hmm, great idea. i’ve thought about trying something like this for snowboarding, except i’m not sure what i’d do for a power supply…backpack power supply?

Posted at 12:47 am on Apr 1st, 2008 by mattm

as with most good original mods, they can all be traced back afrotechmods :)

http://www.afrotechmods.com/reallycheap/clothes/clothes.htm

but ya, still good stuff!

Posted at 1:06 am on Apr 1st, 2008 by jimmythecow

Hey for the snow boarder, you could buy a portable usb power supply something like 30 watts and it would probably be enough to keep ya warm… But I personally would stick with a commercial product! I don’t want to light my clothes on fire on the interstate @ 70 mph… ouch…

Posted at 1:10 am on Apr 1st, 2008 by Dave

Hi, I’ve made much the same thing but used extra flexible wire that was designed for constant movement, even then it would last for just over one season of winter commuting before the wire would fail due to repeated bending. I think that with single stranded enamelled wire this is doomed to failure after just a few trips out in the cold but as a first go prorotype its looking good.

Posted at 7:20 am on Apr 1st, 2008 by Mouse

Wow, talk about doing it the hard way. GO to walmart, buy a discounted electric blanket. Strip out the heating element and then use that (in a different length you cut for 12 volts instead of 120 volts)

safer, faster, and already teflon coated. We did this stuff at MIT decades ago.

Posted at 8:04 am on Apr 1st, 2008 by fartface

Ha ha… good one…

April Fools, right?

Posted at 10:40 am on Apr 1st, 2008 by jose lope

Bah! They should’ve made a batch of aerogel and insulated the vest with it, instead! Its thermal properties are up the wazoo

Posted at 12:11 pm on Apr 1st, 2008 by Fry-kun

Uh…how about those cross-linked polyethylene resettable fuses? They can be run on any voltage, and will cease passing current when they warm up to the glass transition temperature of the plastic.

Posted at 3:47 pm on Apr 1st, 2008 by Joel

Those Black & Decker batteries might be a good power source. It’s the featured item in Woot.com’s fake woot-off. $20. Sorry if I sound like a spam bot.

Posted at 5:04 pm on Apr 1st, 2008 by pastasauce

Hey, what about doing that to your wipers on your car instead?? I know where I live that would be usefull…. Acutally, Im gona make some right now… ahahahah

Posted at 5:23 pm on Apr 1st, 2008 by Sashmo

just don’t wear this on a plane. I was on the Paris to charlotte flight 2years ago that was detained for “security issues on the plane” because of someone’s version of this project. US marshals borded the plane and escorted some people off of the plane for questioning.

Posted at 5:34 pm on Apr 1st, 2008 by toopriddy

for motorcycle riding, how about modfying something like http://www.coolorheat.com/ into a jacket…this way you can heat or cool yourself…to be able to wear a jacket in the summer to protect you in a fall.

Posted at 6:27 pm on Apr 1st, 2008 by momotarosan

Wow, thanks for giving me some great ideas.
As a Marine we fight in every climb and place (or so the saying goes) and some of those places are cold, very cold. Perhaps i will create my own heated clothing and run it off of a BA-5590/U battery (used in communications equipment). We so many of these batteries that i don’t see why i couldn’t use them to keep me and my fellow Marines a little more comfortable. Keep up the great work and i hope you continue posting your thoughts on this subject.

Posted at 7:31 pm on Apr 1st, 2008 by zach

If only a cooling vest were as straight forward.

Posted at 10:27 pm on Apr 1st, 2008 by paul geering

>If only a cooling vest were as straight forward.

In fact, it’s more so, if you’re willing to settle for some combination of heat capacity & evaporative cooling.

Buy granules of polyacrylamide from (e.g.) Lowe’s garden supply section. You might have to be persistant in asking for help/describing what you want, in my experience.

Unfortunately, it’s $14 per pound or so, but the good news is it absorbs several hundred times its weight in water, so that a little goes a long way. You can also get similar stuff by sifting the paper pulp out of diaper filling.

Experiment with some of the powder to see how much it expands, then sew the powder in like a quilt.

I’ve used a scarf-like thing of this sort (I think it was sold as a “cool tie”) to good effect.

Posted at 3:47 pm on Apr 2nd, 2008 by Joel

These kind of vest exist for quite some time. There are special vesions for motorcyclist and militairy, etc. (search e.g. for exo2).
The newest ones don’t use wires any more, but some kind of conductive fabric.

I used an electric blanket which uses a transformer for 16V, and it works fine on 12 Volts.

A photo is at: http://www.dossierd.nl/ap_warmtevest.html
(that page is not translated yet).

Posted at 5:25 pm on Apr 5th, 2008 by DossierD

That’s pretty cool, I might give it a shot since I just acquired a heated blanket this last winter, and it’s already starting to look a bit thread worn.

I have an old leather jacket I could try it on in fact. The lining could do with replacing

Posted at 5:21 am on Apr 6th, 2008 by Coyotecom

I made my own motorcycle vest. I find 65 watts to be very comfortable. I started with a very form fitting vest, picked it up off a clearance rack for about $6. Then used phone wire, it’s about 22 gauge stranded. Very flexible. Get an ohm reading, remember that a running vehicle puts out 14 volts. Then you can calculate how much wire you need for your desired wattage. Solder on a cig plug, preferably with a switch, available at Rat Shack. I used that sticky stitch stuff from the fabric store, and some strategically placed stitches, start with both ends in one pocket, then run the loop out around the vest, be sure on to cross the wires, they will get to hot and end up shorting out. Then just iron-on a liner so the wires can’t shift. I’ve got about 1000k miles on mine, weather down into the mid twenties (F). No complaints.

BTW, if you pay yourself minimum wage, it’s cheaper to buy one.

Posted at 12:24 am on Apr 8th, 2008 by Brice