Conductive Textiles Where Electronics Meet Textiles Workshop with Lynne Bruning and Troy Robert Nachtigall Sponsored by Spark Fun and PlugandWear Versione.

Conductive Textiles

Where Electronics Meet Textiles

Workshop with Lynne Bruning and

Troy Robert Nachtigall

Sponsored by Spark Fun and PlugandWear

Versione 3.0 - January 2010

Different Materials have different Conductivity

Conductor?

NON-CONDUCTOR

SEMICONDUCTOR

SUPERCONDUCTOR

CONDUCTORINSULATORS

Conductive Yarns

Filament, Spuncoated, and Ply Yarns

MAking Condutive Thread

Mixing Conductive and non-conductive Fibers

Current/conductivity in thread depends upon three major factors:

1.Conductive Material Used2.% of Conductive Fibers3.Longitudinal Configuration & Horizontal Configuration

Conductive Fibers

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

Fiber Horizontal Configurations

Dog Bone Triorbial

Hollow Core

Natural

Circular

Segmented

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 fabricCharacteristics

Activation force 3.6 Kg per 50 mm diameter

• More then 1.000.000 cycles• For a 15 cm x 20 cm switch

resistance when pressed: around 200 Ohm, open circuit when non pressed

Pressure sensitive fabricsInnovative 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/StateChangeDetection

• This sketch counts how many times a button is pressed

Textile button sensors

• Two different hookups

• Normal Button

• Resistor

1

2

1

1

2

2

textile perfboard

Velostat