glue the strips to the shoes. We recommend Permatex 66B silicone adhesive
because it sticks to the sheathing of the NeoPixel strip, but test any adhesive first
to make sure it also sticks to the rubber of your shoes.
This triple A battery holder lives in the shoe's laces, and you can follow along with
our complete tutorial on the Adafruit Learning System to build your own firewalker LED sneakers.
Subscribe to the Adafruit channel on YouTube and don't miss our weekly live show about
Wearable Electronics with me, Becky Stern.