@ayke@hachyderm.io

· 7mo ago

LED earrings are back in stock! It took a bit longer than expected due to Lunar New Year, but I finally received the PCBs today.

https://lectronz.com/products/erring-ring-rgb36

Because I'm doing this as a company now, there are a few changes:

VAT is charged in the EU.
Shipping costs are much lower.
More payment methods are accepted, including a few local ones.
Shipping to the US got re-enabled, with added tariff and handling fees paid during checkout.

#jewelry #diy_electronics #DIY

lectronz.com

LED Ring Earrings (36 LED) by Night Vibe Electronics

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Got something in the mail 👀

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 3mo ago

Replying to

If you previously got the earrings with microphone and want the custom patterns feature: you can upgrade the firmware (the hardware is the same). I'll post instructions later for how to do that. Or: if you see me at a future event like EMFCamp I can do the upgrade for you.

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Boosted by @ferrix@mastodon.online

Replying to

Success! It's held together by hacks and duct tape, but yes I managed to send a small program via sound to my earring PCB. The code is on the left, the emulator running this code (in the browser!) is on the right, and it is also running on the prototype PCB. (If you're interested, I plan on selling these in the near future).

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 3mo ago

Replying to

Wrote a guide on how to update the firmware: https://github.com/aykevl/things/tree/main/earring-ring-rgb36v2#updating-firmware Please let me know if something is unclear or it doesn't work for you.

github.com

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

I'm at EasterHegg! If you want to get these LED earrings, just ask me when you see me walking around :D it's cheaper this way than getting them online, and you'll get a pair of batteries with them for free.

I'm also working on a newer version with more patterns and a microphone (audio reactive patterns!), but it's not finished yet and will be a bit more expensive. So you can wait for that if you want.

The video has somewhat weird colors, it's hard to make a video of these. They look very pretty in person! More photos:
https://lectronz.com/products/erring-ring-rgb36

#EasterHegg #EH23

lectronz.com

LED Ring Earrings (36 LED) by Night Vibe Electronics

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

Unfortunately, posting this on the internet comes with some risk. The current political climate makes it difficult for people like me to exist. It's especially bad in the US and UK, where people with a lot of money have made it their priority to make life for trans people as difficult as possible (I wish I was exaggerating but there really are people who use their wealth and influence to make life hard for people like me). It's not something that will work in the long term - trans people have existed for a long long time and will always exist. But it means I need to be careful. Still, I'm so much more happy now than I was a few years ago. Even if that means I can't go to all the places I could go before. If you're wondering, here's the current state in the US (I won't be going to the US anytime soon, for many reasons): https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/anti-trans-national-legal-risk-assessment-a5d

erininthemorning.com

Anti-Trans National Legal Risk Assessment Map: Feb 2026

The situation continues to deteriorate when it comes to transgender youth care. For adults, we see Kansas as the newest state added to a "Do Not Travel" advisory list.

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

Also, for those interested, I'm still selling the previous batch ^^ https://lectronz.com/products/erring-ring-rgb36

lectronz.com

LED Ring Earrings (36 LED) by Night Vibe Electronics

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@maartje@blahaj.social yes! And apparently lots of people prefer titanium over silver so I'm glad I added the option.

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

Update: now at ~200 bytes/second! That's 1.6kbit/s. It will need some error detection and correction which will lower the bitrate a bit but this is looking promising. Depending on the speaker the signal is nearly noise free which might mean I could even increase the bitrate. The goal is still to enable programming the earrings via audio and it looks totally doable.

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 7mo ago

Replying to

Update: after heavily optimizing the Goertzel algorithm (in ARM assembly of course) it's now at ~18 frequencies that can simultaneously be detected (4.2MHz chip, 35000 samples/sec, 100 times per second). That appears to be about as far as I can push it. Note that in the above post I probably used a sample rate of 25000 which needs fewer cycles to process. Next up: defining some sort of framing format with preamble so the receiver can lock on to the signal and calibrate the various frequencies. And see how much data can actually be sent over sound without getting lost in noise.

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@Unixbigot omg these are very cute! Love the cat ones :) I'm using CR1225 batteries (see the product page). I've optimized battery usage so much that the whole earring only uses about 1mA so these batteries are good enough. I've also found that WS2812-style LEDs are too power hungry (and too bright) for this use. So instead I bitbang all LEDs directly. See for example this blog post with some details how I did it: https://aykevl.nl/2026/01/bitplanes/ Eventually I might switch to supercaps, but those are a lot harder to get right. See @californiasteam for example.

aykevl.nl

Binary Code Modulation

Bitbanging many LEDs from a microcontroller can be very fast, when using Binary Code Modulation and some assembly.

