How To Easily Setup LED Strip Lighting for Props and Cosplay Tutorial

[@ladyhollz3099]

I hope you realise that 8 years later people like me are still coming back and watching your video to learn cosplay lights! This was wonderfully inoffensive and easy to understand. Thank you ☺️☺️☺️

[@coregeek]

I do and it has surprised me how long this tutorial has been chugging away. A lot of things have changed with the hobby but this is still a viable way to easily light stuff up. Thanks for watching, I’m glad you found it useful and thank you for letting me know.

[@AH-ph3cb]

All the google tutorials I found were either programming LED strips or working with single diodes. thanks for the middle area tutorial.

[@coregeek]

Glad this is still helping people years later.

[@andyyoung4726]

this is genuinely one of the most useful intros to leds i've found, nice and comprehensive, thank you man!

[@tkdboppa7177]

Great tutorial !! Very informative ! And thank you for not adding a bunch of extraneous background music so your commentary was clear and understandable !

[@genevracollier]

Thank you for this wonderfully clear and approachable video. Your instructions make the complicated, intimidating realm of prop lighting feel so much more attainable.

[@honnemochi]

I was genuinely debating forgoing my idea but you made me realise it’s actually super easy! Thank you!

[@Gigihyrule]

This video was so helpful! Thank you! Also I freaking love the Fierce Deity Link costume and sword in the background!!!

[@coregeek]

Gigihyrule Thanks. Glad it was helpful you. You can see the full costume here: www.coregeek.net/gallery#/fierce-deity-link/

[@220xprowler]

Fantastic video thank you Eric! I will be trying a costume with LED lights for the first time this year and this video is just what I needed to understand how to get started

[@thebeybladearmory]

Translucent foam is a good defuser

[@coregeek]

Zakary DeLaura Agreed. I made this quite a few years ago before translucent foam was widely available.

[@thebeybladearmory]

@@coregeek I noticed that, good stuff man keep it going!

[@KristinBrenemen]

Thanks so much for doing this - I feel pretty confident that I can work with LED strips now.

[@coregeek]

+Kristin Brenemen You are welcome. Glad to know it helps.

[@iralol3771]

This is a life saver for first timers! I need to make a pretty thin sword so I dont know where Ill fit the power supply or batteries. Any suggestions? Are there smaller ones?

[@Heyysse]

I love this so much, I was looking at many tutorials and they're all detailed for coding and mainly suggest only ada fruit ( which i love ) but also very pricyy. Sweet simply/ yet detailed enough and straight to the point. Thank you so much!

[@193Puddle]

Love the tutorial I've been looking for one that breaks everything down from defusing to wiring thanks!

[@coregeek]

+Jeremy Poole Somebody had to put it out there! Thanks for watching.

[@celestialcalista4292]

I want to try LED lights now. This looks cool.

[@jmabasa94]

Great video. Helped me make the sub zero mask I made glow blue

[@seekertosecrets]

Very interesting. Will have try that later down the line.

[@MasonMorris1204]

Great video, I'm working on a dead space 1 isaac engineer suit, and the helmet had leds in the visors and its pretty hard to make it accurate to the game, in the game you can't see his face, but in my helmet you can, I wish it was more accurate but I'm not to sure how to make it where you can't see my face

[@dragongoatkun6045]

this helped so much and I like the idea of using a battery pack

[@RoseMagpie]

What do you do if your leds have 4 copper bits when it comes to connecting to the power supply?

[@LittleSparkz]

This LED tutorial video from Coregeek Cosplay & Creations is awesome. LED strips is actually how I lit up my Cenarius hand for my Blizzcon costume. Instead of wiring 9 individual LEDs I just cut down LED strips to pieces with 3 LEDs each. As he mentions with the AA battery holder it can be tricky figuring out if the batteries you choose will keep your LEDs lit all day. I ended up wiring 2 of the LED strips together with a 12v (A23) battery powering them and then had the 3rd strip on it's own 12v just to help spread the power drain to hopefully keep them lit all day. I chose to use 12v A23s because of the very small amount of space I had for battery packs in the hand the A23 12v batteries are very small which allowed me to just tuck them down into the arm portion of the hand. The batteries I chose kept the LEDs lit all day and were still lit when I got to the hotel that night so about 14 hours. As for diffusing my lights, I had the luxury of having a very organic surface to work with so I used hot glue and just filled in the cracks in the foam where the light came through and then painted a little green sparkly nail polish over them. In Coregeek's video he discusses colored acrylic and bond paper, which for the more clean Sci Fi looking weapons and armor would be a much better way to get a smooth surface to diffuse your lights. Go forth and watch the video and learn all the things!

