How to make a light-up (LED) hula hoop

A couple quick disclaimers about this project. First of all, it's not easy. It took me about 6 months of having all the materials to actually muster up the courage to take on the project. I *do* have to say that the effort is well worth the reward of this amazingly entertaining toy. Also, this is not a project for the novice crafter - you have to do scary things like solder LEDs and battery assemblies, figure out how many ohms of resistance your circuit requires, dremel custom-fitted holes, and get together some hard-to-find items like translucent poly tubing and color-change LEDs.

Second disclaimer is that this is by no means an original idea or concept - tons of people have made light-up hoops, and you could even spend about $175 on one online if you don't want to make your own. Rather, I am posting this because I noticed a paucity of clear, coherent how-to's, and I think in the process of building this version of a hoop we discovered/invented some neat shortcuts for doing things.

And so...on to the directions.

Step 1. Assemble materials.

To make my hoop, I used:

• translucent poly tubing (3/4 inch) from Home Depot, approx. 12 feet (depends on your personal preference)
• a tubing connector,
• 30 white LEDs, and 6 color change LEDs
• 9V battery
• 9V battery connector
• soldering iron
• solder
• heat-shrink tubing
• heat gun
• a dremel
• bunches of unicorn and star stickers
  

Step 1 1/2. Cut corners (I mean figuratively).

By this, I mean, get all materials in a state as close to the final one you will need them in. For me, this meant the LEDs - why solder together 30 LEDs when you can buy a pre-strung set for $8.99 on eBay? I made things a little more complicated because I wanted to intersperse 6 color change LEDs into the string of white ones, so I had to solder them in at junctions throughout. But I'm getting ahead of myself. One could easily use an LED set "off the shelf."

Step 2. Make your LED string.

As I mentioned, I used a pre-assembled string (arguably the cheapest way to get LEDs anyway), and interspersed 6 color change LEDs. I also needed to detach the string from the AA battery pack that originally came with it. This is because the most streamlined way to power the hoop is by using a single 9V battery.

Step 3. Power your LEDs.

We did some circuitry to power our 36 LEDs on a 9V battery. First, we attached a 9V battery connector to the string. We also needed to add in some resistance, as 9V is a little too much for those LEDs to handle, and they could burn out. I wish I could tell you the exact number of ohms we ended up using, but like any good real-world physics problem, we quickly abandoned the V=IR formula when it didn't work. We ended up using trial-and-error with a resistor multi-pack I had from Radio Shack. THAT worked - (with apologies to Mr. Dhillon, my AP physics teacher with the *almost* incomprehensible Indian accent...he did teach me well - hey, I remembered the formula!).

Step 4. Cut a battery holder.

After a couple hours of trying out various fancy and streamlined battery holder scenarios, we arrived on a simple ghetto version that gets the job done. We dremeled a rectangular hole into the outer edge of one end of the tubing (allowing for about 1 1/2 inch where the tubing connector will push in). This is kind of confusing in words so here are some sketches/pictures:

Diagram of Battery Assembly

Photo of Battery Assembly

Step 5. Thread your string.

We used an old electrician's trick to get the LED string into the hoop. We took a long piece of yarn, tied a nut to one end, and the end of the LED string to the other. Then, we dropped the nut into one end of the hoop, and it quickly slid through the tube, allowing us to catch it and pull the LEDs through. We secured one end of the LEDs to the other (forming the circle) using a safety pin. See picture for a close up:

Step 6. Connect up the hoop and seal the battery.

Once everything was hooked up and the battery assembly in place, we connected the hoop using the plastic tubing connector. Because this is an extremely tight fit, we used the heat gun to heat up either end of the hoop right before we slid the connector in (makes life soooo much easier!).

The size for the battery holder that we cut is very precise, which is great, because it holds the battery in place very firmly, and it only sticks out about 1/4 inch from the outside edge. I've been pleasantly surprised because I don't notice either the uneven weight, or the added bulk from the battery, when using the hoop.

I also sealed up the battery assembly using a piece of clear duct tape. This isn't the world's best way of doing things, because I have to un-tape the battery assembly every time I want to turn the hoop on or off (I do this by detaching the battery from the battery holder). An ambitious crafter could perhaps add a switch to the circuit assembly, but I got too lazy and I wanted to play with my hoop as fast as possible.

Step 7. Glamor-fy!

I wanted to add a little personality and bling to my hoop, so I covered it in unicorn/flower/star stickers. I used stickers that were plastic and semi-transparent so they would be somewhat weather-proof and show light behind them. I've seen other hoops with gaffer tape looped around them, that is a neat effect too.

Sticker glamour

Note the pink unicorn

Step 8. Play somewhere dark.

(This is self-explanatory.)

Some other tips about enjoying your light-up hooping experience.

1. Hoop somewhere you can watch your reflection in a window.
2. Don't worry about having to know how to do fancy tricks and acrobatics. Seriously, doing anything with a light-up hoop looks damn cool!
3. Have somebody take pictures of you using your hoop. It's so neat to see yourself with a swirly light-stream "hoop skirt!"

Wearin' my "hoop skirt!"

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: A big thank you to my fantastic husband Shane, for his amazing talents with custom holders, dremmeling, electronics, connectors, and his infinite encouragement in doing silly fun projects!