Did any DISers see the glowing "Tron"-like wheelchair?

[Zeora]

Hello again,

This newbie has just returned from a great trip at WDW. While I'm at it I wanted to thank everyone who gave me advice on which resort to stay at - both POFQ and Boardwalk were pretty darn good for my needs, and POFQ in particular had basically the best room placement I could have asked for. Worked out great!

So I got a new chair before going, and I decided to make it into a Tron-like glowing chair for several reasons. I mean, I wanted an awesome chair, but also I noticed on the last trip that people tended to trip over me once it got dark. Not so anymore, I assure you! It looked like this:

So, on to the reason I'm posting about this here: I know that I ran into a number of people while there who wanted to know how I did this, either for their own chairs or for those of someone they knew, and I didn't really have info cards or anything to hand out (though I think next time I should, because I thought it was a great opportunity to possibly help more people have awesome chairs and I like sharing my knowledge of things). I thought I'd mention here that if any of the people I met are here on this forum, or if anyone else wants to know about the electroluminescent wire I used, where to get it, etc, I am totally happy to answer questions via PM! And just as a start, I use coolight.com as my source for EL wire - their service is great and fast, and if you call them up they will help you pick out what you need for your project and even do much of the power hookups for you, so all you have to do is attach it to the chair.

I hope this belongs here instead of the Community board - I wasn't sure exactly where to post it, since it is directed at least somewhat to people I met in the parks. But mostly I hope my info can help some other people with their chairs! It was certainly great to have the CMs and other guests going "*gasp* TRON!" and even better to have people's eyes drawn immediately to the glow (and therefore not trip over me!), but I think my favorite part was watching people get all excited about what they could do for their own chairs too.

 

[SueM in MN]

It’s fine here.

Love the idea. My DD’s wheelchair has luminescent stars scattered on it. They always bring a smile from people when they see her glowing. And, they also help make sure she gets seen.

 

[Mrsjvb]

Want.

Badly.....


does it come in purple?!

 

[HowdyHeidi]

That is so cool. I wish I had seen you!

 

[peemagg]

Just curious. About what did it cost to do that and how did you power it?

 

[Zeora]

Mrsjvb: It does in fact come in purple! The thickness I used (5mm, the thickest available) comes in a sort of cool lavender "white", and if you go with 3.2mm wire it also is available in a magenta purple.

peemagg: It runs on 9-volt batteries. (You can also put together a bunch of AAs to make it 12 volts instead, that would last longer. I did have to replace my batteries twice by the end of the trip.) The wire also needs 9 (or 12) -volt inverters to run; I have three of them, because I wanted the wheels lit and of course they needed their own battery/inverter setup independent of the frame to be able to turn. If you don't care about lighting the wheels (which I recommend, much simpler than my method!), it would be much cheaper because you can run it all off one inverter. As it is, my way required 28 total feet of wire, three inverters, and then I paid coolight to wire all the power together so all I had to do was put it on the chair and stick batteries in - so all together, it cost me about $100 including all shipping fees, batteries, glue and tape to attach it to the chair, etc. It is definitely a lot more expensive than something like glowsticks, of course - but unlike glowsticks, as long as you can supply batteries the wire will glow for years without losing its light. You can also have it blink at various speeds too, if blinking is your thing.

 

[bidnow5]

Thank you for posting that would be so cool on my scooter

 

[monkeysmamma]

My boys would loooooove that! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Bete]

Your creativity is amazing. Your wheelchair is quite unique.

There are no excuses acceptable for anyone to bump into you; unless, your batteries are dead.

My only other comment is that it did use a lot of juice with the batteries, but I can see how that's still worth it.

Did you use rechargeable batteries or just regular batteries?

 

[Zeora]

My only other comment is that it did use a lot of juice with the batteries, but I can see how that's still worth it.

Did you use rechargeable batteries or just regular batteries?

On this occasion, I used regular ones; if I wasn't lighting the wheels though I'd probably go for a 12v option of rechargeable AAs since they're easier to find than 9-volts are. I should probably also mention that the battery usage actually wasn't quite as bad as it may have seemed from my original statement; for one thing, the trip was actually 2 weeks long, and for another the original set of batteries I started with wasn't fresh, I'd already been using them for other things. So I probably went through basically one set per week; maybe a little more, but I was using them every night.

It was definitely worth it though.

 

[DSquare]

That has a very cool look to it.

I used a set of motorcycle LED's on our sons powerchair just for the fact it makes it easier for people to see him at night.

Youtube video of the lights

 

[pugdog]

That has a very cool look to it.

I used a set of motorcycle LED's on our sons powerchair just for the fact it makes it easier for people to see him at night.

Youtube video of the lights

That video is awesome. What do you use to do that? And did you use the wheelchair battery to power it?

DW now wants that done to her chair.

 

[EvoldicA]

I believe I saw you at MK on 11/10/11. Definitely an awesome chair.. I didn't stop and say anything to you but I wanted a picture of the awesome chair. Too bad my cell phone is almost perpetually dead. :b It was a bit crowded as well. Good job.. I've worked with EL wire before it's cool stuff.

 

[DSquare]

That video is awesome. What do you use to do that? And did you use the wheelchair battery to power it?

DW now wants that done to her chair.

I purchased this light kit:
LEDGlow Lights

There are a few different companies that make the kits and if I had to do it all over again I would probably get a different kit. On this kit each light strip has its own wire going to the control box. I've seen other kits where the light strips plug into each other and only having one wire going to the control box. Also, yes these are powered off the power chair battery.

 

[Capt. Barbosa]

This past trip (we just got back Monday) I purchased 2 of those flashing necklaces they sell everywhere at night for about $4 and weaved them into the spokes of my DW's wheelchair you cant believe the difference it made in getting spotted in the dark and the amount of compliments we got.

 

[SueM in MN]

I do not have a good picture of it, but we bought a set of solar powered lights from Target. I attached them to DD's wheelchair with black electrical tape.
I put the solar collector on the back whee it would be out of the way and still collect sun. The lights were attached to the frame pieces of the wheelchair.
I think her string is about 20 or 25 list and was enough for the underside of the chair.

This was very inexpensive - less than $20 for the whole thing. You can find solar powered lights in the Christmas light area in white and various colors. I bought them at Halloween a few years ago, so we were able to get purple ones.
If you don't want solar, I have also seen battery operated lights that are very similar.
Hers have a setting to be OFF, on all the time or to be automatic and just come on when the sensor is in the dark - that's how we set it and have enough power for a whole evening. Plus, the lights come on automatically when we are in a dark ride or dark line.

This is a very large and not well focused picture of DD's wheelchair lights. The shiny white/light purple blotches are the lights.

 

[Ms_Butterfly]

EL wiring is great and that's the next step I want to do in my desktop computer (no, I'm not a gamer, I just think it looks cool!).

As for other portable lights, a few weeks ago I was at Staples buying a new trashcan for my office and the section that carries posterboard and accessories was in the same aisle. I spotted a cool string of battery-operated (AA) LED lights that they market to be used for posterboard signs (poke the lights through to the front, have the string and battery pack on the backside of the board). It was only about $8, so could be a cheap solution for a little bit of light on a wheelchair, ECV, cane, walker, or service dog.

On my second-to-last trip (or my last trip?) to Disney, I purchased a glowing Tinker Bell pin from one of the kiosks that comes out at night to sell glowy lighty things and I pinned the Tink onto the pack that is behind my service dog's pack. It made it easier for ppl to see her in the dark. (Plus, I love Tink!)