Measure Wire Lengths

First step is to figure out how long our wires need to be. In order to do this, we'll need to assemble one limb. Each limb is 15 segments. Each segment snaps together, forming an articulating limb. A whole assembled limb is roughly 6in (15cm) in length. Our wires will have to be longer than this. Mine were about 9in (22cm). The extra length accommodates for the distance needed to wire into the breadboard PCB.

Thread Wires

Once I have all of my wires measured and cut to size, the next step was to install them into each limb. To do this, I threaded the wire through each individual segment. It was easier this way, as the wire would get caught when trying to thread it through the whole limb assembly. This was very reminiscent to building popcorn necklaces.

Tip: I found it necessary to add a piece of masking tape to one of the ends – This prevents the wire from accidentally slipping out of the segments.

Tinning Wires

After I had the wires threaded and installed into each  limb, next I worked on tinning all of the tips. Since I'm using 30AWG silicone cover stranded core wire, it's a good idea to tin them. First, I needed to strip each wire using a pair of wire strippers. I highly recommend using a pair of helping third hands to hold the wires in place while applying solder. 

Tin LEDs

Next I needed to work on prepping the LEDs for wiring. First, take note which electrode is positive (anode) and which is negative (cathode). Normally, the positive anode has a longer leg. Then, I trimmed the anode short using flush cutters. After that, I tinned it by applying a small amount of solder.

Wire Anode

With the anode tinned, it's ready to wire up! Before wiring, I made sure to add a small piece of heat shrink tubing to one of the wire that are threaded through the limb. Then I attached it to the anode by soldering it in place. Slide the heat shrink over the exposed wire and apply heat to shrink.

Wire Cathode

After our anode is wired, we can work on wiring the cathode. Basically repeat the same steps as we did for the anode. Optionally add heat shrink tubing for the cathode. I found using tweezers to hold the wires close to the cathode was very helpful. Keeps my fingers away from the tip of the hot tip of the soldering.

Test LED Wiring

Using a 3V coil cell battery I quickly tested to see if I had correctly wired the LEDs. This is done by placing the negative (cathode) wire onto the negative side of the coin cell, and the positive (anode) wire to the positive side of the coin cell. If everything if wired correctly, our LED lights up! Next, we'll need to repeat this process for the rest of the limps. It's a bit of process, so feel free to take breaks.

Drill Holes

Once I had all of the LEDs wired up and tested, I needed to through them through the joints in the main body. To do this, I had to drill 4mm holes into each joint. It's easy todo with a rotary power tool like a Dremel. On the flat side of each joint, I marked two lines to find the center and drove the tip of the drill bit into the joint. 

Wire Joints

After drilling out all of the necessary holes, I needed to thread each wire through the joint. Insert a single wire through the smaller sphere and out through the large joint. Pull the wire through and repeat for the second wire. I found it a bit difficult to thread the wires, so I ended up drilling larger holes in each joint. 

Wiring Perma Proto

Now that all of the wires are threaded through the joints, we can wire them into the perma-proto PCB. They can be soldered into any of the power and ground rails (marked blue for negative (cathode) and red for voltage (power, anode, positive).

Wired Perma-Proto

And with everything wired into the perma-proto, we can now test it out! Plug in the male JST connector from the lipo battery into the female JST connector on the JST breakout board. Make sure the on/off switch is in the ON position. The blue LEDs will shine bright.