A bracelet decorated with six conductive fabric petals and a thread of beads with a metal bead at the end, makes for a simple six point tilt detection. It is also designed so that the metal bead will make contact with two petals if it lies in between. and then of course it will make no contact when it is in the air due to throw or tipped upside-down.
This was really fun to make and the best part about it was that it worked straight away, with no mistakes made on my part. It is simple, but takes some patience to accomplish. The application really only visualized the input, I have not thought of any further uses for this. Yet.
The feedback bracelet is connected to the tilt bracelet directly via wire, but this could also be wireless. When the bead makes contact with a conductive petal it closes the circuit for the corresponding LED, which turns it on. Check out instructables dot come for more and how to make your own!
Step 1: Materials and Tools
- Conductive thread from http://members.shaw.ca/ubik/thread/use.html
also see http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/resource/conductive_thread
- Neoprene from www.sedochemicals.com
- Stretch conductive fabric from http://www.lessemf.com
also see http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/resource/stretch_conductive_fabric
- Fusible interfacing from local fabric store or
also see http://www.shoppellon.com
-
- Regular thread
- Regular beads
- One metal bead or small pendant
- Two sets of poppers (could also use Velcro to close bracelet)
- Male and female headers from Sparkfun http://www.sparkfun.com/
- Arduino USB board from Sparkfun http://www.sparkfun.com/
- Solderable Perfboard with copper line pattern from All Electronics http://www.allelectronics.com/
- Ribbon cable with min. 8 wires
- 6 x 10 or 20K resistors
- Aleene’s Flexible Stretchable Fabric Glue from http://www.amazon.com/Aleenes-Flexible-Stretchable-Fabric-Glue/dp/B0001DSCQ0
- Arduino software free for download from http://www.arduino.cc/
- Processing software free for download from http://processing.org/
TOOLS:
– Fabric scissors
– Sewing needle
– Iron
– Fabric pen that disappears over time
– Pen and paper
– Ruler
– Soldering station (iron, helping hands, solder)
– Knife for cutting perfboard
– File for filing edges
– Wire cutters and strippers
– Pliers
Step 2: Stencil and Preparation
Print out the stencil (see illustration) and trace it to a piece of neoprene. Trace the flower petal pattern to stretch conductive fabric that has fusible interfacing adhered to one side. Cut out the neoprene and conductive fabric pieces.
Punch the poppers into the neoprene as shown in illustration. Make sure the active sides are facing the right ways. You could also use Velcro as a fastener.
For more detail: Tilt Sensing Bracelet using Arduino
