Adam Savage's Guide to Cosplay and Prop Electronics! 

That self gate keeping is why I’m 34 and on the first year of my BEng in Mechanical Engineering, it took a global pandemic to make me realise that if I don’t try, I will never know if I can do it or not, but if I do, I’ve a greater chance of being able to.

Nice helmet, BTW. Good stuff, my mans. To whomever is actually reading this- thank you for cutting this video together and publishing it online.

Another way of doing diagrams is ground along the bottom, and power (hot) along the top. (battery at the side) This helps to show which things influence which current paths. Each row from top to bottom is a flow of current (add them for total current usage) Each item encountered on each row is a place you could have a voltage drop. (12V -> [resistor] -> [LED] -> gnd) All voltage must be accounted for from top to bottom. This would show that the main switch will be carrying more current than the others, (obviously) and that the failure of any one LED will not affect any of the others. Also when making you can build any path from top to bottom and then test that individually without having to wait till it is all built to start testing.

Adam, you need to discover wago connectors. They will instantly be your new preference over wire nuts

Adam , it was an honor to meet you and your Tested manager Christine / Christina ? At megacon a few days ago. I was the greenroom access guy backstage. Thank you again for the sticker and the patches.

I've twisted a lot of wires and put out a lot of other peoples fires. I thank you, Adam, for showing folks the basics. I wish I could attain the strippers you use and that crimper is truly ballin outta control, my friend. I think showing folks the basics is a good thing. If they don't feel comfy shoring things up after that- I always suggest passing off their projects to somebody that's good with a soldering iron and a schematic to tighten things up and make their working prototype into something wearable. You, showing folks this stuff is truly a good thing and I wholeheartedly think more folks should create and build their dreams. I'm rewiring a 1954 Chevy Belair tomorrow and it makes me so very happy to know people can watch this video and know they can at least get the basics down before completion. You rock.

Thank you so much for making this video. You did help demystify LED lighting for me. Also, the part about out mental gatekeeping, struck home. A lot of my life has been me doing that to myself, and every time I overcame it, I wondered why I let learning something new stop me before. Thank you, Adam.

Im currently in the field of electrical control systems, and videos like these are what first sparked my interest! I started out with a box of leds, transistors, switches, and some resistors without any idea of how to use them. But after lots of tinkering, and playing around with them (and plenty of RU-vid videos) I got the gist. 7 years later now I'm wiring up robotic assembly lines! This stuff is my jam, and this video brings back memories that are much more fun in hindsight lol. Thanks for the smile mate!

I like the way Adam puts the wiring at the end of the build process. Like a building (construction) contract. The sparks are the last to work on the structure as the main work has been done already.

"Being dumb on camera is my brand." Lol :)

Don't apologize...you've finally made this make sense in my brain. This is awesome!

it’s official: it doesn’t matter how much I know about a topic, it will always be entertaining to watch Adam explain his understanding of it from a practical level

I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who just puts electronics together without using math!

11:56 Anyone else gonna say how satisfying that noise sounded?

Adam, I am an electrical engineer. And as you commented during the video, I cringed and tried to not bite my finger nails throughout. That or reach through the screen and do it for you. And then at the end you explained why, and I realized that you were completely correct. If I had taught that course, the students would be able to make wonderful stuff, but only the ones that didn't drop out because it was too hard or the expectations too high. And never even try wiring again. I need to learn to teach like you do, scaling the material to the students, and the expectations down to earth, as well. The highest level or expectation should be that you had fun playing with it, because after all isn't that why we build all these strange things? But followed closely by eventually getting it to work, because having that extra do-dad was hat brought you to this in the first place. Did Grant already know all that and use it during his STEAM support in the community?

Excellent upgrade to the helmet! =D

I needed to wire my spengler neutrona wand to my proton pack. This video couldn't have come at a better time. Thanks Tested!

Love watching your channel! Thanks for demystifying wiring for me. Sometimes it is hard to find someone who actually explains everything with the perfect amount of info needed to understand a topic and at the same time motivate to learn more about it. (Hope that made sense) You're a great teacher! Keep it up!

