a light up helmet help?

Hi there. Im new here so im not sure if this is in the right place but anyway
So I am in the middle of a project
I am building a helmet and which will have lights installed in the visor
I thought I would come here for help since yall would know and every other tech forum where the arduino is talked about every so often hasnt helped me at all. Ive just been flamed for the project.

I am building the helmet that Guy Manuel wears when he preforms with Daft Punk
it consists of a Rainbow of lights going up the side of the face and a EKG on the ears and a matrix of lights on the jaw
its like 100 or 120 Leds in total
It needs to be wearable and the power supply needs to be small enough to fit in a pocket

So what I need to know is what all i need to make this project work
I am so new i dont even know which board i need to control all of this (UNO board is what ive seen at radio shack)

So any help or suggestions would be very helpful
attached is an image

Do some browsing, in the old forum perhaps. This has been created several times since I've been around, Aug of 2010 or so.

Do the LEDs turn on blocks of color, or do the LEDs in each block need their own control too?

Sorry I created a new topic on something that has been discussed multiple times i will start to dig around here. i am at work right now do graphic design so not much time to dig atm
but anyway
the 4 leds in each block fire simultaneously to light an entire block they dont need to be controlled separately
however
the blocks will scroll up and down the helmet
the matrix at the chin will scroll and what not
and the ekg on the ears will scroll as well

Thanks for your help in advance

No problem. I am sure you will find it.

If not, the design is simple.
Use an Uno connected to piece of perfboard with shift registers on it.
I would suggest TPIC6D595
https://avnetexpress.avnet.com/store/em/EMController/Counter-Shift-Register/STMicroelectronics/STPIC6D595B1R/_/R-5750380/A-5750380/An-0?action=part&catalogId=500201&langId=-1&storeId=500201&listIndex=-1

Connect up the 4 LEDs in parallel with current limit resistor each.
I'll post a quick schematic for you.

Here's the heart of what you need to build. I showed both single resistors and resistor networks, both are readily available.

To turn the LEDs on, you will shift out 1's & 0's using a set of SPI commands:

digitalWrite(SS, LOW);
SPI.transfer(register1);
SPI.transfer(register2);
SPI.transfer(register3);
SPI.transfer(register4);
digitalWrite(SS, HIGH);  // outputs will change on SS going  High.

Put this in a loop where every 10th of a second you send out the data.
The rest of the time you read switches, determine the next pattern to display, etc.

Awesome thanks so much for your help
I have my LEDs now and I Have my arduino board

so i solder the Leds and resistors to some PCB perf boards right?
then what do i do from here

can I make my own PCBs with a circuit pin and some thing else? i dont have time or money to order them from bach pcb i dont think
what is the best stuff to make into a circuit board

basically all i have is the arduino UNO and LEDs and some resistors what else do i need to get to make this work and be portable?
what kind of battery pack do i need ie how much power will i need to push 4 AA batteries a 9volt?

Where are you located?

You need 4 TCIP6D595s, or 4 TCIP6B595s (slightly different pin out, 16 pin vs 20 pin I think).
4 wirewrap sockets to plug the chips into.
Get some perfboard for putting chips and capacitors onto, and whatever you are mounting the LEDs/resistors on (more perfboard, stuck in cardboard, whatever).
Then wire up the LEDs/resistors like I showed, and bring those wires back to the chip board.

Take a break and work on your coding too.

Battery - make a pack with 3 C cells for 3 D cells, bring that 4.5V power to the Uno 5V/GND header pins, to the chipboard +5/GND pins, and 5V out to the LEDs also.
9V battery won't last long at all.

hey there, sorry havent responded in a while havent been on in awhile
anyway thnaks for your suggestions and such
I found pictures of how i want to run everything since last ive been on
do u think u could identify some parts if possible?
Ive figured out the resistors and the LEDs, but i cant figure out exactly what these are and stuff
this is the transistor board but i cant seem to find them for sale and what not
maybe im looking in the wrong places for the wrong things any idea where and what type like ohms stats volt and what not? (photo 1)

I also am not sure what the this blue thing is on the shift register board. any ideas on that? (photo 2)

sorry that i am such a noob at this

Transistors are probaby NPN transistor such as 2N2222A

The blue part is just a capacitor, probably 100nF

wow awesome thank you so much
with out your help i wouldnt be anywhere with this project
cause the "trained Specialists" at Radioshack were much less than helpful, but they meant well i guess

You're welcome.
The " "trained Specialists" at Radioshack" are likely not college trained Electrical Engineers :wink:

Okay so long post with lots of questions, which im sure are totally noob but hey it is what it is.

okay so here is the control box that volpin uses in his helmet project
My board is an Uno and the one pictured is a deumulnove is that going to be a problem?
His box has an on off switch and 2 toggle knobs which control speed and pattern mounted on the outside of the box. Are these potentiometer? or do they just point to the potentiometers?

it also has 6 AA batteries (2x 3 AA battery holders)
and is this too much power (like 9 volts right)? or do i need like 5 or 4 AA Instead?
and what is this thing plugged into the power input?

and these orange wires they seem to be running to pin 13 pin 12 and pin 8 on the top and on the bottom is that 5 volt (not sure, is this is right?) and the yellow wires run to the Analog 1 and Analog 2 I think, any thoughts?

and this rainbow set of wires that one is really throwing me off and ideas on where this comes in to play I see it wired to the 9 pin plug there but other than that I'm at a loss. I hope I'm not being a bother to this forum thanks for all your help again

"My board is an Uno and the one pictured is a deumulnove is that going to be a problem?"
No.

"His box has an on off switch and 2 toggle knobs which control speed and pattern mounted on the outside of the box. Are these potentiometer? or do they just point to the potentiometers?"
Appear to be potentiometers, middle terminal to Analog pins, end pins to +5 & Gnd.

"it also has 6 AA batteries (2x 3 AA battery holders)
and is this too much power (like 9 volts right)? or do i need like 5 or 4 AA Instead?
and what is this thing plugged into the power input?"
Yes, looks like 9V going into the barrel jack.

"and these orange wires they seem to be running to pin 13 pin 12 and pin 8 on the top and on the bottom is that 5 volt (not sure, is this is right?) and the yellow wires run to the Analog 1 and Analog 2 I think, any thoughts?"
Looks like 13 & 11 to me, which is SCK & MOSI => SPI

"and this rainbow set of wires that one is really throwing me off and ideas on where this comes in to play I see it wired to the 9 pin plug there but other than that I'm at a loss. I hope I'm not being a bother to this forum thanks for all your help again"
I imagine those are wires to the shift registers on a board you cannot really see, feeding the connector that goes off to the banks of LEDs in the helmut.