Recently, the AdaFruit crew designed a pair of Atmel-powered goggles dubbed “Kaleidoscope Eyes” for cyberpunks, steampunks and yes, even Daft Punks. Today we’re going to be taking a closer look at a Flora GPS Jacket that can be tastefully paired with the futuristic AdaFruit goggles for a full cyberpunk/steampunk fashion ensemble.
The GPS Jacket – designed by AdaFruit’s Becky Stern – is built around Flora, a wearable electronics platform powered by Atmel’s Atmega32u4 MCU.
“Make your coat react to your location with color-changing LEDs! The Flora GPS Jacket tracks your coordinates and then pulses the lights around the collar when you reach your destination,” Stern wrote in a recent post. “[You can] change the waypoints and range in the provided project code to make your garment light up near your favorite coffee shops or the perfect picnic spot.”
Key components for the GPS Jacket? A Flora GPS Starter Pack (includes a Flora main board, Flora GPS and 8 Flora pixels), battery holder (3xAAA w/JST recommended), USB cable (A to mini B), sewable battery holder coin-cell battery (optional for faster GPS fix), conductive thread, multimeter, alligator clips and snaps (optional).
The project begins by chaining 8 pixels together around the collar and attaching the GPS to 3.3v, TX, RX, and ground. A 3xAAA battery holder hides in a pocket and extends through a seam to plug into the JST port on the Flora.
Interested in learning more? Full instructions for designing AdaFruit’s GPS Jacket can be found on Becky Stern’s detailed tutorial.
Atmel | Bits & Pieces 
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