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Conductive Materials
  • Anti-static Foam
  • Conductive Fabric Substitute
  • Conductive Fabrics
  • Conductive Gel
  • Conductive Paints and Inks
  • Conductive Pen
  • Conductive Play-Doh
  • Conductive Tapes
  • Conductive Threads
  • Conductive Velcro
  • Conductive Yarn - collective purchase
  • Conductive Yarns
  • Fine Steel Wool
  • Graphite Powder
  • Headers
  • Metal Beads
  • Metal Fasteners
  • Metal Poppers
  • Perfboard
  • Resistive Fabrics
  • Resistive Paper
  • Resistive Rubbers
  • Custom Plugs
  • stretch conductive fabric comparison
  • Thin Flexible Wire
  • Velostat

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  • anti-static arduino battery bend button circuit Communication component conductive Conductive Materials conductive thread connection crochet eeonyx example project fabric input knit material metal neoprene Non-Conductive Materials piano pouch power pressure resistive sensor Sensors solder solution sound stretch stretch conductive fabric t-shirt thread tilt tool trace velostat wearable wireless workshop Xbee yarn
    Content by Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson


    Hannah is currently a graduate student in the MIT Media Lab's
    High-Low Tech research group


    Supported by Distance Lab
    Welcome to the KOBAKANT DIY Wearable Technology Documentation

    This website aims to be a comprehensible, accessible and maintainable reference resource, as well as a basis for further exploration and contribution.

    Most Recent Posts

    Conductive Materials

    stretch conductive fabric comparison

    I have recently ordered sparkfun conductive fabric (MedTex180), which is similar to LessEMF stretchy fabric but much thicker and stiffer.

    The structure of the fabric is more like a rib than Lycra. The front side is very shiny and you can see the rib structure from the back side.

    It stretches very well on once direction [...]

    Example Projects

    Solar T-shirt II

    Here is the second version of Solar T-Shirt with components directly sewn on with conductive thread. It is also using slightly different circuit than the other solar t-shirt.

    The new schematic is the following. Please not that it is using FLED (Blinking LED) instead of diode on other one. In this example I used 2N3906 as [...]

    Example Projects

    Instructables Soft Circuit Contest

    Instructables is having a soft circuit contest…

    Workshops

    Handcrafting Textile Mice

    16+17th August 2010, DIS Conference, Aarhus, Denmark
    9 participants, 2 days
    >> Workshop Website

    Circuits

    Sewable Fabric Breakout

    Communication

    Teensy

    Use the Teensy board to fake Human Interface Device (HID) input. Human interface devices are recognized by your computer without need for drivers or custom software. They include computer mice, keyboards and joysticks. You can program the Teensy using arduino!!!

    Tools

    desoldering wick

    “Desoldering wick”! This is a very useful tool to desolder circuit when you make a mistake, or hacking toy circuits. I use them often but I never knew the name.. Here is the wikipedia explanation
    “A solder wick, also known as a desoldering wick or desoldering braid, is a roll of fine, braided 18 to 42 [...]

    Workshops

    Sewing an electronic circuit

    Location:
    Himbeer Atelier, Linz, Austria
    Date:
    Aug 13th, 14th (13-17h)
    Aug 20th, 21st (13-17h)
    Aug 27th(13-17h)

    In this series of workshops, you will be introduced to conductive textile materials and ways to use them. There will be a small introduction to microcontroller programming [...]

    Sensors

    Zipper Slider

    By using high-resistance conductive thread instead of conductive fabric, you can make a slider (potentiometer) with zippers. Unlike zipper switch, this sensor gives analog values instead of “ON/OFF”.

    Sensors

    Zipper Switch

    A Zipper is a great clothing material that can be converted into sensors. Zipper switch is a known technique used in many projects like TV-B-Gone-Hoodie by Becky Stern. It is also introduced in “Fashioning Technology” book by Syuzi Pakhchyan.

    Conductive Materials

    Conductive Play-Doh

    Conductive and non-conductive play-doh recipes by Dr. AnnMarie Thomas and Samuel Johnson.

    Connections > Technique

    Improved Electrical Contact

    Tips on how to improve your electrical contacts between various materials. It is always good practice to test a certain connecting technique before applying it to more than one connection.

