Riding a bicycle by night, especially in areas with street lights far apart requires good lighting on the bike. To increase the visibility and with it the safety of bikers, illumination of a bikers clothing is a wise choice only – there are very few commercial products on the market.

Most biking enthusiasts know first hand how important good visibility is and resort to DIY to get what the market is not yet offering – active illuminated biking shirts.

The most advanced design – functionally – comes from Insturctables member dmallen. He designed the ‘Light Up Cycling Jersey‘ to draw attention to the rider, to indicate with light signals when he/she is accelerating or slowing down or turning.

When riding with constant speed the lights will stay on constantly but if there is a change in speed, especially important when slowing down or making a turn, the lights will start flashing.

This design uses two types of light sources, LEDs and EL wires which are controlled by the LilyPad-Light Sensor, LilyPad-Accelerometer and Lilypad-Arduino. Yeah – this smart Jersey will switch on automatically when it gets too dark and extra visibility is needed for save cycling.

The jersey is designed to allow the detachment of element like EL wiring and batteries for a safe washing of the jersey.

A very complex but also very smart Cycling Jersey but with the instructions from dmallen, including the LilyPad source-code, the somewhat experienced eTextile seamstress will have no problem to make a smart and save cycling jersey.

We have seen many examples of Electroluminescent (EL) wires used to decorate clothing or bags by simply having some strings placed as contour and a light up in a flashing pattern. Cute at times but not very stylish most of the times.

Not so the design as shown above which is from the latest issue of MAKE, Volume 21 which includes a 8-page primer on how to use EL wires.

The Make Magazine covers all interesting topics around EL wires such as the anatomy of EL wire, a comparison between EL wire and LEDs and a walk through for making a simple EL wire driver and strobe circuit based on a 556 dual-timer chip (or two 555s), a TIP120 Darlington transistor, and a small transformer.

This circuit will power about 10′ of wire, but changing values of capacitor, resistor you can tweak the circuit to power longer wires or the light’s appearance.

If the electronic part is too hard or time consuming for you, check out the ultra thin ‘Angel hair’ EL string from NeonString which also offers very small EL wire drivers and start making such beautiful animated graphics like the one from the Make Magazine.

The blinking eye design is an amazing example how the creative use of common materials and components can be turned into stunning effects – a highly inspirational example.

Fabric Light-Bright is an amazing textile display project from Eli Skipp of Pumping Station One, a first class hacking community in Chicago.

I have never seen before such a simple yet highly unique eTextile design. Simple in it’s functionality as described by Eli but highly expendable and wide open for upgrading to more complex functionality.

What I am talking about is a piece of cloth on which you can stick LEDs almost anywhere to form characters, writing a message or to draw a graphic with LEDs. Connect this cloth to a battery and the writing or painting will light up.

Being made of textiles, this piece of textile electronics can be easily attached to clothing without adding stiffness.

How is it made? Simple! Sew conductive thread lines, the positive contact onto a regular piece of fabric. Make a second piece in the same way for the ground or minus pin and sandwich the two pieces together with another regular fabric between to keep the conductive lines separated.

Use a conductive fabric band to connect all positive and another band for the negative lines. Alternatively you could use conductive thread to sew the connection in case you have no conductive fabric on hand.

Bend the legs of the LEDs as shown in the instruction document and connect a battery to the positive and ground band and whatever you have ‘drawn’ with the LEDs will light up.

Additional photos showing the Fabric display in more details can be found on the Flickr stream of Anne Petersen.

As Eli mentions in the instruction document, there is plenty of room to expand on this simple concept, using different color LEDs, adding a LilyPad or sound functions. Actually this concept shows a way how to make a 2-sided PCB out of textile materials which will  be very useful for eTextile projects experiments.

Lynne Bruning expanded her DIY eTextile portfolio on Instructables with the ‘flexible LED eTextile ribbon array‘ project showing how to create a textile illumination layer in grid form which is light weight and highly flexible, making it ideal to integrate in garments with light up effects.

