Hey guys, super new to this community but I've had a project I've wanted to work on for a while. I want to recreate an idea I saw on YouTube, but I don't know jack about powering any electronics. I am unsure if the leds the guy used were actually dense enough but seemed fine. The video is named "What Color are My Nike?" by "The Q". Seems very simple to connect everything but I am unsure of what rgb led strips to use and what voltage I should be getting and how to power them. I was thinking I could use a power bank and have it placed under the sole of the shoe. I understand that brighter, more dense rgb led strips require more power, but I will only probably use a few leds (maybe 6) off the strip on one or both sides of each shoe if possible. If anyone can recommend a rgb strip and battery pack or advice on this project I'd really appreciate it!

 

Welcome to AAC.

Adding RGB LEDs to shoes is certainly doable. But you will have to consider a few things.

First, you are almost certainly going to end up using a lithium ion power source of some kind. Personally, I would not bury a lithium cell under my foot in a shoe. While you can make the risk of thermal runaway leading to flame-thrower-like spectacles, you can't eliminate it. I would not want to be wearing a shoe where this could happen:

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Speaking of thermal, there will be heat that needs to be dissipated, and that will also have to be taken into account.

There is also the issue of control. You can connect some LEDs to a battery and they will light, but RGB LEDs need a controller to manage colors, do you have a plan?

Maybe you could link the YT video to help answer some of these things. If you are wiling to learn, and don't expect plug-and-play operation, this can surely be done—but we, and you, will need a lot more information to be able to help.

 

Hey man! Thanks for responding and for your advice. I didn't paste the link because I was unsure of the forum's rules, but I will add one in this post. Yeah I had the same thoughts concerning the battery, do you think a mini power bank would be able to output enough power, and for a decent enough amount of time (a few hours maybe)? Is there anything that's not lithium and compact that would work? As for the controller, i'm pretty sure there's bluetooth controllers available that come with an app that allows you to control the lights and effects, I imagine it's as simple as wiring the controller to the power source and then to the leds but I don't know for sure. As for the leds, since I want the light to be very diffused and spread, I originally thought that a 12v rgb led strip with more leds/m would be best, at the cost of needing a stronger power source, but would a 5v rbg led strip work just as good? obviously there has to be some experimentation, but I'm just trying to gain a bit more knowledge so my shoes don't spontaneously combust while I'm at work haha. As for the diffusion of the leds, I've found some videos regarding cosplayers using leds for their cosplay. They also mentioned what they used to power theirs, but I didn't think it applied to my application.

YouTube Link: (honestly the shoes may have been edited to look like that, but I really don't see why it wouldn't be possible to actually make them look as bright as they look.)

 

I've seen "emergency" power banks that were powered from alkaline cells. That would be safer than lithium. I got one from Dollar Tree some years ago, but haven't noticed them lately.