    Non-Conductive Materials

    Paper Yarn

    This “paper” yarn from Habu is made from 100% linen! It is amazingly strong and soft to work with and looks beautiful.

    Technique

    Salt and Vinegar Etching

    Use Vaseline as a resist and a bath of salt and vinegar to etch away the copper from copper fabric to make circuits and sensors.

    Example Projects

    Sensor Sleeve

    Using the Sparkfun uLog module to log three channels of data and then read it out and graph it in Processing.

    Example Projects

    Aluminum Foil Tilt Sensor

    This example shows how to construct a “textile” flexible tilt sensor from extremely cheap and available materials. Substituting conductive fabric and a metal bead for aluminum foil.

    Conductive Materials

    Conductive Fabric Substitute

    Aluminum foil used with fusible interfacing is a great inexpensive and super available substitute for conductive fabrics.

    Conductive Materials

    Conductive Yarn - collective purchase

    Plug and Wear now sell “Nm10/3 conductive yarn, 80% polyester 20% stainless steel, light gray, 1 Kg cone, 3333 m (3646 yds). Perfect for knitted strain sensors. First delivery: September 2010.” Price: 75 Euro + shipping!!!

    Workshops

    Games Workshop II

    Location: Interface Cultures, Kunstuniversitat Linz, Austria
    Time: 31th May,1st, 2nd June, 2010, 10-17h

    This workshop introduces interaction and physical interface design topics through hans-on projects.

    Sensors

    Pom Pom Tilt Sensor

    This is a combination of conductive pompom and tilt sensor. The advantage is that the pompom has much bigger and softer surface than metal bead, which helps for it to touch the tilt detecting conductive fabric. Also it gives a certain look, that may be desired for some projects.

    Tools

    Pompom Maker

    Very convenient tools for making pompoms in all different sizes. But you can also use cardboard to make your own tool.

    Sensors

    Felted Pompom Pressure Sensor

    also see: conductive pompom, pompom tool
    Make pressure sensor ball by felting a pompom composed of wool and conductive steel fibers.

    Traces

    Fabric Ribbon Cable

    Dan Riley (www.scisci.org) made a beautiful Fabric Ribbon cable. 8 separate lines of conductive threads are woven into the fabric. The end of the cable is connected to normal 16 pin plug as normal ribbon cable.

    Workshops

    MAKING TEXTILE SENSORS FROM SCRATCH

    Location: LIWOLI 10, Kunstuniversitat Linz, Austria
    Time: 15th April, 2010, 11-17h

    Tools

    Dino-Lite digital USB microscope

    Dino-Lite digital USB microscope AM-311S
    Handheld Microscope
    0.3M / Resolution 640×480
    USB 2.0 Output
    0X~50x, 200x Magnification
    Built-in 8 white LED’s
    185$

    Sensors

    Circular Knit Stretch Sensors

    Use of a circular knitting machine to knit a circular stretch sensor from combinations of conductive and non-conductive yarns.

    Non-Conductive Materials

    Pemotex

    This sample came from The Swedish School of Textile. It shrinks when heat is applied and it is not reversible. When knitted together with heat emitting thread, you can control the shape (shrink) of the textile dynamically. Only downside is that it is not reversible.

    Sensors

    Embroidered Potentiometers

    also see: crochet tilt potentiometer, fabric potentiometer, time sensing bracelet,
    Made using the zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine to sew/embroider a conductive and a resistive trace side by side. Then any conductive object can be used to bridge the contact between the traces and measure the position/distance from measuring point through the change in [...]

    Workshops

    Handcrafting a textile sensor from scratch

    March 25 2010, SIDeR, UID, Umea, Sweden
    10 participants, 3 hours
    Participants will be able to make their own fabric sensors and then connect it to a multimeter, LED or an arduino+Processing to visualize the sensor data.

    Workshops

    fabric meets electronics

    Location: The Swedish School of Textile
    Date: March 22-26th 2010
    In this five days workshop, we aim to experiment with the mapping of the body movements and technological audio/visual feedbacks.
    The workshop start with introduction to arduino, and basic electronics circuit knowledge. We will also explore with Farmata library for Arduino to exchange data with software on your [...]