Final Project¶
I have changed the idea of my final project after the last week, wearable electronics. I really enjoyed this session, but came across quite a few challenges in putting it together. The challenges I plan to overcome also offer solutions in other weeks of Fabricademy; E-textiles, Soft robotics. Due to my background being more technical than creative, I am going to focus on putting together a tool kit making these weeks more accesible. I have not decided if this will be with a specific outcome or a collection of solutions that can be applied by the user to their own outcomes.
Research¶
I am going to start by reviewing the challenges I came across:
Easily creating a custom board (programming) electrical connections - traces, components, power Power supply attachement Rigid/Soft
Programming & traces¶
I used an Ardunio in the wearable electronics week (not very wearable). These are relatively large, not body friendly boards with a lot of redundant circuitry for the majority of uses (which is the point). There are smaller boards available in the same ecosystem, such as the ...................... These are excellent with a much smaller form factor, but will likely still have redundant circuitry making the form larger than necessary.
Ideally you would be able to program a microcontroller and place it on a custom board. One of the reasons I did not go down this route was time contraints, but also because if I was going to create a board, I would like it to be as specific and small as possible. For this reason the best version of a microcontroller is an SOIC SMD package. This is the smallest package available of a microcontroller, (up to 30-50% smaller), but it is more difficult to solder.
Fortunately a product exists to be able to program these off the board, called an IC test clip. https://uk.farnell.com/3m/923650-08/test-clip-8way-soic-923-series/dp/178278?gclid=Cj0KCQiA6t6ABhDMARIsAONIYyzLNdxAtkMcYsbnA-qP3KhJ0huKAu70XYNZ46OHHv3J-2mqTTXE3R0aAmx3EALw_wcB&gross_price=true&mckv=sE182FXry_dc|pcrid|459864482312|plid||kword||match||slid||product|178278|pgrid|114464710984|ptaid|aud-976354274576:pla-326231390044|&CMP=KNC-GUK-SHOPPING-SMEC-Whoops-Newstructure-31Aug2020-Desktop-Hi
The a depper challenge would be to look into what material works best for traces if placed directly on the skin. I am aware of einks or copper tape, but getting the precision, durability and ensuring a good connection on a flexible base will require further research.
Materials¶
| Qty | Description | Price | Link | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Material one | 22.00 $ | http://amazon.com/test | Order many |
| 1 | Material two | 22.00 $ | http://amazon.com/test | |
| 1 | Material three | 22.00 $ | http://amazon.com/test | |
| 1 | Material five | 22.00 $ | http://amazon.com/test | |
| 1 | Material eight | 22.00 $ | http://amazon.com/test | |
| 1 | Material twelve | 22.00 $ | http://amazon.com/test | |
| 1 | Material eleven | 22.00 $ | http://amazon.com/test |
Useful links¶
Code Example¶
Use the three backticks to separate code.
// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
// initialize digital pin LED_BUILTIN as an output.
pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
}
// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
delay(1000); // wait for a second
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
delay(1000); // wait for a second
}
Gallery¶
Video¶
From Vimeo¶
Sound Waves from George Gally (Radarboy) on Vimeo.