Twinkle, twinkle, little Lilypad stars...

February 17, 2016 8:28 PM

...how I wonder if I can get my Arduino Lilypad crafting project to work, when I only learned about Arduino less than 2 weeks ago and hand-sewing less than 72 hours ago?

I have recently begun to develop an interest in wearable electronics and costuming, and I'm planning to make a few small fashion accessories--I have in mind a glowing sash as well a scarf/collar) powered by Arduino Lilypad similar to this beginner project, except with perhaps ~12 LEDs and maybe a motion sensor--ideally by the end of April 2016 (for an event in end of May 2016). I have gone to an introductory Arduino workshop in early February this year and learned how to do a zigzag stitch by hand the day after Valentine's Day as my first-ever foray into hand-sewing. I hope to attend more Arduino meetups in the future and hope to practice hand-sewing more and become more confident at basic running stitches in the next 2 to 3 weeks. As for programming, my plan is to run some relatively simple programs on the Lilypad chip--I'm reasonably comfortable with simple C programming on the Arduino board.

With my skill level in mind, I have a few questions for folks knowledgeable in Arduino (especially Lilypad and e-textiles)?
1. Is it realistic to expect these small craft projects to be completed by April 2016 given my skill level at Arduino and hand sewing? Are there ways to simplify my project, such as using alternatives to the Lilypad board? Is there anything I should be giving up the ghost on--such as dispensing with the motion sensor?
2. Where in the Greater Toronto Area would I be able to purchase the necessary electronic materials for my projects?
3. I expect these accessories that I'm building to come in contact with silk. Is there anything specifically about silk that I need to watch out for--namely, will silk conduct electricity to the extent of getting electrocuted when I wear them at the May 2016 event?
4. The reason why I need to finish making the projects by the end of April 2016, rather than May 2016, is that I actually have a 3-week trip to Hong Kong and I only have a week before the actual event itself, which I will likely spend testing the projects. In case I absolutely need more time to work on the projects--are there any customs restrictions surrounding bringing electronics between Canada and HK?

Thank you so much in advance in helping me navigate this Lilypad snowstorm!

posted by Tsukushi to Technology (4 answers total)

Best answer: 1) This is super, super simple. You can do this sort of thing in a couple of evenings. I am working on a sparkle skirt right now (though using a Flora, not a Lilypad) and I've got most of the stitching done and it's taken me maybe two evenings? I expect to complete it by the weekend if I spend this evening and probably some of Friday on it. The basic programs that you can find online are really easy to adjust even if you have little or no coding experience.

3) Silk is a poor conductor of electricity (and thus susceptible to static cling) according to Wikipedia. I wouldn't worry about it. You're only powering off a small battery anyway, right?

Can't specifically help you on 2) and 4), sorry, but you should easily be finished with them in time. I've bought supplies online from Adafruit and Oomlout and had then shipped to the UK with no problems. You should get an embroidery hoop to help you stitch if that's not on your list already.
posted by corvine at 4:14 AM on February 18, 2016

Best answer: For supplies: Creatron (College & Augusta, and Sheppard E & Pharmacy), Above All (in the basement [no, srsly!] of the Home Hardware on College west of Spadina), and SAYAL (across the GTHA). Creatron's probably the best for wearables. Also, Lawrence (the owner, who is mostly in the Sheppard location) moves a lot of stuff to and from Hong Kong; he'd know of restrictions.

There are active wearables groups that meet at HackLab.TO and (I think) Site 3 and STEAMLabs.

Doable in the time you have? Sure! Doable with reliability and durability and looking good and everything you wanted it to do and all the bugs out and a battery that lasts long enough …?
posted by scruss at 4:56 AM on February 18, 2016

Best answer: One thing to note: the project you linked to has 9 LEDs because the lily pad arduino has 9 pins. If you want to manipulate each light separately, you might want to reduce from 12 to 9 lights. If you're ok with a couple lights being a "clump" (i.e. They can only both be on or both be off) then you can ignore this.
posted by tinymegalo at 6:44 PM on February 18, 2016

Response by poster: Sorry everyone for the late response--just wanted to thank everyone for all the feedback for my project!
(A big shout-out to scruss for the suggestion to go to Creatron Inc--they have been a lifesaver for my project work.)

Since I asked my original question, I've been busy with many things--among which is my wearable electronics project. I've created a wearable electronic shawl powered by Flora which adapts the program code from the sparkle skirt that corvine posted just in time before I head to Hong Kong. Sadly, I wasn't able to get the accelerometer working yet, but I think making a sparkle shawl using a simple on/off button should be sufficient for my needs--which is a fashion modelling show taking place on end of May 2016. (I had to throw away the sash/scarf/collar idea because the sash/scarf/collar would very likely be sandwiched between silk and polyester, producing a major static electricity risk.)
posted by Tsukushi at 11:46 AM on April 29, 2016