Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

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DerKraken

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Its a stretch to call this "Armor" but it is a molded helmet nonetheless. If this is the wrong place to put a build like this, let me know... right now I can only post to the noob forum, so if there's a place for non-Halo armor, feel free to move accordingly!

So, I went out and found some of the pep files for Guy's helmet, but unfortunately they didn't seem terribly accurate to the current generation. Daft Punk got new equipment in late 2004, and it seems like the existing pep files were built off the previous version. The differences are subtle, but I decided to take a crack at molding my own piece.

First thing was first, I needed to make accurate illustrations of the helmet and figure out the wiring I'm going to be tossing in there. Guy's helmet is the gold one, with the large black "fishbowl" visor, and large color bars left and right. After a lot of research, I built this in Illustrator:

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You'll notice the mention of shift registers in there. I'm going to be using an Arduino programmable logic board to power the LED banks. By using 4 shift registers, I can control 32 independent channels for all the LED effects. These will all be selectable from a controller connected to the helmet, which will be build into a wrist piece (this is the way Daft Punk controlled their V1 helmets)

Next step was some PCB layout design. This is the "chin" LED banks, where you see the red, yellow, and green square LEDs in the picture above, as well as the 2 rows of white LEDs. There will be 2 of these boards, a left and right.

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This is the board that will house 4 white LEDs and illuminate all of the color banks on the left and right sides of the helmet. There will be 16 of these total.

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Enough drawings, onto the actual work!

Strange as it sounds, I took the template I made above, and built a faux 3-D helmet out of it in illustration board. This gave me a rough idea of scale before actually sitting down and carving clay. I also took the excess material from the illustration board and kept it as templates to put over the working helmet to make sure I was getting all the curves right.

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This next part is a little weird. This is my second helmet build, and my first with such a complex shape, so I'm mostly winging it here process-wise. I started by covering my fake 3-D thing with a bunch of expanding foam:

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Which I then carved into a rough shape:

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...really rough...

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Then I got started with some clay, which (after drying) got some apoxie sculpt in the lower places. I know this seems like I'm using every material in the book, and I think in the future I can cut down on this a lot... but its actually working out rather well so far.

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The ear puck areas were trimmed out

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And then I built up some of the areas in bondo to match the curvature of my diagrams

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Ear pucks were carved out of MDF screwed together to make sure I kept the same shape.

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and were shaved down on a router

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A couple of test fits

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And after anchoring the baseplates for the ear pucks and sanding down the first coat of bondo. This is just some patch work to hit the low parts and bubble holes. Need to do some primer and smoothing out once this is sanded.

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The plan from here on is to smooth the entire piece before adding on the raised sections around the ear pucks and the visor (as well as the rear "hoop".) This is because it will be much easier to ensure a perfect curved surface if I don't have to worry about sanding into corners. After that, I'll build the raised portions in Apoxie sculpt, sand, paint, mold, profit!

As for the visor, I'll be making the mold 1/8" deeper in the area where the visor will go. Once the mold is made, I'll cut that part out and vacuum-form it out of tinted PETG. I'll repeat this same process for the rear clear part that the wires sit on.

Hope you guys like, stay tuned for more.
 
GutterGrowl said:
Very nice work, I love how detailed you planned it. Keep it up!

Thanks for the compliments guys.

Yeah, I tend to spend a lot of time doing research and planning before I actually get into building the prop itself. This one is making me learn all sorts of new stuff about wiring and coding the illumination effects in C basic, but its been enjoyable thus far.

Here's a short clip I shot that shows some simple lighting effects on the Arduino. In the final version, there will be three potentiometers that control the effects (one for speed, one for the upper bar effects, and one for the chin LED effects) as well as a switch that turns the whole system on and off. It going to be a pretty crowded helmet when its all finished...


Oh, and here's a more detailed schematic, to show you what all is going in here:

3383268065_eacd6b3e44_b.jpg
 
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Hey, you could just buy one for, oh, $60,000. hehe

This is looking good as is well thought out. Can't wait to see more.
 
nice stuff, very clean illustrations.

maybe you should get some led driver ICs instead of shift registers or transistor arrays ICs + shift registers, they save so much effort, that way, you won't need transistors (and pull-up resistors in some cases). whatever you do, good luck with the soldering. looking forward to the results.
 
TF_Productions said:
led driver ICs instead of shift registers or transistor arrays ICs + shift registers

Care to expand on this a bit? I have to admit I'm a bit unfamiliar with IC's. The reason I've planned on using shift registers is because the Arduino controller only has 13 channels, 3 of which will be occupied by the potentiometers needed to control the lighting effects. By using four 74HC595 chips, I can take 6 output channels and turn them into 32.

That being said, if there's an easier or more elegant solution, I'm quite open to suggestions. I know I can use a similar chip, but I don't know how that would save me from using transistors...

Edit: I do have a few 4794 IC chips as well as the 74HC595 shift registers. If I understand correctly though, I'd still need the transistors in order to supply adequate voltage to the LED banks if using the 4794 chip, right?

Here's the datasheets for those interested

4794 IC

74HC595 Shift Reg
 
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Ohhhh I'm going to enjoy stalking this thread. :D


It looks like you are using an AWFUL lot of catalyst with your bondo (based on how deep red it looks). I'm sure it makes the material cure faster, but does this give any other benefits?
 
Yodajammies said:
It looks like you are using an AWFUL lot of catalyst with your bondo (based on how deep red it looks). I'm sure it makes the material cure faster, but does this give any other benefits?

