Ok, this has been a constant labor of love over the last few months and with constantly redesigning things and new parts and changing parts and so on I am finally getting to the point of fruition.
I have wanted, no needed, a water cooling system for my armor for the longest time. And while this build will not be cost acceptable to most around $1000, yep that much, it could probably be modified and cheapened possibly.
This is after all a prototype, and I pretty much build on the fly, for everything I do, heh, so hence the constant modifications.
I'm finally at the point of hooking up all the hoses and wiring, so as I go thru that I will post more pics, pleas stay tuned.
Yes I am working on Rubies armor, don't hate, it actually is really good stuff, and currently an overall prototype for me until I build my fully metal suit, which I'll really need this water cooler for.
The basics for this design, is it uses a peltier cooling chip instead of ice packs and thus can run as long as the battery pack can last, if I were to keep the charger cord hooked in and on me, when the battery runs low, I could just stand at an outlet and recharge in an hour or two. The peltier is part of a closed loop heat exchanger of my design, just cobbled together from various parts, all purchase-able on amazon, which is my main place of ordering stuff, also McMaster Carr is another place for good stuff I use. There is a water reservoir (3d printed bottle), water pump, and garage door opener control box. Everything runs on 12v.
Also the water cooling vest I plan on using is from Veskimo.
Heat Exchanger Stage 1
The blue block is an aluminum radiator block, water flows thru this.
The grey center piece is an aluminum heat sink, slightly modified.
The peltier chip is sandwiched between the block and heat sink.
Two fans are attached to the heat sink so as to push and pull the air across it as fast as possible.
Heat Exchanger Stage 2
Parts wrapped in adhesive foam and starting the plenum enclosure.
Heat Exchanger Stage 3
End view of fully enclosed unit.
Heat Exchanger Stage 3 (side view)
Back armor prepping.
The nice thing about using the rubies suit is that it's plastic and thermo formable. So when I need to make a change, or help make something fit better, I just heat it up and then with gloves mold the plastic new.
Here I flattened out the bottom ridges and made more room there for the battery pack to fit. Under my thumb is the water reservoir, black tape covers back leds.
All armor edging has been reinforce with glued on nylon strapping, and where cracks got to be too bad, I used hvac hanger strapping and rivets, rivets for everything!
Water reservoir and Pump
Here I have the water pump installed. Pretty much everything I install is with either straps and rivets or super industrial adhesive Velcro.
Heat exchanger installed
Here the heat exchanger is fully installed and plenum'd in place.
And currently with the battery pack and everything installed, minus wiring and hoses.
I'll post more pics and some video when I get time, but I can't wait to finally get this finished and testing it at cons!!!!
I'll have to weigh what the whole back weighs now though, but that battery is like 10 lbs I think.
What do you guys think?
I have wanted, no needed, a water cooling system for my armor for the longest time. And while this build will not be cost acceptable to most around $1000, yep that much, it could probably be modified and cheapened possibly.
This is after all a prototype, and I pretty much build on the fly, for everything I do, heh, so hence the constant modifications.
I'm finally at the point of hooking up all the hoses and wiring, so as I go thru that I will post more pics, pleas stay tuned.
Yes I am working on Rubies armor, don't hate, it actually is really good stuff, and currently an overall prototype for me until I build my fully metal suit, which I'll really need this water cooler for.
The basics for this design, is it uses a peltier cooling chip instead of ice packs and thus can run as long as the battery pack can last, if I were to keep the charger cord hooked in and on me, when the battery runs low, I could just stand at an outlet and recharge in an hour or two. The peltier is part of a closed loop heat exchanger of my design, just cobbled together from various parts, all purchase-able on amazon, which is my main place of ordering stuff, also McMaster Carr is another place for good stuff I use. There is a water reservoir (3d printed bottle), water pump, and garage door opener control box. Everything runs on 12v.
Also the water cooling vest I plan on using is from Veskimo.
Heat Exchanger Stage 1
The blue block is an aluminum radiator block, water flows thru this.
The grey center piece is an aluminum heat sink, slightly modified.
The peltier chip is sandwiched between the block and heat sink.
Two fans are attached to the heat sink so as to push and pull the air across it as fast as possible.
Heat Exchanger Stage 2
Parts wrapped in adhesive foam and starting the plenum enclosure.
Heat Exchanger Stage 3
End view of fully enclosed unit.
Heat Exchanger Stage 3 (side view)
Back armor prepping.
The nice thing about using the rubies suit is that it's plastic and thermo formable. So when I need to make a change, or help make something fit better, I just heat it up and then with gloves mold the plastic new.
Here I flattened out the bottom ridges and made more room there for the battery pack to fit. Under my thumb is the water reservoir, black tape covers back leds.
All armor edging has been reinforce with glued on nylon strapping, and where cracks got to be too bad, I used hvac hanger strapping and rivets, rivets for everything!
Water reservoir and Pump
Here I have the water pump installed. Pretty much everything I install is with either straps and rivets or super industrial adhesive Velcro.
Heat exchanger installed
Here the heat exchanger is fully installed and plenum'd in place.
And currently with the battery pack and everything installed, minus wiring and hoses.
I'll post more pics and some video when I get time, but I can't wait to finally get this finished and testing it at cons!!!!
I'll have to weigh what the whole back weighs now though, but that battery is like 10 lbs I think.
What do you guys think?