These ATtiny85 Name Badges Are Full of Disney Magic!
Justin Garrison made badges for the Disney+ infrastructure team using EL wire and addressable LEDs.
By now you’ve heard of Disney+, but you may not know anything about the people behind it that allow it to provide a plethora of content on demand. Such is the case with thousands of products and services you interact with every day. Justin Garrison, however, who works on infrastructure for Disney+, wanted to at least have awesome badges for him and other members of the team. So he created them himself.
What he came up with displays team member names in brilliant Disney-esque blue EL wire, along with a “+” and swooping line on the end in addressable WS2812B LEDs. EL wire is super glued into place, and the LEDs are “freeformed” with the help of stripped doorbell wire — stiff enough to shape into whatever is needed. Everything is laid out on a white Maker Mouse Club perfboard PCB by Samantha Olson and Vinnie Morrison.
The badge is designed around an ATtiny85 microcontroller that drives the animated lighting elements without adding a lot of bulk. An EL wire inverter is used for the wire and LEDs, which pipes both the needed AC and DC power to the board via a recycled USB cable.