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2016-05-24 01:01
in Electronics
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===>>> See this full article on the why and evolution of my LED outfit <<<===
While those shoes are quite cool when they work, and getting them for $50 or less on amazon is quite cheap. Sadly the build is a bit cheap and the hardware could be improved. So I went ahead and did it.
the lit shoe laces are separate
these are the shoes: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014D20JTM (not great quality, be ready to buy 2 pairs if you want a backup)
and here are the lit laces: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BOK1BRQ
This is what you find under the sole: everything is inside a resin and the built it lipo is too small (only 4H runtime). Two sets of 4 wires come out: one is to control the LEDs and the other one has 2 wires for the switch built in the shoe, and 2 wires for the USB power charging (which charges super slowly, about 4X slower than the speed the lipo can charge at):
The first thing to do is to open the side of the shoe to get to the switch, take it out, and turn it around so that it points away from your foot. Otherwise it's way too easy to trigger. I've also cut the yellow wire and added a small slider switch. This allows me to disable the push switch if I want the shoes to stay off, or not rotate between color patterns each time the switch gets bumped:
The lipo is totally built in and too small. Adding a second lipo in parallel is a bit difficult, I had to burn off the resin to access the lipo terminals:
it claimes 450mAh, but I think it's smaller
it's a bit difficult to solder wires on top of the lipo wires without shorting it
I then added a female connector to allow use of bigger lipos from a mobius I wasn't using
I had a few lipos to choose from, but the mobius one was the best fit for the hole in the shoe
I had to cut off a bit of plastic fit the battery
still a bit of a tight fit
My shoes now work a bit over 12H, do not turn on or off without my wanting them to, and they come with a real off switch. I did put a very solid sole insert on top though to protect the electronics and the new bigger lipo underneath. There is also a worst case scenario where it could catch fire :)
I later got another pair of shoes with dual LED pattern, the battery is still quite small (450mA), and on top of that the shoes shut off on their own every 2H. Sigh...
getting to the battery contacts is still hard
I added a direct port to the lipo for optional faster charging and charge status check
Also, the charging function is slow as crap, but the direct lipo access charging port I added lets me recharge the batteries directly in one 1h by connecting directly to a proper lipo charger. They do suck in several ways, but in the meantime, finding dual pattern LED shoes with LED strips that flex instead of breaking, wasn't trivial either...
Years later (2021), I'm still using this type of shoe, but don't love them as the LED strips keep breaking, if it's not the control module itself on occasion. I tried to find other options, but have not yet. I had a look at LED laces, and those are not very reliable either (or very bright). I tried to hack these to power from the power supply I added and upgraded in the shoes, but it was probably not the best idea:
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