Homework - Paul DiPastina
Yukako Shimada
Moderator
- Hey, my name is Paul DiPastina, I'm a programmer / game developer / part of a film group that makes youtube videos and I'll be updating my assignment throughout the day as I narrow down the parts I need.
For my project, I'll be working on some of the components of a suit of power armor for a local LARP. The armor will be built mostly out of EVA foam / cross linked polyethylene , which I've been doing a lot of work in lately. It needs to be comfortable to wear and run around in, contact safe, easy to get on and off, and the electronics need to be shielded from damage so they don't break or injure me when I get hit.
For this course, I will probably be focusing on lights / sounds, and the helmet servo, as well as parts of the foam exterior, which I will be patterning and crafting this weekend while I watch.
For the electronics, I've drawn a lot of inspiration from this Iron Man build:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Animatronic-Iron-Man-Mk-III-suit/?ALLSTEPS
I want to emulate their boot design as well as their helmet design. Eventually I would like to make the helmet system wireless, but I feel like the first prototype will not be. I will still be purchasing the parts so I can play with RFID applications.
The chest lights for my build need to be directly controlled by the board, though. The armor in-game has an overdrive effect, and I want to have the lights pulse and change color in overdrive to make it visually distinctive and intimidating. The iron man build uses a pre-built system for the lights on the center torso, but I'd like to roll my won. I would like to replace the lights they use with a neopixel ring, so that I can control the colors / brightness from the chip.
I'll be eliminating one of the Arduino boards because I don't have rocket pods or shoulder rockets or anything like that to control on my suit. I may consider adding a small text display with four buttons so I can track how much fuel I have and turn the suit on and off or engage overdrive mode.
Visually though, I don't want this to look like Iron Man's suit. I have other plans.
The power armor I wear in the game is supposed to be built from a suit of post-apoc crafted armor, so I wanted something a little more retro looking than iron man. At least to star out with as a base, I'm going with the Blood Dragon Armor design from Mass Effect, and basing it off of this individual's build (Note: Not my build), which as far as I've seen is the best execution of this particular cosplay:
http://geektyrant.com/news/mass-effect-blood-dragon-armor-cosplay-by-leon-chiro-cosplay
I've got some sketches drawn out for the different parts (crude, hand drawn template guestimates) and I'll try to upload those over the next 24 hours.
I've also done some crude mockups of the design modifications I want to make, to fit the armor design into the setting. This image may be jarring, so let me explain: My character belongs to a post-apoc gang I started called the Fundertakers. If that name doesn't speak for itself, this image should get the idea across.
Finally, the extensive parts list, which I will narrow down further until I know exactly what I need. I also need to add some parts from the materials list on this page, like a display and possibly an alternate sound system. I don't want to bite off TOO much more than I can chew, but I have been known to do that all the time and it usually works out in the end. I may not get to everything during this class but eventually I will, and as long as I've got a neat suit of power armor to wear at the event next month it's mission: success!
Parts List - Currently this comes out to $576, so consider this an "ideal" parts list, which I will pare down to something much more managable. I'll be working through the night to modify the parts list down, remove un-nessecary duplicates, etc.
Foamsmithing:
EVA Foam Tiles: 20 (most Mass Effect armor requires 16)
L200: 1 sheet each of 1/2", 1/4", 3/8" foam
Heat Gun
Dremel
Sandpaper
Persona Blades
Hot Glue
Super Glue
Barge
Assorted Straps (Elastic and non-elastic)
Assorted Buckles
Many of the following parts are copied directly from the iron man build's materials list, hence text like "I usually buy them in bulk" - that's the author of the original build talking, not me. My notes are in bold.LightsUnknown / miscellaneous:
Arduino ProMini 328 5V Sparkfun part # DEV-11113
Arduino ProMini 328 3.3V Sparkfun part # DEV-11114Arduino Pro 328 5V Sparkfun part # DEV-10915
8x RJ45 8-pin connector Ethernet cable connector Sparkfun part # PRT-006438x Breakout Board for RJ45 Sparkfun part # BOB-00716
4x JST RCY Connector for the helmet battery packs Sparkfun part # PRT-10501 These parts are on backorder, may need to find another solution.
SD/MicroSD Memory Card (4 GB SDHC) Adafruit Product ID: 1024x Straight Break Away Headers - for making connectors/servo leads Sparkfun part # PRT-00116
4x Female Headers for making connectors/servo leads Sparkfun part # PRT-001152x Adafruit Perma-Proto Quarter-sized Breadboard for mounting connectors, etc. Adafruit Product ID: 5896x TIP 120 transistors for turning on LEDs and triggering sound effects. Digkey sells them.
10 x power slide switches. These connect all of the individual power sources in the suit. Digikey sells them.High Strength Velcro
Wire and Ethernet Cables.Head
ID-12 RFID tag reader Sparkfun part # SEN-11827 (LA version is replacement)
XBee Series 1 module Sparkfun part # WRL-11215
Adafruit XBee Adapter board Adafruit Product ID: 126
Adafruit Wave Shield Adafruit Product ID: 94
Pololu 5V DC/DC converter D24V5F5 -steps down the helmet 7.4V battery voltage for the ProMini
Hitec HS-5087MH micro servo for the helmet chin section- Servocity.com
Hitec HS-7245MH mini servo for the helmet faceplate- Servocity.com
1-4 16mm RFID button tag (125 kHz) Sparkfun part # SEN-094176x AAA NiMH cells 1.2V for the helmet battery pack - local grocery storeRFID reader breakout Sparkfun part # Product SEN-08423 Parts on backorder, may need to hold off on RFID project until they come in.Boots
1 x Adafruit tactile on/off power switch for helmet- Adafruit Product ID: 1092
4-40 swivel links (pkg of 4)- you need two links for the helmet, two for the forearm missile and four for the hip pods- Servocity.com
4-40 12" length threaded rod- used to make the helmet and hip pod servo linkages- Servocity.com
SMD prototyping board- used for soldering the surface mount LEDs and resistors for the eyes. Sparkfun part # PRT-08708
2x Luxeon Rebel high power white LED for the lights in the boots Sparkfun part # BOB-09656 These parts are no longer available, I will need to find replacement LEDs.
