Wearable Computing Tutorials - Soft Button
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A very simple soft buton made compleetly with fabric and thread. Using the Lasercutter with the attached .dxf file you can easily cut the proper shapes needed for creating a soft button similar to the one in the picture |
DownloadsSoftButton.dxfMaterials
Tools
Tips
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Instructions Cut the needed patterns as in the stencil from the corresponding materials. The cuts can me made ether with scissors or with the laser-cutter. When using the laser-cutter on synthetic materials it seals the edges preventing fraying.
Outside top and bottom 
Spongy soft material 
Conductive pads 
Vliesofix 
If you did not add the vliesofix to the conductive material before cutting, you should iron it together now. It will not always match perfectly but it is good enough.
The left pad has the paper peeled off.
Next you should attach through ironing each conductive fabric piece to the top piece and bottom piece of non-conductive material.
Then layer everything like in the pictures below(bottom side+conductive fabric, sponge, conductive fabric+top side). Make sure that the tails of the conductive gabric shapes are not both on the same side. 
After everything is put together, sew the edges and you are done. I used a blanket stitch, but any stich would work. Here ia a picture of the finished button. This is an older revision where I had holes in the contacts. It turned out it is better for the thread to pass through the conductive material and also easier to cut with scissors so, I removed them in the new revision. 
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