New Materials

It’s a new semester now so we’ve all been really busy getting settled into classes and getting projects going again. At the end of last semester, Miranda was able to make a few parts to test the flex sensor with some of the materials we’ve bought. We decided to look at other sensors since we weren’t able to get a good, consistent reading with the flex sensors that we had. One of the other members in our lab, Halley, gave us an idea for another sensor she worked on, the Neoprene flex sensor. We’ll also look into other sensors like the stretch sensor to try and use.

We’ve also been able to find a new flat lithium ion battery that is rechargeable. It’s very nice since it lies flat so it won’t put too much bulge into the device.

In order to charge the lithium battery, we also have a small, separate part to connect the battery to a USB cord. We’re not sure how we’re going to place it into the prototype, but it’s pretty small so we’ll see.

We also found a new kind of EL tape. Rather than a small round wire, EL tape is exactly as it sounds, a electroluminescence tape. After thinking about it, however, we decided that wire would probably be more flexible so it would still be a more viable option.

 

The last part that we’ve added is a small Arduino board. Its size is ideal for this project and it has most of the capabilities of the Arduino Uno Board. We’ll use this board for our first prototype, but we still need to experiment more with it.

I’m currently working on playing more with the circuits. Eventually we’ll need to start on the code as well. I still need to solder the battery and light up an LED and, eventually, EL wire with the battery and a resistor so that we can play with the battery a bit and see its limits. Miranda is working on more of the design of the device as well. That’s basically it for now.

-Alice