Another post about lighting up instruments in a radical marching band called Brass Your Heart. This time, I used Alphabet LED Filaments on a brass bell cover for an alto saxophone.

Step One:

I fist started by arranging the letters and roughly positioning them on an alto sax bell cover (I used a black Protec bell cover) just to see what they would look like.

Step Two:

I need to be able to work on both sides of the cover, so I made a ring of wire roughly the same size of the alto saxophone bell.

Step Three:

I went ahead and soldered wires to each of the letters. I left longer wires for the power line of the F and ground of the E to connect to the power. Later, I will need to thread the wires through the cover so I used the thinnest gauge I had, which ended up being the Silicone Cover Stranded-Core ribbon. I pulled off one of the wires from the ribbon for this project.

Step Four: 

Then I put the letters back on the cover (with the metal ring inserted) and used rubber bands to re-position things so that when I pulled the wires through the cover (next step), I had a better idea of where everything was supposed to be. 

Step Five:

Next I sewed the ends of the wires to the other side of the cover so they would not be visible. I used a big plastic needle for sewing ends into knitting projects. I did one at a time, until they were all pulled through the other side of the cover.

Step Six:

Once all the wires are through I tied the connecting wires together and made a loose knot for each pair to keep them in place. For this project, the LEDS are wired in a series, and you basically make connections between each letter. The ground of the F, goes to the power of the U, the ground of the U then goes to the power of the C, and so on... 

Step Seven:

I twisted the ends of the wires together to finalize the connections and then covered them with heat shrink tubing. 

Step Eight:

I put the cover back on the bell and used regular needle and thread to try to reposition any of the letters that were a little out of place. 

Step Nine:

I connected the ground wire from the E, and the power wire from the F and added them to a TPS61169 Constant Current Boost Converter. This makes this project mobile, as the LEDS in a series can add up to quite a lot of volts at 3V a pop! 

Step Ten:

I added a JST-PH Battery Extension cable to the other end of the Constant Current Boost Converter, and attached it to a LiPo battery.

Step Eleven:

I taped the converter and wire to the saxophone and added velcro to the battery so it can all be tucked out of the way on the saxophone. 

Step Twelve:

I powered it up to see the filaments in all their glory!