How-To: LED VU-Meter Necktie

Technology Wearables
How-To: LED VU-Meter Necktie
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I don’t know about you, but I can’t get enough of the first five seconds of this video. So here’s an infinite loop of them that other long-time MAKE readers, weirdos, and/or fans of Collin Cunningham will hopefully enjoy as much as I do. The rest of the video is pretty darn good, too, which is no surprise to anyone since it’s the work of fellow MAKE alum Becky Stern.

LED Ampli-Tie

The tie is fit with a microphone at the knot, a row of RGB pixels down the front, and a sew-on FLORA microcontroller on the back. It can’t actually be tied with all that wiring in place, so she’s using one of those strangleproof breakaway police / corrections officer ties with a velcro closure at the back of the collar.

Great work, Becky. I might have to make one of those, myself. Though I doubt I could rock it like Collin. I can’t think of many who could.

Overview | LED Ampli-Tie | Adafruit Learning System

14 thoughts on “How-To: LED VU-Meter Necktie

  1. miroslava von schlockbaum says:

    would you-all consider posting a duplicate link of this fun stuff in the elder section: http://blog.makezine.com/tag/collinslab/ …even-though it’s a bit abandoned we “fans of Collin Cunningham” tend to go there for all our Collin Cunningham news. thank you!

    1. Sean Michael Ragan says:

      Done!

  2. danielmcgregor says:

    Wow^^ Looks awesome and will surely start a conversation at any party :)

  3. Ernesto says:

    I miss “collinslab” so much…..

    1. PoLoMoTo says:

      Same, such a great series

  4. fighterfish says:

    Hey there, here is a similar project I did for Umeå Institute Design while I was a student there
    http://www.fighterfish.com/audioTies.php

  5. danielsandrade says:

    Freakin Awez0me!!

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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