Make your own neon-style signs without any of the glass, gas, and high voltage! These neon-like LED strips have a great look, are easy to shape and splice, and you can drive them with just 9V to 12V DC.

We'll learn how to control them for blinking and animation using a microcontroller and a Darlington transistor driver.

Parts

You can decide how many strips you need depending on the sign you're making. The parts listed below are for the Adabot / Lightning bolt sign I made.

Materials

In addition to the parts above, you'll also want a large piece of black foam core board to mount your sign. This will vary depending on size -- I used a 32" x 40" piece for the backboard, and two 20" x 30" pieces for mounting the two sign halves.

You'll use clear zip ties to mount the neon tube strips.

Tools

You'll need wire strippers for stripping insulation from wire ends.

You'll need a soldering iron and solder to put the circuit on the Proto ScrewShield. Alternately, you can keep the circuit on a breadboard if you don't want to do any soldering!