My Ghostbusters PKE meters, trap, and goggles

Hey guys,

I'm new here, but I've been building props for a while, and I'm sure many of you don't frequent the GBFans forums, so I thought some of you might like to see some of the props I've built over the past couple years.

This first batch of props are my PKE meters.

These started out with my Real Ghostbusters style meter, which I based on the concept sketches from the cartoon, and painted with a more realistic color scheme similar to the RGB meter in the basement of the firehouse in the video game:










This first batch had a shell made from basswood, and an antenna made from a turnbuckle, a cabinet latch, two shaft collars, two aluminum threaded posts, four stainless washers & four rubber washers, two shaft collars, two 1/2" set screws, and a couple bic pens. The screen is clear acrylic, with a laster printed overhead transparency behind it.

The electronics inside was a simple 555 circuit driving a 4017 decade counter and a piezo buzzer:




Here's a video of the PKE in action:
YouTube - Real Ghostbusters Style PKE Meter - Ghost Detecting

After I made several of the above, I then got a request for a custom meter which was to be even more similar to the one seen in the cartoon, and which would have a screen like that of the Real Ghostbusters toy PKE:



For that meter, the waterfall display wouldn't do, so instead I created a crosshairs-like display:
YouTube - xxEctoxx PKE


I also began working on a Real Ghostbusters style trap after this, which the same fellow immediately snatched up. It's still a work in progress, but I plan to finish it up by September:











Oh, and I almost forgot. This trap will feature a circuit with a microcontroller to blink the lights and animate the bargraph on top at random intervals. I'll be putting that together this week.

And speaking of microcontrollers...

Back in February, decided to do another run of my RGB meters. I also decided that if I wanted my pro making business to really take off I'd need to kick things up a notch. To do this, I turned to the Arduino, a microcontroller designed for the hobbyist. Using this, I could make my leds animate any way I wanted to, and produce more varied sounds as well.

I also had a request from someone to build them a meter similar to the one seen in Extreme Ghostbusters. Little did I know the decision to take that particular project on would lead me to spending the next six months learning how to design electronic circuits!

But before I got into all that, I made another crazy decision... I would mold all the PKE shells out of resin instead of building them one from wood. Of course I had no experience making silicone molds or molding anything out of resin, but how hard could it be? :-)

So, I started researching silicone molding alongside my research into the microcontrollers and the supporting circuitry needed to make the EGB pke work.

MAKING THE MOLDS:

After a few weeks of research on the circuits and how to make the molds, I purchased around $250 worth of materials and equipment:


Then I made the first shell, which I used copious amounts of wood filler on and then sealed because I didn't want to have to fix imperfections on every single pull from my mold:


Then I made my mold boxes, and embedded my parts in clay in preparation for puring the first half of my two part molds:



Then I poured the molds:


And two days later they were complete:


I then poured the resin (which I should have done with the molds in a mold box to prevent it front leaking out the sides and bottom):



And got my first pulls:




And it wasn't long after that that they had freinds:


When making the mold for the cowl around the screen it broke free from the base of the mold, so that mold got screwed up, but with what I had of it, I tried pouring a test cowl and discovered that this resin was going to be way too flexible with something that thin. So I decided to make the cowls out of styrene sheet instead. (Those are still in progress so I don't have any photos of them.)

THE CIRCUITS:

So while I was doing all of the above, I was also working on the circuits for these meters. Originally, I just planned to lay out the components on Radio Shack perfboard, and stick the microcontroller on there and be done with it. But in the process of soldering together the screen for the EGB meter, I realized it was going to be nearly impossible to wire the thing up neatly with the 64 leds it needed for the display.

So I made another fateful decision: I would simply have to get the PCBs professionally made. Then soldering components onto them would be a breeze!

So, I went to Pad2Pad, downloaded their cad software, and proceeded to lay out my circuits, which I'd designed the schematics for in another program called Fritzing (which I don't reccomend!):


That took about a week, and ten days after that I had my boards in hand!


I then soldered one of the RGB kits togeher to make sure it all worked right:
YouTube - Soldering and Testing RGB PKE Circuit

But I decided that I didn't like the flimsy rainbow ribbon cable I was using or the fact that all the switches and leds were permanently attached to the board making it difficult/impossible to remove from the prop, so I found some new ribbon cables and some molex connectors and then got to work putting the EGB meter together:
YouTube - Extreme Ghostbusters PKE Circuit

Which as you can see works great. It's so nice after six months of work on these to finally see it up and running, and the animation and sound came out better than I'd hoped. Soon the shells will be painted, and the electronics installed and these meters will be done!

And last, but cetainly not least, the movie PKE meter!

I'm sure you're all familiar with this one:
YouTube - PKE Meter Reference

The one prop every ghostbuster needs besides his trusty proton pack and ecto goggles! It's also the one prop for which its been the hardest to get electronics for. And for this reason I decided to put all my newfound electronics circuit design skills to work and develop this circuit:






Here's some videos of the circuit in action. The video was taken with an iPhone, so it's like 7fps and doesn't show the led animation properly, but it was the best I could do with the equipment I had:
YouTube - PKE Meter Prototype Pt. 1
YouTube - PKE Meter Prototype Pt. 2
YouTube - PKE Meter Prototype Pt. 3

(If you just want to see the circuit in action, you can skip the first video, where I merely discuss the various components of the circuit.)

These circuits are still in the development phase, but should be ready around a month from now. I am currently drawing up the schematic based on the breadboard design and then I'll do the PCB layout and send it off for manufacture.


So that's it! Hope you enjoyed all the PKEs. I'll be putting up some photos of my other props sometime in the next few days. Those won't be quite as lengthy as this thread though. :-)

Hey guys,

Just thought I'd update this thread with a few more pics and some videos of my props.


Here's where the trap stood last October:




A lot of progress with that has been made since then, but I haven't yet taken photos.

Here's a video of the prototype though for the circuit which will go in it, which I just finished:
YouTube - RGB Trap Circuit Prototype


I've also got some updates on the movie PKE circuits.


Here are the boards as I recieved them in October:



And here is the first partially assembled board:



This image shows how the completed board fits inside the PKE shell. You can see the servos, which have been taped together using electrical tape and attached to the top of the PKE with double sided sticky tape, hanging down:



And here's the little production line I have going for the next ten boards which I hope to have finished and shipped in a couple weeks:



And finally, here is a video of the circuit in action, with the sound code functioning in an early state:
YouTube - Movie PKE Circuit Sound Demo

(Since this video was taken I've optimized the code and improved the sound a bit.)

Thanks for all the nice comments guys! Here's some more pics:

This is the completed EGB meter:

Some more progress on those movie PKEs as well:

And here are a couple pairs of ecto goggles I built:


This first pair were just quick prop I built to wear on my head, so you could not see through them:






This second pair I intended to sell on ebay, so I built them so you could see through them, and they had several LEDs to make them appear functional:

Some new photos of the boards. They should ship out in the next couple weeks: