Sithel ([info]simplysithel) wrote,
@ 2008-10-13 00:08:00
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Current mood:engineer + crafty = good :)
Current music:Bitter - Xenosaga 2

There, I did it.

artistsAid1


Yeah, sure, it may look like a mess, but it can do what it was made for. Also, it was my very first attempt at sewing a circuit and the first embroidery/clothing item in a looong time. Made at Adam's house as well, which means severely limited supplies and absolutely no pattern/planning. Second image- overhead view- found here.

Above is my first (and already outdated) version of an artist's light. I absolutely love sketching at shows, but quite often I run into light issues. I don't want to haul out a tacky book-reading light or anything but I love drawing the people too much to just give up. The hope of this is that the light is weak and downward angled so that only I see it, and the whole red not ruining night vision thing as well. Failed to finish it in time for Decompression, though I didn't end up staying that long past nightfall so it didn't much matter. Damn them for having a late-night event on a Sunday!

I swore to myself a year ago that I'd make something electric before Make. Failing that, I took a new vow to make something electric before my 25th birthday (which I'm dreading already). Ordered some conducive thread last month but had no idea how awesome it would actually turn out to be. I just soldered a pin to one end of the thread (tricky, but do-able) and I'm having a blast playing the "Is it conductive?" game at my house.

Normally I'm not a fan of LED projects- this one was fueled by necessity however. Once I perfect the design, I'm not sure what else I want to do next. I can think up fun components and understand how to make the circuit/logic more complex... but to what end? Blinking lights? An obnoxious buzzer? Poo to that... Any suggestions?

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Random ideas!
[info]flashfeather
2008-10-13 08:48 am UTC (link)
Lady Ada, my friend. Her pov stuff is to *die* for. :D

http://www.ladyada.net/make/index.html

High amounts of happiness per lower amounts of stress. These are from one of her kits, modified and then built into staff, poi, etc:
http://www.melodylu.com/lj/pov3.jpg


Also, just an example link:
http://tinyurl.com/4jbhe4

I got some of these for someone else's yard, but ended up immediately taking them apart-- a lovely solar cell and super-bright leds, for pretty cheap (this would be for a much bigger project than a wrist brace in the dark-- but could led to some really nice outdoor sculpture enhancements, if you were doing wirework and metal bits.

I like the concept of an artists light a lot-- what about a dim black light, though? It would really catch the paper, for very little energy. Also, EL wire would give you more dispersed lighting, and it's even better than just using conductive thread....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroluminescent_wire

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Re: Random ideas!
[info]simplysithel
2008-10-13 10:30 pm UTC (link)
OoOoooOoo! Black light! I like that idea a lot! A brief search on the Internets however does not yield obvious "buy black light LEDs here!" links but I will definitely peruse this idea...

I just saw a lot of EL wire at the Decompression event and it didn't seem to offer a lot of thrown light...although I guess for the amounts I'm looking for, it wouldn't be obvious. Have you seen any up close? Do you think it casts enough to sketch by? Also... need that damnable AC to run... Grrr...

Awesome links! Thanks for the ideas! I be a' plotting now....

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Random ideas!
[info]omniscientlyme
2008-10-14 02:59 am UTC (link)
Search for "UV LED" for best results.

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Re: Random ideas!
[info]flashfeather
2008-10-14 05:38 am UTC (link)
I had some, somewhere, like about a foot of it from someone else's burning man project. I'll see if it gets dug up over the next few months, and I can just hand it over if you want. It offers enough thrown light for 3"-from-paper visibility, and prolly also for the wicked idea of inside-a-back-pack light. It's just really nice an flexible, as well as being an area light (instead of just a single point) so might be a lot less distracting than having 2 or 3 bright leds cast circle light spots on a drawing surface. While I really like your wrist idea (would be excellent costumage, and good for fixing things like bicycles on the dark playa), I'mma bet that for drawing a glowing drawing *surface* might be much more useful. A 1/4" slab of plexiglass with UV leds built in or wrapped around the edge with EL wire: that's where I'd be headed, if I was on this project. A very dim (or adjustable!), thin, portable light table. That way you can see the whole image at once, and you don't have your light chasing around as you draw.

