Sensory Dress
Introduction: Sensory Dress
3 in 1: Chameleon Safety Alarm Dress. Then learn to create a dress inspired by <PERSON> dress that catches on fire!
How It Works!
Green Button: Color Matching
* Press to start color matching
* Press again to lock in the current color
Red Button: Activates Alarm System
* Press to turn on the alarm system
* Existing color matching continues
* When you get close, the alarm goes off and the lights turn rerd
* Press again to turn off
White Touch Button: Transformation
* Press to activate
* Movement (spin) to activate lights and fire crackling sound
* Lights turn off when there is no movement
* Press to turn lights off
Supplies
Electronics:
* Circuit Playground Bluefruit
* Arduino Nano RP2040
* APDS9960
* Breadboard
* External Speaker
* Stemma QT
* Pin to Pin Wires
* LED Strips
* Alligator Clips
* Battery Pack & AA Batteries
* Portable Charger Battery Pack (USB connection)
* Conductive Thread & Needle
Other Materials:
* Dress/Item of Clothing
* Fanny Pack or a Pouch and Belt
* Regular Thread
* Nail Polish
* Scissors
* Fabric/Ribbon
* Velcro Tape
* Erasable Ink Pen or Fabric Chalk
* 1/8" Acrylic Board & Glue
Step 1: Let's Start With the Circuit Playground Bluefruit
The CPB will be handling the fire animation transformation.
Step 2: Wiring
Once you have your code running, take a photo or write down your wire mapping so that you remember how things were connected because we will be taking apart our wiring to attach the electronics to the dress.
Step 3: Code
Find my code here:
https://github.com/licjn/interactivedress/blob/main/CPBInteractiveDress.py
You can find the GitHub for this project here:
https://github.com/licjn/interactivedress
Step 4: Mark Electronics Onto Fabric
The CPB can be sewn onto the dress and conductive thread can replace wires so that is what I chose to do for this project to reduce bulkiness in this wearable. First, I laid out my electronics on the front side of the inner lining of my dress and marked where the electronics and wiring go on the dress with an erasable ink pen, you can use fabric chalk too. I have my LED strip along the bottom of the skirt while the CPB will be higher up on the waist. This is so that the CPB is more secure, does not experience too much movement, and is less likely to bump into things.
Step 5: Attach Electronics to Dress
Before wiring the electronics, I am tacking them down in place. Thread your needle with regular non-conductive thread and attach the CPB to the fabric, looping through the pads that are unused. I sewed the CPB down at four points: TX, and Audio. Loop through each hole a few times to secure the CPB. 769
I connected battery pack adjacent to the CPB using velcro tape since the batter pack is heavier.
Next up is the LED strip. I am attaching my LED strip using velcro tape. I cut 1/2 inch sections and spaced the velcro tape evenly on the strip.
If you don't have velcro tape you can also use a needle and thread to sew the strip down by sewing belt loops around the strip. This method attaches the LED strip but does not ensure that the strip won't slide around when you move the way the velcro does.
Step 6: Connect the Circuit
For the CPB, I am connecting the circuit using conductive thread. Follow this Adafruit guide about conductive thread to learn more about working with conductive thread.
I started sewing from the middle in between the LED lights and the CPB sewing towards the CPB pad. Once you reach the CPB pad, loop around the hole several times tightly so that the thread is touching the pad. I sewed three connections: one connection from the ground pin to the ground wire or the LED strip, one from the VOUT to the red wire, and one from the A1 pin to the signal wire. My LED lights have alligator clips on the ends so I wrapped the thread around and inside the alligator clips a few times.
Start from the middle, sew up towards the CPB, make the connection with the CPB, then sew back down to the LED strip, make the connection with the LED strip, and sew back to the middle where you started. 635