Welcome to the KOBAKANT DIY Wearable Technology Documentation

This website aims to be a comprehensible, accessible and maintainable reference resource, as well as a basis for further exploration and contribution. Most Recent Posts

Workshops connecting bubbles

This semester, we are sitting in a strange bubble at home. No casual coffee with your friend between the lectures, no physical exchange of cool weaving trick to speed up your assignment, no hugging, no kissing… Instead of crying over all the things we lack, we can try to use the situation positively, as a unique experience of being isolated, connected only (or mostly) via internet with your friends and colleagues, but somehow share the experience together. Perhaps this is a chance to think about how we can design such an online, remote, yet connected experience. This is my proposal for this semester.

Sensors DON’T TOUCH, MOVE

6 really wearable sensors The textile sensors on our website are often not designed to be manipulated with your hands. In an attempt to move away from manual control, towards bodily entanglement, this post shows 6 wearable textile sensors that are designed to be worn on different parts of the body. The idea being that […]

Workshops soft interactive technologies

This workshop is a part of a course at the Art Academy Weissensee Berlin. May7 – July 9 2020 The course took place as weekly online course. The hand book PDF is here >> Meet the Material (May 14) Building Textile Sensors: Digital May 21 This week, we will build a digital sensor/ switches. Digital […]

Workshops ETextile Adventures

This workshop is part of a course at the Ernst Busch Hochschule in Berlin. It is only open to students in the departments of Contemporary Puppetry and Spiel&&Objekt.

Sensors Sole Sensing

Rather simple way of making insoles with 3 pressure sensors located at different pressure points of the foot on the ground. The entire circuitry is sewn with conductive thread on sewing machine. The piezoresistive (pressure sensing) material is taped in place until finalized and can then also be sewn in place by machine (with regular […]

Actuators Vibe Modules

How many times I’ve made various little vibration-motor break-out modules like these so that they can be snapped into wearable projects….. Using either Sugru silicon or Shapelock/polymorph/friendly plastic/thermoplast…… or casting resin ontop.

Workshops from SPACE to SPACE

with NO SCREENS? 5. – 7.05. & 12. – 14.05. 11:00 – 13:00 & 14:00 – 16:00. This workshop is only open to S&&O students This workshop was born out of the social distancing restrictions we are practicing to delay the spread of the corona virus. It is an attempt to teach a very materials […]

Announcements OPEN CALL: Study eTextiles and Play

Come study eTextiles in the context of play, theater, participatory performance, storytelling and material puppetry in Berlin! In march 2020 Hannah started a new job, and is now professor in the masters program Spiel&&Objekt (Play&&Object), situated in the contemporary puppetry department of Berlin’s performing arts university Ernst Busch. It’s a new program and our first […]

Sensors VOLTAGE DIVIDER worksheet

A worksheet for taking note of: The electrical resistance range of an analog sensor (Ohm). Picking a mean resistance in that range. Using a resistor of that resistance to build a Voltage Divider that will translate resistance into voltage. Taking note of the min and max voltage range this gives you. Connecting this variable voltage […]

Example Projects Breathing Belt

Very simple solution for capturing the movement of the chest or stomach breathing using a stretch sensor knit from a stainless-steel & polyester yarn “sensor yarn”. Photos >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157713915361228 HOW THE SENSOR WORKS The stainless steel fibers in the yarn are short, and the electrical resistance between them is high (when relaxed <1M Ohm). And […]

Announcements Textile Summer School in Kyoto Japan

FYI: Open call for KYOTO Design Lab Textiles Summer School 2020 is out. The deadline is on the May 7th. https://www.d-lab.kit.ac.jp/events/2020/tss-2020/ It is the midst of crazy situation, and it maybe hard to think of the summer now… But if you are interested in visiting Chirimen weavers in Kyotango, one of the Japan’s traditional textile […]

Workshops Material_Adventures

the_boardgame This workshop-as-boardgame was developed during corona times as a means of teaching remotely with as little screen-time as possible. #noscreens MaterialAdventures >> https://www.plusea.at/?p=6605

Workshops Making and Animating Dioramas

This workshop is only open to students of the Spiel&&Objekt master program at the Ernst Busch Hochschule in Berlin.

