Inspired by the distinctive style of the Disney movie, TRON: Legacy, this project aims to recreate the vibrance and character of the film’s bodysuits in a real and tangible form through the medium of light.

 

I love LEDs. I mean, I really, really love LEDs. They are bright, efficient, simple, and have enjoyed rapidly increasing popularity. LEDs have become a staple of modern electronics; used in a wide array of applications from simple power indicators to curing 3D prints in DLP processes. LEDs are often one of the first components modern budding engineers interact with, and since my own discovery of them, I have been hooked.

     The first time I watched the movie, TRON: Legacy, I was similarly captivated. The sharp, elegant lines of the movie’s characters, vehicles, and environment lend themselves perfectly to replication in the real world by fans of the TRON franchise. After seeing Legacy, I knew immediately that I had to have my own TRON suit, but I knew that there were going to be some major design challenges with what I had in mind for the suit. A TRON suit would not only need to be flexible, like most costumes, but also fit the body tightly, since many of the film’s characters appear to wear latex suits for most of its duration. Since I have no idea how to fabricate a cloth or latex garment, I purchased a Disney TRON costume to serve as the base of the suit. I then began to experiment with materials and lighting techniques to illuminate the suit.

     I originally thought that using electro-luminescent wire (EL wire) would create my desired effect. EL wire is extremely flexible with even brightness along its entire length. Simple EL wire lighting kits are available with attached power and controller circuitry, which is convenient for lightweight costume construction. EL wire is also easy to attach to a costume with adhesive, thread, or other methods. I chose to attach it using hook-and-loop fasteners for easy removal from the suit. During testing, the EL wire-lit costume was easily able to survive a full day of wear, but I was not entirely happy with the result. I found that while the Tron suit certainly turned heads, it had mediocre visual appeal in anything but low-light conditions. I had wanted the suit’s lighting to be dazzling even in brightly lit environments, so the EL wire was scrapped, I and turned to my favorite lighting component, the LED.

     In the movie, TRON: Legacy, the characters wear suits featuring monochromatic lines whose color relates to the character’s alignment in the good versus evil struggle that defines the film. Since the suit I was modifying featured blue accents, and reels of blue LED “tape,” or “strips,” are readily available for low cost, I chose a blue theme for my LED lighting. Initially, I built the suit’s first LED design with the most basic type of LED tape. Unlike the EL wire, the LED tape did not fair well in long-term testing, and the copper power distribution lines were brittle enough to fracture under repeated stress, causing entire sections of the lighting to fail. In a revised version using stronger IP65-rated “waterproof” silicone-encased LED strips, the LEDs survived most of an entire day of wear, but still ultimately failed. This latter LED tape, I determined, would be useful for applications involving minor flexibility requirements, but they still were not well-suited for use in non-rigid clothing.

     Learning from the failures of past designs, I determined that LED strips were not going to provide an answer to the flexibility issues I was experiencing. I was also tired of simply attaching LEDs to the suit and looking at a static lighting solution. I began to research other LED lighting substrates, and stumbled upon small, fiberglass PCB (Printed Circuit Board) LED modules. I had only just realized that COB (Chip on Board) LEDs existed that could be assigned a color. These addressable LEDs (aRGB LEDs) I had come across were mounted on small, round PCBs accompanied by solder pads. Using these modules, I would be able to attach flexible wiring between the LEDs. This solved the costume’s flexibility problem, yet also provided me with a new opportunity to dynamically control each individual LED’s color and brightness. In solving a problem, I had widened the scope of the project, and I was eager to apply creative solutions to meet the project’s new goals.

     With newfound energy, I designed a modular lighting system that utilizes the new LED modules, enabling the suit to be flexible and repairable on-the-fly. In the latest iteration of my TRON suit, at the heart of the new aRGB LED array sits an esp32 microcontroller. The controller acts as a lighting “node” as defined by the popular xLights software responsible for some of the amazing Christmas house light shows that millions have watched on social media and video platforms in recent years. The software allows a light sequence to be created and exported to a memory card and I have modified open-source code to read the sequence file and play back the lightshow on the suit’s LED array.

     The latest suit design is still evolving and its scope still increasing. Plans for it include expanding the one hundred LEDs to an array of up to four hundred, as well as enabling music playback through a speaker fitted to the suit. Design challenges that I face include distributing even power to the LED array, optimizing the code after adding music playback capabilities, and overhauling the rear details of the costume with new 3D-printed parts. A stretch goal is fashioning a helmet for the costume, inspired by those used in the film.

     To achieve my goals, I have learned more about embedded systems engineering, expanded my experience with C, improved my soldering technique, learned to use advanced CAD software, built other aRGB LED systems, and experimented with materials. The suit’s design is still undergoing development and testing, but I am excited at how this project is coming together as it is my longest running side project. The entire process, from conception to reality, has expanded and honed my engineering skills, incorporating skills I never thought pertained to the project. Designing and building the TRON suit has tested me mentally and physically. When it is complete, it will be an impressive art and technical piece, serving to continually remind me of the level of expertise I am capable of and drive me forward.