I made my dog an LED dog harness for navigating at night (x-post r/somethingimade)

[david_m]

I love taking my dog camping but I always have anxiety when she strays far away in the dark. So I made her this light vest to make her visible (and also so she could help out!)

Anyways, thought you guys might enjoy this let me know if you have any questions or need any help should you decide to make one of your own. Here's a writeup I made: http://howchoo.com/g/m2u5mgi1y2n/diy-led-dog-harness

Edit: Accidentally a word

 

[theodorealexander]

@david_m It's a good idea, but I wonder how many fellow campers will be sent packing for home when they see your glow in the dark dog.

 

[david_m]

@theodorealexander Haha true. Well where I camp there normally aren't any other people who aren't friends of mine.

 

[hawk7071]

@david_m Not anymore, at least.

 

[david_m]

@hawk7071 Well, I do run into the occasional hunter..

 

[vernon1]

@david_m Points for inginuity! I think I would use dimmer lights for two reasons: 1) the glare coming from under the dogs chin and how much it may whitewash the dog's vision, and 2) night vision loss (the key rule when trying to increase night vision effectiveness is to not expose your eyes to light-I worry this actually decreases the dogs night vision capabilities).

 

[onochie]

@vernon1 Good points about the night vision. Red LEDs may be better! They work less as a flashlight that way but the night vision is preserved for dog and human.

 

[david_m]

@onochie Great idea! I really wanted to use the LED strips where you can change the color to shift to red, but I didn't have any handy. The next time I make one I'll certainly use red.

In the meantime, i'll add in a dimmer.

 

[mary0608196]

@vernon1 I got a couple of those LED clips for this same purpose. They're plenty visible to me and others with three different flash modes, but aren't going to affect my dog's ability to see or be too bright. Just takes one of those replaceable button batteries. I usually just latch one to the back strap of my dog's harness.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@david_m This is awesome! How much did it all cost to do?

 

[david_m]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Total material cost was probably $50 including the vest, but you end up with a lot of leftovers (like tons of LED strip material) to use for other projects. If you don't already have a soldering iron and wire strippers, the cost goes up but you can grab some cheap ones at Harbor Freight or on Amazon.