Arduino Lilypad Development Boards Introduction

Arduino LilyPad is a set of development boards intended for wearable designs. LilyPad boards may be combined with e-textiles to incorporate dynamic designs into fabric. Dynamic designs may include changing lights, activated by a light or movement sensor. Other materials that may be combined with LilyPad are electroluminescent wire or conductive thread.

Arduino LilyPad lets you put your creative ideas for costuming or creative clothing to work. The board is built into a round profile, thin and lightweight, making it easy to incorporate into the material. It has input/output pads arranged around the perimeter of the board for connection to e-textiles or other lightweight components that may be sewn into the fabric.

The Arduino community has ample forums and projects for the beginner or seasoned inventor. Included are projects along with coding examples, so makers can try LilyPad features before building into new ideas. Participants have used light, temperature, and position, along with digital electronics, to make creative and unique designs with fabrics.

Arduino LilyPad Moves Electronic Inventions Into the Future

This development board came about when a maker, Leah Buechley, came up with the LilyPad and worked with SparkFun Electronics to produce them for the public. The board is lightweight and flexible, and it is designed to be used with wearable fabrics. This means the board has places for attachment of conductive thread or attachment with mating snaps.

Combining traditional materials, such as thread and snaps, with conductive materials furthered maker ideas. Making unique circuit boards for use with clothing is remarkable because of the LilyPad’s use of a microcontroller and smart electronic interfaces. With digital control, LilyPad gives makers electronic control options for developing designs into clothing. Enhancing formal wear with lights moves fashion, and electronics, into new landscapes.

LilyPad works well with e-textiles

Being able to use digital logic for creative costumes or for formal wear opens the door for new applications. Successfully incorporating conductive thread into costumes means that you can use these same techniques to make displays or to make signage or something not yet invented. Having new tools such as LilyPad to further idea generation opens up many exciting possibilities.

Making Arduino LilyPad Work With Modern Design

If you are planning a design for use with fabric, then Arduino LilyPad is a great choice. It incorporates a microcontroller along with digital and analog interfaces that give options for dynamic design. Included as well are memory, both flash and EEPROM, for use in moving data to facilitate final design.

Rather than using heavy wire, Arduino LilyPad development boards are suited for use with conductive thread. Conductive thread is pliable and lightweight, while able to move electrons across fibers to power LEDs or sensors. With the ability to sew conductive thread onto LilyPad, you are able to connect downstream devices. And Arduino LilyPad comes with accessories kits containing suitable sewing materials for use together.

Here’s how Arduino describes it’s family of LilyPad Arduinos:

The LilyPad Arduino is designed for e-textiles and wearables projects. It can be sewn to fabric and similarly mounted power supplies, sensors, and actuators with conductive thread.

Below, we take a look at the three versions of LilyPad offered by Arduino and available on this website. Each has specific features that can be used to support multiple I/O, to enable dynamic battery charging, or to facilitate easy addition or removal into the fabric with snaps.

LilyPad Main Board

This board, the LilyPad Main, uses either the ATmega168 or ATmega328V microcontroller operating on 2.7V to 5.5V. This provides for 14 digital I/O, 6 analog, and 6 PWM channels able to source 40mA per pin. The bootloader uses 2KB of the provided 16KB flash memory, and there are 512 bytes of EEPROM to enable design refinement.

LilyPad Main Board Found on LilyPad Arduino Main Board webpage

LilyPad Simple

This board, the LilyPad Simple, has fewer I/O but comes with a JST port for connection to 3.7V Lithium Polymer batteries. These work well with the MCP73831 LiPo battery charging chip included on the board. Along with the FTDI adaptor, this board may be used together with the USBSerial Light Adapter for ongoing battery charging either during operation or during sleep mode.

Found on LilyPad Arduino Simple webpage

LilyPad SimpleSnap

This board, the LilyPad SimpleSnap, places snaps at the intended interfaces with downstream hardware, such as LED lights, making it useful in sewing projects. Along with the use of conductive thread, fabric designs become easier to implement. Snaps allow easier swap out for use in other designs. Other than snaps at I/O connection points, the SimpleSnap also incorporates a Lithium polymer battery on the board.

Found on LilyPad Arduino SimpleSnap webpage

These ightweight microcontroller boards unleash unique design ideas. Unique design ideas may incorporate fabric, e-textiles, and conductive thread, along with commonly found parts such as LEDs and small discretes. You can find the Arduino LillyPad along with the necessary parts to bring your wearables ideas to life on Octopart.

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