Tilt Switch

This tutorial serves as an introduction to soft circuitry. Through application, you will gain an understanding of the working properties of electronic-textile (e-textile) materials such as conductive fabric and conductive thread. By constructing a functional soft circuit with e-textile material, you will learn how a simple circuit operates, identify and understand the role of different electronic components, and consider possibilities for further application of and experimentation with soft circuits.

Conductive Fabric

Double Sided Interfacing

Glass Beads

Metal Bell, or Large Metal Bead

LED

3V Coin Cell Battery (2032)

3V Sewable Coin Cell Battery Holder

Conductive Thread

Felt

Beeswax

* To make Conductive Thread suck less- run it through your beeswax*

First we will take a piece of conductive thread and tie it on to our bell or metal bead. We want to make sure we tie the knot several times, making a tight and secure connection. Seal with glue or clear nail polish.

Decide how long you want your switch to be. String on as many beads as you need to reach your desired length. The beads act as an insulator for the conductive thread so that it does not touch and short the circuit.

Once the beads are on, stitch from the top of your piece of felt, going parallel to the edge, all the way to the bottom.

Stitch into the positive terminal on the battery holder.

Now we will attach our pieces of conductive fabric. Cut three pieces of interfacing the same size as your three pieces of conductive fabric. Using a mini iron, or the tip of your iron, attach the interfacing to the conductive fabric. Peel off the paper backing and iron onto your felt. Put a piece of cotton between the iron and the conductive fabric/felt.

**When placing your fabric make sure each piece can be reached by your switch, bell or metallic bead.**

Alternatively, the conductive fabric can be sewn to your felt with regular thread.

The three switches all turn on the same output, one LED. We will sew from the positive leg on the LED to each piece of conductive fabric. We have marked our positive leg with red marker. In this example, I have used a separate piece of conductive thread to sew each connection between LED and conductive fabric.

You can also run a separate LED from each pad.

The final step is to connect the ground, or negative leg, of the LED to the negative terminal on the battery holder.