Arduino-Compatible Flora Wearable Electronics Platform

Flora: a wearable and sewable Arduino-compatible sensor!

If you’re already familiar with LilyPad, you’ll feel quite at home with the Flora electronics platform, a small microcontroller (45 mm in diameter) to be sewn into your clothes, shoes, bags and other fabric accessories using a conductive thread.

Flora was born of several months of research conducted by the Adafruit teams to offer users a discreet microcontroller that even beginners find easy to put in place, program and wire. It is therefore equipped with effective, tested and approved safety systems offering protection from reverse polarity and overload! It can accommodate all types of external batteries between 3.5 and 16 Vdc.

The Arduino-Compatible Flora Wearable Sensor is simply connected to your computer via its USB port and a mini-B USB cable (not supplied with the Flora). It can then be programmed directly from your computer. The Flora sensor is also fitted with a USB HID support so you can connect it to your mobile phone.

It should be noted that Flora uses a modified version of the Leonardo bootloader; Adafruit has made sure your Flora will be compatible with any later versions of this bootloader.

There are thousands of possible projects using Flora, your Arduino wearables platform

Equipped with 14 connection pads and connectable to a multitude of sensors and modules designed especially for Flora, this Arduino-compatible wearables platform will open the doors to numerous projects involving wearable technologies.

Flora was created to be easily connected to numerous RGB LED pixels (up to 500 with an external 5 V supply), so let your imagination go wild with flashing shoes, dazzling skirts and illuminated badges!

Flora is a creative tool found extremely useful by inventors, designers and programmers wishing to create truly original garments. Why not try developing a GPS jacket or textile bracelet, for example, or gloves that light up when you clench your fist?

You can find below a video presentation of the Flora Wearable Electronics Platform

Technical specifications of the Flora Arduino Wearable Sensor

• Microcontroller: ATmega32u4
• Built-in USB support
• USB HID support
• 4 LED status indicators: power, digital signal, RX and TX data
• 3.3 V 100 mA voltage regulator
• Switch connected to power FET
• Polarised 2 JST battery connector
• Dimensions: 45 mm in diameter, 7 mm thick
• Weight: 4.7 g

Resources for the Flora Arduino Wearable Electronics Platform

There are numerous resources available online for the Flora Arduino Wearable Electronics Platform

Flora Arduino Wearable Electronics Platform Schematics

Flora Arduino Wearable Electronics Platform Quick Start Guide