Electronics for GUNGNIR helmet.

[Toacrabman]

So I have a Gungnir helmet that only needs the camera. I also have some old cell phones. That and some small LED's.

I have as follows:

-V Cast verizon wireless vx8300 music phone. Great looking camera, and screen.

-verizon wireless / samsung sch-a870 picture phone. Also has a nice camera, which will be used as the RS add on. Also some nice switches.

Two old junk phones:
-Motorella alltell,
-some kind of alltell walkie talkie.

The junk phones have lame calculator screens and no camera's but have nice simple stuff.

so anyway,

I have no idea what to do, all I can do is hotwire large vehicles and machinery!

Someone please tell me how to simply connect a camera and a screen, with a battery in between, and an on off switch.
Also maybe switching between the two cameras.

 

[Pipinacan]

I thought you were going to use a car's back up camera? But I don't think that screen will be big enough for you to really focus on everything in front of you, if there is a way to connect all that.

 

[Shadow Of Intent]

If you're planning to directly connect the camera to the screen, I don't think that's possible. The various chips on the phone's pcb act as the middle man, and even routing it through those would be tricky at best. If I HAD to use the phones, the best I'd be able to do with my poor knowledge of circuitry would be to exttend the camera's ribbon cable to where I wanted it, and access the camera through the phone's menu.

What I would have done in this case would be to use a camera (such as a home CCTV video camera with an A/V output, and connect it to some sort of portable screen with an A/V input. I have an Archos 604 series with a small headcam which would be perfect for the job, but this may not be a cost effective solution.

As Pipinacan says, it is impossibe to focus on close up screens. With most high res screens, the minimum distance I can see images from without them being blurry is about 9-10cm, so phone screens may not be sufficient. Thankfully the Gungnir has a large frontal section so you can distance the screen from your eyes a bit, but it may not be enough. The video headsets like these ones would work well if you use one with an A/V input (maybe a smaller pixel size allows you to focus at closer range), but they're all over £100.

I can't suggest anything more than searching for phone camera to screen wiring diagrams or pinouts... best of luck though!

 

[Trando434]

Use a cheap flip-out screen camera, I have one I picked up for about $45, resolution is very good, and it tracks very well, in fact it has "HUD-like" features that actually does face recognition and display names above the people it recognizes!

 

[Toacrabman]

I took it apart, got all the pieces organized, and I think i might just be able to figure this out. Mainly I need it to not dim when i dont press buttons, or recieve texts from my friends, because then I woulnt be able to see. Basically I need it to stay in Picture taking mode. But only that.

 

[Shadow Of Intent]

If you're just rearranging the pieces to fit better in the helmet, you could use flight mode to prevent the recieving of texts. As for the backlight, the maximum duration is usually about 1 minute. Maybe you could have something that is kind of macroed to "press" a button every 30 seconds that will not affect the camera (Volume up/down might work).

 

[Draakjuh]

how about this xD

http://youtu.be/QyrjBMAa6xE

 

[Toacrabman]

That is actually not helpful at all....

 

[Pipinacan]

So did you ever figure out how to make it work? Also, did you ever get your nasa tarp from a while ago? Seemed like it would be pretty cool stuff. In all honesty though, I think it'd be easier to buy one of those rear view reverse cameras with the screen with it from like pep boys

 

[scizor112]

I'm going to have to agree with Pip on this one. Instead of botching up a bunch of wires and cameras from phones, it would be much easier to purchase a backup camera. Also, your eye can't really focus very well on a screen that small at that close proximity, and it would probably start to hurt after a while.

 

[Tobias325]

I had actually thought about something along this line for putting nightvision into my team's helmets. What I came up with (instead of trying to squeeze NVGs into a helmet, since that won't work) was to use the add-on camera on the side of the helmet to feed video as well as housing an IR illuminator (to allow for viewing in near total darkness). The video from the side-mounted camera would be piped into the helmet and displayed on a pair of those glasses/goggles with the screens in them that make it look like you're watching a 70" screen at 10 feet. The camera can be almost anything with an output to component video, or that can be made with an output to component video. A big key in this is finding a camera that has the IR filter glass mounted in such a way that allows for easy disassembly and removal of said IR filter (if you're not interested in nightvision then that isn't an issue)

Link to glasses: http://www.amazon.com/Vuzix-310XL-Widescreen-Eyewear-Glasses/dp/B003YKN4CE

 

[Sangheilioz]

I had actually thought about something along this line for putting nightvision into my team's helmets. What I came up with (instead of trying to squeeze NVGs into a helmet, since that won't work) was to use the add-on camera on the side of the helmet to feed video as well as housing an IR illuminator (to allow for viewing in near total darkness). The video from the side-mounted camera would be piped into the helmet and displayed on a pair of those glasses/goggles with the screens in them that make it look like you're watching a 70" screen at 10 feet. The camera can be almost anything with an output to component video, or that can be made with an output to component video. A big key in this is finding a camera that has the IR filter glass mounted in such a way that allows for easy disassembly and removal of said IR filter (if you're not interested in nightvision then that isn't an issue)

Link to glasses: http://www.amazon.com/Vuzix-310XL-Widescreen-Eyewear-Glasses/dp/B003YKN4CE

Did you read the reviews for those glasses? You might want to look through them, looks like they're not going to be what you're hoping they would.

 

[Tobias325]

I did, that was just the quick and dirty link to a similar product. The one I would actually use is more like $400 but that link took me the better part of an hour (after I posted) to find. Other than that particular issue, the idea seems sound though?

 

[Toacrabman]

The cell phone screen is actually pretty good for size. I literally tested this by walking around in my house with my current phone 2 inches from my eyes, and that has a smaller screen. Also I could still see my surroundings, and I had depth perception.

 

[Pipinacan]

The cell phone screen is actually pretty good for size. I literally tested this by walking around in my house with my current phone 2 inches from my eyes, and that has a smaller screen. Also I could still see my surroundings, and I had depth perception.

So I'm assuming it's working out! I want ics

 

[scizor112]

I want pics as well! I eventually wanna do a Gungnir, and if the phone camera is gonna work then I'd finally have some use for my old phone!

 

[cfowler17]

How about trying to use one of those ipod touches with the cameras or something similar

 

[Toacrabman]

The problem is I need the screen to stay on, and not have any of that dumb cellphone crap where it turns off for no reason, or gets dim. Also there is pictures. Just look at the first post. The only difference is that now the phones are bare circuit boards with screens on them. I also found out the screens, cameras, battery packs, and all that plug in the the circuitboard. This makes it a little easier.

Also, I did not get the "NASA tarp" the company found a use for it after all, but their use was not as cool.

 

[Caincard]

i know this thread has been necro for a while but did the Gungnir helmet come out well? im new here and took quite an interest in it. been thinking about making one myself but have the visor on a set of hinges so i can lift it when not in use. and just have a normal shield on when its up. of also been thinking of hard wiring old laptop components that are laying around into the back plate. that way everything runs off a battery for say 2-4 hours. maybe put a small OEM tft lcd screen in the visor as well connected to the computer with a gutted webcam mounted in place of the camera. though it is expensive from scratch (if no computer parts are laying around) it would work on re-purposing something that would prolly just go to the trash heap. plus you could catch the shock of people at conventions when they see the amount of detail with the record feature.