#course note

Open a tilt switch, we can see there are to conductive balls inside a copper tube. There are two pins with this switch, one connected to the outer copper tube, and another one go into the tube and which would connect with the rolling ball in there.

The circuit closed when the balls are conducted with the copper tube and inner pin. Conversely the circuit open when turning the switch upside down that avoid the small ball to touch the pin.

But why there are two balls? One is bigger and another is smaller. I think the bigger ball actually has two function. First it helps to conduc with the copper tube; second, it is heavier that would provide the weight to help the smaller ball stably conduct with the pin.

    Project / One - O - One

Date / 19-21. 05. 2014

Site / Weissensee Kunsthochschule Berlin

This week we used the table loom to weave and try to embed lighting unit into the textile in a simple way.

I took a EL-wire and woven it with thread which produce an illumine fabric.

After producing my own material, I apply it into a lamp design. Because of the material which is light weight, soft, flexible so make this lamp durable and portable. 

The users could twist the fabric to create the shape of the lamp. Combine with the different shape of support and base of the lamp, the material would follow and fix the shape. Its a deformable contour of the objects.

Project / One - O - One

Date / 28-30. 05. 2014

Site / Weissensee Kunsthochschule Berlin

Trails 

1) SoftPot Round / Straight

2) Flex / Bend sensor

3) Application - mini speaker  

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SoftPot Round / Straight

The Softpot sensors actually work as the potentiometer. Instead of turning a knob, you can touch it.  The Softpot sensors change their resistance depending on where your finger is touching.

Plug in the middle pin to an analog in pin on the arduino, and the analogRead the value between 0 to 1023 depending where you touch it. For example, on the Softpot-straight, it will be read about 512 when touched in the middle.

Task /

Try to create a gradually brighter LED light that controlled by Softpot sensors.

    Flex / Bend sensor

Flex sensor, resistive sensor also works as the potentiometer. It is a flexible strip that changes its resistance when bent. The bigger curvature creates the bigger resistance.

How it works?

One side of the sensor is printed with a polymer ink that has conductive particles embedded in it. When the sensor is straight, the particles give the ink a resistance of about 30k Ohms. When the sensor is bent away from the ink, the conductive particles move further apart, increasing this resistance. When the sensor straightens out again, the resistance returns to the original value. By measuring the resistance, you can determine how much the sensor is being bent.

The circuit here include an extra resistor which makes a voltage divider to make the reading possible.

Task /

Create a gradually brighter LED light that controlled by Flex sensor

  Application - mini speaker

We can connect these resistive sensors with mini speaker and use Arduino tone library to play some music !

Task /

Control the pitch by potentiometer 

  Control the pitch by Flex sensor

    Project / One - O - One

Date / 05 05. 2014

Site / Weissensee Kunsthochschule Berlin