Utilizing conductive fabrics in technical textiles using Arduino Uno microcontroller

Abstract

In recent years, wearable technology has become an increasingly widespread phenomenon, finding applications in health, sensors, defense, and daily life. It is now possible to create textile materials with conductive properties by incorporating carbon or metals like silver, nickel, and steel into their structure, either in the form of wires, fibers, or micro and nano particles. Electrically conductive yarns with a multifilament core consist of several electrically conducting filaments wrapped around the core. These conductive textile materials offer protection against incendiary discharge and harmful electromagnetic waves, as well as help prevent charge accumulation on devices. In this research, conductive yarns and fabrics based on polypropylene (PP) were utilized, and their conductive and sensing properties were investigated. The electrical behavior of these e-textiles was detected using an Arduino Uno microcontroller. The experimental results indicated that in electro-textile circuits, analog values were recorded and needed to be converted to digital values through an analog-to-digital (AD) converter mechanism. Arduino has a built-in AD converter capable of reading analog voltages ranging from 0V to 5V and converting them into digital values from 0 to 1023. The Arduino microcontroller, integrated with conductive yarns and fabrics, utilized analog inputs to read various voltages in the e-textiles. These analog inputs allowed the microprocessor to monitor the gradual changes in the state of electronic textiles. Specifically, voltages of 2.03V for conductive yarn and 1.85V for conductive fabrics were recorded. Therefore, the developed conductive yarns and fabrics represent a novel application in technical textiles, serving purposes such as smart clothing, heating elements, health sensors, transportation of electrical signals, and protection against electrostatic discharge and electromagnetic interference.