Tube Construction

There are six lighted tubes in this costume - four large ones (two over the shoulders and two installed into the biotic reactor) and two smaller, connecting the base of the reactor to the shoulder tubes. All of them are designed similarly to diffuse light and approximate a fluid flow effect.

The body of the tube is clear PVC (or vinyl) tubing purchased from a specialty supplier of large-diameter tubes. They were heat-shaped into a curves shape. Connecting fixtures on the reactor were reinforced so they held up under the tension of the tubes as they were put on.

Two Neopixel strips (144 LED/m) are attached back-to-back with electrical tape between them to keep the contacts apart. They are wired together into a single three-pin JST connector with the data lines are in parallel. The strips are then fed through a polyethylene foam tube commonly use to diffuse lightsaber props to provide the core diffusion. Lastly, the LEDs are loosely wrapped in nylon diffusion fabric (commonly used in photography for softboxes and other light diffusion). When inserting these into the tube, the fabric was bunched and twisted randomly to create the illusion of fluid flow lines. When the LEDs glow from the inside, the fabric takes on the character of an illuminated fluid.

The video below illustrates diffusion with the various lighting effects.