PressureGlow Glove

Grip strength device that helps motivate children going through physical therapy for a hand injury

1. Glove- Carhartt quick flex $18.99
2. Pressure Sensitive material- Adafruit Pressure sensitive material $4.99
3. Coin battery-$5.99 ( for 5)
4. Conductive tape- Copper Tape $6.68
5. Wire connectors- Jumper wire $9.99
6. Button Battery holder- Alinan 5pc $5.99
7. 3D printed Buckle- 2.8g $0.07

 Choose a glove that is comfortable and suited for your hand size. Important to get this step done before the others. Also Find a buckle you like on tinker cad, save the stl file and put it into the slicer program that goes with your printer. To do this, find the buckle and hit the "Tinker This" tab. After the model is set to the dimensions you like, hit "Download" and save the stl. Depending on the printer you have, you will have to use a certain slicer profile. I used UltiMaker Cura which is compatible with the Ender 3 and the infill I used was 65%. The model should be done within 2 hours. 

Choose the type of materials that will be present inside of your circuit. In this case we will need a 3 volt coin battery, battery pack with positive and negative leads, conductive tape, pressure sensitive conductive sheet, and 1.5V LED light.

Build a simple circuit in tinker cad with a potentiometer, 3v battery and an on off switch.

Go into tinker cad and click + Create. There will be options for 3D Design, Circuits, and Codeblocks. Choose the Circuits option. A component screen will pop up, you will need to choose the Coin Cell 3V Battery, LED, Side Switch and Potentiometer.

Place the coin cell at the bottom of the screen, the side switch to the top right of the coin battery, the potentiometer above the side switch and the LED to the left of the potentiometer.

Place the positive lead from the battery to Terminal 2 on the side switch. Place the negative lead from the coin cell to the Terminal 1 on the side switch. Then place another lead from the negative end of the battery to the cathode of the LED. 

Place a lead at the common or middle slot of the side switch and place it onto the wiper or center connection site on the potentiometer. Place a lead from Terminal 1 on the potentiometer to the anode of the LED light. 

Turn on the side switch and the LED light will light up. You can control the resistance and voltage with the potentiometer which changes the brightness of the LED

 It is time to create the circuit on paper. You will need the 3V coin battery, conductive tape, 1.5V LED, pressure sensitive conductive material, and tape. 

Take the positive end of the battery terminal to the anode of the LED, then tape the conductive tape to the cathode of the LED (making sure that the cathode is on the shiny and non-sticky side of the tape).

From the negative terminal of the battery, tape the wire on the shiny side of the conductive tape.

Place the pressure sensitive conductive material between the shiny sides of the conductive tape. The more pressure that is put on the material, the brighter the LED will get.

Obtain a sewing machine, needle and thread. You will also need a fabric or material to house the components in.

Hand sew the battery housing to the bottom outside of the glove with the wires coming out to the right.

Connect the positive end of the battery to the Anode of the LED and solder or tape ( depending on what you have available

Go to the sewing machine with the material you chose and fold it over onto itself making a rectangle about 4 inches wide and 2.5 inches tall ( make sure to dew backwards over your initial sew so it does not come apart) Make sure to leave the left side open(do not sew left side) to put components into later. 

Cut a small hole in the right side of the material ( this is where one of the wires is going to go into). 

Cut about 3inx2in of the conductive tape and tape the end of a wire onto the shiny side or the top of the conductive tape. 

Cut about 3inx2in conductive tape.

Place the component made in step 18 on the inside of the pocket you created in step 16. Make sure that the conductive side or shiny side is pointing down.

Place the wire from step 18 out of the hole and connect to the cathode of the LED (solder or tape).

Solder or tape a wire to the negative lead from the battery, then tape the wire to the shiny side of the conductive tape made in step 19.

Place the conductive tape and wire upwards inside of the pocket you made.

Place the pressure conductive material in between the two sheets of the conductive tape facing each other inside of the pocket.

Hand sew a material over the wires and LED components on top of the glove. Cut open a whole for the LED and make sure that is the only thing showing on the top of the glove. On the two sides you will need to sew around the two wires coming out.

Find an elastic band and sew it to one of the sides of the buckle. Place the buckle under the pocket that you created and hand sew the other side of the elastic band to the other side of the buckle.