fishgoh0nk

Saving the sanding for the weekend, have to put on my PPE

I'm sorry I every doubted it. The V-tabs are a success; I finally gave the butt belt the ol' snip. The booty looks great with the v-tabs regardless of forward closure Don't find my lack of faith disturbing, I glued the v-tabs on top of the butt belt planning to use them in conjunction. Woops 2nd time moving the han snap, was clumsy with the paint this time around and made the process plenty more difficult. Ended up sanding everything off and repainting the entire corner. Hopefully that's far enough? :X Also got a nice SBB from @trooper96 Very exciting!

Trying to better understand, Glen's kidney plate glue was to stop the butt from going over the kidney and overlapping; Richard I think I'm going to glue onto the butt so the butt doesn't push past the kidney to cause gap that could develop into an overlap? Does the DO care that the butt sticks out or only if it sticks and AND overlaps the kidney? Just trying to make sure I solve the right problem... I should also make the tabs a bit longer, don't think these short ones will hold as well

Thanks Glen! I'm giving your v-tabs concept a try; I think I understand, instead of trying to restrict the booty, you make the booty extend the back. Hot water was weak, had to bust out the heat gun due to the abs thickness. Question: Do you glue both sides of the tab? or just the butt plate side?

James 83751 EIB Letter Chemi https://www.whitearmor.net/eib/certificates/83751-eib.png

@Chemi I made some changes per your recommendations Sniper Knee - Are these the angles we're looking for? Hopefully I can go about my business Vocoder - Wiped that stupid grin off my face, is this what we're looking for? Ears - I'd like to think I'm a good listener. Guess I got demoted, Private First Class again!

Awesome! Thanks for the diligent L3 comparisons! I'll be sure to have those corrected for the next approval stage!

Nice work! Keep it up!

Good tip! I'll look for some wider ABS to stick under the shoulders covers. I also bought another pair from trooper bay when purchasing the ears (for shipping value) because I heard this is probably the most vulnerable part of the armor, heaven forbid I actually have to replace them.

For some reason the server created a duplicate post as above, it was submitting for like 10 minutes while Ieft the browser spinning. I'll just delete this for less scroll

Replaced the shoulder cover elastic with flats! Also replaced the ammo box elastic with the correct woven elastic! It was scary adding breaking the super glue around the box covers, so I thought I would future proof any adjustments by using magnets to secure the boxes together. As for the shoulder covers, I heard good things about truck liner spray - I wonder if it comes in white, would definitely keep the shoulder covers flexible yet sturdy. Hopefully these will work out well. Thanks for the tips guys!

I've been trying to wire up a remote system for my raspberry pi with a 5v 315mhz receiver, and planning to use the Pi's 3.3V high to close the circuit with an BJT NPN. What's confusing me is the step down from 5v to 3v3 after the momentary switch has been enabled; Pi's input takes 3v3 max as a pull up; I'm not very savvy with resistances; could someone offer me up their help? Voltage outputs: the Pi has a 5v rail pin, max 16mA and a 3v3 pin Grounds: the Pi has various ground pins Inputs: the Pi has various pins rated 3v3 to detect signal highs and lows Components: The momentary receiver board has a 5v in, ground, and 4 outs (D0, D1, D2, D3, each corresponding to what remote button is pressed), I'm assuming these will also be 5v. I want to connect these outs to the 3v3 pin, but I don't want to exceed the 3v3 pin max. I plan to step down the voltage with a series divider, but I'm not sure if the receiver chip is its own "circuit" or not. The image on the left assumes the 5v in and 5v out are on different phases, the one on the right is a singular circuit but the 5v in has been stepped down to 2.5, which won't fly to run the receiver circuit. Any thoughts would be extremely appreciated!

Theoretically that might work; I just can't believe RWA doesn't hem the edges to prevent this. If it were me, I'd use the fray check (basically a glue) on the backside and tops of the belt to avoid detection (yellowing or overapplication) as a short-term solution. If that holds great, if not, I personally would ditch the belt eventually and pick up a nice one from @TKittell (Imperial Issue), or hem it myself with a protective fold over the edges, but the latter solution I'm not sure if it would be scrutinized at higher level approvals.

