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Step 4Test your stitching
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Measure the resistance of your stitching.
Get out your multimeter and put it on the resistance measuring setting. Measure from power supply + to LilyPad + and power supply - to LilyPad -. If the resistance of either of these traces is greater than 10 ohms, reinforce your stitching with more conductive thread. If you're not sure how to measure resistance, check out this tutorial.
Put a AAA battery into the power supply and flip the power supply switch to the on position. The red light on the power supply should turn on. If it doesn't and you're sure you flipped the switch, quickly remove the battery and check for a short between your + and - stitches. (Most likely there is a piece of thread that's touching both the - and + stitching somewhere.) You can test for a short between + and - by using the beeping continuity tester on your multimeter. See this tutorial for information on how to use the continuity tester.
Also check the resistance between the + and - stitching. If the resistance is less than 10K Ohms or so, you've got a mini-short (probably a fine conductive thread hair that is touching both + and -) that you need to find and correct.
If the power supply does turn on, look at your LilyPad. It should blink quickly each time you press its switch. Once these connections are working properly, turn off the power supply and remove the battery.
Insulate your power and ground stitching
So, your jacket is now full of uninsulated conductive stitches. This is fine when a body is inside of it. A body will prevent sewn traces from contacting each other. But when the jacket is off of a person and you bend or fold it, traces will touch each other and short out. To fix this problem, cover your traces with puffy fabric paint (or another insulator like a satin stitch in regular thread). But, you don't want to cover traces until you're sure that everything works! So, use good judgment in when to coat traces.
Measure the resistance of your stitching.
Get out your multimeter and put it on the resistance measuring setting. Measure from power supply + to LilyPad + and power supply - to LilyPad -. If the resistance of either of these traces is greater than 10 ohms, reinforce your stitching with more conductive thread. If you're not sure how to measure resistance, check out this tutorial.
Put a AAA battery into the power supply and flip the power supply switch to the on position. The red light on the power supply should turn on. If it doesn't and you're sure you flipped the switch, quickly remove the battery and check for a short between your + and - stitches. (Most likely there is a piece of thread that's touching both the - and + stitching somewhere.) You can test for a short between + and - by using the beeping continuity tester on your multimeter. See this tutorial for information on how to use the continuity tester.
Also check the resistance between the + and - stitching. If the resistance is less than 10K Ohms or so, you've got a mini-short (probably a fine conductive thread hair that is touching both + and -) that you need to find and correct.
If the power supply does turn on, look at your LilyPad. It should blink quickly each time you press its switch. Once these connections are working properly, turn off the power supply and remove the battery.
Insulate your power and ground stitching
So, your jacket is now full of uninsulated conductive stitches. This is fine when a body is inside of it. A body will prevent sewn traces from contacting each other. But when the jacket is off of a person and you bend or fold it, traces will touch each other and short out. To fix this problem, cover your traces with puffy fabric paint (or another insulator like a satin stitch in regular thread). But, you don't want to cover traces until you're sure that everything works! So, use good judgment in when to coat traces.
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Sep 7, 2009. 5:40 PMpajjakid
says:
perhaps its short for short...?
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Oct 15, 2008. 1:13 PMBriguy9
says:
lol on picture four if you look carefully at the screen of the ohm meter it says 5hrt, looks a lot like Shr, which looks a lot like Shirt, right?
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