turn signal biking jacket

Step 1: Supplies

.
Get your supplies. You need:

-- LilyPad Arduino main board
-- FTDI connector
-- mini USB cable
-- LilyPad power supply
-- 16 LilyPad LEDs (note: these aren't available from SparkFun yet, but will be soon)
-- 2 push button switches
-- a spool of 4-ply conductive thread
-- a digital multimeter with a beeping continuity tester. This is the one I have.
-- a garment or a piece of fabric to work on
-- a needle or two, a fabric marker or piece of chalk, puffy fabric paint, a bottle of fabric glue, and a ruler
(Available at your local fabric shop or Joann Stores.)
-- a pair of scissors
-- double sided tape (optional)
-- a sewing machine (optional)

disclosure: I designed the LilyPad, so I'll make some $ if you buy one.

Comments

[banane]

This is a really sweet product! I'm looking forward to make one when money will be pouring in. I might ask the same question as Poincare but... first, I know nothing about electronics and I was wondering if any LED was compatible with the other LilyPads? Can I just buy any LED and use it or do I have to somewhat work on them? Are you going to sell the LilyPad LEDs any time soon? If yes, I'll just wait for it to be available. Thanks a bunch!

[mikebook]

I'm assuming that the Lillypad LEDs are machine washable and designed to be used in wearable applications. I'm not sure though, and that was going to be my very same question. I've been looking at some applications to justify getting an Arduino to play around with, and this is definitely going on my list.

[banane]

Hello again :) I don't know how to edit my message so... here it goes anyway! I noticed that the LilyPad Arduido 168 Main Board and the LilyPad Power Supply are washable but when I have my finished product, can I just throw it in the washing machine (after taking out the battery)? If not, what do I have to remove? I'm sorry if my questions are a burden.

[annabelleolivier]

Remove battery and hand wash with mild soap, hang to dry. LilyPad LEDs are available at sparkfun. Cheers, Annabelle

[zchan1120]

How much do the supplies cost?

[silversony]

Hi Leah,

I have a question, I do a lot of cycling, and I have looked at and like your tutorial on your indicating system for cycles, however, I do have a serious question, can you not design an all in one package, which contains everything needed, to complete the job, I am sorry I am a newbie at this and have never programmed any thing like the lily pad, but I would love to be able to try and learn it.   I looked at your site o  many occasions, but I tend to come back to it, and dream of being able to do it.

Any help would be most kind? 

Thanks, great tutorial Leah :-)

[Poincare]

Is it necessary to have LilyPad Led's? I mean can't you just cut up a small piece of PCB and a 603 resistor and solder them.

[thebookofkevin]

are the "Lightboard" LEDs at Aniomagic the same as the LilyPad LEDs? more importantly, will they work just the same? second question: any plans to design a sewable LED driver board so that we can program these LEDs individually? also, awesome awesome tutorial.

[leahbuechley]

the aniomagic lights are mostly the same. the main difference is that they do not include resistors, so you would want to add a resistor in series w/ your lights if you used these.

as for a sewable driver board... you can use the lilypad main board to run up to 14 individual LEDs (22 if you're a bit of a hacker & use the analog input pins as outputs) & if you multiplex the LEDs, you can run up to 121 (11x11). see my wearable display tutorial for info on multiplexing ;-):
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~buechley/diy/diy_tank.html

[Gravity Boy]

You can sink many more LEDs if you use the lilypad to turn on transistors (or off if you are using a PNP type.)

[thebookofkevin]

hmm. looking at the diagram, it seems like you'd have to change the wiring around to get as many lights up as possible. for instance, it seems that the switches and LEDs are each connected to two pins, rather than one pin and a rail. two and a half more questions: where are the contacts for the other three ADCs? and it's impossible to tell from the photos online, what contact is at 12 o'clock? lastly, are there digital ports 14 and 15? it seems peculiar to me that the chip only has 14 digital i/o's. those 6 contacts in the middle seem like they could be the culprits...

[leahbuechley]

so, for your first question. yes, you would need to reorganize your design to run more lights. I was using digital I/O pins for ground pins simply because I had extra pins & this simplified my wiring. of course to do any other design you'd need a different wiring :) as for the second half of your questions. I was a bit of a dork in my last reply! ;) The lilypad has 14 digital I/O (0-13) and 6 analog input pins (0-5) for a total of 20 pins, not 22! The pin at 12:00 is pin 0. the atmega168 that the lilypad is based on has a total of 16 digital I/O & 8 analog. 2 of the digital are devoted to an external clock source on most arduinos, that's why there are only 14 digital petals on the lilypad & 2 of the analog pins are only available on the SMD atmega168s, that's why there are only 6 analog petals. those "six contacts in the middle" are an SPI programming interface. useful if you want to use a traditional AVR programmer w/ the lilypad. this doesn't affect being able to use any pins on the chip as regular I/Os.

[thebookofkevin]

aha. thanks a ton for the info! i'll post pictures and stuff if i can get funding for the project (see: parents' wallet :) my idea is to add some flashy blinky stuff for visibility, solid-on for stop, and the standard left-right turn signals. i'm still in awe of how awesome this is. oh, and would you recommend 1k or 10k for the current limiting resistors? there's no data on the aniomagic LEDs and i don't want them to be too dim. alternatively, how soon will the sparkfun LilyLEDs be ready?

[leahbuechley]

I'd recommend 1k or even lower. The thread will also add a little resistance. Not sure when the sparfun LEDs will be out, soon I hope!

[vanpaun]

is it weather proof?

[leahbuechley]

works fine in light showers, but not so great in a downpour ;) it's never dangerous though... it would be relatively easy to build a waterproof version if this was important to you. use a rain coat & a little clear vinyl ;).