Published September 23, 2016

Wearable Tech with TinyLily: Arduino Basics

Sewable, washable, and extremely small: build your own wearable devices with this Arduino-based board!

BeginnerProtip1 hour4,226

Wearable Tech with TinyLily: Arduino Basics

Things used in this project

Hardware components

TinyCircuits TinyLily Mini Processor

TinyCircuits TinyLily Mini USB Adapter

LED (generic)

Resistor 100 ohm

USB-A to Micro-USB Cable

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Hardware 101 HW101 Marker

Story

Building e-textiles or jewelry? This little fella doesn't have any wireless comms, but it's washable and sewable and super duper tiny.

Let's take a look!

The Circuit

Hook up the TinyLily processor's (+) and (-) pins to a 3V coin cell battery, a 5V USB battery, or anything else between 2.7 and 5.5 volts.

Connect the processor's Pin 1 to the LED's (+) pin, and the LED's (-) pin back to the processor's (-) pin. TinyLily LEDs have a resistor already connected, so no need to bother with those!

Now, please forgive the hand-drawn schematic, as there aren't yet Fritzing components for these... :)

The Code

You can modify the basic Arduino Blink sketch to make both of these small projects.

Just substitute in pin 1 – which is one of the ones broken out along the outer edge – on lines 20, 25, and 27.

When you're ready to program, plug the TinyLily Mini processor into its USB-to-FTDI programmer, and connect that to your computer with a Micro USB cable. Select "Arduino Pro or Pro Mini" from the Boards menu, and of course the applicable USB port. Then, fire away!

Project 1: Edge-lit pendant

Let's build an edge-lit LED pendant. It simply uses the flat, surface-mounted LED to project light through an etched piece of clear acrylic. The light "catches" on the etched areas, so they light up.

Here, I've used the jumper wires to "spear" the components to a breadboard, but you can also use soldered wire or conductive thread.

1 / 3

You can add reflective foil around the edges (carefully insulated from the LED), and a black backing – so you can tuck a 3V coin cell behind to power it.

I made this pendant in TechShop's laser-cutter training class; it's a punny representation of my name. See if you can figure it out :)

Project 2: Reminder pendant

Replace the LED with a haptic vibration motor to remind you of anything – for example: maintaining a meditative or drowsy creative state, habit tracking, medication reminders, or anything else you'd like to keep top-of-mind.

Cruise on over to the tutorial!

See the whole series of Hackster 101 tutorials on Hackster and YouTube

Code

Arduino example sketch: "Blink"

/*
  Blink
  Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly.

  Most Arduinos have an on-board LED you can control. On the Uno and
  Leonardo, it is attached to digital pin 13. If you're unsure what
  pin the on-board LED is connected to on your Arduino model, check
  the documentation at http://www.arduino.cc

  This example code is in the public domain.

  modified 8 May 2014
  by Scott Fitzgerald
 */


// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
  // initialize digital pin 13 as an output.
  pinMode(1, OUTPUT);
}

// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(1, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  delay(1000);              // wait for a second
  digitalWrite(1, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  delay(1000);              // wait for a second
}

Credits

Alex Glow

145 projects • 1570 followers

The Hackster team's resident Hardware Nerd. I love robots, music, EEG, wearables, and languages. FIRST Robotics kid.

Wearable Tech with TinyLily: Arduino Basics

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

The Circuit

The Code

Project 1: Edge-lit pendant

Project 2: Reminder pendant

Schematics

TinyLily schematic

Code

Arduino example sketch: "Blink"

Credits

Alex Glow

Comments

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Wearable Tech with TinyLily: Arduino Basics

Wearable Tech with TinyLily: Arduino Basics

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

The Circuit

The Code

Project 1: Edge-lit pendant

Project 2: Reminder pendant

Schematics

TinyLily schematic

Code

Arduino example sketch: "Blink"

Credits

Alex Glow

Comments

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