August 12, 2005

Pocket Workshop

The following text gives step-by-step instructions how to make an LED circuit with conductive fabric, thread and epoxy embedded into a denim pocket. This was the topic of the workshop we presented at Eyebeam in July, 2005.

LessEMF - Source for conductive fabrics and velcro. For $10, they offer a fabric sampler to try out different materials.
Mood Fabrics - Our favorite fabric store. For our pockets, we used denim and regular pocketing. Sometimes you can find conductive silk organza at Mood, so bring your multimeter.
Botani - Botani only sells buttons. They sell traditional metal snaps in bulk.
Newark in One - Good source for conductive epoxy and electronics supplies. We used conductive epoxy to attach the snaps to the 3D printed LED holder.
L.C. LED and LSDiodes LED resources

Conductive thread - The conductive thread we used, did not work well in small amounts so we replaced it with fine gauge wire. There are some conductive threads and information available online:
Lamé saver
Intro to Wearable Technology

Step-by-step pocket instructions:

1. Cut out pocket pieces from fabric and pocketing. To make a pattern, draw out the size and shape of the pocket, then add 5/8" around all edges for seam allowances. Press the 5/8" seam allowances down on all sides with an iron.
   [pocket pattern]

2. Attach conductive velcro to both sides of the pocketing. This will be where the battery is attached later on. We recommend using the loop side of the velcro to the pocketing. We attached the velcro to the pocketing using regular thread on a sewing machine.
   

3. Using conductive epoxy, attach velcro to both sides of a 3 volt battery. Make sure that the velcro does not touch the outer ring of the battery or it will short the battery. The photo shows a battery with loop side on the battery, but hook works better to minimize the chance of a short circuit.
   

4. Next, we cut conductive fabric out for the front and back of the pocket on the laser cutter. The fabric can also be cut the traditional way, with scissors. The conductive fabric is going to be part of an electronic circuit so it has to be continuous. That is why all the letters in the graphic are attached to each other.
   

5. Attach the conductive fabric to the pocket material, in our case denim, with regular thread. Both pocket pieces should have conductive fabric sewed to it. Make sure the fabric will overlap the velcro on the pocketing when it is all put together. Sew conductive thread creating continuity between the conductive fabric and the velcro on the inner pocketing for both sides.
   
   

   
   

6. We made a plastic housing for the LED using the 3D printer. With regular 5 minute epoxy, we attached an LED to the housing. With conductive epoxy, we attached 2 female snaps to the housing. Afterwards, always check for continuity with a multimeter.
   
   
   

7. Attach two male snaps to the front of the pocket for a place to snap the LED assembly to. First attach the snaps with regular thread and then go over it with conductive thread. One snap should sit on the field of conductive fabric and the second snap should sit on the denim. Make sure there is no continutiy between the two male snaps.
   

8. On the pocketing material, attach a male snap that lines up on the inverse side of the denim snap on the front of the pocket. Attach it with regular thread first and then use conductive thread to create continuity between the male snap on the front on the pocket with the male snap on the inside of the pocket.

9. On the pocketing for the back of the pocket, attach a female snap that meets up with male snap you just added to the front pocketing. After attaching the snap with regular thread to the pocketing, use conductive thread to create continuity between the snap and the conductive material on the back of the pocket.
   

10. Sew the pocketing material to the pocket material and sew up the pocket around the outside edges.
    
    

Pockets from the workshop

Posted by michelle at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)

April 30, 2005

Open Studios

Today is the Open Studios at Eyebeam. Some visitors recommended that we look into these two artists:

Jon Kessler

Jennifer & Kevin McCoy

The McCoys are a married couple whose work includes miniature sets and robotic cameras. They also draw from personal experiences in their work such as a traffic jam during their second date.

Posted by michelle at 03:42 PM | Comments (0)

April 15, 2005

Studio (lablog4-15-05)

Here is a view of our studio space at the Eyebeam atelier:

View larger image

Today I purchased a toaster oven for our Femo. Femo and wire is going to be a main R&D material. I like it because it is easy to shape and form, becomes very rigid with similar physical properties to ABS plastic and its cheap. Only problem is the toaster isn’t the preferred method of cooking the stuff. It burns it. I will need Michelle's help and candy thermometer to get this to the right temp.

Posted by powderly at 01:45 PM | Comments (1)

April 04, 2005

Lablog4-4-05

The project has begun. We have a basic plan for doing this. We clearly do not have enough time or money. But a plan we have. If everything goes well, no hospital visits or divorce, Michelle and I will end-up with the designs for a lot of the characters we need to tell our story, decent breadboard Michelle and James robots and the first iteration of a humanoid design kit geared towards DIY engineers, students and hobbyists.

We just completed the project plan. We have a schedule, we have broken down the project into parts we can understand, formed a team and created this website

Our lablog entries will generally consist of project progress updates, accounts of our experiments, results, design choices, etcetera including probably a healthy dose of stream-of-powderly type theories and polemics…a little here and there about our story and my colon.

And we also want to use this log as a place to archive thoughts and experiments relevant to the DIY humanoid robot KIT materials and designs.

Ultimately, this will be a place to learn from the lessons of a few engineers as they attempt to make some humanoid robots, to build-upon and contribute to our designs and to find out about some exciting emerging genres like peer robotics, DIY/personal fabrication and robotic fine art.

To start this off in the right spirit, here is a James Tate poem that captures how I feel at the start of most of our projects:

Jesus got up one day a little later than usual. He had been dream- ing so deep there was nothing left in his head. What was it? A nightmare, dead bodies walking all around him, eyes rolled back, skin falling off. But he wasn't afraid of that. It was a beau- tiful day. How 'bout some coffee? Don't mind if I do. Take a little ride on my donkey, I love that donkey. Hell, I love everybody.

Posted by michelle at 10:13 PM | Comments (0)