[@coregeek]

+Little Sparkz Cosplay (Kristin) Thanks for posting this from you facebook page. I thought the info could be useful for others here.

[@nikkihunter6168]

Great video! Thanks for putting in work to help us all out!!

[@Kruser81]

Great video. I would love to see your thought process and planning when building a prop. Specificially, the preplanning for the how you sill construct the piece in order to hide the wire between the layers of foam, or cut outs for the hollow cavities necessary for proper diffusion. Great job as always!

[@coregeek]

+Josh Kruse Thanks. Yeah, I hear you the planning/engineering is definitely an important step. The problem is it's going to differ depending on the prop. I didn't have anytime to shoot video on these last few builds but the next time I do lighting I'll try to get some video of that layout planning process.

[@Kruser81]

Awesome. Agreed that it would definately differ per each item. Keep up the great work. Look forward to seeing what you come up with next!

[@shadokatt]

GREAT stuff!! thank you so much for this!! the contact paper diffusion looks to give great results, and that battery looks perfect as well! for those of us that can't seem to solder, have you tried out those solderless led-strip clips? i was looking for connectors for something else and thought they might be useful if i ever got around to using strips, and they seem to be fairly cheap, too. again, thanks much!!

[@coregeek]

+shadokatt I haven't tried the clips but they seem to work!

[@leetcouture1104]

This is exactly the tutorial I needed! I bought water proof LED strips, and could see the connector points where the soldering should happen, but wasn't sure the best way to get to it. I'm definitely going to get some Helping Hands for this. Thank you so much!

[@lyraalma5589]

You are brilliant, and you don't waste time. Thank you so much!

[@spicythaidesign7402]

Love it!!!! So easy to follow my friend! I'll have to give it a go now!

[@LumenSWolfe]

If the power plug comes with the battery (XT power supply), then does that mean every time you want to make new LED setup, you have to buy another battery to get more plugs? It looks like each battery comes with a car, wall outlet and extra cord that in theory could be stripped to make a new plug.

[@creationfantasy9289]

Man you are just awesome ! Except from your epic cosplays ,your tutorials are pretty helpful! You deserve more ! :D

[@kimnobles7687]

I just found this video, and what a great one it is! Thank you! Have you used LED foam in any props? I am just getting into lighting things and was wondering about paint, space, etc.

[@coregeek]

I used LED foam (aka plastazote) for the diffused lighting on the WASP helmet for Marvel. kzbin.info/www/bejne/joSUooqLbNqUbtU This video is really old and LED foam wasn’t a thing at the time I made it. I highly recommend LED foam over the techniques I mentioned here for diffusing. You get more even lighting in less space with LED foam. There are also many more types of LED strips available now too, like the Neon strips.

[@kimnobles7687]

@@coregeek thanks Eric. I have always loved your work!

[@coregeek]

@@kimnobles7687 Thank you. That’s kind of you to say.

[@yagirldrash5048]

I really enjoy watching your videos! Very insightful and informative. Thank you!!

[@WillWassmann]

So I purchased all of the necessary tools, the 12v XTPower Portable Battery, and the LED strip lighting. I followed all of your instructions I believe - I cut the strip-wire on the lines, I soldered a good connection (I know this because a 9 volt works with it just through touch) I have a charged power supply, yet when I plug in and twist the wires together, nothing happens. I turn on the battery, I have the leads to the correct terminals, and tried both ways just in case, but nothing. Is there a setting I need to set the power supply too in order have it transmit through the DC? This is all very strange. I can make a video showing what I did, in fact I think I'll do that anyway. lol

[@WillWassmann]

NEVERMIND! IT WAS A COMBINATION OF ERRORS! I SOLVED IT! (I think) lol I'm getting power though the DC now. So I think we're good!

