Imagine creating an item of clothing with embedded MCUs, thermometers, accelerometers, buttons, all linked by conductive threads. That's the concept behind the LilyPad range of modules. The threads can be literally sewn into garments, allowing sensors to be placed at the end of sleeves, or just where-ever!

The LilyPad technology was created by Leah Buechley along with our friends at SparkFun Electronics. Notice the large connecting pads on this, and all of the LilyPad modules -designed to keep maximum contact with conductive threads that are simply sewn through the pin holes rather than soldered.

Apparently these modules are even washable. To be honest - no-one at Cool Components has ever dared try this, but the manufacturers swear it's true! Finally - here's a shot of one of the most important components to this range - the conductive thread itself.

Each spool has about 170 metres of thread - It's not as conductive as copper at around 46ohms per metre, but it's still fine for 'arm to arm' distances!

The guys over at Liquidware have come up with this : The Touch Shield Slide for the Arduino. It's rather nice.

Rather bigger than it's little brother, the plain old 'Touch Shield', the Slide has a slick 320×240 OLED screen, resistive touch sensing, and its own bolt-on graphics API. The display only uses a couple of data pins, and sits squarely on top of a Duemilanove. Just to be clear - this photo shows a lithium pack underneath the Duemilanove.

More power, more IOs, more memory, more everything. The long awaited Arduino Mega has now been released worldwide, and Cool Components is amongst the first to offer these meaty units to customers.