Conductive Thread Connector - Female

One of the major obstacles when working with textile/conductive fabric electronics is connecting them to traditional electronic hardware and other elements. The following Instructable illustrates one way to overcome this drawback of such a fascinating emerging technology.

After reading this Instructable, you will be able to build your own female housing connector that is ideal for integrating conductive fabric sensors and other textile electronics with traditional electronics and wire.

These male headers can be used with conductive fabric/thread sensors such as these, as well as a great multitude of other applications:
-- Knit Stretch Sensor
-- Knit Touchpad
-- Conductive Thread Pressure Sensor
-- Conductive Fabric Bend Sensor

**Conductive thread female connectors can also be purchased pre-assembled or as a DIY kit.**
-- Pre-assembled Female Connector
-- DIY Female Connector Kit  

Step 1: Materials and Tools

Materials:
-- Female Crimping Terminals --> Can be purchased at Digikey
-- Terminal Housing --> Can be purchased at Digikey
-- Solder
-- Solid Core Wire (~20-28AWG)
-- Conductive Thread --> Can be purchased at Sparkfun or Lame LIfesaver
-- Fabric (aka what you want to sew conductive thread onto)

Optional:
-- Female Connector Kit --> Can be purchased at Esty
-- Pre-assembled Female Connector - 5 pack --> Can be purchased at Esty

Tools:
-- Soldering Iron
-- Wire Crimper
-- Wire stripper or scissors
-- Needle nose pliers
-- Needle 

Comments

[Justin Mai]

Broken links to female connector websites

[instructables12345]

Very good idea and best of luck for Soft circuit contest.