fishgoh0nk

should've waited for the paint to cure before doing the crayon... Also should've chose a brighter sheen for the undercoat when scraping to weather... lesson learned haha

Finally got the E11 Sanded and wrapping up the paint. I'm really digging the texture - using Krylon Textured, knocked down with Krylon Matte, and then topped off with Rustoleum Dead flat top coat. Thoughts?

I had to divide the 5v because the raspi is a 3.3v device. Do you think the 10k and 14k are too resistive, it was ducking into the micro amps? I did some calculations and I'm currently going to try a board with 1k and 2k respectively; that should give the fans roughly 1.6mA edit - forgot the purpose - they're an out to tell the pi and trigger a audible feedback that the fans are on, just something for fun, not required, but i wanted it to talk to the pi

thought about it - would probably need an i2c pin board for the pi to accomodate additional pins; i'm running out of pins on the 2x20. second thing is - what do we show on the hud? temperature? star wars movie? email?

Running into the second set of fans shutting off after a few seconds - probably have a bad ground or a short; would love someone to critique my circuitry. https://www.falstad.com/circuit/circuitjs.html?ctz=CQAgjCAMB0l3BWcMBMcUHYMGZIA4UA2ATmIxAUgoqoQFMBaMMAKABcQM8AWEb7FCDxhCfAVHAgGMeBgTEEKNJELyEhPJGJRoCBCIyEwSjJDDZK24lQAmdAGYBDAK4AbNiwBuFYyEyDVUX8JKm5aEJ0EFm4wJEC-DEFhIMSQ3UkYWJ0smUEZJAhIFgB3EHjg+JjRIpi49T4RIUaqtILspEyO2DzYNqKOLl4UPDwmoJGJQtg4ZhQwYXVINHVuPEIevTBibG3sOTW8eVHSWwcXdxLOHj8JwZBsbGrLu-5BF80oS+T7yF4RqlwvCKpX+Pz+HyUQMu+kEkJ8sNSwLGfFWyJhnxBjXR2N8RW8CG4vAeokI+HujwiYWoVBpukupNG2GuDL4HyRBKJFPRwSKACcyqliVdOdU+KYWPyWasqO8aWK+fDFeiwnKwPAFcq4IqeeAVezfCq+FrDdgJUIIShwVQwITJuqzaCbVaykDdfAvh9CLx0V6MYrfdzLX7HbbSIInfcWABnMpkoWEQUUuVOVxRujR2OMikspmuqgptMsIA EDIT: i think i need to lower the resistance, not enough current to run both the fans and the touch breakout... it's in the microamps attempts to measure it cuts power.

I had built a nice soundboard into my bucket that utilized raspberry pi to hook into the iComm's Line In and momentary buttons around the chin; but the buttons were not accessible when the armor was worn; the design was pretty short sighted. I had experimented and prototyped new options for helmet sound control via 315mhz remotes; but the fidelity was quite bad. Some of the actuations were picked up, some were not; and given anyone else at the event could also be using a similar frequency, interference was a high possibility. So I experimented with capacitive touch - if one is not familiar, basically an electrical current is run through a single conductor or wire and a logic board will detect if the current drops, meaning someone grounded or has a higher capacity for electricity, absorbs the signal. I experimented with the touch option through Anovos ABS thickness as well as the 3mm ATA armor thickness as well as with rubber TK gloves. So far so goood As I'm not super savvy with electronics, I followed adafruit's guide to wiring their components, their touch breakouts were relatively cheap and easily accessible. Here's the guide - https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-capacitive-touch-sensor-breakouts I basically went nose first into the deep end, picking up a breadboard and began learning about voltage and resistance management. The breadboard as well as this circuit design calculator helped me out greatly. https://www.falstad.com/circuit/circuitjs.html After concept proofing, I figured a 5 way breakout was better for my usage. I had not read carefully, but the 5 way pulls low rather than high when sending the signal, which was better for raspberry pi as it has a 3.3v max input. Any more than 3.3v in would burn it out. As I supplied a 5v to the breakout, drops in voltage didn't require down stepping, that made wiring a lot cleaner. I took apart my bucket and hid all the wires under velcro. The touch points were created with conductive adhesive copper tape and a single conductor wire. I found that 26gauge headphone wire worked the best; I had limited supply, but favored their low profile and high conductivity. There's a total of 1 x 5 way breakout, 2 toggle breakouts (fans) and 2 momentary (one for iComm PTT and extra control button) The solitary breakouts, even though requires 3 wires total (VDD, Ground, Out) were a lot easier to manage as you could localize the breakout and not have to worry about crossing wires or accidental actuation. Two fan controller breakouts were wired directly to the power supply, controlled by a NPN transistor. It's 5v output needed to be down stepped via 10K and 14K ohm resistors for R1 and R2. The final signal is passed into the pi to trigger voice commands and visual queue that the fans were enabled or disabled. Version 1 Version 2 I didn't plan to, but eventually just soldered directly to the pi, the 40pin headers were too tall for profile in the helmet. Also tried experimenting with a usb soundboard rather than the iComm. Haven't figured out the voice changer on pi... maybe one day. I added last minute a visual queue indicator to tell me the status of the touches. It's hard to keep track of the touch combinations and what has actually occurred, so this RGB LED helps a lot https://i.imgur.com/1g2ULHU.gifv This is by no means cable managed, I could've tried harder to conceal the wires, but I'll get to that next time I take this apart. Plugging everything is touch work, and I just want to get to trooping. After messing with the wiring till 6am the day of my first troop, sometimes it's better to keep it simple or just not mess with it. On the software side - I'm running a systemd startup service that runs a python script which uses pygame.mixer and a few other libraries to handle the functionality. It's quite spaghetti right now, if anyone's interested, I'll share or upload it to github. Hope this helps someone out. Edit - here's a video of the functions

Like a smooth, shiny egg! The foundation of every trooper rump.

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...