[@juanlam7898]

Do you have any tips for diffusing the LED light when you have to have the acrylic and LED close together?

[@Nekoenjeru]

Hey dude, excellent video. Ironically enough, I'm actually planning on doing a Sergeant Calhoun cosplay and I've wanted to try to do some LED lights in this cosplay. I do have a few questions though: 1. Okay, I love how you did a small visual instruction for the lighting connection without using an "on and off" switch. Is it the same process as this only with a switch? If not, can you show how to do the process with a switch? I'm asking is because me personally, I would prefer do have an "on and off" switch so I can preserve my batteries. 2. If I want to do a battery source of 8 AA batteries, how would I be able to change them out without completely destroying my prop in process? I compete in Cosplay contests and if for some reason that the batteries somehow died on me, I would need to know how to replace them without having to completely taking apart my prop over battery replacement. 3. I'm sorry if I'm asking too much, but is there a way to do a tutorial of how to place LED lights inside of EVA foam armor, or is it basically the same process of a prop, just in EVA foam armor? Thanks so much for your help and time. I've never done LED lights before and I've wanted to try it out. I just prefer a switch so I can turn them on and off easier without draining my batteries.

[@coregeek]

Nekoenjeru You could easily power these with a AA setup. 8 AA wired in serial is 12 volts. You could add a switch inline to the power pack. That said I would definitely test the pack with the number of LED’s you want to power. To get an idea of how long it will last.

[@Emmabellish]

Awesome! I've got some LED strips kicking around that I'll need to play with! Glad to know it's so easy :D

[@coregeek]

+emmabellish Have fun! Thanks for watching.

[@llamas_attack]

This is a fantastic tutorial! Thanks so much for making this!

[@coregeek]

+mangaZwolf Glad you like it. Thanks for watching!

[@97HURRICANES]

Dude thank you, I've been looking all over to figure how to solder led lights correctly. But I have a question I'm going to connect 1440 led lights together, how much battery power am I going to need?

[@coregeek]

Well the short answer is a lot. This set up I show here may not be the best solution.

[@TallPaul7771]

It depends if you are wiring in series or parallel. There are some good automatic programs that will calculate the values you need. Just google it.

[@mstruvmgc07]

great video coregeek!

[@mstruvmgc07]

maybe if you have a chance you can show how you put the wores in the prop? have a great day!

[@coregeek]

+Joshua Brooks Yeah I could see how that would be helpful. Thing is it's really going to vary depending on the prop or armor. There's really no one way to go about it. I've neglected to shoot video on this installs I've used this on so I don't have any to share at this point.

[@mstruvmgc07]

+Coregeek Props sounds great buddy. thanks for the reply. :)

[@4feld517]

Great vid. I have a question though... What is the best type of wire to use? Is it bell wire or something else? And what amp?

[@coregeek]

I believe bell wire is solid core which makes the strand not as flexible. You'll want to use "extension wire" or "hookup wire" which is wound wire in small gauge sizes rated for 12v.

[@4feld517]

+Coregeek Props cool so that worked. I now have a problem lol 🙃 The project i have consists of 11 strips of led that have been cut off of a 5m led 5050 12v strip with about 50cm left to spare, the strips have all been soldered together and sealed with hot glue. I purchased a 8x aa battery pack from ebay that has an on off switch and rhe batteries are layed out all in row as appose to the 4 on front and 4 on back model you mention in the video. So I have solder a remote switch so I can control the on/off by remote for convenience... BUT! The lights at the start are brighter and they gradually work there way down each strip to being dimmer than the strips before so it's bassically like a gradient light effect... And the on/off switch reacts when pressed but it doesn't turn them off, it only dims them slightly when turned off... Can you please help me?!?! If there is a way I can send you some videos/pictures of what I mean then I'm more than happy to do so. PLEASE HELP COREGEEK!

[@RaiwashiSP]

Wow great job! You really helped me understand how led and soldering works! I want to build a lighsaber that glows, i'm thinking about getting a transparent acrylic tube and put a led strip inside it but i think i will power them with the 4 batteries way you mentioned. Do you think it's possible and if it will look good ? :)

[@coregeek]

+RaiwashiSP Sure it's possible. Hard to say how it would look but I think it could work. If you get the diffusion and amount of LED's right.

