Introduction: Sewable Arduino Interface
How to create a sewable interface for your Arduino USB board. It is probably not the best solution, especially compared to the Arduino LilyPad. But it is an option for textile electronic projects that use conductive thread and would like to sew directly to the inputs of an Arduino board.
Step 1: Materials and Tools
- Solderable Perfboard with copper line pattern from All Electronics http://www.allelectronics.com/
- Male and female headers from Sparkfun http://www.sparkfun.com/
- Regular thread
- Piece of fabric
- Small square of stretch fabric
- Arduino USB board from Sparkfun http://www.sparkfun.com/
- 9V battery with a 9V battery snap wired to a power plug
- Conductive thread from www.sparkfun.com
also see http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/resource/conductive_thread
- Soldering iron and solder
- Cutting knife
- Sewing needle
(- Helping hands and/or breadboard)
Step 2: Preparing Materials
Cut your perfboard and headers into following pieces (see sketch for details):
One: 5 x 6 holes
One: 5 x 15 holes
Two: 5 x 9 holes
Two: 6 pin rows
Two: 8 pin rows
Two: 3 pin rows
!!! Make sure to divide the 5 x 6 hole piece of perfboard into two disconnected sections 3 x 5 holes each. See picture for details.
File all the edges of the perfboards to that they are rounded and not sharp. This is to prevent the edges from rubbing and tearing at the conductive thread that will later be stitched to the edge holes.
The perfboard pieces can also be downsized, if you only plan on connecting only from one side. I also include two rows of holes on each side of the headers for extra space, which also makes sewing-to easier, but one row of holes to one or either side would also work, and make things smaller. I also include an extra row of holes to each side of each perfboard to sew them in place with regular thread. This takes strain off the conductive thread connections&. but can also be dismissed for downsizing.
Step 3: Soldering
Solder the headers to the perfboards. Look at the pictures for details. A set of helping-hands or a breadboard would come in handy here for holding things in place while soldering.
Step 4: Sewing Into Place
Plug your header-perfboards into your Arduino and place it upside-down on top of a piece of fabric. Leave enough space for a battery pouch. Trace the placement of the perfboards to the fabric, then remove the Arduino, unplug the header-perfboards and sew them into place with regular thread. You can create a little battery pouch from stretch fabric so that you can power your Arduino with a 9V battery.
Step 5: Sewing Connections
Now you can plug and unplug your Arduino from the sewable interface. When sewing conductive thread connections to the sewable interface, make sure to make good contact with the copper strip underneath the hole as shown in the pictures.
I plan on using this interface for a few textile objects that I'm working on. Because I would like to be able to sew directly to the inputs, as well as be able to remove the Arduino from the circuit.
7 years ago
14 years ago on Introduction
What a neat concept, thanks! I'm not sure what I'd use this for, but the methodology behind he perfboards could be used with any electronics you wanted to integrate with clothing... Do you know if the thread and headers could be washed in the cloth / clothing? Thanks Bilby
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
yes, i think the conductivity for the conductive thread and the headers should survive washing. maybe not in the washing machine, but hand wash with lunkwarm water and mild detergent. Leah Buechley includes some results from washing conductive fabric traces in the following paper on page 11... >> http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~buechley/publications/buechley_PUC_07.pdf
14 years ago on Introduction