Sensors Donut Pot

A potentiometer, a potential devider, with the resistive track as the big donut and the conductive wiper as the small donut.

Power Sewn USB Plug

USB plugs are surprisingly easy to make yourself. You might have already seen some versions made directly on a PCB – either milled or etched (or scraped by hand) from copper laminated FSR board. But you can also sew a USB plug with some thick conductive thread (or wire) and some wood in which you […]

Workshops FT1: Moving Fabrics with Electrons

January 2020, hosted jointly by Interface Cultures and Fashion and Technology departments at the Art University Linz, Austria * * * This workshop is only open to Art University Linz students. Students should only sign up for this course if they can commit to attending the full schedule (see bellow). * * * In this […]

Actuators Flapping Wings

Multiple of these: Flapping Wing Swatch Example >> https://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=5900

Actuators Fabric Flipdot with H-Bridge

H-bridge circuit diagram: Flipdot mechanism: Super simple with single transistor flips one direction only: With h-bridge circuit build on breadbaord (2 NPN transistors, 2 PHP transistors): MAKING-OF

Workshops Spekulative Objekte

18 Nov – 6 Dez 2019, course taught by Clemens Winkler and Hannah Perner-Wilson at Spiel & Objekt Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch Photos >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157712439878226

Tools ETextile Tester Bracelet

Photos >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157712300020868 HANDOUT English Handout Text eTEXTILE TESTER BRACELET Explore the world of electronic textiles! The eTextile Tester Bracelet is a tool for testing the conductive properties of materials. The bracelet itself is an electronic textile: a felt band with a soft circuit sewn into it. Wearing and using this simple tool becomes means […]

Conductive Materials Meet the Materials

ETextiles rely on the existence of electrically conductive fibers, threads and fabrics that can be used in combination with textile techniques such as sewing, weaving and knitting. Most of these conductive materials are produced by industry for anti-static and EMF shielding purposes. The development and production of materials for crafting soft circuits and sensors is […]

Workshops Shape and Memorize

This is a 4 days workshop at the Weissensee Art Academy Berlin as a part of the Textile and Surface design course. The workshop will take place from December 9th to 13th. In this workshop, we will look into using Shape Memory Alloy (SMA), understanding the basics of SMA, how to set/memorize the shape, how […]

Circuits and Code Graphing and Drawing Sensor Values

CODE EXAMPLES ARDUINO Single Analog Sensor Value Smoothing a Single Analog Sensor Value Multiple Analog Sensor Values Smoothing Multiple Analog Sensor Values ARDUINO —> PROCESSING Graph Single Analog Sensor Value in Processing Graph Multiple Analog Sensor Values in Processing arduino Single Analog Sensor Value Examples: Communication –> Graph This example contains the code you need […]

Connections Super Stretchy & Robust Conductor

This is NOT a stretch sensor, but rather the opposite, a way of making a stretchy connection/lead/trace. A tube knit from conductive thread with round elastic inserted. Before finishing the ends, the knit tube is stretched to it’s max and elastic’s max stretch (or other max can be taken) and then fixed. You can work […]

Connections Felted DIP socket

When using microcontroller for embroidery circuit projects, sometimes you do not want to directly solder them on the embroidery as you need to take it out to change the program on it. For this, sockets are convenient, but it is also bulky on the fabric. I used 5mm felt, that is as thick as the […]

Announcements Stories from an etextile tailor

(German version bellow) Stories from an e-textile tailor Make your tech and wear it too! In this talk I’d like to give an introduction to the materials, tools, skills and energies involved in making electronic textiles and tailoring wearable technology, which has been my practice for the past 13 years. I spend my days crafting […]

Circuits and Code pressure matrix code + circuit

In this post I want to try and explain how a pressure matrix built from conductive rows and columns with a piezoresistive material (Eeonyx, velostat) in between works, how to wire it up to an arduino and write the Arduino code that will parse through the rows and columns to read the individual pressure points […]

