5. E-textiles

Research

GEOMETRY MAKES ME HAPPY! Page One ISBN: 979-981-4394-69-7

I had a crush on this book some time ago because it presents modular designs. I particularly liked the works by XLeonardo Ulian created using resistors and other electronic elements. It’s like a Proust madeleine; my father was an electronics technician, and our attic was filling with transistors, a soldering iron, and hundreds of these elements.

Art work: Leonardo Ulian, 'Tecnological Mandalas'

Circuit

I wanted to create a simple circuit by exploring two types of conductors, the hand-sewn thread and the conductive tape. I was having trouble holding the 3V button cell, so I created a small cradle for it. It also makes it possible to authenticate the positive side.

For all these elements, I took hook-and-bar loop fasteners. The hook is the positive of the LED, and the bar loop is the negative. The connection is not perfect, and it’s pretty tedious to sew.

On the other hand, it is very convenient to identify everything following the positives of the batteries and the LEDs.

I show below diagrams with hand snaps to sew with conductive thread. To be faster, you can use the metal snap buttons to place with a clamp or a lever machine.

Images: coutureenfant.fr (link below)

• How to put button_in frensh

Elements

Here are all the elements I made for this assignment. I describe them in the following session.

Montage

1. Cut 1 piece of none conductive fabric and blend it in two.
2. Stick two conductive tapes into blended fabric, blend them end sew those two pieces with regular thread.
3. Sew snap buttons with conductive thread, or clamp a metal snap button.

This analog button is simple, We close or open to change the status of the output.

1-2- LED & resistor

montage

1. Prepare your LED or resistance by creating loops. For the LED, indicate the current direction (positive/negative).
2. Stick two conductive tapes into the blended fabric. Leave 1 cm between those tapes.
3. On the opposite side, cut a hole for your resistor or LED.
4. Sew with conductive thread our ouput on each side of the tape.
5. Blend it, and sew those two pieces with regular thread.
6. Sew snap buttons with conductive thread, or clamp a metal snap button.

3- Button analogue

Montage

1. Cut 2 pieces of none conductive fabric and blend them in two.
2. Stick conductive tape into blended fabric, blend them end sew those two pieces with regular thread.
3. Sew snap buttons with conductive thread, or clamp a metal snap button.

This analog button is simple, We close or open to change the status of the output.

4- Sensor buttons

Montage

1. Cut: 2 pieces of conductive fabric (diametre: 5cm), 1 larger piece of VELOSTA (Dia.: 6cm), 2 larger non conductive fabric (Dia.: 8cm)
2. Stick conductive tape into blended fabric, blend them end sew those two pieces with regular thread.
3. Sew snap buttons with conductive thread, or clamp a metal snap button. Resect Positive or negative side.

The dimensions are there as an indication; try with another shape. Just keep to dimension logic.

This type of sensor button will allow you to vary the output by pressing the button.

5- Knitted Sensor buttons

Montage

1. Knit a small piece with conductive wool (not very conductive…). Use a soft setting to achieve loose knitting (or use larger needles).
2. Cut two pieces of regular fabric.
3. Sew ribbons on two opposite sides by placing 5/6 threads of conductive wool, or a very conductive yarn.
4. Sew snap buttons with conductive thread, or clamp a metal snap button.

This type of sensor button will allow you to vary the output by pressing the knit to decrease the resistance of the material.

Power

Montage

1. Cut a square of thick felt. In the center, cut a hole to the size of your 3V coin cell.
2. Cut a large rectangle of thick felt to fold in two.
3. Cut two pieces of conductive fabric and complete them with conductive tape.
4. Place these two pieces on each side of the rectangle, sew with regular thread, or glue them.
5. Sew with standard thread, the square with a hole on one side. It will become the location of your battery.
6. With a rubber or standard textile, blend the two taps.
7. Sew snap buttons with conductive thread, or clamp a metal snap button.

This setup allows you to quickly test your circuit.

Results

Those three buttons work well, but seeing the light on correctly is difficult in my video.

• If it doesn't work, my video is on YouTube, click here!

Fabrixiao for Arduino

I am using the Fabrixiao 32-S3 (It is written in a very small way! difficult to read!). I had trouble finding the right board. I will put the name of the board to indicate in Arduino IDE. To understand, I copied used the BLINK code and changed some Inpout/output. I did see variations in the datas in the bottom frame but I haven’t yet managed to process its data well.

This image comes from de FabriXiao website

My circuit. Output in D7, Analogue input in A1.

Tools

• Fabrixiao
• Arduino IDE

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Code BLINK

Use the three backticks to separate code.

int sensorPin=A1;    // analog input pin to hook the sensor to A0 or 26 
int sensorValue = 0;   // variable to store the value coming from the sensor
int ledPin = D7;      // internal LED on FabriXiao D10

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200); // initialize serial communications
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT); // set the LED pin as an output
}

void loop() {
  sensorValue = analogRead(sensorPin); // read the value from the sensor
  Serial.println(sensorValue); // print value to Serial Monitor

  // Map the sensor value to a PWM range (0-255) for LED brightness
  int ledBrightness = map(sensorValue, 0, 200, 0, 255);////10 no pressing 255 pressing the sensor

 analogWrite(ledPin, ledBrightness); // set LED brightness


  delay(50); // short delay so we can actually see the numbers
}

Result

I've done it correctly once but can't get it now!

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Images and drawings: Annabel Fournier unless otherwise stated