The 6 pin one is a double pole, double throw. You can also use a single pole double throw to alternate between turning on a 5v circuit and a 12v circuit. You connect both grounds to the center/common and then the rest of your 5v circuit to one side and the rest of your 12v circuit to the other side. 12000mAH (milliAmpHours) is the same as 12 amp hours, which would mean that you can "run a solid amp" for 12 hours assuming 100% efficiency and properly labeled batteries. It also means you could run 12 amps for one hour if your batteries can actually manage to put out 12amps, which most power banks can't). Then if you're running lower voltage items off of higher voltage batteries, you can also run your calculations by watt hours (Voltage x Amp hours) to get your equivalences. IE a 12 volt 5 Amp Hour battery (60 watt hours) could drive a 5 volt 1 amp item (5 watts) for 12 hours (5 watts * 12 hours = 60 watt hours) again assuming properly labeled batteries, 100% efficiency and batteries capable of delivering the required current.

So my dad was an electrician, and this is sort of how he showed me to do electronics as a kid. It's something I've always felt comfortable with because of that. I hope your energy and can-do attitude help people approach low voltage projects more willingly, or dig deeper into electronics in general. You can learn anything, and that's never been more true than it is now.

This is how we do wiring at our shop. For each connection, strip the wires, put on a piece of heatshrink, twist wires together, slip heatshrink over the bare metal to insulate temporarily, but do not shrink yet. Repeat for each connection, switch and component. Test and correct mistakes if needed. We now have working circuits, with all wires and components in place. When all is working, slip off heatshrink, solder twisted wires together using a bare minumum of solder (no blobs), slip on heatshrink and shrink. Repeat for each connection.

"pole" is the number of circuits the change with a single movement of the switch. "throw" is the number of contact points. single pole, double throw has two circuits with one or the other (not both) operational at a time double pole, single throw has two circuits that be either both closed or both open double pole, Double throw, center open has two "A" circuits, two "B" circuits, and the center leaves all 4 circuits open. (three position lever)

For switches..... The "pole" refers to the number of contacts in the switch. So a simple on/off switch is a single pole because it has only one set of contacts inside being controlled. Double pole means there are two separate sets of contacts inside being controlled. The "throw" is how many positions then switch will be in the "on" position. So an on/off switch is single throw. It's just "on" in one position. The other position is off. Double throw means that switch turns "on" in two seperate positions. Click switch up for one set of contacts and down for the other set. That's a VERY simplified meaning of them. There's many different combinations. Like double pole single throw etc... Hope this helped.

I would strongly recommend the book "Getting Started in Electronics" by Forrest M. Mims III. I am an electronics engineering student and this book is by far the best introduction to electronics I have ever read. It only has 99 pages of instructions written in an easy to read format (with lots of pictures) for people with short attention spans. It covers the basic formulas need for calculating electrical values, and is designed for easy referencing. I keep a stack of these books at home to give away as gifts.

Thanks for making a wiring diagram much clearer.

Adam- " I need a wiring diagram, I can't hold it in my head" All electrical/electronics engineers - " Neither can we"

The wiring diagram and alligator clips were the majority of my college physics two lab! Love the explanation of electronics.

This video absolutely did help me overcome some hesitation on wiring my Mando costume. Also the staff I'm building with it.

I just got finished making an RGB led strip controller for a mates film set. I've been tinkering electronics for years. We pretty much follow the same process.

Automatic wire strippers are the coolest thing ever.

It's honestly so fucking wholesome how many maker creators are getting behind kiwico. xD

I'm happy to see that someone as well-known as Adam, does His schematics & wiring like I do!👍

That is by far the most useful video I've gotten out of my subscription of this channel. Considering the crazy amount of tips, insights, ideas and perspectives I've already gotten, that's saying a LOT! Great video, great execution, thank you guys so much!

The enthusiasm - I love it! I really enjoy your videos, and great tips & tricks for demystifying electronics! Thank you! Keep it coming!

I LOVE them wire nuts, I can never have enough of them things lying around my work bench.

Someone's probably mentioned it but: You should really give WAGO connecters a try, specifically the WAGO 221 series. They're great! They've significantly sped up my protyping speed and I don't tend to run into the same issues I do with wirenuts (breaking the nut or breaking off the conductor wire.)

Thanks so much Adam for going out of your way to make your level of awesomeness seem more achievable to us laypeople. You’ve inspired me to build so many things that I’m proud of and never thought I could do!

Hi Adam , i learned my self electronics by imagining the leads as a running water system💧 and the switches as valves to regulate where the flow can and cant go. This makes it much much to get into the basics. Love your vids greetings from Holland

Dude, I look at wiring the exact same way - I hope to do it enough to just be able to see it in my head but I'm glad you were able to make me realize that making a diagram is a much smarter move. I look at guitar wiring and it scrambles my brain just staring at the parts and wires.

