The LED blinky coat should need something like 60mA * 200 LEDs = 12A at 5v to do its blinky thing. However, the batteries I bought supply 13Ah at 8.4v. Not much is lost in the step down to 5v (the switched regulators are efficient). Nonetheless, I found in testing that the blinky strand runs for about an hour before the batteries crash. That’s not enough.

I’m thinking that I have to take the price hit and move from NiMH to Li-ion polymer. The NiMH ones weigh about 4.8 lbs, and my users are complaining before they’ve even put them on. The Li-ion polymer version I’m considering costs 2.5 times more, weighs only 1.9 lbs, and supplies 20Ah at 7.4v. Could be a big win, but at the cost of more cash.