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Step 6LEDs and vibration motors
To see how your pressure sensor works we will need to include it in a simple electronic circuit.
If you happen to be working a lot with poppers and circuits you might like to modify a set of crocodile clips to have poppers on one end. Otherwise you can just clip on to the poppers.
To visualize with a multimeter, create the following setup (see pictures and video):
Set multimeter to measure resistance (in Ohm), should be between 2 K Ohm - 10 Ohm for stretch conductive fabric and X - 200 Ohm for Shieldit conductive fabric. Of course this depends on the size of your conductive surfaces and how tight the initial pressure from your stitching around the edge is.
Attach the multimeter plus to one side of fabric pressure sensor (doesn't matter which side) and multimeter minus to other side of fabric pressure sensor. Apply pressure and watch the resistance value change. You might have to adjust the range if you don't see anything. If you have a constant connection then either you forgot to put the Velostat in between or somewhere your two pieces of conductive fabric are touching.
To visualize with LED or vibration motor, create the following setup (see pictures and video):
Connect the plus of a 9V battery to one side of the fabric pressure sensor (doesn't matter which side) and connect the other side of the pressure sensor to the plus of an LED or either side of the vibration motor (switching plus minus only affects the direction of the vibration motor, whereas an LED only works in one direction). Connect the minus of the LED or the other other side of the vibration motor to the minus of the 9V battery.
Apply pressure to the fabric pressure sensor and control the brightness of the LED or the strength of the vibration.
To visualize with microcontroller and computer:
For Arduino microcontroller code and Processing visualization code please look here >> http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?cat=347
Videos
ENJOY!
If you happen to be working a lot with poppers and circuits you might like to modify a set of crocodile clips to have poppers on one end. Otherwise you can just clip on to the poppers.
To visualize with a multimeter, create the following setup (see pictures and video):
Set multimeter to measure resistance (in Ohm), should be between 2 K Ohm - 10 Ohm for stretch conductive fabric and X - 200 Ohm for Shieldit conductive fabric. Of course this depends on the size of your conductive surfaces and how tight the initial pressure from your stitching around the edge is.
Attach the multimeter plus to one side of fabric pressure sensor (doesn't matter which side) and multimeter minus to other side of fabric pressure sensor. Apply pressure and watch the resistance value change. You might have to adjust the range if you don't see anything. If you have a constant connection then either you forgot to put the Velostat in between or somewhere your two pieces of conductive fabric are touching.
To visualize with LED or vibration motor, create the following setup (see pictures and video):
Connect the plus of a 9V battery to one side of the fabric pressure sensor (doesn't matter which side) and connect the other side of the pressure sensor to the plus of an LED or either side of the vibration motor (switching plus minus only affects the direction of the vibration motor, whereas an LED only works in one direction). Connect the minus of the LED or the other other side of the vibration motor to the minus of the 9V battery.
Apply pressure to the fabric pressure sensor and control the brightness of the LED or the strength of the vibration.
To visualize with microcontroller and computer:
For Arduino microcontroller code and Processing visualization code please look here >> http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?cat=347
Videos
ENJOY!
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Firstly, instead of using batteries as a power source, would it be possible to use a USB power source? For example, you plug such a device as this into the PC using a standard USB cable?
I am creating a touch sensitive project right now and I think this design is awesome, if it would take power from a USB connection then I'd be hooking up the wires to pins on a U-HID G board (http://www.u-hid.com/home/uhidg.php) and using the touch/pressure as input. Any ideas on whether this would be possible or not?
Thnaks, I'm going to have a gander at your other projects =) Hope to hear from you soon!
I would like to know that can it be tested with 1.5V battery with simple LED??
if you connect it all together with the sensor and the LED is always on, then it could be that your pressure sensor is so tight that the initial pressure is already enough to decrease the resistance of the velostat to fully power the LED, but this does not mean that your sensor does not have any range. just that it is the wrong range (too low resistance) for the LED.
hope this helps.