Soft Conductive Crochet Piano

I crochet a series of piano keys using conductive thread and different types of yarn. Each key was connected to a Makey Makey to create an interactive soft Crochet Piano.

1. crochet hook (matching with the yarn you will use)
2. yarn
3. conductive thread
4. Makey Makey board
5. crocodile clamps (included with the Makey Makey board)
6. black felt sheet

In order to establish a baseline for the interaction between the Makey Makey and the yarn, I constructed four circles using solely acrylic yarn. I connected the four circles to the Makey Makey and used the Piano App provided on the Makey Makey website to test the connectivity.

Results:

• The acrylic circles were able to activate the piano keyboards, yet they were unreliable.
• I noticed that the more the connection clamp touched the yarn, the more reliable. Hence I think that the circles may have been too big to activate the Makey Makey.

For this experiment, I crochet three circles using different yarn types and connected them to the Makey Makey with the Piano App.

The goal was to very quickly explore which circle (yarn type) created a better connection or signal. The first circle (purple yarn) was crocheted using 100% cotton yarn. The second circle was made with 100% acrylic yarn. The third circle was made of acrylic yarn and conductive thread.

Results:

• The Makey Makey received a relatively strong signal from the cotton yarn.
• The crochet circle made of acrylic yarn was unpredictable; it occasionally failed to activate the Makey Makey.
• The acrylic and conductive yarn were able to reliable activate the Makey Makey.

After experimenting with the Makey Makey Piano App and different types of yarn I wanted to create a Fluffy Piano and using different yarn textures.

Results:

• Crocheting with very texture yarn mixed with conductive thread was challenging.
• The very fluffy keys will touch nearby keys and activate keys that were not touched.

• As opposed to a single string or basic crochet chains, a group of stitches is more dependable to activate the Makey Makey.
• The dependability and conductivity of the crochet piece are improved by the addition of conductive thread.
• Conductive thread makes it difficult to crochet since it easily tangles.
• Although the keys are fun and lovely, the finished project still has conductivity issues due to the keys' fluffy nature, which causes each key to touch the other and cause a short circuit between the keys.
• The amount of conductive thread used while crocheting with conductive yarn rises, although if this is a concern, an additional thread can be added to the crocheted item later.