Editing Compass Vibro Anklet Directions (section)

==Part Three: Make Armature==

The armature is cloth part that will house everything.  It consists of a folded-over piece of elastic, a zipper, felt and foam to contain the pager array comfortably, a Velcro strap to close the anklet, and elastic pockets for the controller and battery.

Note that the exact dimensions will depend on the size of the finished product.  Your strip of cloth may be shorter or longer than twelve inches.  If you’re making this for yourself, measure the circumferences of your own ankle.  Plan on making something that big, and add a few inches for connections and extra space.

1. Cut a twelve-inch length of elastic and fold it in half.

2. Sew each end of the elastic closed.  You should now have something like a long floppy canoe.

3. Sew the zipper onto the elastic on each side of the fold, at the top.  You should have a long tube that you can unzip into a long floppy canoe.

4. Pick one side of the elastic to be the inner side, which will go against your ankle.  Lay a thin layer of foam onto this side, and then a layer of felt.  Sew this down so that it all stays in place.

5. Cut vertical slits into the inner side, through the elastic, the foam and the felt.  Sew these open so that they’re stable.  They should end up a little like button holes.  The vibrating motors are the buttons: they’ll poke out through these button holes to press against your leg.

6. On the outer side of the elastic, on one end of the anklet, sew two strips of elastic to make pockets.  One will hold the controller, the other will hold the battery.  It’s better to sew these on like a loop, rather than a wave: loop them back under so that the stitching is on the inside of the battery.  This is a little harder to do, but it means that the pressure from the pockets will pull the elastic out instead of bunching it up.

7. On one end of the anklet, on the outside of the elastic, sew a couple inches of fuzzy velcro. On the other end, sew a couple inches of pointy Velcro out past the edge. Ensure that the dimensions of these allow you to wrap the armature around your ankle and then fasten it on.

You should now have an anklet that can hold all the wiring on the inside of a zipped-up pocket, which allows pager motors to poke into your ankle to vibrate, which has two elastic pockets for the controller and battery, and which you can wear comfortably with the Velcro strap.

NOTE: Skory is working on an better design for this, where the foam and felt are inside the belt.  With this improvement, the only thing that touches your skin will be the armature, so it should be easier to take all the electronics out and wash all the cloth so it doesn’t get gross and sweaty.  If this works well, the instructions will be updated with steps for how to do this instead.