The basic concept is to form a array with ribbons which have at the center a conductive yarn line running fixed in position via cross stitching on a sewing machine.

On direction of the array is for the positive connection and the other for the negative connection to a battery.

The ribbons are sewn together on the crossing points while the conductive yarn lines face in the opposite direction to avoid short circuit.

The LEDs are attached be sliding the LED legs into the cross stitching of the corresponding positive and negative direction of the ribbons which contains the conductive yarn. No soldering required!

Ribbons for power supply make sure each row in the vertical and horizontal rows are fed with electrical power, lighting up the whole array. There is the link to the Instructables with is richly documented with photos showing each step of the process.

Lynne demonstrates the potential use of a flexible LED array with her beautiful creation called ‘Mrs. Mary Atkins-Holls‘ evening gown.

Coming Monday Nov. 30th starts the Instructables contest Light Up the Night! Lynne’s flexible LED eTextile ribbon is up for voting – so click over and support Lynne for her fabulous contributions to the eTextile community.

Instructables member Lynne Bruning has published quite a nice selection of inspiring e-textile projects providing a source of techniques for aspiring interactive fashion designer.

Weaving circuits with LEDs is another example of her creative skills showing a way how to use weaving technique and feeding e-textile LEDs into the weave to create a very reliable fixation of very small LED components into a woven patch of fabric which could ultimately be used as a simple textile display.

e-textile LEDs like the LED sequins Leah Buechley designed are perfect for this type of attachment of electronic components onto textiles during the weaving process. It’s a complete, unobtrusive integration of electronic components into fabrics allowing to ‘produce’ larger fabric batches that can be cut to sizes as needed without loosing their e-textile functionality.

I am looking forward to the day when one can go to the shop and order a few yards of illumination fabric for that special dress.

Check out the detailed instruction from Lynne Bruning on Instructables, a highly interesting technique that can open a wide area of exploration into e-textile fabrication.

We have done a lot of coverage on heated apparels but how do we know how cold/warm is it inside our jacket?

To find out the temperature inside a jacket we could use an ‘old fashion thermometer’ or we can follow this DIY instruction to build a cool Jacket Thermometer indicating the temperature via different colors on your jacket.

In this DIY example the temperature is indicated in four color steps starting at around 10 degrees Celsius with blue light. The green color comes up next when we reach 18 degree Celsius followed by orange indicating the mid 20 degree Celsius range and topping up in the high 20’s with a red glow.

The DIY instructions are easy to follow but you need an Arduino board and knowledge how to program the Arduino.

This little jacket thermometer project shows a interesting way how a simple light indication can be made for garment integration. But there might be other ways to realize a Jacket Thermometer with light indication. If you know other solutions please drop us a line in the comments.

Bicycle gear does get a lot of creative attention from the wearable electronic community as the Bicycle SPEED-VEST is another example to combine visibility with a touch of fun or practicality, depending on how you want to see it.

Visibility while riding a bike in low visibility condition is one of the most important features as concepts like the Illum Jacket which proposes light elements for aesthetics or Leah Buecley’s Turn Signal Biking Jacket show.

The SPEED-VEST is a bicycle safety gear which displays the wearer’s current speed on their back in easy-to-read lighted numerals made from EL-wires in the form of the old style Nixi-Tube numerical displays giving the SPEED-VEST a kind of retro-fashion look.

El-wire glow brightly when supplied with a very small amount of high voltage, high-frequency current, they are relatively cheap and quite durable.

The complete system consists of a wheel speed sensor mounted on the bike, the numerical display and the open source computing platform Arduino which is doing the speed calculation and display control. the power comes from a 9 volt battery for the Arduino and one AA battery for the display, both running for 6 hours on one set of battery.

Check out the video how cool the speed indication works:

The SPEED-VEST is a collaboration between Brady Clark and Mykle Hansen which created a comprehensive and detailed overview which can be found here.

