Hold onto your hat, 'cause your threads are about to get a serious upgrade, man. We're talkin' LED lights for your furry coat, but not just any lights, my friends. We're talkin' lights that'll have you struttin' like a disco diva under the neon glow.

First up, imagine your coat decked out with animated lights nestled snugly in that lush fun fur trim. Those lights will be dancin' and flickerin' like a kaleidoscope of colors, man. It's like your own personal light show, wherever you go. But hey, if you're feelin' like a real trailblazer, we got somethin' even groovier in store.

Enter the custom-built LED matrix, baby. We're talkin' next-level stuff here. With LED mapping and WLED tech, your coat becomes a canvas for your wildest dreams. Patterns, animations, you name it. It's like wearin' a slice of the future right on your back, man. So grab your coat, and your LEDs, and let's hit the streets like a couple of cosmic cowboys, spreadin' good vibes and sparklin' lights wherever we roam. Are you ready to light up the night, daddy-o? Peace, love, and a whole lotta disco fever await! 

Scope of This Guide

This guide will demonstrate two different methods of lighting up a coat:

1. Fur Trim Lights: String LED lights inside the ubiquitous furry trim that's found on so many Festival jackets. This is a fairly easy build that doesn't require a lot of sewing or coding skills.
2. Light Matrix Panels: Create a 3-panel LED matrix between the coat fabric and lining that runs 2d animations on the body of the coat. This is a more complicated build that requires some coat deconstruction and sewing and requires some detail-oriented number work to get the LED map created.

The wiring is the same for both builds, and it's possible to do both in the same coat, though that makes the software setup pretty tricky.

This guide uses the free, open-source WLED software. It's easy to install and use. Control the lights with your phone or computer over your WiFi network when you're at home, or via AP-MODE (access point mode) when you're out and about. WLED comes with loads of customizable animations for your lights. 

Parts

For my coat, I used 275 pixels at 15mm pitch for the fur trim, and 154 pixels at 50mm pitch for my vest. 

There are a lot of sources for these -- do a search for pebble or seed pixels to shop around. Make sure you're getting the ones rated for 5v.

Powering

I got a large USB battery to power my coat. These come in a variety of sizes, weights, and inputs, and will charge your phone as well! The newest ones mostly use usb-c cables to charge, so I also found a usb-c on/off switch and got a short usb-c cable to connect them all up. 

Make sure when you select your battery, switch, and cables that everything will match up and plug into each other. Pay attention to male/female ends also. If they don't quite all connect neatly up, we sell adapters!

Here are a few other products that might be helpful with your build.