LED POV Helmet

This is my "Light Emitting Diode Persistence of Vision Helmet". I made it for my Gizmology class this semester.

On the end of the black arm is a vertical row of 8 red LEDs that are attached to a chip which controls the rate at which they flash. You can program short text messages into the chip via 3 buttons on it's side. When the LED POV flasher is on I then flip a switch on the helmut to engage the motor which spins the LEDs around my head. When in the dark the flashing LEDs combined with the rotational movement give the illusion of red letters floating around my head in a halo-like fashion.

I can't capture the red letters with a still or video camera so you will have to see it in person.

I will have a step-by-step DIY tutorial posted on The Ominous Moo so you can make one yourself!

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Comments

Brian Lane Winfield Moore says:

I assume you'll submit this to MAKE once you're done making the DIY... Cause you definitely should.

I want to make one of those!! Where did you learn to do all the electronics stuff? I would do that if I knew...

Oh, and, by the way... you should be able to take stills of your helmet- check this out:

Posted 48 months ago. ( permalink )

Clint M Chilcott says:

It honestly wasn't that difficult to make. I just pieced together different technologies to create some thing new. When it comes to the fundamentals of electronics I am not that knowledgeable. I am just beginning to familiarize myself with schematics and making my own circuits but really I just like to tinker around.

Now that we have the internet the amount of information you know is irrelevant. What really matters now is knowing how to access the information you need to solve a given problem. You don't need an electrical engineering degree to make stuff like this. If you can use Google you can potentially learn/do anything.

I tried to take video of the helmet but the frame rate didn't work well with the flashing LEDs. I figured a still was possible but I had problems getting it dark enough to see the words yet bright enough to see my face. I'll try it out and you'll see it here if I was successful.

Thanks for the comment. :D
Posted 48 months ago. ( permalink )

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Taken with a Sony DSC-P150.
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Taken on December 7, 2005
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