For skim coats, I mix my own bondo and catalyst. For the smaller surface smoothing, I use the pre-mixed stuff that comes in a tube, which is very dark red. Its a lot easier to just put a small dab on the area and smooth it, without wasting a bunch or worrying about your batch drying out.
 
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Incredible build thread.. love your attention to the technical details involved here.

Keep up the good work. This is very inspiring!


Also nice to see a fellow Maker here. I've been reading up on Arduino too, I just can't seem to get to that critical programming stage. Any tips?
 
DerKraken said:
Care to expand on this a bit? I have to admit I'm a bit unfamiliar with IC's. The reason I've planned on using shift registers is because the Arduino controller only has 13 channels, 3 of which will be occupied by the potentiometers needed to control the lighting effects. By using four 74HC595 chips, I can take 6 output channels and turn them into 32.
No, you're absolutely right, shift registers (SR) are the way to go. by using 4 SR, you can use 3 output channels and turn them into 32 (nothing wrong with using 6 if you're not short).

Now, I was going to give you more information, but I don't know what LEDs you use. And what worries me more is your power consumption. Have you done some calculations? With all those LEDs (especially 28 at once) on, if they draw 20mA, you'll be drawing 4400mA, that's nearly 4.5 A (!!!). Even if you use high efficiency LEDs @ 5mA, that's still 1.1A max.

I hope you aren't planning on using batteries ^^

Sean Bradley said:
Also nice to see a fellow Maker here. I've been reading up on Arduino too, I just can't seem to get to that critical programming stage. Any tips?
I never quite got the benefit of the arduino concept, basically, to start you need a development board/programmer, a (AVR) micro controller and an idea. The arduino IDE is sh*t, ATMEL (who make the microchips) provide their own IDE which is better imo.
 
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TF_Productions said:
Now, I was going to give you more information, but I don't know what LEDs you use. And what worries me more is your power consumption. Have you done some calculations? With all those LEDs (especially 28 at once) on, if they draw 20mA, you'll be drawing 4400mA, that's nearly 4.5 A (!!!). Even if you use high efficiency LEDs @ 5mA, that's still 1.1A max.

You're probably referring to the "chin" LED banks which make up the EQ bars. I've been thinking of changing that area in the name of simplicity anyways. Chances are those banks of 24 will be replaced by another 4 LED bank similar to the light bars above. I can scribe a grid pattern into the surface of some acrylic to make them look like individual lamps, which should cut down on current draw significantly.

As for the other lamps shown (color bars on the sides) here's their spec sheet: RL5-W15120

I'm a little dubious about your math however. Here's the specsheet for the rectangular LEDs I was planning on using for the EQ bars at the chin: L-562T

28 LEDs @ 20mA, 2.0 Vf (5V supplied current) I'm only getting 250mA draw by my calculations. (EDIT: I'm guessing you were referring to the TOTAL draw if all the banks were on at once, yes?) Check out this website - its a nice calculator for LED resistors, but it also gives you the total amperage draw of the circuit.

That being said, each of the color banks (4-LED board above) will draw roughly 116mA, so I may need to knock an LED off each one (making them an ~88mA draw), otherwise with all of the banks on I'll be drawing closer to 1.5A.

I am planning on running batteries - three 9V wired in parallel. Assuming each is 600mAh (1.8Ah in parallel) I could get about 45 minutes of illumination if everything in the helmet was powered on at the same time. Of course, the code won't allow for that, as the LEDs will constantly be blinking. Chances are the average current draw would be ~250mA

Again, this is based on a less-than-stellar comprehension of electronics at large. I did hold a certification in 12V DC systems, but that was years ago, and that knowledge has collected a bit of dust as time has passed without its use. If my math seems horribly off and I'm about to set my head on fire, please let me know (though I'd appreciate a link or two explaining why, so I can learn a bit as I go on here)
 
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Man, you have to move fast here in the noob forum. Only 6 hours or so since my last post and its already almost on page 2!

Hopefully this isn't knocked for double-posting, but here's a few update shots form this evening. Didn't want to toss this in my previous post, as it doesn't really have anything to do with wiring, and I know if I put pictures up, nobody is going to read the words...

Sanded the helmet down from the status above and put on a coat of Krylon primer. Still some low spots, but we're getting there.

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The rough areas you're seeing around the steps in the helmet will be covered eventually by the upper and back "hoops." I'm only getting the main curvature down at this point.

Another skim coat on some of the low points, hopefully this will be all I need before a topcoat and some finer wet sanding.

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In the above shot, you might notice that the lower part of the front of the helmet and the "ears" aren't level with one another. This is one of the small details that differentiate the earlier helmets from the later (current) ones. I don't think anyone but me is going to notice this minutia, but it feels nice to know its there.

Sean Bradley said:
Also nice to see a fellow Maker here. I've been reading up on Arduino too, I just can't seem to get to that critical programming stage. Any tips?

Arduino is something I'm only just now getting into, since the replicas of my Portal gun will have an Arduino-controlled sound board in them. Really, one of the best intro-tutorials I've found is right here. Its a rock-bottom starting point, which is good for idiots like me.
 
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Thanks for the Arduino tips guys.

Keep up the good work DerKraken, I'm very excited to see this come together.
 
Amazing work, makes me wish I would have spent more time on it and not forgotten my electronics training :cry: .

It's been two years and I barely remember much at all, it sucks.

Keep it up, I will definitely be watching this (and the watchmen :cautious: ):lol: .
 
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