I’ve decided this project is cursed.
Things were looking up at the beginning of the week. My print finally worked out well and all of my electronics arrived on time. I assembled a nice mounting frame to house the lights and wiring. Last night I ran some tests via breadboard and worked out some bloated but totally functional code for the addressable RGB LED strips that gave me exactly the pulse effect I was looking for. I even had the PIR sensor up and running exactly as hoped. I wired up all of the electronics on the mounting frame, backing each sector of LEDs with aluminum tape to help diffuse the lights through the fabric.
I also used an Ardunio Mega shield kit to wrangle all of the wiring and make it easier to swap the Mega in and out of the project.
Once all of the components were mounted, I re-uploaded my code and plugged everything in to verify it all worked before I mounted the felt…at which point I noticed smoke and the distinct scent of fire that accompanied my Mega burning out.
I suspect that the burn out was the result of sloppy 3am soldering, as everything worked fine in the breadboard stage.
Obviously I am deeply disappointed in the outcome of this project. I have put a major number of hours into every aspect of it, and have almost nothing to show in return. The completed fabric was installed at the site this morning and will be on display until September.
Moving onward and upward, here are my initial thoughts on my final project.
I plan to use the etched copper taffeta with metallic beaded fringe to create an integrated tilt sensor. The triggering of different sensor areas will activate random light patterns in the jacket, so that the patterns are essentially generated by the movement of the wearer.
I am using the below circuit board as my pattern inspiration. This will be present in the copper etching and a tonal print on the jacket fabric.
The nice thing about using clean lines is that I can tape off the appropriate areas directly on the copper fabric pieces and apply the Vaseline more thickly that screenprinting will allow. This will create a better result with the etching.
I am planning on re-purposing the addressable RGB LED strips from the felt project into the jacket of the final project, using them to mirror the structured lines of the print. My plans for this weekend are to construct a few sample tilt sensors from copper taffeta scrap and, once I’ve settled on a specific method, I’d like to get a good jump on creating the beaded fringe.