Sewing: A Portable Game

Singer works with Nintendo to save money and increase the sewing market

With increasing digital control of industrial machines, we've seen portable programming features where an external driver can be programmed on a business trip to be downloaded into, say, a 300-ton injection molder, when the programmmer returns to the shop. As a parallel idea, Singer Sewing Company,La Vergne, TN, has teamed up with Nintendo Company Ltd, Kyoto, Japan, to provide a portable controller that busy sewers can program while away from home. Since proprietary microprocessors, ROM and custom-made color screens for user interface can be quite expensive, Singer chose to license an existing platform that is compatible with the sewing machine's needs.

Designers looked at several game machines and hand-held computer devices and settled on Nintendo's 16MB GameBoy Color. Initially, Nintendo was surprised at the idea of marrying their hand-held game with a sewing machine and they were conservative about the success of its development; however, after seeing the prototype, they recognized the wide applicability of the technology. The GameBoy system operates in an x-y manner, similar to the planar requirements of a sewing machine; this compatibility made it easy to use off-the-shelf units with a custom-designed cartridge to program software for the Izek sewing machine. Additionally, the GameBoy's logicflow is user-friendly for beginners, and the widespread appeal among the younger generation may potentially draw them into the sewing field. The resulting machine has an internal 8-bit microprocessor board and USB-type interfacing with the controller. Removing the controls from the body of the machine also provided the designers the opportunity of creating an innovative, unconventional casing.

Using an external controller allowed the engineers the freedom to provide separate DC stepper motors for needle bight (zig-zag) control and fabric feeding, with a third 24 VDC drive motor to power the mechanical aspects of sewing. Position sensors were added to alert operators of set-up errors while preventing the machine from operating under fault conditions.

As an added bonus, customers are not tied to their machines for designing and programming stitches. The large memory capacity of the program cartridge allows a myriad of stitch designs, programming features and error sensing alerts in a low-cost package.

--SG

For more information:

Circle 800 - Singer Sewing Company or connect directly to their website via the Online Reader Service Program at http://www.OneRS.net/103df-800

Circle 801 - Nintendo Company Ltd or connect directly to http://www.OneRS.net/103df-801