Example Projects
Workshops
Announcements
Actuators
Connections
Power
Sensors
Traces

Circuits and Code Wireless

Meet the Materials
Conductive Materials
Non-Conductive Materials
Tools
Techniques
Thinking Out Loud
Workshops
  • A Kit-of-No-Parts at Weissensee
  • Absurd Musical Interfaces
  • Action Hero Tailoring
  • Adopting Swatches
  • All your segments are belong to me
  • Arduino meets Wearables Workshop
  • Beautiful Circuits
  • Bend, sew, touch, feel, read
  • Bike+Light Workshop
  • Blurring Boundaries
  • Card Weaving Workshop
  • Chic bend and Sleek stretch
  • Chip-Man-Band
  • Communicating Bodies
  • connecting bubbles
  • Crafting Robots
  • Crocheting Electronics
  • Crochet and Code
  • DEAF: Crafting the Future Workshop
  • Designing for the loop Workshop
  • DressCode Workshop Shambala
  • DressCode Workshop Berlin
  • #e-textile-adventures
  • E-Textile Meet-up
  • E-Textile Open Lab at CNMAT
  • E-Textile Summer School in France
  • E-Textile Tooling: ohmHook
  • Electric Embroidery Tuesday
  • Hybrid Jewels
  • Electric Embroidery Monday
  • Electronic Textiles Live
  • Electronics as Material I
  • Electronics as Material II
  • Electronics as Material III
  • Electronics of Materials IV
  • Electronics Surgery
  • E-Textile Pecha-Kucha at Schmiede
  • Elektronik und Handwerk
  • Embroidered Speaker Workshop
  • Engineers for Social Impact workshop at Mumbai : e-Diwali
  • ETextile CARD10
  • E-Textile Knitting Circle
  • eTextile Summer Camp 2013
  • eTextile Summer Camp 2014
  • eTextile Summer Camp 2016
  • Everything is Talkative
  • fabric meets electronics
  • Fabricademy: Soft Circuits and Textiles Sensors
  • - faser - faden - fiktion -
  • from SPACE to SPACE
  • From Swatches to Pockets
  • FT1 - Material Mechanisms for Utopian Uniforms
  • FT1: Moving Fabrics with Electrons
  • FT1: Tailoring with Electronic Textiles I
  • FT1: Tailoring with Electronic Textiles II
  • Game controller hack
  • Games Workshop II
  • Handcrafting a textile sensor from scratch
  • Handcrafting Textile Mice
  • Handcrafting Textile Sensors from Scratch
  • Handcrafting Textile Sensors in Vienna
  • Handedness
  • Human Hacked Orchestra
  • I <3 ATtiny
  • I AM Learning
  • In All Different Colors
  • Interactive Solar T-Shirt
  • ITP camp Workshops
  • Adventuring with Materials
  • Kinder Egg WishLab
  • Knitting, hacking, hanging, sound
  • KOBA School of WickedFabrics
  • KOBA School of Wickedfabrics: TAILORING
  • KOBA Winter School of Wickedfabrics
  • least likely
  • Light Dependent Relationship
  • LilyPad Arduino Programming
  • Sewing an electronic circuit
  • Make your own multi-touchpad
  • Making and Animating Dioramas
  • Making Textile Sensors from Scratch at TEI
  • MAKING TEXTILE SENSORS FROM SCRATCH at LIWOLI
  • Animating Textiles
  • Material_Adventures
  • MATERIALS & CRAFTMANSHIP
  • Meet the Materials Workshop
  • Moving Textile
  • Nature's Wearables
  • #paper-adventures
  • Physical Computing Stammtisch
  • Piano T-Shirt
  • PIFpack Workshop
  • Playing with electronic textiles
  • Pulp in Motion
  • Relief Embroidery Workshop at Summercamp
  • School of Wicked Fabrics: FOUNDATION /01
  • School of Wicked Fabrics: FOUNDATION /02
  • School of Wicked Fabrics: FOUNDATION /03
  • Sensing with Textiles
  • Sensitive Puppets
  • Sewing Fabric Sensors
  • Shape and Memorize
  • Smart Rituals
  • Soft & Tiny Pillow Speaker Workshop
  • soft interactive technologies
  • Soft Interactive Technology at Weissensee
  • Soft Interactive Technology Course at KHB
  • Soft Interactive Technology I
  • Soft Interactive Technology 1 at KHB
  • Making Soft Noise
  • Soft Sensors for Soft Bodies
  • soft soft
  • Soft Sensors for Soft Bodies II
  • Soft & Tiny Arduino Workshop
  • Solar T-shirt Workshop
  • Sounding Textiles
  • Spekulative Objekte
  • Stitching Electronics | Woolly Noise
  • Taking Parts Apart Workshop at TH Nürnberg
  • Technical Intimacy
  • Technology + Textiles
  • Textile Sensoren und Aktuatoren in Handarbeit
  • Crafting Sensory Surfaces
  • The Sound of Nature
  • Three Perspectives
  • Tinkering with Textiles & Electronics
  • Tone of the Things
  • Tool time
  • Touch the Tone
  • Toy Piano T-shirt workshop
  • Traces with Origin Workshop
  • Transparent and Dangerous
  • Transparent and Dangerous II
  • under the influence
  • Wearable sound experiment
  • Wearable Sound Experiment II
  • Wearable Sound Toy Orchestra
  • Wearable Studio Workshops at ARS
  • Weigh, Measure, Count
  • Textile Sensor Indulgence
  • Wireless Workshop
  • Wish Lab Workshop
  • WishLab II Workshop
  • Embroidery gone Electronic
  • Woven Paper Cup Speaker Workshop
  • Support the creation of content on this website through PATREON!
  • About
  • E-Textile Events
  • E-Textile Spaces
  • Newsletter
  • Print & Publications
  • E-Textile Shopping

