Joystick - Woolen Ball

What does the sensor do?

It can be used as an interesting woolen ball joystick. The resistance of the direction it is pushed to will decrease. Greater the push force, lower the resistance.

How it works?

The resistance is measured between the woolen ball and electrodes on four respective directions. When pushed, the spacing of conductive carbon particles on the ball will be reduced, and its resistance will decrease.

You will need:

• carbon black ink and polyurethane
• wool yarn
• conductive silver fabric

Sensor structure & Fabrication steps

• Dip-coat wool yarns.

• Use the coated yarns and follow the instructions to make the woolen ball. Notice: when tying clumps of yarns together with a single yarns, extra length is required for that yarns, since it needs to be further connected to the circuit.
• Connect with silver fabric (refer to the sketch in "How it Works" section).