…has been my on-going experience with the copper taffeta experiments.  My second attempts didn’t even make a dent in the taffeta fabric for the first day or so.  I left it in the bath (because, why not) and when I checked it again several days later the copper had etched away – including the portions covered by Vaseline!  I think that screen printing creates a film of Vaseline that is too thin to adequately resist.  I’m thinking that stencils will be a better choice going forward, with the possibility of laser cutting them once the forms become more complex.  I started a third vinegar bath last night with a thicker Vaseline layer and am hopeful I’ll get a cleaner outcome.

I did a little testing with my multimeter on my original sample.  As expected, my readings were all over the board.  I think the key will be to get a crisp separation between copper coated areas and base polyester areas.  In my research I stumbled across a diagram of the Lilypad PCB:

This would theoretically allow me to build an Arduino into the actual fabric of a project.  Finds like this make me even more determined to work out the bugs on the copper taffeta process.

I also received several samples of muscle wire from SparkFun, both Nitinol and Flexinol.  I’ve been doing some research on the specifics of working with these materials.  Since I have 4 different samples, I’m going to try 2 variations in each wire type – one set up utilizing the natural contraction of the wire and another where I “train” the wire to a shape.  I’m using this article by Jie Qi as a jumping off point.  The first steps will be purchasing crimp beads to facilitate attachments and an appropriate power source.  It sounds like if any of my experiments are going to end in fire, it’s this one!