Check out kiwico.com/tested and get 50% off your first month of any crate! DC Power Supply: amzn.to/3iYCJ1n Automatic Wire Strippers: amzn.to/3slTN4m Alligator Clips: amzn.to/3g98RgQ Wire Nuts: amzn.to/3jZABWi Assorted wire connectors: amzn.to/37LxxaC

A reasonable base primer for the DIYer thinking about wiring simple DC circuits. Another build method is to use a breadboard for the circuits. It's a handy tool for building the wiring circuits without connectors until you've proved the system works. Look up breadboard kits and you can discover how to built basic circuits and learn how your electronics work. Though today much of the wiring is replaced by micro circuitry, the concepts are the same! I built a 'dew heater' and dashpot control for a simple 12v heating system for a telescope to keep dew from forming on the optics. Starting with a diagram and figuring out the voltages and resistances took me a while with the math, but the wiring itself was straight forward.

Honestly the most demystifying video I've seen on electronics introduction. Thank you Adam!

YAY for basic electronics! I've been an electronics hobbyist for decades now and I ALWAYS love seeing people cover the basics because everyone has different approaches to things and I find that you are NEVER so advanced that you don't need a refresher of the basics every now and then :)

Good tip regarding wire nuts, another good and easy way (especially if you are prototyping and want to make changes as you go) is lever-nut wire connectors. Each wire goes into a hole, the lever pushes down and connects it to any other wires in the connector. If you want to make changes, just lift the lever for the wire you want to change. For situations where movement is predicted, soldering is not a good thing to do anyway, because the soldered wire becomes solid, and the wire just after flexes, frays, and becomes a point of failure. Crimped ferrules/spade connectors are much more reliable.

I absolutely love just about everything Adam stands for as a person and enjoy every build he has done over many decades.

Soon as Adam said he was putting on a spinning light it made me sad that this wasn't a "build your own Spock Helmet" video...haha!

This video has amazing timing! I've been trying to wrap my head around the wiring of some 12v accessories and corresponding rocker switches for my golf cart. You never cease to amaze me Adam with your knowledge and the ability to break it down in layman terms. I really hope to one day have the opportunity to meet you. Keep being awesome!

That 6 pin DPDT switch is also a very common way the switch the rotation of a motor. With the one you showed is turn on way, off, turn the other way.

"They keep us awake ALL over the world sticking out of our VCRs..." 80% of viewers: "What's a VCR?" The third toggle with the six connections is DPDT. It has two connections in the middle (poles) of which it can throw both to two (double) different outputs. They're great for simple polarity reversing switches.

Self-gatekeeping is so dangerous indeed! It's been one of my biggest obstacles with certain things. It's funny you mention the welding thing... it's something I'd like to try again some day. I actually participated in a 10-week, government-funded welding program at a local community college in 2012. It taught us about all the main types of welding both in class and in the shop, as well as how to use tools like grinders, cutters, torches, etc to finish things. We even got an entry level certification from the American Welding Society upon completion! And even after all of that, my self-gatekeeping told me that I hadn't learned enough and wasn't good enough to actually try and get a job. I haven't welded a single thing since then! That said, over the past 5-10 years I have tried out so many other things and it's been a huge boost to my confidence. Each new skill or tool or whatever makes me more confident that I can learn other new things. Channels like yours are indispensable resources for someone like me, and so I thank you!

This was such a useful crash course for someone who is aspiring to add lighting to builds but has always found the task too daunting. Thanks guys!

This certainly is all the basics to get started. Simple circuits are just a game of connect the dots. Look at the voltage ratings, and it is all pretty easy from there. To improve longevity and reliability, the crimpers have an optimal direction. The crimped end of the spade connector has a split in the metal. The crushing force should be applied in line with that split. If the crimper has the male and female side to the jaws, put the split in the female, with the male crimper pushing on the solid side. Crimping randomly works most of the time, but it is much more likely to fall apart over time. If you have a little more money, and want a reusable solution easier than wire nuts, look at Wago lever nuts. The have them from 2 to 6 opening that I have used. They are more reliable, and far easier, but 5 to 20 times the price. I pulled a ton of them out of the scrap bin at work, and they are still going strong a dozen projects later. (I use them during prototyping, and then solder the final)

Thank you so much for this video! A lot of my friends are electrical technicians for varying areas, arcade repair vs industrial electronics, and i always had the hardest time understanding when they tried to teach me so i could integrate it into my cosplaying. But they taught me how to solder and now i can actually add alot more detail ive been wanting into my cosplay thanks to this and other videos you make!

another gem. Enrichening lives since forever. Thank you so much, Adam!

