Easter & Bank Holiday Information: Kitronik is closing for the Easter bank holidays, orders placed after the Thursday cut off will ship Tuesday 2nd April.

How to Make a Soft Tilt Switch Using Jewellery - Kitronik University featured image
Soft switches - Kitronik University This Kitronik University resource looks at making a soft tilt switch using a piece of metal jewellery.

slide switch example_560

This tilt switch can be made from simple piece of jewellery to make your textiles project that little bit extra special. The circuit can include LEDs to illuminate parts of your clothing. The slide switch relies on a central piece of metal jewellery that will connect with the underlying conductive thread layer to complete the circuit. This could light up a couple of LEDs embedded in the fabric. All you need is a piece of fabric, some conductive thread (or conductive material and thread), and a piece of metal jewellery. Below is a video explaining how the tilt switch functions:
  First, take apart the jewellery and use conductive thread to connect the bottom metal piece.

 slide_switch_close_up_560

 Conductive thread (circled in blue) running through middle of the jewellery piece.

Make sure the conductive thread is running through the middle of the jewellery (see above). Make sure the jewellery piece has a heavy metal contact that touches the conductive part of the fabric.

slide_switch_back_560

Next, stitch the top of the piece of jewellery with conductive thread to make a contact at the top of the piece of fabric. After that, stitch in a large area of conductive thread at the bottom of the piece of fabric (or use a piece of conductive material), making sure the metal piece at the bottom of the hanging jewellery can touch a large proportion of the conductive thread area.

slide_switch_front_off_560

When the jewellery is in contact with the conductive thread/material the switch is closed (circuit complete).

Leave a comment

All comments are moderated before being published