LED Tail

[MermaidRaegan]

So after much poking and proding because I am a persistant sea witch of a girlfriend, my boyfriend said that he might consider wearing a tail for me on several conditions.

1) He designed it. (Duh.)
2) He would only wear it so long as he felt safe swimming in it. (Again, duh.)
3) He wants it to light up like an angler fish.

.... As you can imagine, that's where I hit a dead end in my plotting.

We've spent the last couple days going over several designs and researching several types of lights that work well underwater that could be embbeded into a layer of silicone. Still, we're pretty iffy on how to go about a project.

So, I'm pondering: has anyone ever tried this before?

[AniaR]

there's a whole thread on this, and my boyfriend invented LED streetlights and since he works with them specifically I ran this idea by him a while ago and he wasnt convinced it could be done safely. My orange tail glows under black light, so why not use some black light or glow in the dark paint mixed up with the tail paint?

[MermaidRaegan]

The lights we've been looking at are Esca fishing lures that are made to be submerged. The only reason we're iffy on these is that their powered by the salt water around them, so it wouldn't do much good in a pool or in the local river.

[Theta]

I've been working on an angler fish design for a while now. I'm friends with some electrical engineers and we're trying to work something out, but we're still on the drawing board :(

[Syrenia]

You know, a friend of mine had this idea a while ago. She put glowsticks in hers that could be removed and when she wanted to swim at night, she just cracked the glowsticks and slipped them into her tail. It actually turned out to be pretty bad-arsh. She needed like, 10 glowsticks and it was a bit uncomfortable, but it worked.

Just a thought...

[Ayla of Duluth]

I just had this idea for a tail for my boyfriend. He wanted a tail modeled after Isaac Clarke from the video game "Dead Space." he wanted a light up health bar going down the back of his tail. I'm still working on figuring out the technicalities of putting lights in a tail.

[Spindrift]

I have a design sort of in the works, but not much testing has been done yet.

[Prince Calypso]

omg i would love an LED glow tail!!!
i can see it neon green, blue and darkt deep purple
i gotta design this out!!!

[Azurin Luna]

I think this would be usable for a tail, you only need a safe way to store your batteries
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/210795899/underwater_LED_light_strip_blue_.html

[MermaidRaegan]

We thought about the glow stick idea as well, and personally I think it would look pretty cool. But we still like the idea of a tail that could put out some serious glow-age.
We've also been looking at the LED light strips, as well as El wire, like they used in tron. But we're pretty sure the later isn't underwater safe, and with the light strips you would indeed need something for the electronics.

Has anyone ever used fiberoptics that are water safe?

[Spindrift]

I experimented with a fiber optic fluke add-on, but it got really expensive, really fast.

[Mermaid Dottie]

I think your best bet is gonna be some kind of glowing paint... My tail, were I to find a pool with blacklights, would glow majorly fierce because I used glow-in-the-dark fabric paint for the scales.
There's also a lot of people on etsy who make glowing jewlery (http://www.etsy.com/listing/93165615/glow-in-the-dark-vial-necklace?ref=sr_gallery_36&ga_ref=auto1&ga_search_query=glow+in+the+dark+necklace&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_type=handmade) and I've been wondering if whatever substance they've used could be safely stuck in silicone...

[Syrenia]

Hm... I shall have to experiment as well.

What about those lights they put in those floating flowers? I can imaging those would be water proof.

[indigoice]

Michaels craft store sells waterproof floating LED tea lights. They look just like little round plastic balls and come in blue, red, and green plastic. I'm assuming the plastic colour of the waterproof casing tints the lights that colour and they are super bright, definitely will be seen underwater. They have a tiny off on switch on the outside and can be opened up to change the watch battery that powers them which is a definite bonus to give them a longer life and you more control over them.

Depending on how thick your fluke is you could imbed them in a latex or silicone sculpted model. Or just mount them down the sides of your tail and inset them a little like jewels. I was also thinking of making armor/jewllery to imbed them in out of sculptey oven bake clay or even fiberglass resin.

[MermaidRaegan]

Oooooh, that sounds like a good idea. I'm expecting them to stand out a little, because the silicone woul have to be REALLY thick otherwise. We'll have to play with those.

