Power. The correct amount of power is important. Usually for little lighting projects I use a 9v or multiple AAs depending on space and requirements. (9v sites nicely in that 7-12v range for Arduino and packs a good amount of mA/h for its size)
But most of my little lighting projects are like a Nerf gun, or a tiny battery powered lamp, these projects have 2 to 6 LEDs, and often they are in the red range so I can chain 2 of them together. (Red, yellow, orange LEDs use between 2 and 3v on average) this project has 16 LEDs running in a few different circuits. The full run I was looking at was about 310 mA/h. So on a 9v that was only going to last about an 1:40 hrs. That’s pretty terrible for an art / display piece.
In the picture is my solution, and dear gods is it bigger than I expected. I can make it fit, but it does require a bit of rewiring and it will need an external hookup for charging. But 5200mA/h gives it about 16:45 hrs. That’s a pretty good jump.
Just so big…