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[info]b_zedan
2008-10-13 12:17 pm UTC (link)
That is one very smart idea. I'm still wary of soldering, so thus far I've avoided conductive sewing.

Maybe something that, when you open a purse/bag a light goes on. Like a refrigerator.

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[info]simplysithel
2008-10-13 03:27 pm UTC (link)
Ah! No fear! The wrist thing was actually done entirely iron free. I was just playing with the solder for crazier connector ideas- the basics of battery LED work just fine with stitches.

Hmmm.... The bottom of my army surplus bag does get awful dark... The neatest idea of the purse/bag light is trying to think up how to make the inverted switch like that :)

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[info]b_zedan
2008-10-14 01:18 am UTC (link)
Hmm. Nonetheless, I've already promised myself that my next non-essential craft supply purchase will be the static crap they use to make tree leaves for model railways. So no conductive thread for a while.

I suggest children's electronic books from the seventies. My sad half-assembled skeleton of "How Electricity Works" is based entirely on the unsafe practices they teach. However, they've got butt-tonnes of circuit and switch ideas.

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[info]flashfeather
2008-10-14 05:32 am UTC (link)
Okay, so google just took me on a tour of conductive thread, but I'm still a little puzzled-- why not just normal, plastic-wrapped wire? It's...you know, conductive thread that's *insulated*, and can very easily be hidden in seams. Is there a set of great advantages that I am missing?

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[info]simplysithel
2008-10-14 06:50 am UTC (link)
See, I was thinking that very same thing up until I got my hands on it. Having tried to do a set of sewing/electrical projects (the stuffed animals from my senior year) I found wires to be a real bitch. Sure they're bendy... but they're all ridged and their turn radius is iffy. And just because it can bend, it doesn't mean it'll relax back to a normal state. This stuff is fascinating because it's thread- soft, unnoticeable, hideable. Kinda' pretty too, if you're working in the right color pallet. The lack of soldering is also awesome- I found I could solder circuits together, but the wires are stiff and once you solder it going a certain direction, it's set. So they'd stick out at awful angles. Obviously for chips something will need to be done, but basic LEDs and batteries are super easy now.

The seams point about wire is good, but more so for larger scale projects. I can take a circuit out onto a surface now (say the front of a shirt) entirely unnoticeable like you could never could with wire.

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[info]davesbrain
2008-10-13 04:16 pm UTC (link)
I always thought, rather than cover wristwatches, shirt cuffs should incorporate them.

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[info]omniscientlyme
2008-10-14 03:04 am UTC (link)
Yeah, they could easily fit a watch in most cuff-links. Sort of a Bond style watch.

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[info]durundal
2008-10-14 02:46 am UTC (link)
Accelerometer that changes color of the wrist as you move it about! Also nitinol muscle wire so you could change the shape of things!

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[info]flashfeather
2008-10-14 05:29 am UTC (link)
But that shit's *expensive*. Unless you know somewhere cheap to get it?

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[info]durundal
2008-10-14 05:50 am UTC (link)
For the accelerometer, order a sample from the manufacturer, an EE ex of mine did that for a bunch of her lab projects (I want to say it was Analog Devices or National Semi). For the nitinol, I don't think it's super terribly expensive, I have a book on making a little walking insect type thing with it that came with the stuff to do it... looks like it's about $2.50 a foot for most sizes on this place:

http://www.imagesco.com/catalog/nitinol/index.html

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[info]flashfeather
2008-10-14 05:53 am UTC (link)
Neat, thanks!

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[info]ariata
2008-10-18 06:03 pm UTC (link)
I don't know that this would be useful in the least, but I could see stringing LEDs along a wall (or perhaps along the floor where people won't step on them) along much used paths with the conductive stuff so you just have to touch it to know where you're going.

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