Swatch It.
by obm
Do you…
Think swatches are really cool?
Find it painful to have to lift each swatch piece yourself when you are using a swatch board?
Wish there was some way to utilize swatches to make an interactive piece of art?
If you said yes to any of these, then Swatch It is for you! This interactive project utilizes shape changing wire, also know an nitinol to create a dynamic swatch board.
In addition to Nitinol (small thin wire), I needed discarded sari swatches, an Arduino, two mosfets, and insulated wire.
Given the properties of Nitnol (aka flexinol wire) that I was using, which was a .006 diameter, I needed to care a resistance of 410 mA of current to have the wire straighten. I crafted the circuit below and then measure the total resistance to ensure that it was equal to xxx (R=V/I —> R= 5V/410mA= 12.19 Ω). Given this calculation, I knew that the resistance of my circuit needed to me somewhere between 12 and 14 Ω (buffer for varying current).
Below I have provided a diagram of my circuit and details on the resistance of key points:
| Points | Measured Ω |
| H to A | 0.2 Ω |
| A to B | 4.1 Ω |
| B to C | 0.2 Ω |
| C to D | 3.6 Ω |
| D to E | 0.2 Ω |
| E to F | 3.9 Ω |
| F to + | 0.1 Ω |
| – to Mosfet | 0.1 Ω |
| Total | 12.5 Ω |
After testing the first circuit, I then setup an additional circuit controlled by a different arduino pin for the second row of swatches. In the end, my project resulted in the following:
