LED Firework Canvas
Objective: Design and construct an LED firework prop spanning approximately 45 feet across the stage, to be actuated during the dance performance.
As a member of Texas Raas, a traditional Indian dance team at the University of Texas at Austin, we create props to further enhance our set. For our national competition, Raas All Stars, we aimed to create a memorable prop that tied our theme of “halftime show” together.
At its core, our electrical system comprised a power source—AA battery packs—connected to an Arduino Nano, which provided both code and power to a 5V LED light strip representing the firework. The firework was designed with two components: the wick and the burst. The wick consisted of a single 5V LED strip, soldered to a protoboard that branched out into multiple smaller LED strips forming the burst. To achieve the desired firework explosion effect, we adapted the gravity variable in Carl Rosendahl’s 1D LED Firework Project code for the Arduino. The primary challenge was the scale, as the prop had to be rigged and span a length of 45 feet across the stage.
The final design involved attaching five “fireworks” to a 45-foot-long canvas, with an auxiliary control panel housing the power sources, operated from offstage. Multiple holes were cut along the top of the canvas to secure it to the rig using paracord. The linked video demonstrates the final execution during the championship performance.