Daft Punk Thomas Helmet -- Skipped a few chapters

Great looking helmet! Ive been following these threads for the daft punk helmets for a while and every day i love what im seeing.

Volpin, if you have any room on the list i was hoping i could be added to it.

Colin
 
Come now folks, lets not derail Tekparasite's thread with interest in Volpin's future helmet run. Save it for the thread in the junk yard, when the time comes.
 
My appologies to tekparasite, I wasnt trying to derail the thread. I figured if people were throwing there names out there to get on the list i would aswell. Im new here and still learning the forum rules.

Again, very sorry
Colin
 
My appologies to tekparasite, I wasnt trying to derail the thread. I figured if people were throwing there names out there to get on the list i would aswell. Im new here and still learning the forum rules.

Again, very sorry
Colin

Thanks for understanding. Email me if you want more details. contact@volpinprops.net

On-topic:
Julio, how much filler work did you have to do on your helmet? The polyester ones I've pulled dont have the same registration key bumps like the urethane castings do, but there's an odd ridge near the "seam" line of the helmet. A small dip, actually. Wondering if that's a part of the mold or a byproduct of the new, unfamiliar casting process.
 
how much filler work did you have to do on your helmet?

Not much really. The main areas I had to do some work on where the dimple on the cheek and top visor area. There was a little bit of a dip on the seem of the helmet near the left ear (LEFT if you wear the helmet). But it didn't stretch along the entire seem, it was just on that part close to the ear area.

One thing I did notice that after chroming the ears did not fit as well as before.

One ear just wouldn't stay on while the other one had a tight fit. Prior to chroming both ears used to fit nicely. I did have to flex the helmet a little bit to get the visor and the ears in place. The helmet is still symmetrical and everything looks good, it just that things shifted a bit I guess.

In retrospect, it was not the best idea to cut this part of the ear circle as this piece provides better support so that the ear holes do not change in shape.

5596439979_deed07abb0.jpg


I highlighted the statement above in case someone else plans to follow my previous steps.
 
Well, I had a false alarm when I posted that my matrix was finished. After testing complete rows and columns, I noticed that 3 complete columns in one of the panels were a bit dimmer than the other ones.

It's difficult to tell these things when testing one led at a time; however, when lighting multiple LEDs, you can easily tell if some are brighter/dimmer than others.

Since there were 3 columns (out of 32) with dimmer LEDs, I thought it must be a bad connection somewhere.
Six hours later, I still could not get to the bottom of it.
BangHead1.gif



Finally, I carefully took one of the dimmed LED and tested it outside of the matrix and was surprised to see that it was actually the LED and not my matrix connections.

So, I spent the rest of the day disassembling one of the panels of my matrix to get these ~ 24 LEDs replaced.

I finally got all LEDs showing the same brightness (well, best i can tell).
 
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At a steady pace, I have been working on slimming down my components. The goal for my setup is to have most of the components inside the helmet including the arduino.

So my arduino had to go through a major size reduction.

First, I replaced my standard size Arduino for a nano version.

5827286780_ffbe78dba7.jpg


Even though the Nano is really small compared to my previous unit, it still wasn't optimal as the headers were sticking out from top and bottom.
5827286976_15ce95970d.jpg


So, my goal was to replace all those straight headers with angle headers.

To de-solder these pins, I used a vacuum pump and some solder wick.

5826735699_316c844960.jpg


All pins are gone on one side.

This is what I'm looking for.
5826735905_70da7ef961.jpg


This is what it looks like using ALL angle header connectors. I did not solder all of the pins, just the ones pertinent to this application.
5827288568_69957a0d8c.jpg


5826736599_40356c5bd3.jpg



I loaded up the code, and it seems to working the same as big brother.
 
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...now when I said I was going to 'hack' the crap out of this SureElectronics module, I meant that literally.

So, here's the module intact
5628665602_3a757bfd9d.jpg


I'll admit. There are cleaner (better) ways of detaching these panels from the main board; however, not knowing what I was going to see, I decided to go with brute force cutting.

I picked up this small saw from a hobby shop.
5827284954_3903495016.jpg


Took a deep breath and started cutting. As you can tell, the panels have these legs on all 4 corners, so I knew I had to cut through that plus anything else in the middle that was also connected.

