Become Anyone 2.0 - Full Face LED Mask

This has always been a bucket list project of mine. Not only to make a full surrounded face of LEDs, but also make the mask completely out of circuit boards. There are 16 individual LED matrix panels, with a total of 2960 addressable LEDs. Letting you put whatever you want on your own face.

Its a lot of work, its fragile, and it gets pretty hot. But if you're feeling brave, you can give it a try. Definitely an Advanced project. As always check out the video above!

Tools:

1. Soldering Iron
2. Reflow Oven
3. Ideally a Pick and Place machine
4. Tweezers
5. Patience

Parts

1. Circuit Boards (Files on GitHub)
2. At least 2960 SK6805-1515 LEDs (get way more)
3. PixelBlaze or Raspberry Pi for controlling
4. Pololu 5V Step Down Regulator
5. Decently Large 2S or 3S battery(to step down to 5v)
6. Welding Helmet Head Strap
7. 18GA wires

3D print the mask template and test it on your face to ensure it fits comfortably. If it doesn’t, you may not be able to wear the mask. Since its so fragile, it needs to fit your face perfectly, or can crack the solder joints when wearing the welding helmet holder.

Use the solder paste stencil to apply the solder paste. This is a HUGE board, and its super nerve racking. You will have to do this for both the left and the right side of the mask. Do them one at a time.

Manually place the SK6805 LEDs onto the PCBs. If you’re not using a pick-and-place machine, prepare for a meticulous process that requires patience and a steady hand. I don't recommend it. It will take hours! You could of course get them populated by the fab house, but it won't be cheap.

I still use a $20 toaster oven. Seems to work fine.

After Soldering the LEDs, you'll need to make sure that each individual panel of LEDs works. On the edge of each panel are both power and ground pads. If you connect 5V here, and send the signal to the pad on the back of the panel to turn on a bunch of LEDs, you will be able to see which LEDs are not solder properly.

Carefully cut each PCB panel from the larger sheet. This is a delicate operation, so take your time to avoid damaging any traces or components.

This one might seem a bit crazy, but use a belt grinder to smooth out the mouse bites on the edges of the PCBs. Its the easiest way to get a perfectly flat edge. Be extremely cautious, as this tool can quickly remove more material than intended.

Remember, each panel is one half of the mask.

This step is the most challenging and nerve-wracking. Use the 3D printed mask template as a guide to align the PCB panels at the correct angles. Masking tape is your friend here for holding everything in place while you solder the panels together. Once all of the power and ground pads have been connected, connect all of the data pads using a tiny gauge wire. They are all labelled by letter. A to A, B to B, etc.

I had a few...

On the edge of the mask there are connectors. I didn't actually use a connector here I connected the wires directly. This mask can draw a lot of current so use appropriately sized wire. I used 18ga for the power. Reference the board files for the proper pinout.

If you're using a Pi you will need to come up with some sort of logic level shifter so that the logic is 5V(the pi is 3v3). If you go the PixelBlaze route, its a lot easier, its all setup for custom LED Matrices already. The downside is you don't get to play videos or images on it. Only (very) cool predefined patterns.

You will need to download the pixelmap for both the Pi and the PixelBlaze. There are plenty of tutorials for the PixelBlaze setup online already.

You can now wear your mask, hide you face, and put whatever you want on it.

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