The Brother ScanNCut uses a separate pen holder with specific sized felt tip ink pens to draw your designs. I want to plot electronic traces, but Brother doesn’t manufacture conductive ink pen cartridges so Denis and I began to hack together a solution.   First we took apart an existing pen holder and cleaned both the felt tip and […]

  While at PIF Camp in Trenta Slovenia we tested the Brother ScanNCut with Statex conductive fabric to make eTextile speakers.   Denis began the project by drawing samples of the coils on his computer. Next we fused an iron on adhesive, Pellon Heat Bond, to one side of the conductive fabric.     Scanning the coil samples into the […]

  I liked the first coffee mug so much that I made another black and white electronic symbol coffee cup.    

  Brother ScanNCut CM600 straight out of the box with power adapter, blade holder, stylus and removal tool.     Opening the carriage.     Instruction booklet for Quilting techniques in multiple languages.     Touchscreen menu to select language preferences.       Touchscreen menu display for selecting the print/cut area. Use the stylus to designate area by dragging […]

  Always test your tools for continuity before placing them in your tool box. A faulty tool will lead to time wasted with your prototyping.   To test your tools – Set your multimeter to the audible continuity setting and touch both ends of your alligator clips and jumper wires.    

  I keep my workbench organized by using a 800 pin breadboard as my electronic pin cushion. Electronics never looked so good.        

  Wax your conductive thread with bees wax and then place it between two pieces of paper and apply heat to seal the wax to the thread.This will prevent the thread from tangling and make your sewing easy.    

  Bare Conductive Paint cracks with with age causing it to become inconsistent in transmitting electrical currant.    

  First – take a deep breath and drink some water. Sewing while stressed out is no fun!   Second – tie some more conductive thread to the trace with a snug knot. Rethread your needle. Keep on sewing!.     Electrons don’t care about a knot. Nope… they just keep running down the trace!