OpenPrintSense - 3D Printed BLE Flex Sensor Glove

OpenPrintSense - 3D Printed BLE Flex Sensor Glove

OpenPrintSense is an open-source project that combines 3D printing, hardware, and software to create a wearable finger tracking system. The key innovation is a fully 3D-printed flex sensor that uses conductive TPU filament - as the sensor bends, its electrical resistance changes, allowing precise measurement of finger flexion. Data is transmitted wirelessly via BLE to an Android smartphone.

How It Works:

The 3D-printed sensor combines flexible TPU with conductive filament. When you bend your finger:

1. The conductive filament stretches
2. This increases the electrical resistance
3. The microcontroller reads the resistance change via analog input
4. The bend angle is calculated and sent to the app

Use Cases:

• 🎮 Gesture-based game controllers
• 🤖 Robot hand control
• 🏥 Rehabilitation therapy tracking
• 🎵 Musical instrument interfaces
• 📊 Motion capture for research

Electronics:

• Microcontroller: Seeed XIAO nRF52840 Sense
• Power: USB-C or 3.7V LiPo battery
• Wires: For connecting sensor to microcontroller

3D Printing Materials:

• Flexible Base: Bambu Lab TPU 90A - Flexible structure
• Conductive Element: Recreus FilaFlex Conductive - Variable resistance sensing

Read the GitHub for more information on assembly and functionality:

https://github.com/PaBu04/OpenPrintSense

Design by How To Homemade on MakerWorld (license: BY-SA).