This was so incredibly helpful and entertaining. I just started my first electronics build and jumped right into making a car head unit with a raspberry pi. I'm working on switches right now! I was pleased to see that my instinct for a diagram was wise, and it payed off! No magic blue smoke! Thanks Adam

Nice job…. Thank you so much for sharing your process. It totally makes sense drawing out the wire diagram.

DPDT switches are also great at switching polarities meaning you can use it to make a motor change directions without having to build an H bridge

I work electronics... And your diagram is SUPER close to an actual electronics diagram. It is perfectly readable to me and besides changing a few symbols to standard... it is the same as I would draw it I also recommend a cheap multimeter. For 1 function. It can make a sound when you have a direct connection between 2 points. That helps a LOT with finding out WHERE the wires are not connected... which is the most common error you will run into

Thanks! Looks like a great starting point for newcomers after which they can dive deeper into RU-vid videos on more specific aspects.

The instructional I have been waiting for since I was a kid. Thank u man!

Your videos are inspiring & extremely helpful. Thank you for your help.

GREAT topic. So useful. Pure gold.

Thank man. You cleared up a lot of my trepidations of wiring. I am working on wiring lights for Ashton Greymore's glass hammer (Critical Role). This has helped immensely.

Thank you so much for doing this video! Wiring has always been something I have wanted to put in my builds, weather they are props or cosplays. I have always been scared of messing up, so I avoided it. But this helped so much! The links are very helpful as well. These videos help me become a better creator every day! Thank you so much Adam and the Tested team!

In 43 minutes he covers my first semester of my engineering degree and the three years working at an arcade while getting said degree. Drawing a schematic is always a great idea and nothing he shows is wrong. Unless it is an official drawing or someone in the future might need it to fix something using something you understand will work. His switch drawing is right but the rest you will not find on official documents. Great advice for someone looking to make something simple but impressive looking in a costume. About lights in series, when one dies they all go out, parallel is where they all stay on even when one dies. It is more expensive design and work assembling it but better looking in the long run. Other uses for the micro switches include just about everything in an arcade game from the coin counters to the buttons and joysticks, different functions in a pinball machine, counter in an air hockey table and they are occasionally used in a computer mouse.... How many alligator clips should you have? Yes. Just like how many clamps you need for a project. Having enough is better than wishing you had one more set. I want some of those power supplies. How often do you suppose they are calibrated? But if you are just looking for continuity I guess exact power is not as important as consistency. Wired up it looks good for demonstration purposes and the automatic wire strippers are great if you are doing a lot of work. They make things so much faster and a lot less work if you feel the price is not a problem. As for the wire lugs, if you have never noticed a difference between brands you have never gotten a really bad brand. The plastic will crack off or the metal will bite right through the wire... A lot of things you wouldn't think of but not very common. Finally it wouldn't be an Adam video without him looking a bit surprised at the end when it works just the way he wanted and then he puts the hat on. I want to see he walk up to security in an airport and try walking through while wearing that.

Thank you for the instruction Adam.

Thank you Adam, I've been needing something like this for a while. I know a bit but always felt like to learn more would mean hours of learning. Not so, thanks to you.

I always wondered why you hadn't tackled this subject matter in a video. So glad you did! Very clear and easy to understand.

Very useful video. But in the end I sort of already knew and at some moments I was thinking ahead before you thought of it yourselves. Again very entertaining and helpful for makers who are not at that level. Keep show and tell us how simple things are done.

Practical and easy. Thanks so much!

Awesome as always !

I've been a huge fan of Solder Seal Connectors lately. Super easy to use, just hit with a heat gun, and you get a solid connection that's water tight.

Try Wago wire connectors, excellent reusable connectors that can work like a busbar and are low profile

This reminds me of the build videos by Sam with Look Mum No Computer. He always has a wiring diagram for his sythesizer builds. He uses the more complicated circuits but keeps himself from getting lost by starting with the map.

That was fun. Great Job. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Nice job, Adam!

Your the best Adam, what an inspiration and teacher. Certainly let us know if they let you on the plane. 😆

I do a fair bit of wiring as an I&C tech, and also verifying wiring that someone else has installed. Highlighting the prints is absolutely essential for complicated jobs. Our convention is yellow highlighter for wires that have been visually checked, and red pen over that after a continuity check with a multimeter.

This video speaks to me!! VERY helpful Thank You

All of that for "I'm sure they'd let me on a plane". Priceless.

