Make a Breadboard Sweatshirt (Instant Wearable Electronics!)
introMake a Breadboard Sweatshirt (Instant Wearable Electronics!)
Are wearable electronics The Future? I think so! Here's the quickest,
most versatile wearable electronics project ever, The Breadboard
Sweatshirt. Mostly, wearables involve conductive thread for wiring.
But that stuff jams my sewing machine, and I wanted to be able to change
it if I didn't like it when I was done. Also, I hate doing lots of
long, tedious hand-sewing. Solution? Slap a breadboard on it! (Q:
What's a breadboard? A: Just a piece of plastic with holes, on top of
metal strips in a pattern, that makes it really fast and easy to build a
circuit.) This instructable is dedicated to the single mom in Kansas
who wrote to me asking how she could make this "outfit" for
her daughter's Halloween party.
step 1Prepare the Substrate
Get something really comfortable, a shirt, sweatshirt, sweater. Anything you can sew on. I grabbed one of my dorm's logo "burning man" sweatshirts,but I painted over the …
step 2Attach the Breadboard
Make holes in the four corners to sew it to the shirt.I used my roommate's sewing kit to whip it on with some matching black threads. That way it'll stay right where you w…
That's it, you're done making the sweatshirt. Wasn't that fast?Wearable electronics don't have to involve time consuming sewing or conductive thread.They can be within you…
| Well, its not as big a security threat as playing <a
rel="nofollow"
href="http://boortz.com/mp3/archive/countdown.swf">this</a>
in an airport...<br/>
|
| Is this THE breadboard sweatshirt? The one we all heard so much about a year or so ago?
|
| yes it is! I waited almost exactly a year to publish the instructable.
|
| it's a scary Halloween costume, but only scary for Jackbooted TSA thugs
who need a bit of drama to spice up an otherwise dull task of keeping
up the illusion of security theater.
Besides, I suppose they needed a scapegoat after they made themselves
look like idiots during the Aqua Teen Boston Scare (LED not IED) and the
even more embarrassing Deadly (j/k) Traffic Counter Scare a mere month
later (you'll note that in the second case there were no fines or
lawsuits, because the city of Boston would have to sue itself to
distract the media from its own incompetence)
What I want to know is if anyone has sent you any This Bike is a Pipe Bomb
band bumper stickers yet?
|
| lol security theater
sounds like a bad midnight drama
|
| MYSTERY SECURITY THEATER 3000!
|
| Hooray, this finally made it up! I think we should all MAKE one and wear
them in protest of the TSA. Thanks, Star!
|
| Sep 17, 2008. 1:50 PMgog
says:
Thats cool, Infamous Art!
|
| Aha, very cool. I saw this and had to go re-read all the old forums and comments about that... event. It almost makes me want to walk into an airport myself with that on!
But really, I almost had a similar thing happen last month when I went through security with oil-based pastels wrapped in magnet wire in my carry-on. I suppose it looked like a block of plastic explosives or something on the x-ray machine. No one pointed any guns at me, thankfully. Just some near-panicking folks keeping their cool while they searched my bag. :)
|
| Sep 17, 2008. 4:09 PMmarc92
says:
Maybe we could start a movement...
One day, someone walks into Logan Int. Airport wearing one of these.
And the next day, two people do it.
Then 3 people, 3 people a day.
Then, can you imagine 50 people a day, wearing one of these shirts,
walking in to Logan Airport.
Eventually Arlo Guthrie will write a long song explaining the whole
event in great detail and it will become famous.
That's what I think should happen.
|
| ...and there i was, sittin there, on the group W bench, with all sorts
of mean nasty father rapers mother stabbers hairy eyeball...i mean...i
mean...i wanna kill...dead burnt babies...veins in my teeth
|
| Sep 18, 2008. 12:36 PMmarc92
says:
Maybe those lines should be:
...and there I was, sitting there, in the State Police barracks, with
all sorts of mean nasty airplane bombers, and hijackers, hairy
eyeball...I mean...I mean...I wanna explode...dead burnt
airplanes...wires in my teeth...
Lol!
|
| Have any of you seen the article in Make, I don't remember what volume
but this lady had a sweatshirt almost exactly like this and she walked
into an airport to meet one of her friends (and this was how she was
going to impress him) and they actually put her in jail because they
thought she was going to set a bomb off, I guess the moral of the story
is "Don't wear exposed electronics into an airport"
|
| Psst... Ben. You do realize that this Instructable was MADE by that
lady, right?
|
| Star, heard the story first day on CNN and thought defending you would
be simple. Got some of most nasty ignorant comments ever on youtube,
most deleted (/winsleuth). I learned a lot on how little the public
understands the toys they love so much. Many thought it was about IED's,
not LED's and Wow were they upset. Best of luck to you and sorry you had
to go thru this event this way. There is so little empathy these days.