[@brandonflint5596]

Hey I was checking out the XT Power Bank on Amazon and I see a lot of Critical reviews about the it not holding a charge after a period of time and/or number of charges. You made this video a little over a year ago so could you let me know if you have had any problems with yours? Also, I am wondering if you have connect the LED's to a USB plug. I have lots of battery Banks but they are for USB's.

[@KRGraphicsCG]

This will be great for the lighting on my custom helmet...

[@botocollin]

I avoided buying stop lights not knowing it was possible. I bought separate led lights which was just as pricy as a spool of them eventually.

[@TheDea6]

Thank you for making this! it's very helpful, but I have a question, I'm trying to make a staff type prop that light up, but it doesn't have large parts to hide such a large bettery. Are there any alternative battery that you suggest??

[@coregeek]

I don't know of one specifically. If you can find something smaller that runs at 9v it should work.

[@NveSmyrna]

Well done tutorial! Thanks!

[@coregeek]

+Nolan Etheridge Thanks for watching!

[@christopherburse1167]

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!! This was really informative!!!

[@apostolis633]

can you achieve light defusion just by sanding the acrylic? thanks!

[@chrisrizzuto9705]

Great video, thanks for the info!!

[@yorganyog]

Did you ever tried El Tape??

[@CaranellCosplay]

how long will the leds glows ?:) great video

[@coregeek]

Depends oh how many leds you are running and how powerful your source is.

[@CaranellCosplay]

@@coregeek I have a 5m 5050 smd led stripe which needs 12 v I cut the stripe to 1 meter and now I try to find a solution for a good power source my next try is a 8 AA battery pack... my old rgb led stripe (also 5050 smd) run 10 hours( why ?:( ) with 9 v li lon 500 mah , but my current project needs more brightness so 9v makes the led stripe to dark :(

[@CaranellCosplay]

​@@coregeek I forgot to mention that the seller from the old rgb stripe told me this : 8.64 Watt/m 8.64W/m * 5 Meter LED Band = 42,2 43.2 / 12Volt = 3.6 Ampere and my current led stripe is this www.ebay.de/itm/5m-LED-Strip-12V-24V-Warm-Kalt-Wei%C3%9F-RGB-RGBW-SMD5050-Streifen-Band-Dimmbar-Kette/254571670858?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=554292095082&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 in the description you can see that this stripe needs 3 a ( I buyed the 12 v version)

[@archersarrow3875]

Instead of a transparent acrylic, could I potentially use a gel filtered lens (those colored plastic looking things for photography) and then cover the back of that in paper and still have it work just as well?

[@coregeek]

I don’t see why not. BTW. This was quite a few years ago. Some great new products have been discovered since. I highly recommend plastazote for diffusion now.

[@archersarrow3875]

Ooooh. I'll have to look into that. Thanks!

[@jjcosplay6087]

If i use the 5v usb output door with the 12v lds, am I going to have problems? or the light won't be just as bright as is it was 12v? :)

[@coregeek]

I don't know. I haven't tested a 5v supply. Sorry.

[@animelover7486]

can i just use a regular 9v battery with a connector or do you recommend using a rechargable battery pack instead

I really liked the video ^_^ very good and clear explanation. Way better than i had explained it to my GF :P (just sended her this way) A tip: use diferent color wires for + and - (as a standar red its + and black its -) so u can identify the polarities even if u cant access the conections ^_^

[@coregeek]

+Avathar Props (Gonzalo Emmanuel Muñoz) Yeah that's a good point. I usually just use whatever scrap wire I have sitting around so color coordination doesn't always work. I just mark the positives with a silver sharpie instead.

[@Laura-xk5le]

Having already bought led for my cosplay, but that made noise, does that of the video heats or includes a sound including the battery (3A)? I need a resistance? What are the black cables? Or buy them? thanks

[@Tokyoshadows]

How to make something like a hologram? For example Dead Space health bar or visor

[@koro0508]

Great tutorial, thank you :D

[@coregeek]

+Kororo Koropukkuru Thanks for watching!

