Introduction
AYAB — All Yarns Are Beautiful — is an open source hardware and software project that provides an alternative way to control the widely-loved Brother KH-9xx range of knitting machines using a computer. There are other hacks (such as Img2Track, Knitic and electro-knit) which work with certain machines in certain conditions. The AYAB interface works with all Brother KH-9xx machines except the KH-970.

Historically, the KH-910 was programmed with semi-transparent picture cards which were scanned by the machine line by line. Using this information, the machine sets the needles accordingly to knit the picture shown by the card with 60 pixel width. The later models did the same thing using built-in electronics. If you wanted to enter a pattern of your own on these models it involved lots of tedious button-pressing, or some models had an add-on gadget that connected to your vintage TV.

With the AYAB interface, you can provide an image of up to a 200 pixel (or needle) size from your computer. The control of the needles and the needed identification of the position and direction of movement of the knitting carriage are supplied by an Arduino-compatible microcontroller board. Most Windows, Linux, and Mac computers work well. (Chrome OS and locked versions of Windows 10 S are not supported.)

This new implementation of the AYAB interface, designed by Evil Mad Scientist working in cooperation with the AYAB team, replaces both the controller board and power supply from your knitting machine. Thus, while your needle solenoids need to be working, you do not need a functioning vintage controller board or power supply. (If your machine does have a working power supply, just leave it unplugged.) The board connects to your computer via the included USB cable to send the the image and line data to your knitting machine.

The board comes with a pair of plastic electrical shields to prevent any accidental contact between the connectors on the circuit board and the metal elements on your knitting machine. This implementation encompasses the role of an Arduino plus a shield on the prior AYAB interface. No soldering is required.

The board replacement is non-destructive and fully reversible. That is, if you want to go back to the original Brother technology again, simply remove the hardware, reconnect the Brother controller and everything is back to its original state, just like in the 1980's!

The included regulated 9 V power supply accepts worldwide 100 V - 240 V input, and has a US/Canada style plug. For other regions, an inexpensive plug shape adapter will be needed.

Machine compatibility

What's different between the models?
The difference between the versions of our AYAB interface is that the KH-965 requires one additional connector and the KH-900 requires three additional connectors on the board. Additionally, the electrical shields are laser-cut with cutouts exposing only the necessary set of connectors for the selected model to prevent accidental short circuits when contacting the internal surfaces of your knitting machine.

Documentation
In addition to the documentation provided by the AYAB team, we have assembled a list of resources on our documentation wiki, including installation instructions for this AYAB interface and links to various support resources.

A special note on skill level
While the AYAB interface automates pattern selection for machine knitting, it still requires you to have one of the supported knitting machines and to know how to operate it. While we are working on providing easier software tools, please note that software installation is currently cumbersome, especially on the Mac. This is an ongoing open-source project and we appreciate both your patience and bug reports.

The standard distal pen arm (available here) has a hole that fits Sharpie Ultra-Fine pens, and other markers of similar size. It also has a nut and nylon thumbscrew to fix the pen in place. (Thumbscrew not shown in photos.)

The wide-hole version (available here) looks the same, except that it has a slightly larger hole that fits a standard (so-called "fine point") Sharpie marker, or other markers of similar size.

We also offer the fully blank distal pen arm available on this page, in case you want to drill your own hole and/or mount something that requires a different mounting scheme. The blank version does not have a nut or thumbscrew, but instead just a small pilot hole.

All three types come with screws, hinge clamp, hinge, hinge washer and angle bracket for ease of use. After assembly, swapping out pen arms is simple using the one screw at the top of the proximal pen arm.

Note that the main photo shown above is for the "standard" pen arm. The blank version can be seen in the group shot of all three types.

This new version of the Buggy is a complete kit. It features an updated circuit board, six candle-flicker LEDs, six pairs of current-limiting resistors as legs, insulating socks on its (otherwise conductive) feet, a power switch, and it even comes with a battery. The posable antennae and feet and give this little kit quite the charming personality.

This kit includes the following components:

• The Boldport Buggy circuit board
• Six candle flicker LEDs, yellow, in two sizes
• Battery holder
• One CR2032 coin cell
• Power switch
• Resistors for legs and antennae
• Red tubing for the socks
• Printed assembly instructions

The Boldport Buggy is sold as a soldering kit [?]. Basic electronic soldering skill is required, and you provide standard soldering tools: a soldering iron + solder and small ("flush") wire clippers. Battery (one CR2032 coin cell) is included. No additional knowledge of electronics is presumed or required.

Clear, full-color printed instructions are provided with the kit.

Lead Free
Buggy kits are RoHS compliant (lead free). If you're building one of our kits, you'll find that everything works well with either regular or lead-free solder-- whichever you care to use.

The standard distal pen arm (available here) has a hole that fits Sharpie Ultra-Fine pens, and other markers of similar size. It also has a nut and nylon thumbscrew to fix the pen in place. (Thumbscrew not shown in photos.)

The wide-hole version available on this page looks the same, except that it has a slightly larger hole that fits a standard (so-called "fine point") Sharpie marker, or other markers of similar size.

We also offer a fully blank distal pen arm (available here), in case you want to drill your own hole and/or mount something that requires a different mounting scheme. The blank version does not have a nut or thumbscrew, but instead just a small pilot hole.

All three types come with screws, hinge clamp, hinge, hinge washer and angle bracket for ease of use. After assembly, swapping out pen arms is simple using the one screw at the top of the proximal pen arm.

Note that the main photo shown above is for the "standard" pen arm. The wide version can be seen in the group shot of all three types.