May the spirit of the Dragon bring courage to your heart and fire to your dreams.

These glowing Dragon Kite Poi use flexible LED seed pixels and a Mini Sparkle Motion controller running WLED. Create flowing ribbons of animated light that float through the air, with no coding required.

These props are so much fun to customize with dazzling colors and animations. In this tutorial, you’ll build your own illuminated Dragon Kite Poi and learn how to bring a little extra fire-breathing magic to the night. These are perfect for Lunar New Year celebrations, festivals, dragon dances, flow arts, and nighttime performances,

WLED makes it easy to add fire, water, or air color schemes to bring your Dragon Persona to life, and to make them pulse or blink or dance to your whim. You can even make them sound-reactive with the Mini Sparkle Motion's onboard microphone.

No Dragons were harmed in the making of this project.

Dragon Poi are available from many sources online in various colors and lengths. Some come as a set with the head and tail, and some are sold separately, so be sure you know what you're getting. You can find a few on Amazon, or you can order directly from China using a website like AliExpress, where you'll find more variety and great prices, but a longer shipping time.

I ordered these 6m dragon tails from AliExpress. However -- 6m is very long, and in hindsight I'd recommend starting with a 4m or 5m length. My dragons are giant and gorgeous, but they are difficult to spin without tangling, even for a seasoned poi spinner like myself. The drag created by 6m of tail is also a factor - these things give you quite a workout. 

Note: these tails do not come with heads (despite the misleading photos). 

For the heads, I found matching medium sized premade heads on Amazon. The heads come in a variety of sizes. I wanted a big enough size to balance my giant tails and also leave room inside for the batteries and electronics. The medium sized head worked out great. 

Adding Lights

This is a fairly easy build, but it is a bit time consuming. The wiring and software setup are simple, but attaching the lights to the poi takes some time and care. Sewing skills are helpful!

Get one controller, switch, and light strand for each dragon you're making -- for two dragons, get two of everything. 

For each of my 6m tails I used one 300-light, 15m long seed pixel strand. You'll need enough lights to go down the length of the tail and back up again, plus a few extra feet to stuff inside the head so it glows too. The seed pixel strands are sold in different lengths and are cuttable at any point. I like the 2" pitch strands for a denser light experience.

Parts

Additional Tools & Materials

• Sewing machine with a wide zig-zag stitch (or a needle and thread and some patience)
• Soldering iron & accessories
• Wire cutters / strippers
• Hot glue gun
• Drill and drill bit (for drilling pupil holes in the eyes)
• Strong velcro for mounting the battery