Eunice Esomonu - Week 9: Wearables

Eunice Esomonu - Fabricademy 2018-2019

Wearables

For week 9, the class extended our knowledge on wearable technoloiges and e-textiles and advance our coverage on soft sensors and actuators and programming interactions. Our task is to create a couple of swatches with the ATtiny and Arduino with one input and one output, using hard-soft connection solutions and battery.

Research

I didn't know a lot about the actuators so I looked into Kobakant Art Collective and E-Tetile Tailor Shop,. which have examples on actuators and soft sensorss that I can create myself. The actuators that I was most interested in was the Flip-Dot Switch and SMA Smocking Swatch examples. I worked in this assignment to build these projects.

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Examples of flipdot

Materials

Flip-Dot Switch

  • Magnet Dot
  • Copper Tape
  • Copper Wire
  • Yarn
  • Neoprene
  • Arduino
  • Alligator Clips Jumper Wires
  • Soldier Wire/Conductive Paint
  • Digital Portable Pocket Mulitmeter

SMA Smocking Swatch

  • Stretchable Fabric like Lycra
  • Conductive Thread
  • Muscle Wire
  • Arduino
  • Alligator Clips Jumper Wires
  • Soldier Wire/Conductive Paint
  • Digital Portable Pocket Mulitmeter

Procedures

Flip-Dot Switch

I created a Flip-Dot Swatch, which with a battery will make your swatch magnetic.

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Flip-Dot Swatch
  1. I gathered all my materials.
  2. Wrap the copper wire of a pen/sharpie/
  3. Find a way to connect the wire circle. I chose to connect them with a crochet stitch.
  4. Use conductive thread to connect the crochet wire circle to the neoprene.
  5. Push the copper wire to the back.
  6. Tape the copper tape to the end of the neoprene
  7. Soldier the wire to the copper tape or paint with conductive paint.
  8. With the Digital Pocket Portable Multimeter, check if there is a solid connection.
  9. If SO, Connect alligator clips to the tape and attach it to a power source.
  10. Check to see if the magnetic model is sticking.

SMA Smocking Swatch

With Lycra and Muscle Wire, I want to create a SMA Smocking Swatch.

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SMA Smocking Swatch Back
  1. Gather your materials materials.
  2. Sketch with pencil you smocking swatch design.
  3. Sew the fabric with conductive thread.
  4. Connect the conductive thread with the muscle wire.
  5. Connect thread to a power source.
  6. See if your materials contract into your design.

Testing

I tested it with different materials and use Pocket Meter to continue to make a connection. I wanted to make sure it was working and the product will act accordingly.

With the Flip-Dot Swatch, I was able to easily find the connection between the input and the output. It made me confident in moving forward and connecting it to a power source.

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Power Source

With the SMA Smocking Swatch, I wasn't able to find a connection. I tired to make it to work so that it would be a connection throughout. I tried to connect it between to muscle wire nodes and there was a connection. I worked continuously to make a connection and tried to find a design to design that.

Results

With the Flip-Dot, it was successful. I put the swatch to a power source and it was able to be magnetic.

With SMA Smocking Swatch, it was tough to find a connection and the muscle wire burned through.

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Muscle wire burnt my swatch