Sewing LEDs

After finding sewing a circuit in class was not majorly difficult(just making sure not to cross threads because there was not the kind of insulation I was used to with normal wires), I decided to test out the Lilypad Arduino to see if I could incorporate it my sewing circuit project. First I started with some simple fade sketches and then tinkered with the variables within the code to see what is looked like with multiple LEDs. Feeling comfortable I then turned my attention to the Lilypad LEDs I got from the Thingspace. The LEDs recive a data signal telling which RGB combination to send power to(and how much power). Also the lights are meant to be strung together and the code has a number to change for how many lights are included in the circuit. This is quite nifty, but it requires a positive, ground, data in and data out connections.

I had an idea of using many LEDs to create a moving effect, like a sign for a business or something like that but after stringing up some circuits I new how much thread I would have to use and I did not know how fast progress would go and what kind of troubleshooting I would encounter.

I then moved on to selecting the piece of clothing I would be sewing up. I ended up deciding on a messenger bag I had won at the end-of-year raffle at the school last year. It is a fine bag, but I have another one I like more so it has never been used...perfect!

I decided to attach the LEDs to the outside of the bag, because I could put the battery pack on the inside pocket and still use the rest of the bag without disrupting things too much. It took just one attempt at putting the needle through the nylon fabric before I realized I had made things tough for myself.... The fabric was so dense and it was almost impossible to shove the needle through. It was not 100% impossible and after stabbing myself once in the thumb I found a method using tape to increase my grip on the needle. It was still quite difficult, though.

I fumbled through sewing the LEDs and then using regular thread I secured the Lilypad to the inside of the bag and found that I was running quite low on thread! I really underestimated the amount that I would need. I had just enough to finish the circuit and reenforce some connections.

I tested it out a few times and it seemed to work with ~80% reliability. This was mostly because I should have made a few more stitches to make the thread less floppy. I may experiment with some tape to keep the threads in place.

Here is the finished product!

Spooky Card

One of the goals of taking this class was to put a little "theory" behind my "practice". In music ed there is a lot of published material under the umbrella of Theory & Practice. Well, in a "same page, different book" I was a little "practiced" in using circuits and LEDs but could do with a bit of theory to help figure out why some things worked and why other things did not.

I had an "A-Ha" moment when talking about parallel and series circuits and how I could experiment with the two different wiring methods to make this card work for my vision. But before I could finish, I needed to start!

Easy to sketch with a blank sheet of paper

I started laying out Some of the copper tape with a loose idea of stringing up a few LEDs along the way. It ended up looking sort of like this...

This is the "after" product with the required modifications in place to minimize the inconsistencies I had encountered in testing. As you can see, I have wired the LEDs in series. Also, I got frustrated putting tape and to maintain contact and ended up soldering the +- terminals to the copper tape.

                                      

This was the general shape that manifested itself as a result of my sketching. Maybe it is a little bit of a backwards design seeing where the LEDs ended up and making my card around it, but it seemed to work. 

Next I was inspired to "Increase my Challenge" by using some sort of switch. I had seen a youtube video using a microphone as a sound sensor switch... Maybe this is how the Artwork "Dandelions" by Jie Qi did it. Anywho, I rummaged around in my box-o-things and found what I thought was a microphone module for use with an Arduino. So I did what any electronic moonshiner would have done a duct taped an Arduino and breadboard to the back of the card. 

"Moonshine Electronics"

After adjusting the sensitivity of the microphone I started to get a device that sort of did what I wanted it to do some of the time! Blowing on the microphone creates quite a lot of input so I went with that in mind in order to weed out any ambient sounds that might trigger the switch.

A happy accident that happened to result is the "flickering" the lights make when the user blows on it. This might not be desirable for a winter holiday card but it does suit a Halloween themed card.

Here is the finished product:

Makey Makey

I had some trouble getting rubber to the road for this project, I put myself under some pressure to try and reinvent the wheel eight different times. To my detriment I think I forgot to just have fun with it for a while.

...3 days later...

This project and spoke to me not because I'm a music teacher, but because I have recently dove into designing and building my own electronic instruments using Arduino. I never played with a Makey Makey before so after worrying too much about making something fantastic I grabbed my thingamajig box and started hooking wires up to things and fooling around with the apps.

Recipe for... Fun!

This, of course, turned out to be a better catalyst than any amount of thinking I had done and soon after I started I was taking apart my french press to try and make a trigger out of that. My lovely girlfriend came home after a long day to find a mess in the kitchen, but this time it was a mess of wires!

Grounding

After experimenting with different methods of grounding and completing circuits I came up with a "Side-dish-o-phone"!

My experimentation yielded these "observations"...

-French Press was the coolest to use but most temperamental.
-Pickles were the most consistent to trigger sounds.
-I needed to wrap a chopstick in foil for it to work.
-Kimchi was as easy to play as the pickles(salty & wet?)
-Ice cream worked equally well frozen and soft.
-Tea bag needed to have a completely soaked string for it to work well.
-Hummus was fun!

Here is a video of the note demonstration:

I also had a little bit of fun the the french press, some butter knifes and the program "Soundplant". Soundplant is essentially a sample cue application. You can load up audio files to play and assign them to play after the designated keyboard key is pressed. I couldn't resist using an audio clip from one of my other projects to nerd-out a little bit!

The short essay with Jay Silver resonated with my drive to develop an "Invention Literacy" not only within myself, but with my students as well. I have found that creating my own midi instruments has made me feel more "alive" than I have for a long time.

For those curious I keep a process portfolio with my different projects. Check it out here!

Scratch program for Makey Makey: See Inside