Steampunk Energy Goggles

Project Summary (TL;DR)

These are some easy to make (and super cool looking) EL wire goggles!

Assembly Instructions

Before you start:

• Decide if you want one or two colours of EL wire.
• Decide if you want to use an EL wire splitter (bulkier but easier) or to solder the EL wire strands onto the inverter.

Here are a couple reference photos of the completed goggles to help with the assembly:

1. 3D Print the goggles. I recommend printing them with the back side (where your face goes) facing the printer bed because this makes it easier to print the precise channel that the EL wire goes in on the front of the goggles. After the print is complete make sure to test that your EL wire fits along the entire channel in the goggles!

2. Cut two small lengths of paracord and thread them through the back of one hole, over the EL wire channel, and into the next hole. Heat the ends of the paracord with a lighter to melt them and carefully fuse the ends together. Don't get burned!

3. Wrap the elastic band through each of the paracord loops and double the band back on itself. Wrap the elastic back tight enough so the goggles fit snug on your face (and can be worn comfortably on your forehead). Pin the ends of the band in place when you have the right fit.

4. Sew the elastic bands in place to form the goggle band. I stitched in a rectangle at the very back of the band through all three layers of elastic. Cut off the extra elastic band.

5. Before installing the EL wire, test both strands with the inverter. If the brightness of the EL wire changes during the animation this most likely means the wrong leads are connected from the inverter to the EL wire. If this happens try connecting different leads together.

6. Test fit the two EL wire strands in the goggles to determine what length to cut it.

• We want to use the side of the EL wire with four copper wires broken out. This prevents having to splice leads onto the EL wire.
• Ideally the heat shrink section should be close to the back of the strap with enough room for the wires or connector to go up to the inverter. If you're using the EL wire splitter make sure to account for the extra cable length.
• Make sure the EL wire can go all the way through the channel and wrap around the front of the goggles.

When you have an ideal size, cut the EL wire with a pair of sharp wire cutters.

Note:EL wire can be cut anywhere along the strand. After cutting EL wire be careful of the exposed end because you can get a shock while the inverter is running. Gluing the end is recommended.

7. Starting from the front of the goggles, superglue in the EL wire into the channel. Work one section at a time. Place dabs of superglue every inch or so in the channel around the front of the goggles. Install the wire and wait for the glue to dry. Then move on to the side of the goggles. The EL wire can be threaded underneath the paracord, which helps keep the wire from pulling out of the sides.

8. Once the EL wire is glued in and has dried, install the inverter by attaching it to the band using the pocket clip.

9. If you are choosing to use the EL wire connector splitter then just install the splitter on the inverter and connect both strands.

If you're soldering the EL wire to the inverter then snip off the connector on both strands, leaving the coloured wires. Snip off the connector on the inverter and strip off the outer insulation. This should reveal four identical coloured wires.

For both strands and the inverter, solder all the same coloured wires to each other by twisting them around each other first (Ie. three yellow wires from the inverter and two strands are soldered together). The EL strands should be installed in parallel to each other from the inverter. Check that your EL wire still works as expected before installing heatshrink over the solder joints.

10. Affix the EL wire to the goggle straps by adding one solid stitch near the back of the strap on both sides (over the EL wire). This will hold the wire in place along the strap while leaving some flexibility to put on the goggles.

11. This step is optional, but I recommend adding some foam tape based on your face shape inside the goggles for comfort!

Splicing EL wire

While I recommend buying two strands of EL wire, it's also possible to use just one since they come in one meter strands. This involves adding new leads onto the section of EL wire you cut off. Soldering to EL wire is a bit tricky since the internal wires are very fine, especially the "corona wires". Also, you will have to determine which signal from the inverter is the corona wire. The other connections should be interchangeable.

Here's a helpful guide on splicing chasing EL wire that I found:

And here's an adafruit guide for soldering to normal EL wire: https://learn.adafruit.com/el-wire/soldering-to-el-wire

I recommend using the copper tape like in the adafruit tutorial because the corona wires are very easy to break. At the very least, use several different sized sections of heatshrink (ideally with hot glue) over your joint to stiffen it up.

Conclusion

Good luck building your own EL wire goggles! Let me know if there are any questions. I may build another pair of these so I may add more photos here in the future.