Question: Making Hoola Hoops/LED Hoops!

[mzangelique]

Note: I'm not sure where to post this on the forum, but everyone here has been so helpful and there are so many makers on the eplaya maybe someone will be able to help me.

I want to start making hoola hoops to gift at a local camping event but I'm hitting two roadblocks.

1. My local hardware store (Home depot) only sells one kind of tubing, and it isn't particularly cheap. 12 Dollars for 2 hoops, only 100 psi, and it's opaque. I'd like to have a variety of different psi tubings and find tubing that is transparent so I can install LED's, one day.

2. I would like to make the hoops LED and the soldering process is simple enough, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what batteries to use for different LED's. How could I find out what batteries to use? Is there a good handbook/resource?

I've been on the internet researching these things and am having a hard time finding definitive answers.

Thank you for your time!

[theCryptofishist]

Could go in to Tips and Tricks or into Lighting. We'll see what the mods do.

Button batteries? I would think that AAAs would cause the balance to be off. I think that most (all) batteries have the same volts (or is it watts?) and vary in how long they can be used before draining. So the limiting factor might be size, what ever it is you want, and you'd put in the correct battery case/connection to the leds, and if you go for larger, change it less often, smaller change it more. Although LEDs are pretty eficient, so maybe you'd not have to change very often in any case.

[The CO]

I've a friend that makes LED hoops and staff, and it took him quite a while to perfect things.

You'll want to look up an LED calculator like this one for starters, and having a knowledge base in electronics won't hurt.
Button batteries will balance better.

Be prepared for some trial and error, but stick to it.