Workshops Taking Parts Apart Workshop at TH Nürnberg

11 December 2019, 15-18:00 at TH Nürnberg, Germany Download PDF documentation of outcome >> http://kobakant.at/downloads/PDFs/20-takingPartsApart_THnurnberg.pdf Photos >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157712797821188 A hands-on exercise in getting to know the electronic parts that make up the technologies we use every day. After understanding how they work, can we re-imagine them to be made in different ways? Links: >> konp.plusea.at/ […]

Thinking Out Loud ohm’s law

An attempt to combine three iconic illustrations of ohm’s law into one: annotated in german (english coming soon): ORIGINALS: the best: forrest m. mims Getting Started in Electronics >> https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5jcnBPSPWQyaTU1OW5NbVJQNW8/edit the water analogy:

Sensors Copper Pompom

Copper of thread, pigment of change…..

Tools Tester Tool: bracelets

A simple LED circuits with an interrupted connection that can be worn as a bracelet.

Actuators Critical Critters

A collection of simple circuits (power, actuator) that are missing a part of their connection. Intended for visualizing the effects that variable resistive sensors have on the amount of voltage that reaches the actuator.

Actuators Button Lights

Three techniques for mounting LEDS on top of buttons. 1 sew buttons with a solderable conductive thread and solder LEDs afterwards to the thread. 2 prepare button with copper tape and solder LED first and then sew to make contact to the copper tape pads. 3 same as 2 but mount LED underneath button facing […]

Workshops – faser – faden – fiktion –

October 2019 – January 2020, a course in the department of Gestaltung: Technik-Textil at the Kunstuniversität Linz, Austria This course is only open to students of Gestaltung: Technik-Textil. This course pursues an exploratory approach to introducing electronic textiles (E-Textiles) as a material practice. Taking the analogy of an expedition, students will depart on a journey […]

Sensors Spinning Sensor Yarn

A little goes a long way. Stainless steel fibers blended with wool roving and spun and plied on on a drop-spindle. Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157711023086991 This is not a recipe but an attempt to share things to think about when you approach spinning your own conductive yarn. Or “sensor” yarn in the sense that it’s electrical conductivity […]

Technique Hydrogen Peroxide Etching

Hydrogen Peroxide Etching conductive fabric. Part of a counterchemists collaboration. Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157710980633483 copper riptstop: silver lycra (front): silver lycra (back): silver lycra (stretched): materials: High acidity vinegar (24%): look in the cleaning section of your local supermarket for vinegars used in cleaning. Hydrogen Peroxide (Wasserstoffperoxid Lösung) 30%: ask at your local pharmacy and let them […]

Thinking Out Loud Speculating about Piezoresistance

Together with Maurin we have been wondering what exactly goes on inside a piezoresistive material – or where the piezoresistive effect takes place. >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoresistive_effect Ideas for why/where changes in resistance are happening by Maurin Donneaud: The information I bring here comes from my intuitions that I have not yet had the time to confirm […]

Example Projects Tie-Poly Leggings and Dataglove

A pair of leggings and a glove made conductive (with piezoresistive properties) via a technique of polypyrrole polymerization, using tie-dye technique to create areas of non-conductivity.

Technique Poly Resist Techniques: tie and wax

Two techniques for resisting In-Situ Polymerization of fabrics: “Tie-Poly”: tie-die binding Batik: application of hot wax Part of a counterchemists collaboration. Photos >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157710354823622/page4/ VIDEO “Tie-Poly” Tie-dye is a technique of binding off parts of a fabric in order to prohibit the water dye from penetrating into these regions. Scrunching the fabric and tying string […]

Technique In-Situ Polymerization

Part of a counterchemists collaboration. Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157710884689521 Polymerization of PolyPyrrol materials: Pyrrol Polymerization agent tools: DIY Magnetic Stirrer https://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-DIY-Magnetic-Stirrer/ POLYMERIZED FABRICS: Knit Viskose – 95% viskose, 5% elastan Knit Bamboo – 95% bamboo, 5% elastan Shieldex® Technik-Tex P130 – 78% Polyamide, 22% Elastomer, 99% pure Silver Powermesh – 82% nylon 18% spandex Shieldex® Kassel – […]

Sensors Needle Felt Squeeze Sensor

A pressure sensor made with conductive wool. You can mix a bit of wool to increase the range of resistance change.

