How to secure electrode cables on an elastic textile cap without piercing or gluing, while keeping the slack needed to suppress traction artifacts.
An elastic textile EEG cap deforms with every adjustment. Any rigid anchor sewn into the mesh becomes a lever that pulls on the electrode and injects a movement artifact. The constraint is to route a dozen or so thin cables without ever creating mechanical coupling between fabric and skin contact.
Reversible fixing and elastic loops
Avoid sewing the cable directly. Sew hook-and-loop strips onto the fabric, and pass the cable through elastic loops made with stretch nylon thread using a ballpoint needle that spreads the mesh instead of cutting it. The loop deforms with the textile and does not transmit tension to the connector.
The cables are bundled under a spiral or braided sleeve up to the DIN 1.5 mm connector. The sleeve protects without stiffening and tolerates the repeated flexing of the cap.
Slack as a shock absorber
Between each electrode and the bundle, leave a deliberate loop of slack. This surplus absorbs local stretching of the fabric during head movement and prevents the traction from reaching the contact.
The takeaway: on a support that stretches, the fixing must follow the deformation, not fight it. Slack is not sloppiness, it is the mechanical shock absorber of the signal.