Interesting article at The Japan Times :)

TSUKUBA, Ibaraki Pref. (Kyodo) Researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science have found that an iron compound becomes superconductive — where electrical resistance disappears in a substance — if it is dipped in wine, sake or beer.

“It is still not known what it is in sake that causes (the phenomenon), but it will provide a clue to the development of new superconductive materials,” said Yoshihiko Takano, leader of the Nano Frontier Materials Group at the institute.

The researchers said they first produced an iron telluride compound, which has a similar structure to a superconductive substance.

It didn’t immediately show signs of superconductivity but then did so after being left on a desk for about a week. Assuming that the change was due to moisture in the air, the researchers experimented with water, ethanol and other substances but couldn’t attain results showing high conductivity.

In March, Takano came up with the idea of trying alcoholic drinks after seeing a wide range of liquors at an institute party.

They found that the compound showed superconductivity after it was immersed for 24 hours in each of six types of liquors, including red wine, white wine, beer and sake, all heated up to 70 degrees. Red wine proved to be most effective.

* “wine glass” image by Scmtb49 - wikimedia commons

I keep thinking that even though we tend to use conductive fabric and other soft circuits materials mostly for wearables and such, there has to be much more to it than that. Ayman’s drumsticks are a great of example of other interesting applications for these materials. He made them for his iPad iSteelPan application, but they’ll work on any capacitive surface.

The iSticks are made out of pure copper polyester taffeta fabric (I bet conductive lycra would work really nicely too), metal rod, string, and cotton pads. Check out Ayman’s instructable and make your own!

(via Alicia Gibb)

Last March I had the opportunity to teach an openMaterials workshop at the very special École Supérieure d’Art d’Aix-en-Provence (France). It was part of a larger event in which the school invited researchers and artists from several fields to lead a one week class for 2nd year art students. The goal was to show them different technologies and materials, which they’d later use on an art project. Besides my smart materials class, there was also an astrobiology workshop by Andy Gracie and a video class by Douglas Stanley.

I was so impressed with the work done by these young students that I can’t resist sharing some photos and descriptions of their projects. These were kindly sent by the very talented artist and teacher France Cadet, who guided the students during the making of their final projects.

Barbed Wire by Morgane Guiard
Morgane wanted to represent barbed wire on her art piece. At first she tried to work with fiber optics: the images on the screen were supposed to drive the might to the fiber optics and make the data travel trough. This structure turned out to be really nice and poetic but also very fragile. She eventually broke it and decided to go with red EL wire. This time she put the display behind the barbed wire and made the EL blink according to the speed of the increasing number of victims shown on the screen (the number of victims barbed wire made during 3 different wars).

Interactive Tapestry by Sarah Martinis and Caroline Geneste
Sarah and Caroline made an interactive tapestry (a bit like “toile de Jouy” with some bone sprinted on it). The patterns were fitted with copper electrodes connected to several capacitive sensors. They were playing 8 different yelling sounds and used a sport electronic hacked device with a few electrodes around the wrist.

EL Dress by Amélie Djellel
Amelie used EL wire and a few handmade conductive fabric sensors to create a touch sensitive seethru dress. Each sensor triggered different strands of EL wire shaped inside the dress and representing forms between the meridians, the veins and the organs. The brightness of the EL changed according to the pressure applied on the sensors.

Color Changing Suit & Dance Performance by Lou Feraud
Lou created a suit sprinkled with UV active (color changing) beads and ink. She then wore it during a dance performance, in which she held some UV LEDs at the tips of each finger on one hand, and bright LEDs on the other hand.

Color Changing Stickers by Mélanie Cartier
Mélanie also used UV active ink to create stickers with the radioactive logo to evoke the memory of the radioactive accident and its invisible repercussions.

Animal by Huna Ruel
Huna used conductive fabric sensors to create a little animal that moves when touched (contracting its head and tail). She then covered it with latex. Unfortunately, once dry the latex shrank a bit and caused the sensors to be on at all times.

During the workshop, Amélie and I made some cards with different types of handmade sensors (using paper, conductive fabric, and velostat) to be kept at the school as a reference. The beautiful drawings and neat handwriting are hers :)

Thank you to all the fun and talented students and their awesome teachers France Cadet, Jean Pierre Mandon and Laurent Costes for a really great week!

