Introduction: Hanging Light

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Hello!

I have always wished to have extra light for my closet so I can see better through my clothes.

So, I made a fun lamp prototype that you can move around and hang anywhere in your closet.

The materials that are used for this project are:

1. LED lights
2. a button
3. conductive thread
4. pieces of fabric
5. Arduino Lilypad

Step 1: Cut Out the Fabric Into a Shape

First thing you do is to sketch & cut out the fabric into a shape.

You will need two pieces of them.

And make sure that you have about 1cm outer space of the sketch.

This project can be made on any type of non-conductive fabric/material!

Step 2: Design Your Circuit

You should plan ahead & design your circuit before putting them placed on a fabric.

In this project, I am using five LED lights connected to separate outputs on the Lilypad board.

I cut the length of LED legs to fit in the surface of the tee-shirt shape.

Using a glue gun, gently place them in places you want them to be on

Step 3: Sewing With Conductive Thread

I am using conductive thread ( copper thread ) to connect all parts.

Positive long leg of each LED light should be connected to output 11,10,9,3,2.

I did cross stitching over each leg of the light and connect it to a separate output.

And the other leg should all be connected to the ground.

Step 4: Connect a Button

I am using a button to turn on/off the lights.

Connect the power to one side of the button.

You have to make sure to use a piece of tape onto the area where a conductive thread is overlapping/crossing each others.

Then I am connecting a negative pin of the button to the ground of the board, using 220ohms resistor.

The other side of a negative pin of the button should connect to one of the remaining inputs (A2,A3,A4,A5)

Step 5: Clean & Solder the Circuit

Because the conductive thread is very sensitive even with a little touch, we have to clean out all the endpoints that are obviously sticking out.

To make sure the circuit stays in place and flawless with electricity, soldering is a must-have-done thing!

Soldering is also required over the front part where LED legs are sewed with conductive thread.

Step 6: Finish Stitching the Shape

After the circuit is all secured, finalize stitching around the shape sketch that was done at the beginning.

You can use running stitch or basting stitch, or slip stitch techniques.

Step 7: Upload Code to Lilypad

Here is the Arduino IDE file and code I used for this project.

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