I am familiar with all of those switches, and that wire gauge is easy to work with. Love your videos. 😁👍✌️❤️🌎

as an electrical engineer, i aprove this, only thing i would recomend is to look up the wiring diagram symbols for things you use a lot like LED's for example, learning those will make your diagrams easyer to read and draw in the wiring. ultamately it comes down to do what ever works best for you, but in my expiriance symbols work a lot easier once you know them. also don't waste your time on learning symbols for something you only wire up once or twice per year, that time is better spend working on something usefull or productive

Great content. One tip, after stripping insulation leave in place and twist whilst pulling it off, makes a tighter twist, especially if soldering.

Great information Adam. Thank you so much for the share. I co-Admin a model building group on Facebook and love to share your videos to our members. Lots of great information for the newbies as well as the seasoned model builder. Again thank you so much.

Great video! I enjoy seeing your process. Your process are so quick and flexible. For instance, I would have never picked wire nuts for your project. I use those for house wiring! Not home projects! And yet the wire nuts made everything quick, easy and most importantly easy to change. It was also great to see that there were LED solutions with the resistor already built in. I'm the guy who would have wasted a lot of time looking up the LED specs, determining the necessary current, calculating the correct resistor soldering it in and shrink wrapping it. Well, at least in the past. Wow, so much easier.

One more useful thing about voltages: Adam mentioned that he tries to buy everything for one voltage level (5 V or 12 V). But of you (for some reason) still need two voltage levels in your circuit (like 12 V and 5 V) and you don't want to use two power supplys or batteries, you can just include a supply for the higher voltage and then connect a step-down converter (also called buck converter) to it. You can put in a higher voltage on one side and a lower voltage cones out of the other. To adjust the value of the voltage that comes out, you need a multimeter to measure that voltage and a screwdriver to turn the little thing on the converter that changes the voltage. Two more notes about that: if the converter gets hot or things don't work, you might need a bigger converter because you connected something to powerful to it. Secondly, if your converter does not come with a housing, you should wrap it in tape to make sure that no metal parts or wires come in contact with it.

Good old Wire nuts, or Marrettes, Wire Hats, Cable caps, Spiral connectors, twist on connectors, Cone heads, thimbles, twist ends, nipple tips, thumb screws, yellow hats, toppers, enders, EWC, MTWC, plastic lugs. So many names for such a tiny part.

brilliant thanks Adam love your vids

As a electrician you did just fine, drawing a wire diagram is the first thing a good electrician does because if wired wrong can be lead to smoky situation lol

Very useful Video Adam :)

I SH*T YOU NOT. I was just sitting in front of TinkerCad Circuits trying to figure out how to power 2x2.2v red and 1x3v white LED with the same 3AA power pack without blowing something but still getting the right voltage to each. THEN I see this! I'm very excited to watch this. Thanks Adam/TESTED!

Great run through. I've done a couple costumes for Halloween contests (while underway on a past Navy ship) all out of scraps. Even made diy momentary switches out of battery leads and electrical tape that ran to under my big toes to control lights while walking. Wish I would have drawn it out because doing it on the fly was mind melting.

So many times, I watch makers on RU-vid and foolishly think, "Well, I could do that." But with this one, I actually believe I could. :)

You're a mad scientist. Liked and subscribed! 😁✌️😎

If Adam's life was changed by the discovery of a DPDT switch I can imagine his mind would be blown to discover the existence of three pole switches (ie. 3PDT). :) I work with electronics. I learned about DPDT switches early on. Seeing one that is center open is a unusual to me. Wiring diagrams are useful for two reasons. One, it helps you get everything wired up correctly the first time. Two, you have a document that reminds you of how something was wired up when it breaks some time later after you have forgotten how it was wired and you need to repair the device.

This is exemplary, team. 👏

Having a cheap wee multimeter ($5) or even a continuity tester (a battery, lamp/buzzer and probes to poke at something to complete the circuit) is great for sussing out which the poles/commons are on a switch, and which throw terminals correspond to which direction (throw) of the switch lever. At the final assembly, before the terrifying connection of the battery, you can use the resistance measurement function to see if the circuit has suspiciously low resistance (a short?) that might upset a battery if it were to be connected.

very well done. I know some basics of wiring, you've made me have more confidence with it

I love seeing the quick zoom close-ups. It's the little things. 😁

My day job is working on avionics on private jets. My hobbies roughly follow Adam's projects, very similar interests but much smaller scale. I highly approve of this video :-D