Creative Dialogue : 3D Light Goggles

October is one of my favorite months and it has been quite a memorable one so far. I have taken a brief breather from developing my delta army and engaged in a playful dialogue with a fellow techie at our local Hacker space here in town. He has an impressive collection of self-made steam punk inspired goggles, of which he is currently underway with his fourth pair.

In response to this stellar practice, I have created my own version… a retro leather-trimmed set that has some nifty chain-switch activated light pipe around the lenses to give the illusion of neon.

Check out Krux’s hand-made goggles on his page : krux.org/gallery/mk2goggles

I also want to thank him for helping me work past some brain farts along the way with this project. =]

Alas, here is the outline:

First I started by cutting and embellishing all the leather trimmings. The ‘V’ shaped pieces hug the sides of the goggles.

Hand stitching leather sucks, but it was well worth the outcome. It gave the right effect:

Once I received the base pair of goggles in the mail, I started attaching the leather pieces, as well as the buckle and strap…

After I finished panning out the aesthetics, I had to devise a way of getting my light pipe to stay in a circle-shape behind the lenses. This was a tad tricky. I ended up using the edge of a plastic cap to create a backing that would sit behind the tubing and keep it wedged in place against the lens:

I attached a white LED at either end of the light pipe with some heat shrink. I then stitched the wires to the inside leather padding of the goggles.

The fun part was wiring the thing up and making sure it worked… (because the way I had originally built my circuit was not going to do the trick). Krux helped me troubleshoot and also supplied the minty-boost board (little green thing) which kicks the 3V of my AA power supply to 5V.

I managed to get them working in time for a Halloween party this Saturday (with help) so I was pleased to be able to show them off a bit. They were a hit amongst my friends and peers. Pulling the chain switch to turn them on and off will never get old. =]

Here is the complete gallery of progress photos :

Until my next pair, back to the robot army!