8: Scavenging Materials

This weekly focuses on scavenging materials that you will be able to experiment with for the last half of class. Please procure materials in each of these categories and share them on Monday:

Category 1: Connectors
Find any materials that you could potentially use to connect soft to hard materials and are capable of conducting electricity. These include safety pins, snaps, eye hooks, zippers. Collect as many as you can find, buy, or scavenge from old garments. Test materials with your multimeter to make sure they are conductive.

Category 2: Insulators
Find any materials that you could potentially use to insulate exposed wires. These include patches, other fabrics, felt, beads, electrical tape and many more. Test these materials with your multimeter to make sure they are non-conductive.

Category 3: Components
What circuit components do you anticipate needing as you develop your midterm into your final. Get those parts from old projects, order them, or use the class checkout. These should only include components that you cannot make using soft techniques, such as transistors, MOSFETS, diodes, microcontrollers, etc.

Category 4: Tools
What tools for making soft circuits do you have handy? If you have a very small sewing kit (like the kind you can get at a hotel or grocery store, add it to your kit. If you have a soldering iron, make sure you know where it is and test if its working. Search for other tools that you think might be helpful as you integrate your midterm swatch into a final form.