Quake-Catcher Network is a collaborative initiative for developing the world’s largest, low-cost strong-motion seismic network by utilizing sensors in and attached to internet-connected computers.

It involves installing software that collects data from the computer’s accelerometer, which pings the quake-catcher networks’ server if a tremor is detected.

Current model Macintosh and Thinkpad laptops are supported, and the network is making external USB-connected accelerometers available to people who don’t have them built-in to their computers.

Here’s the ‘trigger map‘ from the past week -

EL wire (electroluminescent wire) glows when an alternating current is passed through it. Unlike LED strips, EL wire is not a series of light points, but an unbroken line of visible light. It can be used in a variety of applications, from vehicle instrument panels and safety/emergency lighting to decoration and clothing.

EL wire works with alternating current (AC) and thus requires a driver, aka an inverter, in order to convert the batteries’ direct current (DC) into AC (in the range of 100V).

:: what is it exactly?
:: what for?
:: selecting an inverter
:: wiring EL wire
:: resources
:: tutorials
:: suppliers

What is it exactly?
Electroluminescence (EL) is an optical and electrical phenomenon in which a material emits light when electrical current is passed through it or when exposed to a strong electrical field.

EL wire consists of 4 or 5 concentric layers, each performing a different function. In the center is a solid copper conductor coated in phosphor, around which are wrapped two very fine conductive wires, followed by a clear protective sleeve (not present in 1.2 El wire), and a colored PVC sleeve. In some products, such as glowire, the wire is first covered in a clear PVC coating and then a layer of colored vinyl. Current flowing through both the core and the two thin copper wires creates an electrical field and causes the phosphor to glow. The outer plastic sheaths filter the light produced by the phosphor and provide protection (many phosphors are highly sensitive to moisture).

EL wire is available in several diameters, the thinnest being 1.2mm (aka angel hair) and the widest being 5mm (has UV protection, suitable for outdoor use and long term display). Larger diameters are more durable and (usually) produce a thicker glow, while the thinnest (1.2 to 1.5 mm), even though not suitable for harsh conditions or when weight is a factor, are more flexible and easier to bend and shape. The Live Wire Store has spec sheets for several diameters of EL wire.

The brightness of EL wire is roughly proportional to the frequency of the inverter used to drive it: the higher the frequency, the brighter the glow, and vice versa. It never burns out, but it does burn down. According to glowire, their EL “powered at 4000hz will retain brightness for approximately 1600 hours, while 400hz power will last over 5600 hours. Although the wire never does actually burn out, it does become dimmer.”

EL is also available in a variety of colors which are determined by the combination of the phosphor glow, frequency of the applied power, and the colored plastic layer. The spectrum produced by some types of EL wire can vary significantly with the frequency, while those that are filtered (have a colored plastic sheath) vary less. The aqua/ice blue wire is the most sensitive to frequency, and its color can be changed from deep green to deep blue by varying the frequency from 60Hz to 6Hz. The color of EL wire also depends on whether it’s lit or unlit (for example, yellow angel hair looks orange when unlit), and suppliers will usually provide images of both states.

What for?
- Illuminated fabrics and garments
- Light sculptures
- Safety and emergency lighting
- Decoration
- Anywhere where a continuous strip of light is desired :)

Selecting an inverter
Different types of inverters run on between 1.5V and 18V, depending on how much power they output. The selection of an inverter depends on the brightness desired (the higher the frequency, the brighter the wire) and the length of EL wire, i.e. the longer the strand of EL the more high power the inverter required to drive it. Suppliers will usually tell you the length range for each inverter (there’s a minimum and a maximum). So, in order to select an inverter for your project, you need to first know the length of EL wire you’ll be working with.

2xAA 1.5Vdc, 4500Hz, 0.5-2.5m (1.5′-7.5′) inverter

When using several strands of EL wire with a single inverter you should simply add the lengths of each strand and make sure the total is within the range of the inverter. For example: an inverter for 5m to 12m can be used to power a single 8m strand of EL wire or 8 x 1m strands.

El wire inverters usually make a slight humming noise, which is the audible sound of the frequency.

