Question about Conductive Thread - 234/34 4ply

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

Hi, I m going to be connecting about 8 vibrating coin motors to a chair, I want to be able to sit on them, the coin motors are very small and the wires are also very small, my biggest concern is that the wires will break

I was wondering if the Conductive Thread Conductive Thread - 234/34 4ply (Sale) - DEV-08549 - SparkFun Electronics
will be useful for my project, I m using these vibration motors

Thanks

2

If it where my project i'd have the vibrators under the chair cushion so you don't feel them when you sit. Or i'd get larger motors and attach them to the underside of the chair.

3

I think the larger concern would be the wires breaking at the solder join, not the wires breaking themselves. What I would do:

Attach the motors to the cushion with epoxy or something like that (some tough glue - I would probably go with JBWeld). Use some more epoxy over the wire/solder join on the motors too, then route the wires 90 degrees straight down through the cushion and out the other side under the chair; this should reduce lateral strain on the wires when someone sits down on the chair cushion, whereas it would be very great if the wires were simply led away laterally under the upper surface of the cushion. You might have to take apart the chair to do all of this.

4

I second the notion of securing the wires better to the motor contacts, Conductive thread is neat and all but

  1. its expensive
  2. its highly resistive (Resistance is about 14 Ohms per foot)
  3. I dont know how much current I would trust on it (which should not effect you much if the motors are as small as you indicate)

seems like you could loop some of the insulation around the contact to help with strain control, modified wire wrap does this and its a large difference in strength