When the pandemic has started no one imagines that we will have to switch to an online studying system. The limitation of learning through a screen stands even more when you are learning physical techniques.
As a former student of Textile and an instructor of knitting it was clear to me that we need to think of a system that will integrate the craft with the technology.
For my second development for the needles I wanted to control the switching system. When you knit, automatically once you finish one row the loops are moving to the needle that was active and becomes the passive one.
While I was using the sewing machine I thought about the movement of my foot on the foot pedal and the synchronized needle. I wanted to use the same action of the foot but as a switch to determine between the needles.
I drew the planning of my circuit to see how I can attach the needles only in the edge and not along the needle so it wouldn't interrupt the knitting. My idea was to use INPUT_PULLUP and INPUT_PULLDOWN and instead of using GND to the needles to 5V from the Arduino and then all the 4 pins directly to GND with 10k.
Unfortunately it did not succeed, so I wanted to take this step by step and first figure out the switch. I took out my foot pedal from the sewing machine and I wanted to see if I can use it to create this switch. I found this video online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLP0C4rFeBY.
I realized that the pedal is too big and there is a better solution such as a foot push switch.
I opened the switch to see how this inside looks and I can connect the circuit with this pressure button.
As to the planning of my circuit I had to connect the wires from both sides, from the arduino to the button to the needles.
After checking that my circuit works correctly I wanted to add the bluetooth connection function, I used the Bluetooth LE and p5.ble lab: https://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/labs/lab-bluetooth-le-and-p5-ble/ and went step by step. First, I added to my code the characteristic and set the UUID. When I opened the serial monitor I saw the what I printed in my code, BLE LED Peripheral so I know that this is good.
I download the BlueSee application and I scan for the see my LED and I connected
I opened my sketch in google chrome and added all the code from the lab, one console error was that I needed to use lower case at the name as opposed to the Arduino. I saw the connect button but nothing happened. I asked for help with some of the residents but no one understood what the problem was. After two days of fighting this problem I saw that the bluetooth in my computer is connected to the Arduino and that interrupt the connection to chrome.
After disconnecting and connecting in the chrome finally there was contact with the Arduino
I wanted to get some other opinion about my needles. I felt like for me the method of knitting and pressing on the foot is something familiar so I asked from one of the practitioners in the college that I work in, to test it. I think this kind of project user experience is very important.
I made a form to see how it felt for her and what does she think about it:
"When I knit a lot of times I get confused in counting but seeing it in front of the screen it is very easy to know what the actions were. In my opinion, the best thing about this is that when you knit a model and then it is saved on the computer as a technical drawing, I have a model and I can show it to other people and use it for future designs".
This is the second prototype of more to come, with each developing I am making progress with discovering the final product that will be the most accurate. I learn each time more and more and I guess it's part of the process. Can not wait to keep developing it and see other people try it on their own.