Wiring EL wire
Plug & Wear has two very good tutorials on how to wire EL, one using metal ferrules and the other connecting the EL wire directly to a (flexible) PCB. I’ve found that even though the PCB method can be very useful when connecting several wires to a single inverter, it’s also very fragile: after some handling the two thin copper wires tend to break and the soldering pads on the flexible PCB tend to come off. To strengthen the connection I’m currently using a combination of the two.

0 :: Materials & Tools
- EL wire
- Uninsulated ferrules
- Electrical wire
- Heat shrink tubing
- PBC (flexible or otherwise, only useful when wiring several strands of EL to a single inverter)
- Wire strippers
- Soldering iron (and solder)

1 :: Strip a piece of the PVC layer on one end of the EL wire, you’ll see two thin copper wires wrapped around the phosphor layer. If your EL wire has two plastic coatings (one clear and one colored), you’ll need to strip both in order to have access to the copper wires. I’ve found that many wire strippers are too aggressive for this job and end up cutting/damaging the thin wires. This is kind that seems to work well. Then, using a knife, scratch off a piece of the phosphor layer at the tip of the EL strand

2 :: Bend back the two thin copper wires and slide a metal, uninsulated ferrule over them and around the tip of the PVC sleeve. Crimp it and solder an electrical wire to the exterior of the ferrule.

3 :: Solder another electrical wire to the exposed copper core.

4 :: Slide the thinnest heat shrink tube over the ferrule. Shrink it by exposing it to heat (I like a hair drier since I’ve already messed up a few EL wire connections by using lighters and soldering irons). Take the widest heat shrink tube, slide it over the whole connection, and shrink it too.

5 :: If you’re wiring only one strand of EL to an inverter, skip this step and move on to the next one. If you’re connecting several strands of EL to a single inverter some kind of board will be useful. Plug & Wear offers a flexible PCB but, depending on the purpose, you can use any PCB or perfboard. Simply solder each wire coming out of the EL to a row on the board. Then solder two more electrical wires to each row, which you’ll use to connect the board to the inverter.

6 :: You now need to connect your EL wire/board to the inverter. If your inverter has an on/off button, make sure it’s off. Remove the batteries or unplug it from the wall socket. Simply put: make sure your inverter is not powered in any way before doing this.

To make a permanent connection between the EL wire/board and the inverter, start by sliding a heat shrink tube over each of the wires coming out of it. Solder each of the two electrical wires coming out of the EL wire/board to each of the two wires coming out of the inverter (there’s no polarity on EL wire). Slide the heat shrink tubes over the connections and shrink them. I like to use two layers of heat shrink or electrical tape, to make sure it’s all properly insulated.

Resources
:: Inverter comparison chart - Glowire
:: EL wire spec sheets - Live Wire Store
:: What is EL wire - Elwire.com

Tutorials
:: How to connect EL wire - Plug & Wear
:: Connecting EL tape to a PCB - Plug & Wear
:: How to terminate EL wire - Plug & Wear
:: Soldering EL wire - NeonString
:: Soldering EL wire - Live Wire Store
:: Soldering EL wire - Cool Neon
:: Make a glowing, wearable, EL-wire, blinky light using open source tools - Makezine
:: How to add EL wire to a coat or other garment - Instructables
:: How to make EL Wire Art - Instructables

Suppliers
:: CooLight (USA)
:: Cool Neon (USA)
:: Elec2Go (Australia)
:: EL wire online (Canada)
:: Glow Authority (USA)
:: Glowire (USA)
:: Light by Wire (Germany)
:: Light’N Wire (USA)
:: Live Wire Store (USA)
:: NeonString (USA)
:: Plug & Wear (Italy)
:: That’s Cool Wire (USA)

Share your knowledge
If you’d like to contribute content or corrections regarding EL wire, please use the comment form below or add them directly to the openMaterials wiki:
materials/electroluminescent/EL wire

>> about the materials 101 series.

Refarm the city (aka re:farm) is a collective project started and led by Hernani Dias with the purpose of developing open source software and hardware tools for urban farmers.

In its creators’ words, the project is a cross between a good meal (the crop, the seeds, the friends), hardware (the urban farm, the composter, the electronics, the sensors, the recycled materials), and software (applications that help you build a farm according to your needs, local crops, and gastronomy).