Actuators TEXTILE ACTUATOR BOTS

Three robots encased in clear tupperware as an easy means of experiencing how textile sensors can be used to control textile actuators (well the LED BOT is not really a textile actuator – but could use fibrous stuffing to diffuse the light!) Textile LED Bot Textile Servo Bot Textile Speaker Bot Textile LED Bot Textile […]

Connections Lulu as 4-Way Adapter

Instead of soldering the LED to the tip of the Lulu BEE you could solder the ends of 4-wires to the pads on the PCB. Thus the Lulu becomes a 4-way e-textile to wire adapter… connector… breakout…

Sensors Pin Pot

A lengthy pin potentiometer. Something like a slug on the back of your hand. Filled with polenta. You poke the sharp pin through layers of conductive fabrics (and the polenta), one is highly conductive the other has lots of resistance. The pin is conductive and makes an electrical connection from the conductive wiper layer to […]

Workshops Crafting Sensory Surfaces

A part of textiles summer school at DLAB KIT Kyoto Japan. August 19 – 30, 2019 Textiles stand at the forefront of material technology offering a staggering range of characteristics for designers to exploit: touch, fold, stretch, stroke, squeeze, scrub, etc. We manipulate textile surfaces that surround us in various ways. By embedding e-textile materials […]

Workshops ETextile CARD10

ccc camp 2019 Extend your CARD10 wristband out into the world….. of etextiles! friday, 22-8-19, 19:00-20:30 in the CARD10 village saturday, 23-8-19, 18:30-20:00 in the CARD10 village >> https://card10.badge.events.ccc.de/en/workshops/ bring (if you have): – your CARD10, USB-C cable, laptop – “normal” LEDs – scissors – pliers – sewing needles step-by-step: More photos: https://flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157710505658161 STAGE 1: […]

Workshops Absurd Musical Interfaces

8-9 November 2019, Queen Mary University of London Artists, technologists and makers are invited to take part in a hackathon around the themes of absurd musical interfaces, questionable sonic interactions and unworkable music designs. Does this sound fun to you? Please, join us! Application Deadline: 8 September 2019 >> http://instrumentslab.org/research/absurd-music-design.html

Workshops Crafting Robots

August 29 & 30 2019, 10-16:00, TU Berlin From Robots that Craft, to Crafting Robots Examining technology through a material lens — a means of looking inside the machine by way of remaking its component parts — in order to spin new robot stories. This workshop was invited by Pat Treusch of „Träumen Roboter vom […]

Announcements Make Your Tech and Wear It Too

Stories from an e-textile tailor Presentation at the CCC Camp 2019, 2019-08-21 16:00 >> https://media.ccc.de/v/Camp2019-10375-make_your_tech_and_wear_it_too In this talk i’d like to give an introduction to the materials, tools, skills and energies involved in making electronic textiles and tailoring wearable technology, which has been my practice for the past 13 years. I spend my days crafting […]

Conductive Materials Merino Wool conductive yarn from Bart and Francis

Recently I have noticed bart and francis has merino wool / inox conductive yarn. (https://www.bart-francis.be/index.php?item=–150-meter_cone&action=article&group_id=128&aid=4531&lang=EN) This sounds really interesting! I have ordered it immediately, and just have got the package. Here is the first try out of the measurement and comparison to the plug and wear conductive yarn. The spec of the yarn is “82% […]

Sensors Tilt Potentiometer II

Instead of treating each conductive petal contact of the this fabric tilt sensor as an individual digital input, the petals are connected through a resistive fabric ring. The end petals in this “resistor ladder” connectto GND and VCC to create a voltage divider (just like inside a potentiometer) and the bead makes for a voltage […]

Workshops Blurring Boundaries

June 9-15, 2019 at Shakerag in Sewanee Tennessee/USA Electricity does not have to be cased up inside slick metal enclosures; we can also let it flow through painted pine-cones, carved traces, and the water in our bodies. The segregation of our abilities into discrete disciplines leaves gray areas to be explored and missing links to […]

Workshops Soft Interactive Technology at Weissensee

The second part of the course is about exploring the SMA (shape memory alloy) and textile. We will go over how to train the SMA, how to connect them and how you can trigger them with electricity. We will also connect the SMA samples to Arduino and control the activation with it. The first SMA […]

Workshops ITP camp Workshops

Three etextile related workshops at ITP camp: Wear your tools! https://itp.nyu.edu/camp2019/session/41 Make a Fabric Touchpad https://itp.nyu.edu/camp2019/session/40 Multitouch Paper Recognizing Gestures (with vvvv) PART 1&2 https://itp.nyu.edu/camp2019/session/3

Workshops Make your own multi-touchpad

Sunday May 19th 11-16:00 (4h) at KOBAKANT New Studio (Schönwalder Strasse 23, Wedding/Berlin) Our fingers are constantly swiping across touchpads, to enter passwords, navigate maps, play games, type messages. But how does this work? How are our physical interactions with materials sensed and translated into electronic signals that our computers can understand? In this workshop […]

Sensors Matrix: Soft Fabric

10 x 10 matrix: Photos >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157680387415118 TinyTextileTouchpad 7×7 rSkin Matrix rSkin – Open Source Robot Skin

Tools Tester Overview

Over the years, we’ve designed and built a variety of small compact circuits that translate electrical resistance into something we can perceive like: light, sound, vibration. This post intents to pull together all these different items in one place. To see if there are insights I’d forgotten about as well as a pool of inspiration […]

Workshops Adventuring with Materials

April 18 2019, 11-17:00, Junge Tüftler, Berlin // This workshop is only open to Junge Tüftler MitarbeiterInnen. Adventuring with Materials – a proposal for getting lost and coming home by Hannah Perner-Wilson Building electronics have become very much a learning about the functionality of electronic components, and not an experiencing of the electrical properties of […]

Example Projects Bela + Blanket

This is an example project/ experiment to use Bela board with e-Textile sensors. Here, I am making crochet blanket with exposed conductive pieces so one can use their skin resistance to “play” music by touching different part of the blanket. The blanket was originally made for a small workshop, and it was connected to Teensy […]

Workshops Crocheting Electronics

Electronic Textile is a technique that uses metalized or carbon infused thread and fabric to create electronics. You can knit sensors and embroider speakers. In this workshop, you will be introduced how to crochet a touch sensor with conductive threads. The finished crochet sensor will be connected as one big crochet blanket that plays back […]

Example Projects Lulu optic fiber swatches

Swatches that showcase some of the things you can do with the Lulu Daisy – a design solution to connecting e-textiles, LEDs and optic-fibers. – 3 swatches – 6 mini crocodile clips – 1 breadboard with Teensy and crocodile clip connections for (+3V, GND, Data) demo code: cycles through one swatch at a time. was […]

Actuators Playing with Sideglow Optic-Fiber

We’ve been working on the Lulu (a design solution to connecting e-textiles, LEDs and optic-fibers) for some time now, and spent a lot of time looking at how we can mount LEDs at a right angle on PCBs and couple the LED with the end of the optic-fiber, but what we have not spent much […]

Workshops Electronics of Materials IV

February 11-15 2019, taught by Paula Te and Hannah Perner-Wilson at the Copenhagen Institute for Interaction Design in Copenhagen, Denmark

Thinking Out Loud Unusual E-Textile Techniques

When we think of what is unusual and unusual in our lives, how do we draw the boundaries that define these categories? The idea of preparing a presentation on “UNusual E-Textile Techniques” appealed to me maybe because I feel much of what made e-textiles attractive to me at the start (12 years ago in 2006) […]

Workshops KOBA Winter School of Wickedfabrics

January 21-25 2019, KOBA in Berlin, Germany We have been running our KOBA E-Textile Tailorshop for one year now. During this time we’ve been refining our skills in some of the most basic techniques like making hard-soft connections and detachable parts. But we have also been confronted with learning bespoke tailoring skills in taking a […]

Actuators Lulu Bumblebee PCB

Lulu is a hardware solution that interfaces between an LED light source, an optic fiber strand or bundle, and sewable soft circuit connections. The Lulu provides a toolset for using side glow optical fibers in your eTextile and wearable projects. Use of light in textile and fashion design is becoming more and more common as […]

Workshops FT1: Tailoring with Electronic Textiles II

January 2018, hosted jointly by Interface Cultures and Fashion and Technology departments at the Art University Linz, Austria * * * This workshop is only open to Art University Linz students. Students should only sign up for this course if they can commit to attending the full schedule (see bellow). * * * For the […]

Sensors Matrix: Kapton + Copper

A simple pressure sensor matrix made from two Kapton film sheets with 7×7 copper tape traces and a piece of velostat or Eeonyx piezoresistive material in between.

Connections Pivoting 3-Way Connection

A snap connection not only makes for a robust e-textile electrical connector, it also make for a great pivot point. When you have a single electrical connection to make the snap can double as both electrical connection and pivot point. But what when you have more than one electrical connection?

Actuators Serpentine LED Strip

Sick of LEDs shining directly in your eyes? We are too! This design has the LEDs mounted inside the curves of this serpentine strip so that the LED faces down towards the the fabric and what you see is the light reflected off the surface of the fabric.

Workshops Soft Interactive Technology I

Nov 29,30,Dec 4,9,2018 10:00- 17:00 elab Weissensee Art Academy Berlin. Assignment The next 2 days will be something like mini hackathon. It is time for you to explore what these textile sensors can do as interface and think about different types of interaction with digital technology. For this, we give ourselves a framework/story. Inspired by […]

Conductive Materials Elastic Conductive Thread

We very kindly received samples of this elastic conductive thread made with Statex conductive thread from Filix in France. We have not had time to use/test them for anything yet, but will post about it here as soon as we do. SC 4194 ECRU NF CC LY800 DC SS35µ+Cu40-PA2/78/68 Core : LYCRA 800 DTEX Cover […]

Sensors Beaded Sway Sensor

swing, sway, wave, trail, quiver, quake, judder, jiggle, jig, joggle, jog, jerk, waggle, wiggle, wriggle, wobble, shake, shiver, shudder, squirm, slant, lean, tip, slope, incline, dip, angle, twitch, totter, teeter, tremble, rock, roll, flutter, flap, vibrate, oscillate, convulse …work in progress… This beaded sway sensor was designed to capture the swinging, swaying, jerking, tilting movements […]

Tools Tester Tool: u-shape

Build a simple circuit with an LED, a coin-cell battery pouch and interrupt the full circuit connection by inserting two crocodile clips. When the clips connect, the circuit is complete and the LED light will shine. When you mount a textile sensor between the clips, the LED brightness will depend on the resistance of the […]

Sensors Button Switch

A metal clothing button and a button hole that works as state switch. When it is fastened, the connection is made, and if you open the button, the connection gets broken. *This sensor is inspired by the Swatch exchange sample “Button Switch” by Ricardo O’Nascimento Step by Step Cut a hole on the fabric. Make […]

Sensors Pressure Button

See also Button Button >> http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=7328

Sensors Button Buttons

Surely a button Is self-explanatory And yet causes stress (haiku from Kate Fletcher’s Craft of Use, p20) This post covers a few different ways you can construct your own electrical “pushbutton” or embed a ready-made mechanical pushbutton (also known as momentary switch) into a textile button. What is nice about the mecanical mechanism is that […]

Tools DIY Mini Breadboard

You can make your own mini-breadboards by cutting up a larger one. Flickr set >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/sets/72157672660416318 Peel back the stick and remove the metal from the rows you will cut: Cut: Replace the sticky: Five mini breadboard from one long one:

Workshops KOBA School of Wickedfabrics: TAILORING

August 20-25 2018, KOBA in Berlin, Germany INTRODUCTION For the last 6 months KOBAKANT have been running KOBA, a tailorshop for electronic textiles and wearable technology in Berlin, Germany. The KOBA School of Wickedfabrics is intended as a time and place for us to formalize our tailoring process and share this experiance with you. This […]

Workshops School of Wicked Fabrics: FOUNDATION /03

“arduino is an open source computer hardware and software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices and interactive objects that can sense and control objects in the physical and digital world.” (wikipedia>>) Arduino website >> https://www.arduino.cc/ in this workshop, we use Flora, which is […]

Workshops School of Wicked Fabrics: FOUNDATION /02

Textile Sensors One can make different types of sensors. Some sensors have two states, “on” or “off”, or another words, “contact” or “no contact” like on/off switches of a light. Other sensors have range of states, like a dimmer of a light. The two state kind of sensors are digital sensors, and the sensors that […]

Workshops School of Wicked Fabrics: FOUNDATION /01

August 6-11, 2018 at KOBA Explore the Material collect samples and make a page for your swatch book. Please check: How much resistance? What are the characteristics? (physical/ electrical) Does it change its conductivity? if so how, what is the changing range? Multimeter We can not see the electrons flowing. So we can not tell […]

Workshops Soft Interactive Technology Course at KHB

Time: May 16,18 2018 10:00- 17:00 (15:00 on 16th) Time: May 30, June 1 2018 10:00- 17:00 Location: eLab, Weissensee Art Academy Berlin This workshop is only open to KHB students This is a series of 4 workshops to learn how one can move textile surface with electricity. In the first workshop, participants will learn […]

Actuators DIY Neopixel Lulu

For the KOBA Prescilla commission we used this solution for making our own “Lulu” e-textile to LED to optic-fiber solution.

Workshops KOBA School of WickedFabrics

For the last 6 months KOBAKANT have been running KOBA, e-textile tailorshop in Berlin, Germany. During this time we’ve been refining our skills in some of the most basic techniques like making hard-soft connections and detachable parts. But we have also been confronted with learning bespoke tailoring skills in taking a customer’s ideas from concept […]

Technique Constructing a Dataglove Pattern

Many self-made datagloves I see on the Internet have been made by re-purposing existing gloves. While this is a wonderful “hack” and solution, I also wanted to add to this possibility that of tailoring your own gloves to a specific set of hands. The following instructions explain how to measure your hand, what measurements to […]

Technique Modular Placement Prototyping Technique

A modular system for prototyping the exact placement of sensors, to be able to use/try/test them before finalizing where they go! Nadja Kutz has been developing all kinds of ideas for making herself datagloves (and senor-wear) to allow her to interact with her computer in alternate (more healthy) ways. One nice quick&cheap solutions she has […]

Example Projects Safetypin Dataglove

A dataglove made from piezoresistive fabric with safetey pin connectors that can be pinned to different parts of the glove to capture stretch in different areas. Links: E-Textile Dataglove Overview: http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=6730 Dataglove Overview: http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=7114 Flickr set: https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157679861886694/ Using the snap diamond breakout board design >> http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=6703

Connections Body to Breadboard Bracelet

Inspired by this upcoming workshop during E-Textile Spring Break titled “Body to Body: RFID + PAN Workshop, where Ingo + Nicole will “…introduce a DIY implementation of these systems to pass data through bodies to other bodies”. To make the connection between the body and the breadboard, this bracelet has conductive fabric on the back/bottom […]

Actuators Bumblebee Breakout

This connector makes the connection between a piece of 1,5mm diameter sideglow fiber optic and an SMD Neopixel (controllable RGB LED). The four connections from the LED are broken out to rings on a tube which holds the LED on one end and holds the fiber optic from the other end. Thanks to Ben for […]

Circuits and Code EMF amplifier

EMF (Electro Magnetic Field) is all around us, but we do not see or hear them. By amplifying it with EMF amplifier, you can listen to them. Many artists work with EMF amplifiers in their artistic expressions. One can also use E-Textile techniques to make soft textile antennas and create wearable EMF listeners. In E-Textile […]

Connections Elastic Waistband with Motor Pouches

In order to create our own version of a “Northbelt” built into the elastic of a jumpsuit waistband, we developed a technique for laying out the circuit’s traces along the length of the elastic, and then jumping inside to tight-fitting pouches that fit vibration motors mounted on 2x5cm boards. The traces from the circuit run […]