this is portable

Ever since I first ran into mentions the lilypad arduino board and conductive thread on some blogs I was reading, I’ve been super excited to try it out. There’s something about thread with electricity running through it — or FABRIC even — that is really exciting.

So, I finally got my hands on some conductive thread and a few LEDs to make what seems to be the unofficial hello world of soft circuits, the LED wrist cuff. It was a super fun little project, and honestly pretty darn easy. The hardest part was all the hand sewing needed to complete my design, but that was my own fault.

What I made was very similar to this instructables project. I used a metal snap for the switch, and made my own battery holder because those plastic ones are just too darn big to put in a wrist cuff. The battery holder was based off this pattern.

Not exactly pretty, but it works…

Testing the switch for the first time. More photos in this flickr set.

It’s a really simple project, but I learned a lot putting it together. A few tips worth sharing:

• The 2ply conductive thread is MUCH easier to work with than the 4ply and it runs through a sewing machine just fine as the bobbin thread. You can always double up the thread if you do need something thicker.
• Felt doesn’t make for the best battery holder, but it will do. Next time I’m using something with some stretch.
• EMF offers a handy sample set for pretty cheap if you’re looking to try out conductive fabric. Much cheaper than buying a whole yard of any of it.

Sewing LEDs is pretty darn fun, but I’m super excited to start playing with the lilypad for my next project. Also, I owe Jon and Susan of hackPGH a big thanks for hooking me up with some of their leftover supplies and advice!

I drove down to Philly last weekend to catch Flash Camp Philly. For a short trip, it was still a pretty big deal since it was my first ever Flash Camp and my first time in Philly. It turned out to be a really fun weekend to catch up with some friends, meet some new ones, and talk Flash things.

The day started out with an Adobe Keynote from Ryan Stewart. The FlashCamp setting allowed for some Q and A as part of the keynote and Ryan was totally upfront with all his answers which was great. Gotta love keynotes like that. Or well, almost everyone did… there was a guy sleeping two seats over. I’m pretty sure he was the exception, though.

Another session highlight for the morning was Jamie Koysoy’s session The Importance of Whiskey While Working (and other work flow tips, too!). I’m not sure if I’ll actually start drinking whiskey, but I always find it interesting to hear how other places work. (Our office is more of a beer kind of place…) I also liked his message of not focusing on specific software. That theme was definitely present in Dan Mall’s talk as well.

Over the last couple of years I’ve heard great reviews of Dan Mall’s talks but haven’t been able to catch one until now. It definitely lived up to everything I’d heard. Dan’s session was on Flash and Web Standards. Those two are usually pitted against each other in some kind of web geek show down, but there’s no reason they shouldn’t be used together. It’s all about picking the right tools for the right job and not ruling anything out just because it’s “bad”.

Branden Hall did a session all about Hype. Which, if you haven’t heard of, is a creative coding framework that he and Joshua Davis put together to make Flash fun again. I’d be surprised if anyone in his session didn’t want to run right out and give Hype a try right then and there. It’s a cool project and Branden was so excited to be talking about it and showing it off, how could you not be excited about it too? You could definitely tell this was a project they are both very passionate about.

Near the end of the day, Veronique Brossier did a session on Flash to the iPhone. I was particularly interested in hearing a non-Adobe take on the process. Veronique gave us a summary of her experience creating iPhone apps with Flash so far. She even demoed the steps needed to publish out an iPhone app from Flash. Of course, much of this feature is still in the works, but it still looks pretty interesting.

After all the sessions, we headed out to the after party. For some reason cabs were hard to find so we got ride with one of the local Flash Camp attendees along with a bit of a tour of Philly. I had a blast chatting with folks at the after party. Good times were had by all on the Flash Camp Philly tab!

Rob and the rest of the Flash Camp Philly crew should be really proud of the awesome job they did. I hope they’re planning a 2010 Flash Camp Philly.