Re:farm seeks to provide people with tools to easily create, manage and visualize their urban farms. Its ultimate goals are to encourage the production and consumption of local goods, using methods that respect the environment, and promote organic agriculture, science, biodiversity, and local gastronomy.

The group has been hard at work for about a year now and, as you can see on their wiki, already has several sensors and boards ready to be reproduced, while other components (such as the software) are in advanced stages of design and development.

The tools being developed by the refarm the city project allow urban farmers to:

:: design a farm according to location, physical conditions, materials available, social network, and local gastronomy.

:: open access to low budget solutions and instructions on how to build, and what materials to use, for different models of urban farms.

:: monitor and control the farm in real time, on the computer (re:farm on the sofa), remotely (re:farm on vacations), and on the wall (re:farm on the wall).

:: visualize the relationship between personal needs and local farming conditions, based on data provided by the user, as well as data about local crops and different sustainable farming methods.

:: visualize the relationship between the current time of the year, local weather, vegetable growth, and farm maintenance.

Tiago Henriques, a member of the re:farm development team, is starting an urban vegetable patch at altLab (our Lisbon hackerspace). It would be great to see other hackerspaces join in :)

low budget humidity and water level sensors

watering system

physical interfaces for visualization of water level, humidity, temperature, and light

online data visualization of humidity, temperature, and light

xs farm on wheels (recently built in Buenos Aires during a 2 day re:farm workshop)

xl farm on wheels

re:farm on the wall :: 3 electronic boards and 1 chicken :)

the re:farm software helps urban farmers design a farm (according to location, physical conditions, materials available, social network, and local gastronomy), and visualize/control their farms in real time

the scarecrow contains the re:farm on vacations electronic board (watering control, soil temperature, soil humidity, and light information)

More information about refarm the city:
blog :: refarmthecity.org
wiki :: refarmthecity.org/wiki
photos :: refarm on flickr

Here is the rest of the series-

How are carbon nanotubes made?

How can we see carbon nanotubes?

Where are nanotubes used?

Carbon nanoforms

This solar clothes washer was made by 2nd year art students from the École Supérieure d’Art d’Aix-en-Provence (France). The challenge was to make a DIY washing machine using only materials available in the sahara. The prototype shown above uses bicycle parts (the tires and wheel), bamboo, and a solar panel connected directly to a recycled electric motor (from a photocopier).

The Open Source Washing Machine project was created by France Cadet, Jean-Noël Montagné and Jean-Pierre Mandon at the École Supérieure d’Art d’Aix-en-Provence. Three machines were designed by the 2nd-year students over a three-day period.

Here’s a short video and photos. More about the project at oswash.org.

I’m looking at the machine right now and trying to resist the urge to do my laundry in the school’s patio :)

This mitten lights up when its wearer shakes hands with someone. It has two exposed soft contacts around the thumb and across the palm which, when bridged by bare skin, turn on the LED embedded on the flower. The mitten itself was created by fashion designer Isabel Tomás, and we then sewed a simple touch switch circuit onto it using conductive fabric and thread. It also works with high fives and holding hands :)

Isabel and I designed this as a soft circuits exercise for some upcoming materials workshops. Below you can find all the instructions and images we prepared for this purpose.

Note :: The measurements on this tutorial are for very small hands - mine :) Remember to adjust them to your glove size. Also, we used iron-on conductive fabric on our first prototype, but after some wear it started to come off, so we ended up sewing all the conductive fabric to the knitted glove.

:: What you’ll need
Materials
- yarn (or any old glove/mitten, if you don’t want to start from scratch)
- conductive thread
- conductive fabric
- self-adhesive conductive fabric (used on the batteries’ pouch, can be replaced by some non-adhesive, but stiff, conductive fabric)
- fabric or knitted flower
- regular fabric
- regular sewing thread
- 2 metal snaps
- 1 super bright LED
- 1 BC547B transistor
- 2 x 3V lithium coin cell batteries

Tools
- sewing needles
- needle-nose pliers
- scissors

:: Circuit

circuit schematics

:: Knit the mitten

If your knitting skills aren’t as good as Isabel’s you can use any store-bought mitten/glove and skip this step.

