Sunday, 10 May 2015

Official gatherings starting Autumn 2015

We are happy to announce that we will start gathering at the Perhentalo. Last week we start the conversation with them and apparently, it would be possible :)

At the moment we are in negotiations of the days and room. The actual proposal is:
Room "Tupa" , on Mondays from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM
On the following days: 
31.8.
14.9.
28.9.
SYYS LOMA 
19.10.
02.11.
16.11.
30.11.
14.12.

If we have the days fixed, the next step is to start to prepare ourselves for those days. So, more information SOON! .....

===
F4E written by CAIS

Thursday, 23 April 2015

SciFest 2015

In this occasion we were not able to have our boot in SciFest. However we had been following closely what it is happening. Inclusive we had an interesting experience yesterday while being participants of the nexmap workshop facilitated by Paul Kallmes.  In this workshop we discovered the conductive tape and stickers!

Our tool set is increasing, now we have:
  • conductive ink, 
  • conductive stickers, 
  • conductive clothing....  

However, our main power is our imagination!!!! :)

This is going to be a VERY SPECIAL year for fear4electronics!!!!
Now some photos of us exploring.  In the first photo we are working and experimenting with new tools.

 NOTICE our first "product" the enlighting swam is on the top right corner!!! :)
Next photo is Liisa and I, with our final product. 



I think soon, we should make a comparison table of pros and cons of the different tools available in the market which can help us to add digital technology to our handicrafts!

===
F4E written by CAIS

Tuesday, 14 April 2015

Luminous Mittens4


This time the Project will be finished - thanks to CAIS for actively pushing and helping!!!

It's a shame that I have been very very slow with this Project.... meanwhile I have changed my car a couple of times, started a new company, had some health problems, arranged kids' birthdays, ice-swimming many times, learn how to drive  wheel loader and how to shave mens' bear using straight razor - or just being lazy :). Well.. all kind of good reasons
.. But still...
After finishing the handicraft work the Project got more interesting but much more challenging for me. I really had some problems with fitting the Lilypad inside the mittens - and so that I can remove it to the other mitten (depending if I she is walking or riding the bicycle when using the mittens).





First of all we needed to programme the Lilypad (we worked together with CAIS, and I think I finally could do it also By myself - THANKS :)  !  ) 
are the lights blinking?
Looks so nice! Minus - Plus and programmed channels




The programme itself is simple
Programme is working



Now we need to test the battery
Led-lights to the mittens



To make Lilypad and battery
removable makes this a bit complicated.
I have used snaps to removeble connections
 

There is also on-off button included,
and it seems like working. However, this conductive yarn or the snaps I have used are not connecting all the time?




Pocket was needed to hold
 the Lilypad and battery

Lisää kuvateksti

Finally DONE!!! And working ... JIHUU!!!

SEE THE great VIDEO BELOW

CAIS you finally can have your Luminous mittens (although it is not winter anymore...)

F4E by Liisa

 

Monday, 9 February 2015

Lighting words (part 3 - code)

The code for this project is INCREDIBLE simple, we only have to turn ON/OFF LEDs


I mainly follow the example that it is given in the arudino software and add some lines, so here is the code:

/*
  Blink
  Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly.

  Most Arduinos have an on-board LED you can control.  If you're unsure what
  pin the on-board LED is connected to on your Arduino model, check
  the documentation at http://arduino.cc

  This example code is in the public domain.
  modified 8 May 2014
  by Scott Fitzgerald
  modified  January 2015
  by CAIS
 */


// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
  // initialize digital pins 7,8,9,10 as an output.
  pinMode(7, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(8, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(9, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(10, OUTPUT);
}


// the loop function runs over and over again forever
  void loop() {
  digitalWrite(10, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  delay(500);                        // wait for half a second
  digitalWrite(9, HIGH);  
  delay(500);
  digitalWrite(8, HIGH);   
  delay(500);
  digitalWrite(7, HIGH);   
  delay(500);          

  digitalWrite(10, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  delay(500);                       // wait for half a second
  digitalWrite(9, LOW);    
  delay(500);
  digitalWrite(8, LOW);    
  delay(500);            
  digitalWrite(7, LOW);    
  delay(500);             
}

That is it!!!
Compile and send to your lilipad.

In this example, we are utilizing pins 7,8,9 and 10, therefore those are the pins we stitched on the  lilipad ;)



Next step, for me, is to decorate my final product, but should be done on the next weekend!

====
F4E by CAIS

Lighting words (part 2)

Finally!
A project of lighting words is almost done!
[ it needs the final decoration details :)]

Let me show you, how it looks:



 The photo above show my illuminating words. The way I did it - you do not remember please read the post lighting words part 1 - was by locating four LEDs inside the box (photo below)

With conductive ink all the the negative lead (-), or cathode, are connected.

The positive lead (+) or anode, is stitched with conductive thread separately, as each one connects with a pint of my lilipad.

NOTE: one of the reasons it took me long to advance, is because once I let the LED fixed in the box, they were not working. It was strange. Until I test one by one, and I noticed the conductive ink had broken segments, so careful about this. 


Next, I had been thinking how to avoid keep my lilipad dedicated to this project, and allow me to move it freely between project. I confess I do not have the budget for buying several lilypads.

The solution, to use snap buttons. Unfortunately at the moment I did not have high quality ones, so I use the ones I had, behind the box and add some conductive ink to assure that the energy will go through my button.

On a white cloth I sew, with conductive thread, the lilipad, and as it was tested. 

 Then I cut the extension of each one of the pins, so I can clip them to the box.


and IT WORKS!!!!




Need to finish to decorate the box, and polish my lilipad sewing as I did it as in testing mode, but I am so glad it woks!!!!

In a next post I will publish the code utilized for this.

====
F4E by CAIS

Saturday, 7 February 2015

Luminous mittens 3

Done! .. the easy part "hardware" , I mean...

 
The next step will be more exiting -  "the software" how to get the lights on! Now I am going to figure out the mysterious world of Lilipads, leds and programming ... I'll let you know

Luminous mittens 2

Finally the mitten itself is almost done! Travelling by train is perfect for handicraft....


..still the thumb is missing...