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Author: hifromkatie
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Jacket... ongoing...

hifromkatie

I was really hoping that I would have cracked on with the jacket this week in the evenings after work. I even missed roller skating on Tuesday night and rushed back from ice skating on Wednesday, but unfortunately due to issues arising at work meant that I didn't have the time I really wanted to commit to getting it done, due to staying on late to try to resolve the issues.

It's just been typical that this week has correlated to tricky faults both at work and home, now luckily work seems to be be sorted but unfortunately my jacket hasn't come off so well!

 

I've rewired the long connections (>10cm) with a home made 'wire', this was made from a piece of bias binding sewn together longways, and then threaded with 8 strands of conductive thread, terminated to two threads (to ease sewing) which was then sewn through the components. I've also left the original top stitching conductive threads, as I really like the way it looks.

This has given me a better Power connection to the components. The lines have reduced from a resistance of ~80ohm to 20-30ohm (note: although the mathsymbol insertion button shows a capital Omega, there is not one in the list of symbols, for an electronics forum this might be handy to have! ) and the LEDs and sensors seem to be getting a much healthier supply than previously.

 

Unfortunately even with the signal lines being reinforced, I am still having issues with the communications to these sensors. Evening going back to the example test sketches, I can't seem to get anything back from the sensors.

I've tried to lower the I2C speed, (changing it in the twi.h file), but I'm not sure that it will accept slower comms, if it does then it's still not working.

The only sensor I can get data from is the GPS, which will not display on the jacket as it requires a compass bearing so that the users direction is known to give a location bearing output, unless your looking at the data on the serial monitor.

 

Here's how the jacket  currently looks:

 

and here's the LEDs on the sleeve, running a demo. At least the signal line to the LEDs is functioning correctly and addressing as it should!

 

 

 

I'm going to continue with the jacket until I can sort out the comms, as I'd love to have it fully working. Hopefully once testing at work is out of the way and I've got a bit more time to myself free then I'll get it sorted. Unfortunately as I had it working in parts off the jacket, I'd expected to sew it all on, and only left a little amount of time for tweaks required... and this didn't quite go to plan

 

I will try to remember to update on the blog as I progress in the future with this project, and post when I get it working along with details on what comprimises were required to get it sorted.

Anonymous
  • in reply to clem57

    Thanks for asking, interestingly I pulled it back out at the start of the year to use some of the parts.
    Unfortunatly it didn't get much further, I corrected some of the comms issues by changing it to much shorter wire/thread lengths. The flora always had issues being detected in Ubuntu, and I very rarely use my windows PC, so that was a bit of a hurdle.

    Another big stopping point for this project was my work life balance, just after getting to this point I took over the compliance and EMC testing of all our products at work, this left me feeling wiped out and I dropped everything I was doing personally (in hindsight I shouldn't have done this, I should have kept doing something fun for myself still).

     

    Recently a group monitoring water quality in local rivers contacted a local engineering group I'm in, and asked if anyone has any ideas to monitor water quality automatically. So currently trying to see if the color sensor from the jacket can detect water colour accuratly, just need to get hold of some clear epoxy resin to try potting it so it can be fully immersed in water to eliminate an air gap between the sensor and the water.

  • Hi Kathie, what ever happened to this jacket?

  • Hi Katie,

     

    sorry you were so busy, I know how hard it is to find the time to work on a project and also write blogposts about what you're doing.

    I'm looking forward to seeing your jacket finished and in action! Good luck and have fun!

     

    Linda

  • Hi Katie,

     

    Good job.

     

    Time estimation and management is the hardest part of the engineering process to learn.

    I think you did very good based upon the the size of the project and the time you had.

    You did get the first rule correct, always have something to demonstrate.  It helps convince customers that you full project is just a little time away and they get a good idea of what things will look like when you finish.

     

    Thanks for sharing,

    DAB

  • Katie, I love the way the stitching appears on the side of your jacket -- it's like a giant beautiful swirl.  So often we try to hide the circuit, but in this case, it really looks lovely exposed.  Sounds like you solved your biggest crisis with your thread/wire invention -- good for you.  We could probably compare notes on debouncing switches someday.  In fact, you will see a longer blog post from me on my issues.  It was all I could do to just finish tonight.  Anyway, you have a lot of sensors going on, but your knowlege of electronics is excellent, so I have no doubt you will figure it out, or modify things so they give you good result.  Wishing you fun times skating....