  • SEARCH
    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
    Workshops

    Textile Sensor Indulgence

    October 24-26 2018, 17-20:30 (10h), at ČIPke in Ljubljana, Slovenia

    In this 3-evening workshop we will introduce a palette of conductive fabrics, fibers and threads from which you can construct all kinds of textile sensors. We will demand you be rigorous about investigating the conductive, resistive and piezoresistive properties of these materials. We will challenge you to hone your craft skills by producing well-made replicas of select designs. Finally, we will ask you to be inventive and produce and document a textile sensor design of your own.

    During this workshop each participant will compile a swatch-book of the experiments, copies and new designs they produce.

    Swatchbook pages:
    >> www.kobakant.at/downloads/swatchbooks/18-RampaWSswatchPages.pdf

    More info:
    Cipkeen: https://cipkeen.wordpress.com/2018/10/04/cipke-kobakant-e-techstil-24-26-october-17h-20h/
    Ljudmila: https://wiki.ljudmila.org/Textile_Sensor_Indulgence

    Apply by sending an email to: info@rampalab.org


    SCHEDULE

    Wednesday October 24th 17-20:30
    17-17:15 welcome, intro
    17:15-18:00 KOBAKANT presentation
    Meet the Materials (conductive)
    Meet the Multimeter
    Digital Sensors Intro
    Making Digital Sensors
    (if finish early: invent your own digital sensor)
    Show&Tell (could also be beginning of second eve)

    Thursday October 25th 17-20:30
    (Show&Tell)
    Meet the Materials (resistive, piezoresistive)
    Voltage Divider, ADC, Arduino/Teensy, serial plotter, midi, analog synth….
    Analog Sensors Intro
    Making analog sensors
    Show&Tell

    Friday October 24th 17-20:30
    Invent your own analog/digital sensor
    Document your sensor
    Show&Tell
    goodbye


    DAY1

    Meet the materials

    – Copper Conductive Fabric
    – Silver Stretch Conductive Fabric
    – RIPSTOP SILVER FABRIC
    – SOFT&SAFE
    – High Flex 3981
    – High Flex 3981 silver 14/000
    – Elitex
    – Shieldex
    – 25% Metal Egypto Color Gold Gimp


    Meet the multimeter

    We can not see the electrons flowing. So we can not tell by looking if there is an electrical connection, or how much electrical resistance between one end to the other end of the circuit or a material.
    To measure this, we use a tool called multimeter. This will be your friend throughout the workshop. Here is how to use it.