:: Add the contacts
On a hand shake the best point of contact usually happens in between the thumb and the index. But we thought it would be fun to also make it work for high fives so we extended the fabric contact strips all the way across the palm.

Cut two strips of conductive fabric approximately 0.5cm (0.2in) wide. One should be around 28cm (11in) long and the other 15cm (6in) - adjust to your glove size.

top side

Cut two vertical slits on the top side of your glove and stitch them so the glove doesn’t come undone. Do the same on the palm side. The distance in between the top and palm slits should be approximately 7cm (2.75in).

palm side

Slide the longer strip of conductive fabric in between the two slits closest to the fingers. On the inside leave an 11cm (4.3) tip on the palm side and 10cm (4in) on the top side. Do the same with the second conductive fabric strip and slide it in between the other two slits, leaving 2cm (1in) on the palm side and 6cm (2.4in) on the top side.

Sew the fabric strips in place.

:: Make the batteries pouch
This double pouch will contain the two 3V coin cell batteries. They should fit very snugly to ensure proper contact.

Cut a piece of non-conductive cotton fabric of approximately 9cm (3.6in) x 6cm (2.4in). Hem the top and bottom on the longest side: one hem should be 1cm (0.4in) high and the other 0.5cm (0.2in). Fold your piece of fabric over itself so that the 1cm (0.4in) hem sticks out. Crease the fold with the iron.

batteries’ pouch :: inside

Next, open your square of fabric and iron on 3 strips of conductive fabric as shown on the image. Use conductive thread to sew on two snap studs at the tip of the 2 parallel strips (on the 1cm/0.4in hem).

Now, fold your piece of fabric back down and, using non-conductive thread, sew the left and right sides of your pouch.

batteries’ pouch :: outside

Turn it right side out and stitch across the middle to make two compartments. The batteries should fit very snugly inside these compartments so make them as tight as possible.

Turn it around so the snaps are facing down, and using a marker write “+” on the right side and “-” on the left.

:: Sew on the top half of the circuit

glove inside out :: top side

With your glove inside out, fold and sew the longer conductive strip as shown above. Using conductive thread, sew a snap socket at the tip of the longest strip of fabric.

Cut another strip of conductive fabric approximately 5cm (2in) long. Place it so the its tip matches the position of the batteries pouch and extends horizontally all the way into the palm side of the glove. Sew it to the glove and attach the second snap socket using conductive thread.

:: Insert the LED

Insert the LED on the flower so that its legs stick out from the bottom. Make sure the legs of the LED aren’t touching each other.

:: Sew on the bottom circuit

glove inside out :: palm side
the LED is represented above as being inside the glove just so you can see where to place it, but in fact it should be embedded on the flower on the exterior, only its legs should extend into the interior.

With the glove inside out, fold and sew the conductive fabric strips as shown above.

Open the legs of the transistor and curl them slightly with needle-nose pliers.

Using conductive thread, sew the emitter of the transistor to the horizontal strip and the base to the vertical strip on the right.

Place the flower on the exterior side of glove so that the shorter leg of the LED (-) is closest to the transistor’s collector and sew them together using conductive thread.

The transistor’s legs break easily, so avoid stretching them too much and add a tiny drop of super glue to the junction area.

Sew the other leg (+) of the LED, with conductive thread, to the left vertical strip of conductive fabric.

:: Make the lining
This is absolutely necessary since it not only makes the glove more comfortable, but also avoids contact between your skin and the exposed circuit (which would cause the LED to be always on).

Use any non-conductive stretchy fabric and sew it to the glove only at the top (near the fingers slit). This will avoid contact between your hand and the circuit while still allowing you access to it.

:: Insert the batteries and attach the pouch
Insert the batteries into the pouch. The one on the right should have + facing up and the one on the left the other way around. Use the snaps to attach the pouch to the glove.

:: Done!
That’s it. Now put your glove on and go shake hands :)

* glove illustrations by Isabel Tomás
** thank you Maurício Martins and Pedro Ângelo

Diana Eng’s beautiful Fairytale Fashion Show @ Eyebeam.
Check out fairytalefashion.org for more info.