Solar Wind Jacket will Cool Your Back #WearableWednesday

SolarWindCU

This innovative jacket by Studio Contrechoc uses fans to cool your back and chest area. It’s a humorous response to another piece the studio co-created with designer Marina Toeters called Spine Dress. The dress uses carbon fabric and circuitry to heat up the back area, while the Solar Wind Jacket seeks to have the opposite effect.

SolarWindFans

One of the most interesting things about the jacket is the design of the fan blades using 3D printing. According to Contrechoc’s Beam van Waardenberg, the fan did not print well as one unit on his particular printer, and instead needed to be created as individual components which were later assembled. Notice that the fans are mounted close to each other, and it became necessary to raise every other fan in order to keep the blades from hitting. This seems to be a simpler solution than having to choreograph the blades of the individual fans.

SolarWindFront

Another interesting aspect is just the beauty in the design of the jacket. At first glance it appears almost like a kimono jacket, but the sleeves are really inspired by the Middle Ages. So, their wide design allows ample room for hiding Arduino controllers, while the stiffer pieces coming down from the shoulders allow room for hiding batteries. Of course the neon fleece is strictly modern, but it does add a hint about the use of the jacket.

The jacket has different modes of operation to make it easy to demonstrate. It can have all fans moving, or it can activate based on light levels using its light sensor, or temperature levels using a DHT11 temperature/humidity sensor. I think the next step would be to incorporate solar cells and allow the sun to charge the batteries for the fans, although it won’t look as fashionable.  Here’s the video for the jacket in action.

Although this jacket is playful, there are definitely more jackets these days being designed with the ability to react to temperature or ability to harvest energy. It’s an exciting area of development, especially for those doing trekking or other serious outdoor work. In the future you may be able to have one or two jackets that can handle multiple conditions. Of course, like any maker, you are probably curious how to get started with motors in your own clothing. You should check out our Arduino Lesson on DC Motors. Once you master incorporating a motor, you can decide what sensor is best for you.

LearnMotor


Flora breadboard is Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — “Packaging” chips in the US

Wearables — Enclosures help fight body humidity in costumes

Electronics — Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Silicon Labs introduces CircuitPython support, and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Guardian Robot, Weather-wise Umbrella Stand, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProds 7/19/23 Feat. Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 CircuitPython Powered Internet Display!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



No Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.