    Check connection
    connection check
    turn the dial to arrow/sound sign. Place the probe to the to end of the part where you want to check the electrical connection. If there are connection, it will beep.

    Check Resistance
    multimeter
    Turn the dial to ohm mark part. there are few numbers on the ohm part, start from the smallest, or if you know roughly how much it should be, start with closest one. If it is on the diral 200 ohm, it means it will measure the resistance maximum 200ohm. If the resistance is bigger than 200ohm, it shows 1. like in the picture. In this case, turn the dial to bigger maximum range (for example 2000, or 20k (20,000)) to see if you start to see a number.


    Textile Sensors

    One can make different types of sensors. Some sensors have two states, “on” or “off”, or another words, “contact” or “no contact” like on/off switches of a light. Other sensors have range of states, like a dimmer of a light. The two state kind of sensors are digital sensors, and the sensors that has range is called analog sensors.

    We can build these sensors and read the resistance change with multimeter.

    Push Button
    push button

    http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=48

    Tilt Switch
    tilt
    http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=201

    Button Switch

    http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=7349


    DAY2

    Resistive Sensor (value, analog)

    You are measuring the material’s electrical resistivity. The characteristics of the resistive material decides how the sensor behaves electrically.

    Adjustable Slider
    photos >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157685063387786
    >> http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=6886
    Slider band with 8-ring conductive wiper

    Knit Stretch Sensor
    http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=2108
    stretch knit
    knit stretchknit stretchknit stretchknit stretchknit stretchknit stretch

    Bend Sensor
    http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=20
    bendbendbendbendbend

    Conductive Wool: Needle Felt Squeeze Sensor
    You can mix a bit of wool to increase the range of resistance change.
    felt
    feltfeltfeltfeltfeltfeltfelt


    Voltage Divider

    If you have 2 exactly same resistors, the voltage gets half in the middle, like the first diagram. As the ratio between two resisters changes, the voltage you get in the middle (between the resisters) changes accordingly.
    One can calculate this by
    Supply voltage (5v) x resistanceA / (resistanceA + resistanceB) = divided voltage

    So much of a theory, let’s try this to see if it really works. Here is an experiment with two resister with a multumeter.
    The first experiment shows two same size resister (10kohm) dividing the provided voltage (5V) in half. The multimeter is set as V– for reading direct current voltage. The probes are connected to 0V (GND) of the power supply and the middle point where two resisters meet. You can see 2.44 in the multilmeter’s display. (almost 2.5V.. maybe the resister had some range) It divides the 5V in 50/50 ratio.

    In the second experiment, I changed one of the resister to 47kohm. So now the ratio of two resisters are 10/47. So, I should read 5V x 10/(10+47) = 0.877 V in theory. As you can see in multimeter, it is 0.85V it measures. Not bad!

    Now, if you change one of the resister to our resistive textile sensor, it works the same. The felt sensor I tested here has about 8kohm – 100kohm resistance range. You can see how the voltage that gets divided in the middle changes as I manipulate the felt. Now, if you connect the point where multimeter is reading to the Arduino Analog input, we can read how much voltage comes in.

    Arduino sketch that reads analog input and displays on plotter with fixed range, fade LED and play sound>> https://github.com/KOBAKANT/workshop-examples/tree/master/AnalogReadSerial_plotter_fixedrange_LEDfade

    E-Textile Sensor Tester
    E-Textile sensor tester

    E-Textile sensor tester

    front:
    E-Textile sensor tester

    back:
    E-Textile sensor tester

    analog
    Slider
    Pressure Sensor
    Pressure Button
    Bend Sensor
    Knit Stretch
    Crochet Squeeze
    Felted



    Leave a comment