Conductive Textiles Where Electronics Meet Textiles Workshop with

Conductive Textiles Where Electronics Meet Textiles Workshop with Lynne Bruning and Troy Robert Nachtigall Sponsored by Spark Fun and Plugand. Wear Versione 3. 0 - January 2010

Different Materials have different Conductivity

Conductor? NON- INSULATORS CONDUCTOR SEMI CONDUCTOR SUPER CONDUCTOR

Conductive Yarns

Filament, Spun coated, and Ply Yarns

MAking Condutive Thread

Mixing Conductive and nonconductive Fibers Current/conductivity in thread depends upon three major factors: 1. Conductive Material Used 2. % of Conductive Fibers 3. Longitudinal Configuration & Horizontal Configuration

Conductive Fibers - metals – copper, silver, stainless steel, brass, Monel (Nickel) metallized fibers - polyamide/silvercarbon

Fiber Horizontal Configurations Natural Dog Bone Triorbial Circular Segmented Hollow Core

Fiber Longitudinal Configurations • Straight • Twisted • Coiled • Crimped

All conductors have resistance • Wearable electronics have more resistance because they are part non condutor. • We can create a variable resistor (or Potentiometer) by attaching a jewelry closure.

Let’s Try it

Let’s Try it

Electricity in simple knitted fabrics

Pressure sensitive fabric Characteristics Activation force 3. 6 Kg per 50 mm diameter • More then 1. 000 cycles • For a 15 cm x 20 cm switch resistance when pressed: around 200 Ohm, open circuit when non pressed û

Pressure sensitive fabrics Innovative aspects • • • No need of further production steps Low cost Transpiring Semi-transparent Flexible Different activating pressures Matrix switches Large area switches (50 cm x 50 cm) Skin compatible materials

State Change Detection • Load up the sketch /Examples/Digital/St ate. Change. Detectio n • This sketch counts how many times a button is pressed

Textile button sensors 2 • • • 1 Two different hookups Normal Button Resistor 2 1

textile perfboard

Velostat