The other option that we've decided to check out is fishing lures. They're usually quite small and either rod or ball shaped and glow/blink different colors. They also have limited electronics in them because they're powered by salt water. So if any of you hoping for glowing tails wanna play with those, they seem rather promising.

[Mermaasai]

For power sources, I dont understand why sealing the entire powersource into a silicone encasement for use until the batteries die, isn't a viable option..
All you would have to do is cut into and peel the old silicone away when you need to replace batteries and seal it again.
Like a fully silicone bag that fits in the back of the tail or between your legs or something, that can be cut open and replaced as needed.
Also using something that has a remote for activation so that your leds arent on all the time to drain battery, but only on when YOU want them to be.
The power source would have to be something like watch batteries.. or something small like that.

Like the small battery powered LED vines here: http://www.submersibleledlights.com/led-deco-vine-lights.php

Unless I'm very wrong and not understanding something, then please explain because I'm confuuuuuused @.@

[Ayla of Duluth]

For power sources, I dont understand why sealing the entire powersource into a silicone encasement for use until the batteries die, isn't a viable option..
All you would have to do is cut into and peel the old silicone away when you need to replace batteries and seal it again.
Like a fully silicone bag that fits in the back of the tail or between your legs or something, that can be cut open and replaced as needed.
This was actually my first idea. Just let the silicone cure over the lights and slice it open as needed. It would seem like it'd be easy to seal up again. I want to do some experimenting with different led lights.

[MermaidRaegan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsZH5o5FKQs

Video is freakishly short, but I'm still looking for the good one. These are remote controlled, so you can turn them on and off.

[MermaidRaegan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwFP5xxluy8

This one is better.

[Prince Calypso]

2748
what do you think about this for an LED tail

[Spindrift]

I just saw that and went "whoa".

[MermaidRaegan]

.....

There are no words. Besides "HFS, DO WANT!!!"

You managed to make a tail with all of my fav colors besides purple and all my favorite fins. I love you.

Okay, I'm going to go hide under a bush now.:$

[Prince Calypso]

.....

There are no words. Besides "HFS, DO WANT!!!"

You managed to make a tail with all of my fav colors besides purple and all my favorite fins. I love you.
Okay, I'm going to go hide under a bush now.:$

*pulls from under bush and hugs*

thank you so much lol
the black was oringally purple but i didn't think it conveyed a deep sea mermaid tail so i went with black

[MermaidRaegan]

Yay, hugs!

I've actually been working on a design kinda like this: black with accents of electric blue, lime green, and bright purple. I LOVE that color mix.

[MermaidRaegan]

http://www.tidebuy.com/product/Support-100-Meters-Underwater-Colorful-Tritium-Gas-Fluorescence-Keychain-1773327.html?utm_source=site&utm_medium=productpagecommend&utm_content=1773327&utm_campaign=1769408

Flourecent keychains that don't use electricity and glow continuesly for up to ten years, and just so happen to be completely submergable. We'll have to do more research for these of course, but they're pretty cool!

[MermaidRaegan]

http://nitestik.eu/en/index.html

non radiation version

[Spindrift]

Haha, I love how we now have to take radiation into consideration when selecting tailmaking supplies. XD

[Toxotes]

Tritium lightsources aren't harmful as long as they stay intact.
The particles from the beta-decay cannot pass through the housing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium_illumination#Health_concerns

[Ayla of Duluth]

This is getting way technical xD

[LittleTreasure]

That is SO COOL. I would love to see that completed tail in person, I think I'd swoon. :p

Oh wait, already swooning. Never mind.

[Toxotes]

The only bad thing about these tritium lights is that they are not very bright. They are only visible in a very dark environment.

[Mermaid Azira]

I have used waterproof fairy lights that might work?

[Mermaid Rillia]

.....

There are no words. Besides "HFS, DO WANT!!!"

You managed to make a tail with all of my fav colors besides purple and all my favorite fins. I love you.

Okay, I'm going to go hide under a bush now.:$

Agreed! I want that tail lol.

[Prince Calypso]

lol glad everybody likes it

[MermaidRaegan]

I know they're not harmful in their cases, but we're still going to play with other options as well because I'm paraoid about hurting my fishy friends. :D This is also a tail that we're only planning to use at night, so it'll be pretty dark.