Making Fabric to PCB “SnapBricks”

As I continue my exploration with e-textiles and fabric based inputs, I ran across a problem when trying to prototype some wearable buttons I had made. I needed a way to connect the conductive fabric to a prototyping board so that I could make it more rigid and "wearable". I tried soldering the fabric to a small PCB but no matter how low I set my soldering iron the wire would melt in the solder and the connection would break. In the end I used alligator clips but they were too expensive and too short to be useful.

I set out to find a solution and went on Sparkfun's website. When I was there I found these handy modules called "Snap Bricks". Although they were $2 for the male and $2 for the female they seemed like perfect designs and solutions for my problem. I really didn't want to wait for them to come from the US or to pay the shipping fees so I set out in the world to look for a solution. The PCB side of it was simple, I had tons at home and it was dirt cheap. I connectors where a different story...or so I thought. In fact the connectors where also very readily available. I found a pack of 10 (both male and female) with a tool to install them for $5.

Step 1 Measure PCB

First I cut my PCB board to the right size and marks some holes equally spaced out.

Comments

[mischka]

Good idea.