Sharp GP2D120XJ00F Infrared Proximity Sensor Sensor for the bottom of the boot Sparkfun part # SEN-08959 This part is no longer available, so I am replacing it with what appears to be its successor, part # SEN-12728
7027 "BuckToot" LED Driver Module to power the Luxeon LEDs Sparkfun part # COM-09642 Also no longer available, I will need to find another solution for my LED driver needs as well. May try to replace both driver and LED with these from neopixel: http://www.adafruit.com/products/2376
34 x PLCC-2 package SMT white LEDs- 10 for the eyes and 24 for the chest light. You could easily substitute standard LEDs. I buy these in bulk on eBay but retailers like Digikey also sell them.
34 x 1206 package 100 Ohm SMT resistors- 10 for the eyes and 24 for the chest light.You could easily substitute standard resistors. I buy these surplus from a local shop but retailers like Digikey also sell them.
Neopixel Ring: http://www.adafruit.com/products/1586
Controller- FTDI Cable (Controller to PC Cable) - http://www.trossenrobotics.com/store/p/6406-FTDI-Cable-5V.aspx
- 6 Push Button Switches- http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/mpb-227/dpdt-momentary-mini-pushbutton-pc-mt/1.html
- Screen - https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9395
- Connector for Easy Wiring - https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8733
- Soldering iron
- Solder
- Heatshrink
- Hobby wire
- Multitester
- Helping hands
- Experimenter breadboard - https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9567
- Jumper wires for breadboard - https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11026
This image has been resized to fit in the page. Click to enlarge.
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Comments
I just ordered all the parts I need. Some parts I got with rushed shipping and supposedly they'll get here today or tomorrow. Others like the infrared sensors only had standard shipping options and will arrive more slowly, but at least I'll have enough parts to post up a demo video.
My goal for the week is to create functions to refuel the armor, power the armor / deactivate it, set it into overdrive / turn overdrive off. I should be able to track the mode and the fuel usage on the LCD display. Each mode should make different LEDs blink, until I get the NeoPixels in the mail at which point I want to make it change the color of the LEDs, and possibly the pulse pattern. I may also add a button to activate a servo. I would like to also get it to play a few sounds.
I did not order the wireless parts or servo parts for the helmet, because I want to focus on lights and sounds for the body and the boots first. One of the kits I ordered comes with a small servo that I will use to simulate the helmet's functionality without buying the expensive servo and wireless equipment.
I have a lot going on this week, so I don't know how far I'm going to get. I've got a major LARP event this weekend for which we have been developing several monster costumes. Last week both of the sewing machines we were using broke and we had to go buy our own somewhat more modern machine, but the result was that we fell behind with only one machine to sew. I don't think I'll get much done with the foam armor fabrication this week, though I do plan on prototyping the torso and getting as many of the electronics working as possible.
Stay tuned for a video update later this week!
Got a program working too! At first I wrote one to cycle modes and change the LED's color based on the mode it was in. The different modes auto cycled until I hooked up the buttons, and now it THEORETICALLY does everything I want it to, except that I'm having trouble getting the buttons to work the way I want them to. For learning purposes, here's why:
I've kept the delays in, which currently are 1 second delays. That means after it checks the mode, it waits a second before it checks again. This was to prevent it constantly jumping modes if the button was held down more than one processor cycle, but the result is that you have to hold the button down for a little while before it registers that it should switch modes, and once it does realize that it sometimes takes a while before it does the switch! So I need to figure out how to handle button presses, and print some debug statements so I can see what exactly is happening as it happens. But it's going really well!
It turns out that the Wave Shield has a lot of parts I'm going to have to solder to it myself, and I'm a bit nervous about doing that for the first time so I'm going to save that for later and focus on getting this working, maybe setting up the LCD screen as well and THEN I'll tackle soldering this weekend.
Edit: Tackled the button press problem by eliminating delays entirely from the script and instead tracking the time of the last button press. I only check for new button presses if 1 second has passed since the last press occured. After that second has passed, the program checks for a button press every cycle. In this way, I can make sure that all button presses happen instantaneously as soon as the button is pressed, but that I won't get the computer registering the same button as being pressed over and over and over if I hold it down for less than a second. Now the logic of the program is working exactly as intended, and I can focus on getting the lighting effects where I want them (right now it's just a single RGB LED, and I want to get the strip and the ring animating differently for each mode - right now they are not wired in).
Pretty simple code so far, going to get into more complex stuff like NeoPixels and sound this weekend and post an update when I have internet access again. Won't be participating live this time, but I'll be watching it as soon as I get home on Sunday and then I'll be on Facebook and the forums while I finish up. The video is processing right now but the link should be good within the hour or so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKMNG0i_caQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9HUmmix92c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZxVhHlawN4
There's the updated glow, the spine still isn't finished so I guess I"m not doing to well on the part where you incorporate it with your prop, but at least I have the lights going the way I wanted to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJWtdbkoqHs