Copper tape circuits

Basic:

Conductive copper tape

I use 5mm tape. It can have conductive or non-conductive adhesive. To be cost effective I work with
both. I make the paper battery holders with non-conductive adhesive because it is cheaper. The
tape with the conductive adhesive is more rigid and thicker and much easier for circuitry.

On eBay, you can get a 30m roll with non-conductive adhesive for about $2 -3. From a local supplier
such as Little Bird Electronics, a 15m roll sells for $4.54.

For conductive adhesive, Little Bird Electronics sells a 15m roll for about $6.

Battery holders
For paper circuits, a home-made battery holder suffices. Pattern and instructions attached.

For better projects and with a switch, I prefer the CR2032 coin cell button
battery holder case. It holds 2 x 3V batteries, but works as well with only
one. Sometimes your projects may require 5V or so, which makes this
battery holder useful.

They cost about 35c each on eBay (for bulk purchases of ten or more).

From Little Bird Electronics, the cost is $1.50 each.

LEDs
There are unlimited options for LEDs.

I retrieve them from Christmas lights.

Strip wires (they are

covered with plastic
insulating material)

Assorted LEDs can be purchased from Jaycar locally or Little Bird Electronics for
about $30 per hundred.

A box of 300 mixed 3mm and 5mm LEDs are about $6-7.

Special LEDs colour flashing, candle flicker etc range from 8 - 17c on eBay.

Batteries

We use CR2032 button batteries the best place is local discount stores, about $3 - $5 for 8.

Or on eBay at about $19 for 100.

e-Textile Circuits (wearables)
Conductive thread
Conductive thread is available at Little Bird Electronics for $4.54 for about 9m.

There are two types the smooth and the rough. Whilst the smooth does not
short-circuit as easily (fluffy), the rough is easier to stitch with because it holds
to itself better. However, if you get a beeswax block from Spotlight in the
quilting section, and wax your thread the fluffy is a good option.

LEDs
I use ordinary LEDs in early sewable projects. However Lilypad LEDs are available for
more detailed projects.

eBay will sell you 50 (white only) for about $15.

Little Bird prices start at $9.16 for a strip of seven colours. About $6 for five coloured LEDs.

Battery holders
I make my own soft battery holders for sewable projects. I often prefer them to
the purchased battery holders. The template and instructions are attached.

Lilypad sewable battery holders are available for $6 each at Little Bird. On eBay,
they sell for about $1.54

We also use the two-battery cases for sewable projects.

Switches
If you use Lilypad sewable battery holders, you will get a switched version.

A good alternative for switches in sewn projects is to use press-studs.

Substrate
I like the felt stacks from K-mart. They are quite rigid and thick, so that you can sew into the felt on
the reverse side without thread traces on the right side of your project. EVA foam is also suitable,
although I use interfacing stuck on with double sided tape because the thread can pull through the
foam.

For any wearables, I use cheap white felt to back the project for comfort.
Microcontrollers
These allow programmable effects to be used. The choices are broad, and presented here are
limited options.

Paper circuits
The most frequently used microcontroller is an ATtiny85.

For paper circuits, these are purchased as standalone devices.

They are incorporated into the copper tape circuit after programming.

The easiest way to program these ATtiny85s is through a tiny AVR

programmer.

These are sold by Little Bird electronics for $30.72

If you are familiar with breadboards and Arduino, you can also create your own.

e-Textiles (sewables)
A number of microcontrollers are available.

For instance, the Adafruit Gemma retailing at $15.09.

For cost effectiveness, we have used the Lilypad Twinkle board. They have an
ATtiny85 as the processor so use identical code to the ATtiny85 devices.

From Little bird Electronics, they are $12.50.

On eBay they are about $4.20.

If you are willing to play with programming, you may find a micro-USB development board
interesting.

Programming the Boards

The boards are programmed using Arduino IDE software (open source) and freely
available code from the web on a Google search.

To connect the Lilypad devices, we use an 8-Pin SOIC IC Test Clip with male to
female jumper wires, with the tiny AVR Programmer.

The 8-pin clip is $31.26 from Little Bird. Or about $3 each on eBay.

The jumper wires sell for about $2 for 40 on eBay, and $7.68 for 50 at Little Bird.

Prototyping boards
It is important that your students can see immediately the effects of programming. Thus, you may
wish to create your own prototyping boards, using solder and breadboards or, for
the Lilypad at least, we use a couple of protosnap boards. They retail for about
$30.72 from Little Bird. They are designed to be programmed and then pulled
apart, but for our purposes, we leave them as prototyping boards.