Let’s say you’re going to a music festival. You could just take water, sunscreen, and a hat. Or, you could take a rad glowing witch’s staff to really draw some eyes and have some fun. [MZandtheRaspberryPi] recently undertook just such a build for a friend and we love how it turned out.
The concept was to build a staff or cane with a big glowing orb on top. The aim was to 3D print the top as a very thin part so that LEDs inside could glow through it. Eventually, after much trial and error, the right combination of design and printer settings made this idea work. A Pi Pico W was then employed as the brains of the operation, driving a number of through-hole Neopixel LEDs sourced from Adafruit.
Power was courtesy of a long cable running out of the cane and to a USB power bank in the wielder’s pocket. Eventually, it was revealed this wasn’t ideal for dancing with the staff. Thus, an upgrade came in the form of an Adafruit Feather microcontroller and a 2,000 mAh lithium-polymer battery tucked inside the orb. The Feather’s onboard hardware made managing the lithium cell a cinch, and there were no more long cables to worry about.
The result? A neat costume prop that looks fantastic. A bit of 3D printing and basic electronics is all you need these days to build fun glowing projects, and we always love to see them. Halloween is right around the corner — if you’re building something awesome for your costume, don’t hesitate to let us know!
Imagine this with laser diodes. Laser light “specks” would make this look more unusual … or “magical”.
Make the wand wider, and stack batteries inside it.
Seriously, there is no issue with fitting a substantial amount of batteries in that. Pick a format, there’s options.
Stick some LiPo accumulators from empty vapes in the shaft. You can use power cables conduit which could be filled with leds strips to enhance the visuals.
Also I recomand a detachable shaft, as it is easier to transport. I used a plastic bottle cap and neck on a wood broom handle. The cap was hotglued inside a dragon head made out of cardboard, and the neck heated over the shaft and the plastic contracted on the wood.
Ah, yes, the marksmanship of a true hacker
I got the project dumped on my lap late in the day before ComiCon. As any hacker I use shtuff (that’s no typing error, only a missing eye and an extra grunt) available in the house (no workshop).
The cosplayer was happy with the result.
And after 6 or 7 years that thing is still around undammaged as a reminder of better days.
So the hotglue was the best solution for that problem.
Make it 10K lumen.
I thought a witch’s staff was just a couple of cats?
“Lucifer Sam, Siam Cat
Always sitting by your side,
Always by your side…
That cat’s something I can’t explain…”
Pink Floyd “Lucifer Sam”
I have had feline staff my whole life