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• The conductive velcro has a rather mild resistance of around 1.4 Ohm/in, however, the thread from lamé savers (http://members.shaw.ca/ubik/thread/index.html) starts to act as a reasonable resistor for LEDs at around a foot or so.

  Posted by: mikest on January 5, 2007 at 12:07 AM

• I wonder if this stuff could make an easier and more durable alternative than sewing with standard resistance wire to make heated clothing (eg. heated motorcycle jackets/boots).
  Just using the fuzzy side should create comfortable padding and attaching a small hook piece of the hook side to the ends could make a nice quick-release connector. You'd have to think about the risk of short circuits though and have a current limiter or fuse somewhere.

  Posted by: Evil666Overlord on January 5, 2007 at 4:54 AM

• Very cool! Looking through their fabrics, there's also a "stretch conductive fabric"; in the specs it sez "Surface resistivity is

  I'm guessing the corollary could be that surface resistivity varies proportionally to amount stretched. You could make some pretty freaky interfaces with that stuff...

  Posted by: aplumb on January 5, 2007 at 7:33 AM

• Grrr, I thought I fixed the ampersand in that:

  Specs: Surface resistivity is less than 1 ohm/sq. (unstretched)
  

  Posted by: aplumb on January 5, 2007 at 7:39 AM

• Sure--Syuzi Pakhchyan's LED cuff uses conductive velcro as a switch to close the circuit (illuminating the LEDs) when the cuff's being worn.

  Posted by: MissionControl on January 5, 2007 at 10:43 AM

• MissionControl: yup, i learned about the stuff from Syuzi at sparklab.la when they showed up at make faire last year. in addition to velcro, you can also use snaps, zippers, ribbon, and buckles as circuit junction points and switches.

  Posted by: mikest on January 5, 2007 at 11:41 AM

• Me and Mikey K have been using conductive velcro for a few years now. Here is a workshop we did to introduce people to conductive fabric, velcro, epoxy and paint in 2005 at Eyebeam. I also made a small single actuator toy car that would ride up the wall on velcro (hook on the wheel, velcro loop on the wall). Power was passed along the conductive velcro on the wall and wheel, through some makeshift brushes on the toy and to the motor. silly stuff. I'll post a picture if I can find it.

  Less EMF is the only retail source I've found and they deliver to NYC in 1 day.

  Posted by: megaOhmResistor on January 6, 2007 at 9:50 AM

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