Final Post


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My project is a rash guard or fitness jacket that lights up depending on changes in movement in order to act as a source of motivation and amusement for the user. I used neopixels along the arms and connected them in the back with wires hidden with a blue fabric hand sewed into a tube and attached. I 3D printed cuffs to hide the electronics at the sleeves as well.

I am happy that I was able to put my project together but was disappointed that I wasn’t able to expand on it more. I wanted my rash guard to be waterproof but didn’t have enough time to focus on that aspect. In addition, I ran into difficulties with the neopixels when I was soldering and some connections at the elbow were weak preventing the lights to move quickly up the arm at some points. I think that as I gain more experience in coding and design (fabrication) I will be able to make my project like how I intended it to be. I think I challenged myself and this was a good learning experience for me.

I was able to put a rashguard together with neopixels and code it to change depending on movement so I feel like I accomplished my goal. However, I ran out of time to work on waterproofing. In addition, my code was not as complex and exact as I had hoped for which was frustrating for me. I think that working on the code more would be beneficial. I ran into an issue where my battery was not letting me charge it once the battery ran out. It worked earlier but stopped working a few days before the fashion show. Soldering was very difficult because the solder didn’t attach well to the led strips but I feel like I got that working successfully after soldering many, many times and using the long wire connection.