Soft Circuits and Wearable Tech Meetups

Odette Valentine

unread,

Jan 10, 2012, 2:18:20 PM1/10/12

to London Threads Space

Hello Everyone interested in Soft Circuits & Wearable Tech!

At the last meet-up in December some of us discussed trying to
accumulate everyone's preferences for meet-ups and activities.

I've put a few questions together so everyone who would like to be
involved in this group can express their interests and preferences.
Find it here:

https://surveys.brunel.ac.uk/sc_wt_1

I'll share the results once we get a few reponses...

-------------------------------------
So not as to spam everyone with multiple messages - I'm cheekily
taking this opportunity to invite you all to participate in my PhD
research about wearable technologies via another short questionnaire.
You can just follow the link at the end of the meet-up activities
survey or go here:
https://surveys.brunel.ac.uk/switch_stitch_2

Thank you !

Odette

Odette Valentine

unread,

Jan 23, 2012, 5:43:23 PM1/23/12

to London Threads Space

Thanks to the nine or so people who have filled in the meet-ups
preferences/activities survey.
The survey is still open for anyone who hasn't had a moment to voice
their opinion...I'll probably tally up the scores on the board so far
by the end of the week, so we can start planning the next few meet -
ups.
Thanks
Odette

On Jan 10, 7:18 pm, Odette Valentine <odettevalent...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

Odette Valentine

unread,

Feb 2, 2012, 6:42:23 AM2/2/12

to London Threads Space

Hello and thanks for filling the survey - below are the topline
results.

Looks like we should aim perhaps to start with a Wednesday evening
meet-up sometime in February which includes a technical 101 session on
basic electronics as part of ( i.e. running parallel) a drop-in style
get-together.

Survey Results:

13 respondents

Activities

Winners
-Demonstrations / technical 101s (simple "how-to" sessions) (12
votes)
-Technical workshops (11 votes)

Runners up
-Informal drop-in meet-ups (bring anything you are personally working
on - like a knitting circle) (9 votes)
-Show and tell (project sharing) (9 votes)
-Social get-togethers (informal networking e.g. pub evening) (8 votes)

Regularity of structured activities

Winners
-At regular intervals - as part of regular meet-ups (5 votes)
-As and when there is demand/provision (4 Votes)

Other suggestions:
- a standard monthly or bi-monthly meet up that is bring your own. And
as interest in either skill/knowledge sharing people propose to have
demos, Show/Tell and tech workshops. Show/Tells could be quarterly as
to give deadlines to have something to show.

Activity topics

Winners
-basic circuitry /electronics (11 votes)
-electronic components for soft circuits (10 votes)
-e-textiles techniques (10 votes)

Runners up
-Arduino ( 9 votes)
-Other software programming (8 votes)
-Pattern cutting /garment construction (8 votes)

Other requests:
Managing battery power
Felting, spinning
Working with heavier fabrics – leather, canvas
Using remote control

Meet-up regularity

Winner
-Once a month – (8 votes)

Meeting time
Winner
-Wednesday evening (10 people able to attend either regularly or
sometimes)
Runners up
-Tuesday evenings (9 people able to attend either regularly or
sometimes)
-Saturday and Sunday daytimes – although less people able to attend
regularly, 8 people able to attend at least sometimes

Meeting venues
Winners
-East - e.g. Liverpool Street, Shoreditch, Docklands (10 votes)
-North - e.g. Kings Cross, Angel, Hackney (9 votes)

Venue suggestions:
C4CC, London Hack Space, the Make Lounge, the Create Place, the Book
Club , the quiet room in London Hackspace, furtherfield (new gallery
space in Finsbury Park)

On Jan 23, 10:43 pm, Odette Valentine <odettevalent...@hotmail.com>

Adrian Godwin

unread,

Feb 2, 2012, 11:30:44 AM2/2/12

to london-thr...@googlegroups.com

There seems to be quite a lot of interest in electronics talks.

We're talking about running some tuition at the hackspace and I think
Mztek also offers some classes. Does this need to be specifically
aimed at soft circuits to be relevant and not duplicate effort ?

-adrian

Becky Stewart

unread,

Feb 3, 2012, 9:03:52 AM2/3/12

to london-thr...@googlegroups.com

I think there's definitely room for dedicated electronics workshops/classes. I'm teaching at SPACE (http://codasign.com/events/) but that's quite audio focused while MzTEK only allows women to participate and don't currently have anything schedule. Soft circuit building certainly has a different skillset than traditional soldering and body-centric design introduces some very interesting challenges.

I'd be happy to run a workshop that I've done before (http://www.mztek.org/soft-circuit-ghosts) to introduce very simple circuits and switches. I don't know the exact number off of the top of my head, but it'd be around £3-5 a person for materials.

Perhaps getting our hands on the new Flora from Adafruit (https://www.adafruit.com/products/659) would also be a good start. Looks like a great platform to build circuits and work with Arduino with some great design choices that makes it more desirable than the Lilypad.

Becky

--
Codasign - Creative Specialists in Interactive Media
http://www.codasign.com

be...@codasign.com

ad...@codasign.com

Join our mailing list: http://mailinglist.codasign.com