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    Content by Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson
    E-Textile Tailor Shop by KOBAKANT
    The following institutions have funded our research and supported our work:

    Since 2020, Hannah is guest professor of the Spiel&&Objekt Master's program at the University of Performing Arts Ernst Busch in Berlin

    From 2013-2015 Mika was a guest professor at the eLab at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee

    From July - December 2013 Hannah was a researcher at the UdK's Design Research Lab

    From 2010-2012 Mika was a guest researcher in the Smart Textiles Design Lab at The Swedish School of Textiles

    From 2009 - 2011 Hannah was a graduate student in the MIT Media Lab's High-Low Tech research group led by Leah Buechley


    In 2009 Hannah and Mika were both research fellows at the Distance Lab


    Between 2003 - 2009 Hannah and Mika were both students at Interface Cultures
    We support the Open Source Hardware movement. All our own designs published on this website are released under the Free Cultural Works definition
    Traces

    Plotted Flex PCB

    Using a Silhouette Cameo Plotter to cut a flexible circuitboard from various materials. The circuit base material is Kapton, a material that can withstand the high heat of soldering. The conductive circuit traces are cut from a sheet of copper tape and transferred manually onto the Kapton base. Finally a soldermask is cut from very thin Kapton tape and stuck on top of the circuit to insulate everything that does not need to be exposed for soldering to.

    Materials:

    Kapton sheet material (SYNFLEX PI Film-SV2, 0.175mm thick) >> http://www.synflex.com
    Copper adhesive sheets >> http://www.techsoft.co.uk/products/knife-cutting/materials/cutronic-foil-pcbs.asp
    Kapton tape >> http://www.segor.de/#Q%3DKaptonband50mm%2833m%29%26M%3D1

    Tools:

    Silhouette Cameo plotter >> http://www.modulor.de/en/Tools-Safety-Equipment/Stationary-Machines/Cutting-plotter/Cutting-plotter-SILHOUETTE-CAMEO.html

    Links:

    Photos >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/sets/72157648348822379/
    Laser and Vinylcut Flex PCB >> http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=1132
    Etched Flex PCB >> http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=240

    Step-by-Step

    1) Prepare file on computer

    The flex circuit is made up of 4 main layers: (1)Base material, (2)conductive traces, (3)jumpers, (4)soldermask.

    I followed this nice tutorial on how to prepare and export your file in Adobe Illustrator in order to import it and use the Silhouette Studio:
    Illustrator Designs into Silhouette Studio >> http://hodgepodgepadge.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/illustrator-designs-into-silhouette-studio/
    1) “Make sure all of your shapes are with NO FILL, NO STROKE – just paths!”
    2) Save as: “AutoCAD Interchange File (dxf)”
    3) Open in Silhouette Studio and re-size to dimensions you had in the original Illustrator file

    2) Cut Base

    3) Cut Copper


    4) Transfer Copper and Insert Jumpers


    5) Cut and Apply Soldermask

    6) Finishing

    Cut/punch holes for sewing with a hole punch.

    1 Comment so far

    1. […] for a laser cutter. It can be used for cutting stencils, vinyl, conductive fabric traces, or even flexible printed circuit boards. Just export your design files as VXF, import them into the free Silhouette Studio software, and […]

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