Flora durability

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beecloud
 
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Flora durability

Post by beecloud »

Hi. I was thinking of putting a Flora into some pyjamas. Is it durable enough to be slept on, rolled over on, etc?

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Flora durability

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

It is pretty a pretty durable board. Not sure how comfortable it would be to roll over.

beecloud
 
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Joined: Sun May 05, 2013 12:16 pm

Re: Flora durability

Post by beecloud »

Well, as long as it doesn't get crushed or snap in two or something...

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Flora durability

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Becky is our real wearables expert, but in my experience working with lighted costumes, the safety of the PCBs is usually a third-layer problem.

The first-layer problem is handling strain relief at the points where the wires come into contact with the PCB. The point where a wire connects to a board is a tiny hinge where almost all the bending/twisting/shearing energy is absorbed in a very small volume of wire. Repeated flexing makes all metals break eventually. You'll want to add something moderately stiff to keep the wire from bending too much at any specific point, but not so stiff that you get another hinge at the end where the wire meets that.

The second-layer problem will be handling strain relief along the wires in the fabric. This time it's the opposite problem: the fibers used in fabric have a bit of stretch to them, but wire doesn't. When you move the fabric, a run of solid wire doesn't want to play along, and can end up taking a lot of tension. Our conductive thread eliminates a lot of that problem by having a bit of stretch in its own right (http://www.adafruit.com/products/640) and our conductive yarn is even more flexible, if a bit larger (http://www.adafruit.com/products/603).

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