May this project like the many others we have presented serve as inspiration for designer interested into exploring the practical, fashionable potential the fusion of technology and clothing can offer.

[via: laydyada]

Another amazing way on how to ’soften electronic’ or should I say ‘electrify textiles’ has been worked out by Leah Buechley, an Embroidered LED matrix providing a soft display for your next outfit.

Leah’s ‘proof of concept’ demonstrates how to create a textile display by using both sides of a fabric to realize a 2 layer (top and bottom) PCB. The textile itself serves as an insulator between the two layers of conductive yarns. This allows the creation of a grid or matrix without making electrical contact on the crossing points.

The top side of the fabric has conductive threads in vertical rows while the thread on the underside (coming from the bobbin) is conventional, none conductive thread. The bottom side of the fabric has the horizontal rows made of conductive thread by swapping the thread in the bobbin with the conductive type.

To bring the electrical (conductive) connection from the backside of the fabric to the top where it is needed to solder the LEDs, conductive thread is stitched in this area creating a so called ‘via’. You can see them in the photo as brownish areas next to the LEDs.

The textile LED matrix comes to life via Leah’s LiliPad Arduino, giving our future e-fashion designer everything needed to design the next Interactive Clothing collection.

Leah’s demonstration of an Embroidered LED matrix highlights (pun indented) how textile displays could be made, at least for one-off, tailor made e-fashion creations.

[Hack A Day via Make Blog]

A wearable electronic DIY guide from Instructables user Louise Johnson demonstrates how to make LED-Pants that have a row of LEDs on the side of the pants legs. I guess such type of e-textile upgrade of regular pants is for stage performances or hot parties. Whatever the motivation of Louise was, his instructions are very detailed and fairly easy to follow.

What makes the DIY – LED Pants project interesting is not so much the technology or e-textile materials used but the conceptual way the LED strip is made: a row of LEDs are connected to an electronic structure which is then sandwiched between two layers of fabric.

This allows a neat and clean seal of the more sensitive electronics. The backside of the LED strip has Velcro sewn on it with the counter part of the Velcro on the trouser. The use of Velcro allows easy removal of the LED strip when cleaning the pants. The modular design with Velcro as attachment allows the LED strip to be used also on other clothing items or bags if the are designed with matching Velcro attachment points.

I love the simplicity of the modular design with Velcro attachment. This system can be used with many different, self contained e-textile functions where easy attachment or removal is wanted either for cleaning purpose or to reuse the wearable electronic module on different outfits or bags.

Imagine to make your own wardrobe which is wearable electronic ready designed. A simple idea with a lot of possibilities.

[Instructables via Daily DIY]

Enlighted, the company that lights up many clothing items posted a DIY instruction showing how you can enlighten your clothing as well.

A red robot suit made by Enlighted for Daft Punk’s Alive 2007 tour attracted a huge interest from Draft Punk fans and others who have seen the Alive show. This interest motivated Enlighten to publish a DIY instruction showing how anyone interested into creating the next ‘out-of-this-world’ stage or party outfit.

Enlighted uses for their light designs EL wires that can be formed in almost any shape and is available in many colors.

The process of integrating light elements into clothing is rather labor-intensive but with a bit of sweat and by following this Instructables you will soon be able to create your fantasy stage or party outfit.

The instructions are fairly general but providing a very good insight into how EL-wire work and where to get them for your project. A very detailed overview how to integrate EL wires into clothing, hats, shoes – anything you can wear completes the DIY instruction.

A long list of possible designs, I guess all the samples on the Instructables site come from their workshop, serve as a valuable resource for inspiration for your own design.

As this instruction comes from professionals you will find many tips on how to select the fabrics, clothing items and EL wires to achieve an optimum on integration. Ideas on how to improve the durability of garments and getting the longest possible life help to understand the use of EL wires in clothing.

Check out the video below showing the part of Draft Punk’s red light robot outfit during their Alive 2007 show