Here you go!

Looks like I hit my reaction limit for today, but thumbs up. I'm able to get dressed solo now! Yay! I feel like I've just hijacked this thread... lol I can bend my arms quite a bit now, but man it's hard to reach under the helmet chin. No matter how high the bicep is, once the forearm touches the bicep, the forearm gets pushed towards my wrist, locking it, effectively hamstringing my finger dexterity. I guess I'll sleep on it; maybe some solution will reveal itself, it always does. Thanks all!

Welcome Matt! It's a great feeling to join the ranks of the 501st, but don't forget, the journey itself is also very rewarding. Good luck with the build!

Having it on the inside of the forearms most certainly helped. I guess depending on the day, how large my biceps are, mobility degrees would change. Trying it on right now, I can get my hand closer to my face, but there's still some pressure between plastics on the forearm and bicep. Having the bicep sit higher would reduce the pressure, and possibly allow me to flex my hand into my face. I want it to look natural however, because the soundboard controls are in the chin, I don't want to be struggling to speak LOL The inner bell strap helps the bicep from separating from the bell. Without it, flexion of the arms would cause the bicep to pop out from the bell. I have seen some other troopers with a similar solution, and I definitely like it.

Easy when you got a whole roll of the good stuff. Next step I think is to tighten up the bicep to bell, but I slightly fear in doing so, will cause the bell to pull more on the shoulder elastic. I double layered the shoulder elastic, but it has limits too. 'Have to strike a balance here I guess...

Yup! Anytime I don't have to rewire, paint match, or resculpt something on the armor, I take it as a minor win. Restrapping is pretty low risk so I'm optimistic I realized I won't be break dancing in the suit, but I'm still questioning the suit's capabilities to reach the electronic switches in the chin of the helmet. Hopefully I don't have to move the switches, I like the bucket not being encumbered by wires to the torso. Wirefree is mobility.

Yea I learned that a month ago, but thought I could run with the way I had it. I think if I want more mobility as well, I might have to increase the bicep circumference a bit and maybe take a few more mm off the forearm top edge. I've been working out a lot during the pandemic...

I can try to illustrate. The image shown below is the left arm strapping, the velcro elastic that secures the bicep to the forearm is facing behind. The yellow lines represent my arm, the blue the armor, and the green the elastic strap and the red arrow the dominant pull of elastic. As I bend the elbow, the green elastic is stretched and begins to fight the bell to bicep strap, ultimately winning, causing more of a collision between forearm and bicep. Ross from RWA can demonstrate. As he bends his elbow, the elastic in green is lengthened.

I discovered that since the forearm to bicep strap is on the outside of the elbow, the bend is actually stretching, pulling my bicep down as the arm bends in the process. I can redo some of the elastic strapping to raise the bicep. Thanks for all the info. Needless to say, my mobility dreams have somewhat been quashed, better put away my cardboard mat and Adidas shoes.

I fear bringing up the bicep too high will squeeze the chestplate from the sides to bow in the front. I'm guessing this is actually a mobility cut so the inner bicep doesn't interfere with the torso? Would that need to be trimmed to accommodate it's ascension?

Yup, but do you keep it disconnected after you get in? Reaching down between the legs is not impossible, just not easy So I tried to reach my chin and other shoulder to put on the bell, the contact points are circled in red. Are there any approved methods to reduce the contact points within the green dotted lines I can make? I tried the forearm rotation, if I'm not wearing the compression under suit, it definitely pinches skin even at > 90 degree arm bend. If I wear the under suit, regardless of the rotation, I can only make it about 80 degrees of an arm bend, not enough to let me reach the other shoulder or touch my face.

LOL, the RWA video makes it seem so effortless, my thighs are too big to step into a snapped cod piece armor, so I have to reach down there to secure it; I pull a pectoral muscle every time