Prototype 9: Custom PCBs and a 4x4 Vibrotactile Array

With the help of Bill Bigge we've designed custom printed circuit boards (PCBs) to miniaturise the circuits we developed in earlier prototypes. We have developed a circuit board with surface mounted components that reduces the size of a vibration motor unit. Bill has developed an Arduino shield that allows multiple TLC5940 chips to be daisy chained and controlled from a single microcontroller. Currently we've wired up 16 vibration motors so that we can carry out experiments into how close we can place these on the abdomen and the wearer still distinguish them. One of the biggest challenges is keeping the wiring under control, but the PCBs have built in connection headers to help rationalise this.