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    Content by Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson
    We support the Open Source Hardware movement. All our own designs published on this website are released under the Free Cultural Works definition
    The following institutions have funded our research and supported our work:

    Mika was a guest researcher at the Smart Textiles Design Lab, The Swedish School of Textiles

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


    Hannah and Mika were both research fellows at the Distance Lab
    Connections

    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.

    Between conductive thread and a lilypad and other sewable PCB

    Use a squishy material on the back of your LilyPad/PCB. neoprene, foam and felt work well. Fuse it to the base material or to the back of the LilyPad or just hold it in place.


    Also handy when using crocodile clips.

    Between conductive fabric and thread

    Stretch conductive fabric is really nice to use for sewing to because it is soft and fury/hairy and slightly squishy on a minute scale so that the hairs nicely entwine with the conductive thread and make for better contact than other conductive fabrics that tend to be stiffer, especially when fused. If you are using fusible interfacing on your conductive fabric you should also be able to fuse the fabric on top of a few stitches of conductive thread and maintain a good connection.

    Between two conductive threads

    Knotting together two conductive threads is not always the best idea. Knots love to come undone or at least loose. Adding glue, nail varnish or a patch of fabric with fuible interfacing helps keep knots tight.
    Sewing along side and existing conductive trace is another option.
    And sewing both (or all) threads together to a piece of conductive fabric (see above) is also a good method.


    1 Comment so far

    1. techie talks on February 17th, 2011

      I just love the way you embedded the circuit on that fabric, amazing!

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