GalacticGotham

Thanks for the replies. Yea I thought the same about breaking in and I really don't know about price. But if I do it, it will be something that doesn't currently exist and as it is all the electronics marketed at trooping are dramatically overpriced IMO. So being able to be cost competitive should not be an issue at all. I just don't want to go to a lot of effort and have no one care about it. I'm not looking to make voice changers. That's hard. It's software-heavy, and I wouldn't be able to make it very good. I'm a hardware guy. A miniaturized voice amp kit with optional static burst capability is what I had in mind. It would be applicable to any costume that uses an amp. Definitely my preference would be for wired mic. I also tried wireless and when using it with my hearing assist I could hear my own echo from the latency. My intention would be for everything to be small enough to be contained in any helmet, so there would be no real advantage to wireless. MP3 support is doable with my idea and also PTT. I havent ever used either myself. I always liked the auto detect feature with the icomm as the default. Icomm issues are generally all battery related. I stopped using mine for that reason. It's pretty easy to mod for another battery as some of you know, but I would have to reconfig my helmet setup to make it work. It's really tight space in my bucket as it is and any changes are a pain. That's really what got me thinking about this. Hearing assist is definitely not for everyone. It really just depends on how bad your fan noise is. My system is really good if the implementation is correct. If the mic placement isn't great with respect to the fans, the fan noise is actually amplified and you're making the problem worse. But with proper hearing mic placement (inside the hovi tips is good for a TK), you can hear people whispering across the room. You can mount a headset in the helmet for hearing or use wired earbuds. Amplifying background noise is somewhat inevitable but it allows you to hear when people around you that you can't see are asking for pics, so I like that. Still, when you're in a parade near the marching band or a firetruck...you want to turn it off for sure. I haven't decided if I'll really do anything or not. My time and motivation will have to both be at the right level. I'm probably nerdy enough to do it just for fun and use it myself if no one else wants it. No idea of a timeframe though. But like I said if anyone has any wild ideas for some trooping electronics that don't exist currently, maybe we could make it happen if there is enough interest. Thanks Josh

Hey Troopers...TK20424 here. I'm an electronics engineer and I have been toying with the idea of designing some custom hardware that would replace the commonly used voicebooster products. I was considering designing a voice amp and icomm-esque combo. Maybe it would be with or without static burst capability. It would be smaller form factor with a friendlier battery setup. It would be a sizeable time investment and a fair bit of money investment as well if I decided to do it. I see at least one other person selling off the shelf trooper hardware that they only modify or make cables for and they seem to be doing well with it. So my question is...if such a thing existed would there be interest in purchasing? And if so, what price point would make it attractive? Secondly, I have already designed a hearing assist amp for troopers who can't hear over their helmet fan noise. It needs a little refinement, but I was considering selling those. It's roughly a square inch circuit board and the mics can be placed anywhere so it works with any helmet. Any interest in that? What would be a fair price? The third thing...this is probably more applicable to droid builds or props. I had an issue powering items with USB power banks because my LEDs (or whatever) didn't draw enough current to keep the supply on. I like to use the USB supplies because they're convenient to recharge, cheap, and universal. But USB banks all turn off automatically to conserve charge when not enough current is sensed because they think nothing is connected. So I designed a little board that creates a small periodic pulse to keep the power bank alive and still not draw any significant current to shorten the battery life. It connects in line with your usb cable. Any interest in those? Any other suggestions for something troopers would be interested in that doesn't currently exist? Improvements to things that do exist? Any feedback is appreciated.

I also had this same issue. As suggested I replaced strapping with stronger elastic but I also moved and re glued the shoulder straps higher on the chest piece. That had the biggest effect on getting rid of the back/kidney plate gap and creating the iverlap in front. I'm about 6'1". Sent from my SM-A546U using Tapatalk

Thanks a lot. Glad you like it. Your blaster project is very cool as well. I'm thinking of doing a similar E-11 thing with totally different hardware for another trooper friend. For sure you could use Proffieboard since you're familiar with it. It's way overkill really but would definitely get the job done. The Nano boards are just 8 bit atmega328s. Sent from my SM-A546U using Tapatalk

Good start. Sounds like you're going for something like mine... https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/53853-my-trooper-armor-transport-crate/ Sent from my SM-A546U using Tapatalk

I have a pretty big head and it's a challenge. But I have a lot of stuff in my bucket as well. I have 4 fans, an icomm unit, and an audio amp along with the 12v power supply to drive it all. Plus I added a little hearing assist system that I designed. But I'm still able to fit my head because I removed all the padding except in the top and replaced the rest with very thin black EVA foam all around for lining and for looks. It's a process to put on and off but it fits comfortably when it's on. So even if you don't have a lot of stuff in there, removing the pads should help a lot. I also had trouble with the s trim wanting to come off for the same reason but I glued it all the way around with E6000 to take care of that. I wouldn't trim the opening except as a last resort. Sent from my SM-A546U using Tapatalk

Here's the link to the crate with pics and some vids showing the neopixel animations, the display animation, and the decompression effect when opening. https://imgur.com/a/seQbaP6

Yea, my pics are a little out of date. After a couple troops, the edges have gotten dinged up a bit and let the black show through. I think it just gives it character. But I was thinking of adding some dirt/oil weathering from the bottom up, but I'm undecided.

I made a post showing off my crate. https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic?url=https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/53853-my-trooper-armor-transport-crate/&share_tid=53853&share_fid=44557&share_type=t&link_source=app My Trooper Armor Crate I'm looking for opinions on applying weathering like these on this thread or leaving it clean. I'm undecided. Sent from my SM-A546U using Tapatalk

Requesting access. TK20424 https://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=36481