NeoPixel Gas Mask at Arizona Fur Con

The NeoPixel Gas Mask from the Adafruit Learning Center was completed and Franklin wore it to Day 1 of the Arizona Fur Con.  It was quite a hit!

Franklin wearing NeoPixel Gas Mask at Arizona Fur Con

Franklin wearing NeoPixel Gas Mask at Arizona Fur Con


The final mask had a lot of “manual effort” put into it, including using a hot knife to rip out part of the face plate and shaping in a replacement.  Copious amounts of hot glue were also used, for things like attaching Velcro strips.  Franklin ran the EL Wire through a varity of holes, and the NeoPixel rings controlled by the Arduino-based GEMMA were positioned in a respirator-like piece on the front.  The overall look was quite realistic.

Franklin re-programmed the GEMMA to do two very interesting things:

  • He expanded the sample code to include a couple more flashing patterns, and attached a pushbutton switch to change from one to the next, including a common “transition” flash at each mode change.
  • He further expanded the use of the button so when it is pressed down for over half of the transition cycle, the brightness of the LEDs would increase incrementally from quarter to third to half power, then back to quarter.  This allowed the LEDs to be bright enough to be clearly seen outdoors, but reduced in brightness when indoors – to save on battery load and not be “too bright to look at”.
Gas Mask selfie!

Gas Mask selfie!

We’ll update this post with more pics and info later!

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