Make Your Face Shine with FlexiGlow Wearable Hexagon NeoPixels

Self-expression is neat and I’m a fan. But how much opportunity do you really get to express yourself? You can choose from the clothes on the rack at Target, whatever haircuts the Great Clips barbers can pull off, and the handful of accessories available at Hot Topic. That’s so limiting! True self-expression comes from luminous cheeks, which is why you should check out Kyle’s FlexiGlow wearable hexagon NeoPixels.

“NeoPixel” is Adafruit’s brand name for individually addressable RGB LEDs — typically WS2812B models. Compared to traditional common-cathode and common-anode RGB LEDs, they’re much easier to control in large numbers and so they’ve become very popular. Kyle likes to use them for ornamental wearables and has made a few different devices to achieve that fashionable objective, including LED pasties with the controller worn as a choker.

The pasties were cool, but probably too adventurous for most people. These FlexiGlow hexagons are much less provocative. Each is a hexagonal strip of LEDs about an inch tall. There are 30 LEDs in total, so a lot of light output and many animated effects are possible. And they’re flexible with adhesive backing, so wearers can stick them right on their squishy skin.

These are, however, just LEDs on a “strip” that happens to loop around in a hexagon shape, so users still need a way to power them and control them. The aforementioned choker works for that — though it can be worn in other ways, too. The choker is a version of Kyle’s WLED Pixie project, which is a WS2812B controller based on an ESP32-C3 microcontroller. It includes a lithium battery and those components go in a 3D-printed enclosure shaped liked a pendant, so it looks nice on the throat.

If you want to make some FlexiGlow wearables, you’ll need to order flexible PCBs from a provider like PCBWay or JLCPCB. Kyle also designed a star shape, in case hexagons offend you. When you get the PCBs, you’ll need to solder on the WS2812B LEDs. Those are SMD components and they require some tricky hot air or hot plate soldering, so it helps to get the solder paste stencil.

Populate the PCBs, slap ‘em on your face, connect the controller, and head to your nearest EDM festival for some blinky fun! They’ll look great next to your fresh Great Clips haircut.