Using Karl Grimm’s copper thread to sew solderable circuit traces to fabric. Karl Grimm’s copper thread is very much like wire, but much more flexible and it doesn’t quite look like wire. I haven’t had much luck using it as the bobbin thread in my sewing machine, but you can sew in place using regular thread to sew a zigzag stitch on top of it.
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[...] Hannah Perner-Wilson writes: Using Karl Grimm’s copper thread to sew solderable circuit traces to fabric. Karl Grimm’s copper thread is very much like wire, but much more flexible and it doesn’t quite look like wire. I haven’t had much luck using it as the bobbin thread in my sewing machine, but you can sew in place using regular thread to sew a zigzag stitch on top of it. Filed under: wearables — by Becky Stern, posted March 14, 2012 at 4:00 pm Comments (0) hr{display:none} .in_the_store{background-image: url("https://www.adafruit.com/includes/templates/adafruit/images/side_back.jpg"
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[...] Machine sewing solderable circuits [...]
I am very interested in e-textiles and watched these videos from a applications technique standpoint. I could not help but think back to my 1st job as a printed circuit board layout designer for Hammond Organ company in 1966. We were doing the same thing your video demo’d. It seems to me that with a little focused effort by the internet community on innovating this process of making flexible wired circuit garments. The process could be improved 100 fold. Just need to network the knowledgeable people together.
P.S. I think a sewing machine can be hacked to introduce the conductive wire along with the stitching thread in a novel manner.
[...] I just found a way of running the Karl Grimm thread trough a sewing machine, special thanks to Hannah Perner-Wilson for posting this method on her website! [...]
[...] threads placed 5 mm apart from eachother. I’m using the Karl Grimm thread and the method that Hannah Perner-Wilson showed me to sew the thread into the [...]