[@naluheartneel1656]

Where would we get the electrical strip wire? And which gauge would we use? I'm not sure what the difference in the gauges are so I do not want to get the wrong one.

[@TallPaul7771]

You can use wire as small as 24 gauge safely. You do not need the 12 gauge wire used in this video. The higher the number, the thinner the wire.

[@codydickinson5777]

What gauge wire are you using? I don't want my wires to run hot.

[@Nodfactor]

What kind of wire are you using?

[@ax_leila7638]

What's the smallest battery holder possible for these type of LEDs? I'm trying to think of where to mount my battery source but my costume has practically no where for it to be stored. Is it possible (and safe enough) to put a battery holder in a wig?

[@coregeek]

For these 12v strips you can run them off a 9v battery. For even smaller lights and battery that are easier to conceal you may want to check out "fairy lights" goo.gl/HYns3M

[@TheBrolyTv]

were can i buy the LED wire the black thing cuz im need to for the red and black thing

[@princesswatermelon9611]

Can you do tracers guns/ armor

[@lifeofanightfury4286]

Do you know whether it is possible to cut and solder the LED strips from GLISTENY? They have got 4 contacts: +, R (red), G (green) and B (blue).

[@suckmypianist]

Thanks buddy! this was helpful :)

[@BlitzRyke]

Where do you buy your transparent acrylic sheets? Thanks!

[@coregeek]

Blitz Ryke From a local store called Tap Plastics.

[@SteamGear64]

I have a quick question. i plan on using this for my arcade Ahri tails. can I connect all 9 strips to the leads like you did in the video? What would be the best way to go about that?

[@coregeek]

Just want to be sure I understand your question. You want to know if you can connect 9 led strips to one power source?

[@SteamGear64]

Coregeek Creations yes! like, if i cut the led strip into nine different rows, is it possible to connect them all? And how would I go about it?

[@coregeek]

It is. The concern would be power draw. How long/how many leds per strip will dictate how quickly the source draws power.

[@SteamGear64]

Coregeek Creations ah okay thank you!

[@coregeek]

Do you know roughly how many it will be?

[@aliciaswartz3172]

quick question if i don't have a. soldering iron is there something else i can use? I've seen peope use hot glue to attach wire to wire and i guess it acts as insulation too? just wondering if you could use it for connector to wire?

[@coregeek]

Hot glue would make a very poor connection. You can purchase a soldering iron for around $10 so why not? If you're connecting wire to wire and don't want to deal with soldering for some reason you could also use crimp connectors. They're inexpensive, easy to use and would be a much better connection then tape or glue. Here's some info: learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/working-with-wire/how-to-crimp-an-electrical-connector

[@AggravatedAstronomer]

Great tutorial, subbed :)

[@alexisdiaz8602]

Hey sweetie! What's the clear plastic you used that you covered with the bond paper?

[@coregeek]

It's acrylic, you can use clear petg plastic as well.

[@draxshiroko4163]

So how you do eyes?

[@kingJinghe]

me needa make genos arms one day

[@ShaydedBlack]

Hey! I am attempting to make the sword Siegfried from Fire Emblem Fates. It has two colors of light, white and purple, and I was wondering if I would have to do anything different to wire something like that. Could I reasonably run them all from white strips with purple papers to reduce cost? What would this look like? I know battery life will probably be terrible.

[@coregeek]

Hmmm that's a good question. I was just looking at references and that's a difficult build since your essentially lighting a transparent blade. You could run a strip of both colors but I would also airbrush the purple fade color onto whatever material you end up constructing the blade from.

[@Osharlock]

im wanting to do a division cosplay but having trouble finding good orange LED's, any thoughs or should i find another color?

[@coregeek]

have you checked adafruit.com?

[@williamweier1313]

Inferno Moose use this rgb led light with the conroller

[@97rhcpfan]

where did you get your acrylic?

[@coregeek]

At a regional retail store called Tap Plastics.

[@97rhcpfan]

awesome, thank you!

[@garzaclaytoncg]

Amazing, so glad I found this, I don't have the tools so I'll need to make a list, I'm getting a BFG9000 Replica in June I'll have to Assemble, hopefully I can pull this off with some green LED's.. Subbed to you by the way!