Cheers
|
| Put the breadboard inside the shirt and poke the LEDs through the fabric?
|
| Just saw your interview on bb. The community is squarely behind you!
chin up!
|
| great stuff. why did it take me so long to find the story on hack a day?
Congrats, you are up there with the Boston guys.
|
| Some things I have tried is the conductive paint and conductive glue.
the combination of the two work great on clothing! but it is permanent
and its not recommended to wash it.
|
| Sep 19, 2008. 8:30 AMcmrc
says:
Inspirational, and very informative. Thank you for pointing me towards
Leah's site. Again great work. Keep pushing the envelope!
|
| nice work! i might try walking in with an old style alarm clock hung round my neck, see what happens…
|
| The concept is interesting... it allows people to show off prototyping
which for me could be useful. ( I am the president of the robotics group
http://www.robomo.com
)
But I have a suggestion for you, How about attaching velcro to the back
of the board, then sewing the mating peice to your shirt. This way it
can be removed with ease for washing and such. Also, a small pocket
could be sewn to the inside of the shirt and a small grommet installed.
Then, the battery could be hidden from sight which would make the eye
notice the board more and the external wiring less.
It would be a great project for an Atmel Mega-8 or Atmel Tiny-26 with
many LEDs attached... doing patterns and such. A programmable shirt!
Jerry
|
| Hey, yeah!
The velcro is a good idea. I thought about it, but didn't have any
handy, and sewing is easy. Nice idea on the battery!
If you make one, post pics!
|
| I have a great idea... I was looking at another instructable that showed
a method of bleaching colors... http://www.instructables.com/id/Controlled-Bleaching-with-Discharge-Paste/
and I started to think... I have a laser engraver... so I could make
some spiffy stencil... bleach out the pattern, then do the breadboard.
Like...
ELECTRONICS
[breadboard]
ROCKS
Yeah... kool.
(Cheezy grin)
|
| Sep 18, 2008. 4:24 AMsuhasm
says:
@ viacin , do breadboards really cost 10$ in america? here in india,
they r available for around 80rs which is less than 2$.
|
| I dig the steel cable and tape :)
|
| Sep 17, 2008. 5:15 PMviacin
says:
gah...this grieves me. what a waste of a perfectly good breadboard.
plus, I think it's ugly. Nice try tho, maybe would be better with a perf board.
|
| breadboards are free for me, and numerous.
Why use perfboard? Nobody is going to bother to solder things all over
your clothes. This way anyone at all can just grab the right parts and
plug them in.
|
| how be it that they are free, might i inquire??
|
| nevermind. i get it, MIT and your major, free boards, very cool.
|
| Sep 17, 2008. 5:15 PMviacin
says:
breadboard = $10-$30
Perf Board = $ 1-$3
|
| I'm guessing you're not an EE major at MIT?
Plus, you're overpaying for breadboards ;)
|
| to whom were u replying? ( i gets so confused )
i own 1 small breadboard, from radio snatch, cost 8 bucks and its about
the size of an altoids tin. i have seen a few cheaper, but not by much,
in a mail order catalog, but if i get another, i would like one w power,
or at least terminals for power.
|
| on a scale of one to extremely uncomfortable that seems to be a"
really uncomfortable". kudos to you for the idea... just try to
refine your idea. some great potential, some great potential.
|
| Sep 17, 2008. 12:53 PMwayn3w
says:
Those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it. Google
"Star Simpson"
|
| Ahem, you do know, don't you? This is the same person. She's not repeating history, she's making history.
|
| :D Awesome, finally published !
Picture 5, step 3 is great :P
its gonna blow !
|
| Good job, EFFECTIVE, CHEAP, GRATE , now the only thing we need to do
is make it less ugly
:) No offence, the project and the Instructables is great but its a
bit ugly strapped to the shirt like that...
rate:*****
|
| kool :) might be a bit bulky for me tho :P but its definatly a
pioneering step in the right direction :D
|
| Sep 17, 2008. 12:22 PMgog
says:
Cool idea.
|
| just an idea, you might try putting the breadboard inside the shirt and
have the componants poke through the weave from the outside. WOuld be
harder to build but might look a lot cooler.
|
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