New prototype of textile breadboard released. We used materials that can withstand high temperatures, so it is possible to weld components to the fabric! Soon on www.plugandwear.com

Today we have added our textile perfboard to the products of www.plugandwear.com. It is a knitted fabric with conductive stripes and you can solder or sew components on it. More details here: http://www.plugandwear.com/products2.html

New products and tutorials on PlugandWear! This is a soft potentiometer you can easily connect to your Arduino and use to control a flashing LED, the tone of a buzzer and so on. By sliding the cursor you will get the different values.

We have added a shrinking thread (very good for tight electrical connections to our textile perfboard) and a Textile perfboard sewing kit (textile perfboard + shrinking thread). See instructions here: http://www.plugandwear.com/supportcf0.html

Saturday June 26 and Sunday June 27, 2010

"In this hands-on weekend workshop we will cut, sew, weave, knit, felt and layer specialized electrotextiles, conductive threads and conventional electronics to create interactive soft circuits for wearables, musical instruments, jewelry and other responsive systems. We will make e-textile pressure, stretch and position sensors connect them to the Lilypad wearable computing platform and use led's and small speakers for output. We will draw inspiration from my large collection of materials, devices and projects reviewing best practices in commercial, academic and DIY eTextile work."

http://www.adrianfreed.com/content/interactive-soft-circuits-and-etextiles-workshop-arduino-lilypad-berkeley-california

▓▒░░░ Textiles and Electronics Workshop ░░░▒▓

1pm - 4pm FRIDAY the 17th @ The Tank
Part of In/Out Fest 
$25 - Includes materials to build a voltage control oscillator circuit and your own soft variable resistor. Please read on for detailed workshop description.

In this workshop, Sarah and Lara will demonstrate how to create textile sensors and how to integrate these sensors with simple signal processing circuits for controlling sound output. There will also be on hand samples of handmade conductive felt, crocheted stretch sensors, conductive batting and machine sewn resistors for participants to check out and build from, which will be the focus of this workshop.  After discussion of construction techniques and some show and tell, they will walk the workshop through building a simple sound producing circuit and how to connect it to a soft sensor.  Participants should also feel free to bring in their own simple circuits in lieu of constructing one with the group.

Ticket Info:
The workshop is $25 - this includes materials in order to build a VCO circuit and a soft variable resistor
You can pay this at the door.
If you also wish to see the night performances (highly recommended!), you can purchase single day passes online or pay at the door. $15 for single day/ $25 for both.

▓▒░░░Basic Workshop Outline░░░▒▓

Intro to Wearables and E-textiles
- we will briefly go over some projects and visuals of construction to give an idea of the many ways soft circuitry can be utilized.

Intro to materials 
- store bought materials that are used for garment construction and other items can be repurposed for use in wearable and soft tech projects, we will go over these and handmade conductive materials, soft switches and variable resistors.
- we have specific techniques that we use and experiment with, we will go over how to make a stitched resistor, a force sensor, stretch sensor and stroke sensor using various soft materials.
- briefly go over examples of stitched circuit traces and needle felted traces

::: we have examples that we will passing around! :::

Build Voltage Control Oscillator circuit 
- walk through build of this simple sound circuit and use materials to make your own soft variable resistor. We will be breadboarding this, so no soldering skills are necessary!
- learn about resistance and how to get the output that you desire from taking into account the resistance of your soft variable resistor and the relationship of your fixed resistors and capacitor.

With any time left 
- there is so much we want to share, however we do have limited time. If allowed, we will go over how to hand stitch and needle felt circuit traces to sew your electronic components to.

+++
- we would love to answer all and any questions about soft circuitry and the like. We will have materials on hand such as metallic wools, fabrics, threads and conductive felt for you to sample and take home. 
- we will also make sure you leave with a printout of the schematic for the VCO circuit and where to buy various soft conductive materials!