Squeeze Me

After using the previous instructable to set up your prototype, begin gathering the materials for your wearable. I chose to use a button-up jacket as my wearable because it allowed me to hide a lot of the circuitry/wiring and fit the tone I was going for with this project. Begin mentally mapping out where you would like your sensor to go, where the servos will go, and where the Arduino will be housed.

To begin with, you will need all of the supplies from the prototype instructable.

This is where you get to be creative in deciding how to display your spines and the orientation of the movements. Some of the supplies I used include:

Black Fabric (to secure and hide electronics)

Needle and Thread

Jewelry Boxes (painted and used to house the servos on the shoulders)

Zip Ties (I recommend colored ones to keep up with what wires go to which servos)

Ribbon Clamps (used to help attach the jewelry boxes to the shoulders)

Double-Sided Tape

Velcro

Pocket (to house sensor)

Plastic Crayon Box (to house Arduino - kept in the jacket pocket)

Loom (to hide wiring)

NOT SHOWN HERE:

Jewelry wire 10-18 gauge - for the spines. This is the tricky part and takes a lot of experimentation on the maker's end. I twisted 4 strands of evenly-cut wire together with a drill and then stranded those ends through the horn of the servo. Depending on the stylistic choices of the maker, these horns can be colored to match the wire.

Things might start to look messy for a minute, but once your wires are all zipped together things will get easier to handle. The color-coded zip-ties are because The servos are coded to go in different directions depending on their placement. This code differs slightly from the prototype code, so I've included it here. I recommend just placing the horns on the servos before screwing them in to confirm that they are going in the desired directions.

In order to get my piece ready to display, I added some flair to it and decided to include a foam head in order to keep the hood up.

*Side Note - If you choose to write anything on your display ("Squeeze Me <"), perhaps include the words "my arm" or wherever you decide to place your sensor. I had some unexpected results, but still a fun piece to watch people interact with!