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E-textiles#

Program#

Introduction (10 min)#

  • Why soft, why embedding

What is electricity? (15 min)#

  • What is a circuit
  • How does electricity move
  • Voltage, Resistance, Current
  • LEDs

Conductive materials (10 min)#

  • Fabrics - resistive/conductive
  • Threads - resistive/conductive
  • Inks - resistive/conductive

Tools (10 min)#

  • Vinyl cutter, laser, embroidery, machine sewing
  • Multimeter, soldering iron

Hard/soft connections (10 min)#

  • Machine-sewable Hard/Soft Connections
  • crimp beads
  • Perfboard/Conductive thread
  • Metal machine popper/Conductive fabric
  • Hand sewable metal popper/Conductive thread
  • Wire/Conductive fabric (soldering)
  • Wire/Conductive thread (soldering)

Soft sensors (35 min)#

  • Digital
  • Switches - momentary/toggle
  • Tilt
  • Joystick
  • Stroke
  • Analog
  • Pressure sensor ( analog input example)
  • Potentiometers
  • Stretch sensors - fabric/knit
  • Bend sensors
  • Accelerometer

Programming (60 min)#

  • Intro to microcontrollers and board computers
  • Connecting to the microcontroller
  • Reading code
  • Sensor circuits
  • voltage dividers
  • pull up/down resistors
  • Normally on/off LED - how to switch that in the code
  • Tips for making data meaningful

Learning outcomes#

  • Understand how we can produce soft circuits, sensors and actuators
  • Learn how to embed them in garments, soft objects or wearables
  • Study and learn soft-hard connections
  • Discover necessary materials, components, tools
  • Explore and replicate existing projects

ASSIGNMENT#

  • Build at least one digital and one analogue soft sensors, using different materials and techniques.
  • Document the sensor project as well as the readings got using the AnalogRead of Arduino
  • Integrate the two soft sensors into one or two textile swatches using hard soft connections
  • Document the circuit and it’s schematic
  • Document your swatches
  • Upload a small video of the swatches functioning
  • EXTRA POINT Integrate the swatch into a project

How will it be evaluated?#

  • References : tutorial , links, ideas
  • Design : program your arduino sketch , design your circuit and schematic
  • Fabrication : craft your soft sensors
  • Documentation : Anyone can go through the process and understand
  • Final outcome : Is the project assembled, functioning and complete
  • Originality - Aesthetics : Has the design been thought through and elaborated

Lecture Notes#

Switch demos

Sensor demos

Sensor How to

Here you can find Liza´s resources on her soft circuiter webpage

Resources#

MATERIALS

eTextile Summer Camp 2016 Material Library

Kobakant

How to Work with Conductive Fabric by Lara Grant

CONNECTIONS

Connection category from Kobakant

Connector Zine

SENSORS

Curated Collections

eTextile Swatch Exchange

Resistive Sensors with Eeonyx

Textile Sensor Demos for Summer School

School of Wicked Fabrics: Foundation /02

Switches

Momentary

Fabric Button

Toggle

Zipper Slider

Danish Crown Slide Switch

Tilt

Tilt Sensor

Pompom Tilt Sensor

Stroke

Stroke Sensor

Knit Stroke Sensors

Neoprene Stroke Bracelet

Zebra Fabric Stroke Sensor

Sensors

Pressure

Simple Fabric Pressure Sensors

Neoprene Pressure Sensor

Neoprene Pressure Sensor Matrix

Bend

Neoprene Bend Sensor

Bonded Bend Sensor

Sheath Bend Sensor

Potentiometer

Fabric Potentiometer

Crochet Tilt Potentiometer

Embroidered Potentiometer

Tilt Potentiometer

Stretch

Knit Stretch Sensors

Fabric Stretch Sensors

Circular Knit Stretch Sensors

Accelerometer

Knit Accelerometer

Crochet Accelerometer

CODE

Basic

Blink

Button

Reading Sensor Values

Making Your Data Meaningful

Reading Sensor Values_map

Constrain

Smoothing

Calibration

Calibration with serial

Calibration with smoothing

Video#

Lecture Video

Review#

Review Video