Let’s Make Robots is a free, volunteer-based initiative started in 2008 and now entirely produced and maintained by members of their community, and they have lots of cool projects which rely heavily on 3D printing on the site.
Now Gareth, a very active member of the site, has done a demonstration of how to make a simple, 3D printed touch sensor with what’s called ‘conductive foam.’
Conductive foam is most often used to protect integrated circuits from static electricity and it’s generally found wrapped around the circuits for shipping, but it’s not just shipping material; it has some very interesting resistance properties.
Gareth’s project takes advantage of the foam’s property to create an accurate – and repeatable – pressure sensor switching system.
The project uses two 3D printed parts as the body of the pressure sensor unit, and the pair of contacts are placed at either end. Small copper strips are sandwiched around the conductive foam to create a displacement resistance version of a touch sensor.
You can download the 3D printable files from Thingiverse. You can see Gareth’s other projects here or a whole bunch of excellent demonstrations on his YouTube page.
3D printing and readily available materials are being used by makers every day to create novel and inexpensive devices. What do you think of this pressure sensitive switch made from conductive foam by Gareth of Let’s Make Robots? Have you ever used 3D printing to make an electronic device? Please weigh in with your opinion or show us something you’ve made with 3D printing on the Conductive Foam and 3D Printing forum thread on 3DPB.com.