My RGB backpack wiring started smoking at a convention in San Jose

I was walking through the vendor hall at FanimeCon on Saturday and suddenly smelled something burning. At first I thought it was someone's vape or food truck, but nope it was my own backpack. I had hot glued all the LED strips inside the lining and apparently one connection came loose and shorted against a battery wire. The glue melted and a little smoke started coming out of the zipper. I had to duck into a bathroom and rip the whole lining out with my multitool right there. Thankfully the battery pack had a fuse so nothing caught fire, but I lost about 20 hours of work. The worst part was walking around the rest of the day with this ratty looking backpack full of loose wires while everyone else had cool glowing gear. I'm redoing it now with proper solder joints and heat shrink instead of glue, but has anyone else had a project literally go up in smoke like that?

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2 Comments

king.stella3mo ago

Honestly better it happened at a con where people could help than while you were hiking or something right? At least you got a cool story out of it and learned your lesson about hot glue and wires. Are you going to try the waterproof connectors this time around?

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cameron5383mo ago

Nah, hot glue is fine if you let it cure properly - waterproof connectors are overkill for most builds.

2