How to Use Stencils with Printed Sensors

There are many benefits to using stencils in your projects. They’re a great way to create precise forms and lines with Electric Paint, even if you don’t have a steady hand. Additionally, with a stencil, you can cover the electric wiring that makes your project work. Its a cleaner, more finished way to present your projects and its also quite simple! Your stencil can be of any material, for example, paper, wood or vinyl. In this example, we used paper with a triangle cut-out.

Felix the Fox and the Rainy Day and Sontobo are just two great examples from our community that demonstrate using stencils with Electric Paint.

Step 1: Choose your sensor

When it comes to using a sensor in your stencil project, you have two options; you can either use the Printed Sensors, or create your own sensor using Electric Paint. Using the Printed Sensors is a great way to save time.

As an example, we painted a black square with a connection to the edge of the paper. If you are making your own, you don’t need to precisely paint the sensor as it will be covered by the stencil.

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Step 2: Connect your sensor to a board

Now, connect your sensor to a board and place the stencil on top. If you have used Printed Sensors, you can connect the board via any of the 16 exposed nodes. Then, connect your board to a power source.

This method works for all our boards – Touch Board, Pi Cap or Light Up Board.

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Step 3:

Now, when you touch the paint through the stencil, you will trigger the sensor. That’s it – simple!

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