With a bit of testing, coding, and sewing, Casey upgraded a kite with Lilypad Arduino, accelerometer and LEDs. The finished product displays its orientation to the operator and puts on a bit of a light show during dynamic maneuvers.

The project required a decent amount of planning for proper installation of the sewn circuit and working with conductive thread turned up some interesting tips -

A nice thing I learned about conductive thread is that it will melt onto itself similar to nylon based threads. Melt isn’t exactly the right word, it was kind of a mix between soldering and pushing melted plastic around. Anyway, it took away the frayed ends making the knots very clean. I would do this after sewing three loops through each hole (also called pin) on the boards. This ensured a solid connection.

Looks like a lot of fun. Sadly no video of the blinky flyer in action as of yet – Blinking In The Sky