Hacked Teddy Bear Warms Your Heart and Your Hugs

Vladimir wrote in to share an interesting project he just completed. He is using the heating element from a heated jacket to heat a stuffed bear. The result is a cuddly warm stuffed animal.

 It looks like an ordinary silk fabric, very thin and soft. You do not feel it under a toy fur. Unlike conventional warmers, the carbon warmer always gives the same temperature you set. With the the dimer you can select any temperature. You can turn it on or off with remote as soon as you want. Unlike other heaters, carbon tape emits in the infrared range so quickly heats the whole body and spends less energy.

Vladimir shares the quick process to make your own.

Put iron-on hemming web tape and carbon tape on a piece of fabric and fasten them with pins. Strip wires and sew them as shown on the photo. Apply a silver glue. Wait 5 minutes and apply the glue again to make contact more reliable. I also soldered a cheap RF dimmer to control it.

Gently iron the carbon tape. Put on the second piece of fabric and fix the heated pad with iron or just sew it.

Carefully unpick a stuffed animal’s seam. Insert the heated pad where you want it. Sew a zipper to change the batteries.

With two 18650 batteries it lasts up to 5 hours. RF dimmer allows parents to switch on and off the warmer, adjust the power at any time.The temperature depends on the battery voltage and the length of the tape. I made about 45 degrees Celsius. It needs 2 feet of 15mm carbon tape only.

In theory, this should be pretty safe. There’s fairly low voltage here and the heater was intended to be worn inside clothing.