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 8mo ago

Replying to

Managed to detect 8 different frequencies in an input signal (50 times per second) using just 1mA of current, running the chip at 4.2MHz. Pretty sure I can do better than this with some more work. But that's already potentially ~50 bytes data per second I can transfer. The algorithm I am using is the Goertzel algorithm: https://www.embedded.com/the-goertzel-algorithm/ It's a relatively unknown algorithm, but it's extremely simple and I think better suited to the task than the well known FFT family of algorithms (yes there are multiple FFT algorithms). The implementation I wrote is fixed point and uses about 8 cycles per iteration. I should write a blog post about it some time. Eventually I want to send data/programs using nothing more than a cheap microphone and some audio processing. Let's see if that's possible. #dsp

embedded.com

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@sashag @h5e I normally run them at a low brightness, so only 5mA per LED or so. In fact I ran the dress LEDs above just from my phone charging port (USB-C, they often also provide power!), worked fine!

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@sashag @h5e very cool! Mine was definitely not that high tech, just an Arduino-like board and an LED strip.

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@sashag @h5e Oooh that is really cool! I made a LED dress once but don't wear it very often and it doesn't have any special features like heart rate detection. https://hachyderm.io/@ayke/111006626127304755

hachyderm.io

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@h5e @sashag yes! For the 18-LED one you can see the explanation here (you'll need some extra hardware): https://github.com/aykevl/things/tree/master/earring-ring You might also want to get one of these to connect them easily: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006712952020.html The relevant code is here, you can either change one of the existing flags or add the new flag as a new animation: https://github.com/aykevl/things/blob/main/earring-ring/main.go#L165

github.com

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@eliza thanks! Yes, I think that could work. Bi definitely, lesbian I'll try though the colors might be harder to make clear.

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 8mo ago

Replying to

Still very much a work in progress, these earrings won't be finished for a while. There's a bunch of other features I'd like to add that take time to implement. Maybe they'll detect the beat in the music and respond accordingly. Or maybe they'll have an easy to use online IDE for new patterns to upload to the earrings and an ability to share patterns (sending the programs either via light flashes or via audio - TBD). Who knows.

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Hactarus@untrusted.website no this is the next batch! It's not yet for sale.

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@jasoncoon@leds.social didn't read up on it, but: lots of extensions insert bits of HTML or change the current page in some way. For example, ad blockers. This is something that is probably detectable in Firefox? It would reveal a lot less extensions though, but might still be a problem. It would also be a lot more work to create.

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

Ordered them anyway because I'm curious about anodizing titanium which is apparently relatively simple. Might take a while to arrive though.

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@balu yes, the problem is as you mentioned that it will be harder to insert the battery. I'm also a bit worried about shorting the battery for a short while if it touches the earring hook. (Probably harmless though). In practice, the batteries are stuck very tightly in the holder and in fact difficult to get out without something to push them out. It's only if you use CR1225 and then CR1220 the holder has been bent a little already and the chance of batteries falling out is slightly higher. But even then, just bending the holder back fixes it. (If they do fall out for you please let me know!)

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@Unixbigot @californiasteam what I like about the coin cells is that they're unlikely to overheat when shorted due to the internal resistance. Lipo batteries tend to have much lower internal resistance which is a downside in this case. However, on the other hand, these coin cells are really quite dangerous for children who might swallow them (chemical burns) which makes them not ideal :/ that's why I might switch to LIC supercaps in the future.

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@nom sadly no :/ there is a button on the back where you can cycle through the various modes. (I'm working on a new version that might be more easily programmable. To be announced later!)

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 8mo ago

Replying to

@SolarDavy@climatejustice.social @maartje@blahaj.social thanks 😊 It's actually a CR1225, which is a much lighter battery (about 1g).

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 8mo ago

Replying to

@duncanbourne@c.im @maartje@blahaj.social https://lectronz.com/stores/nightvibe here online or at FOSDEM. Or at some other events (Easterhegg, EMFCamp, etc).

lectronz.com

Lectronz

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 8mo ago

Replying to

@Mara ooh very nice ^^ Also nice dress :D

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 11mo ago

Replying to

@sven looking forward to all these changes! Would this also change behavior? Right now my USB-C hub (part of my monitor) doesn't get detected properly when it is plugged in at runtime: none or only some of the connected devices get recognized and it's very random. It only works correctly when it is plugged in during boot, after u-boot is finished enumerating USB devices (apparently u-boot messes up something USB related). So I have to get the timing just right every boot. It's really annoying.

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@Liliths_Byte yes! I should be reachable now (SIP 2953).

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@brot thank you for the feedback! Yes this is something I will look into, also due to various regulations on this (which exist for a good reason).

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 13mo ago

Replying to

@sven very much appreciate the work you're doing to get all of this upstream!

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@luna thank you! If you want them, they're currently sold out but I'll have a new batch in a few weeks.

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Ayke van Laethem @ayke@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@Xerunala hmm the three colors could possibly work, blue and red definitely but the dark purple might be more difficult. Not sure how I'd add the yellow though, unless you have a suggestion how to add it to the circle?

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