I tried my best to keep the saw blade from rubbing against the circuitry in the SureElectronics board.

5827285348_27b943af29.jpg


Here's the back of the first removed 8x8 LED panel.
5827285864_94b748c106.jpg


... and here's what is left behind on the SureElectronics board after removing all 4 panels. Notice the white squares on the board outlining the footprint of each panel.

5827286132_64d8d0c761.jpg



It was extremely difficult to get any sort of voltage and/or amp readings from the main board given that I didn't know what each pin was doing. :confused

So, my next step was to decipher the 8x8 LED panel matrix and see if I got anything out of that using simply trial-and-error method.

I rigged the panel with these angle headers to make it easier to test. Then, using a battery + resistor, I fixed the positive lead to one pin and tested all other pins while looking to see if anything would light up.

Please note that before removing the LED panels, I marked their orientation (top,bottom,left, side). I also marked each with 1,2,.. so the side shown in the picture below is the right side of the first panel.

5827286374_ba55bf661f.jpg


I had to rig two panels with headers like the one above. Not that I needed two, but my boys thought I was making spider robots. :). So each had to have one.

After some more trial and error, I figure out that connections do not vary from panel to panel. That's a :thumbsup in my book.

.. and here the answer to the puzzle.

5828294107_235313b15a_o.jpg


As the picture shows, rows are anodes and columns are cathodes. So if I wanted to light up the shown LED, I would have to connect E(+) and 6(-).

More importantly, here's the same reference, but now from the SureElectronics pins.

5828294123_6004c9661c_o.jpg



The next step was to make the connections from the SureElectronics board to my matrix using these references.

First step was to equip the SureElectronics board with headers
5827288974_0aab8bf561.jpg


Then, work on the wire harnesses.

5827289398_04feb9c3e6.jpg


more to come.
 
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brain transplant from SureElectronics board to my matrix was relatively painless. After I got everything connected, this is the best impression of how I felt once I powered the arduino

YouTube - ‪It's Alive!‬‏
:lol

.....and here is my little Frankenstein

YouTube - ‪Daft Punk Thomas LED Matrix‬‏

:love sorry about the mess in the background, and special thanks to my wife for making improvements to the code that handles the potentiometer inputs
 
Here's a little update.

Time to start placing components inside the helmet.

First was the placement of the SureElectronics booard. Surprisingly, mounting the board in this spot in such orientation gives me plenty of room to put my head in. I may have to put some sort of brace between my head and the board as there is really too much room inside. That's a good thing.

I'm using a 1" long bolt with Tee Nut attached to the helmet to secure the board. Notice also the shaved corners on the board. This was used to bring the board a bit closer to the helmet.



5845122905_05f198c54b.jpg


I also put some foam padding as it was really wobbly without any kind of support.

5845123101_61bed74879.jpg



before continuing any further, I decided to paint the inside of the helmet with black acrylic paint.

5845156799_e99093f5ed.jpg


I had to do some preliminary test of the mounting of the matrix, just to make sure it still fit.

5845123331_db59ef8fbd.jpg


everything was in check! :thumbsup

I removed the matrix and the tinted visor went in first.

5845676052_13e9e2a0e0.jpg


Wow!!!:love That was the first time I had seen the tinted visor with chrome.

Now, it was time to put the matrix back in...

5845124707_91c4af4ea8.jpg


I used these 1" x 1" plastic mounting bases and zip ties to secure the wires. These mounting bases come with a sticky foam; however, I removed the stock sticky foam and used 3M Outdoor mounting tape instead because this stuff is heavy duty and won't come off easily.

I continued running wires all the way to the back. I purposely made the harnesses longer to have room to connect and disconnect without having to worry about pulling a connector.

Also notice on the picture below between the SureElectronics board and back side of the helmet, I have mounted the Arduino Nano with its USB port facing to the outside for ease of updating code. I mounted the arduino using the same mounting bases with zip ties.

5845124479_8018e1b85f.jpg


The next picture shows a few more plates and zip ties to secure these wires. Now, I know it can look a lot cleaner by cutting the excess length and redoing the terminations, but I just don't feel like doing that. Besides, nobody will ever see these wires anyway.

5845125133_59a2438314.jpg


This is what I admire about Volpin. If this was his bucket, he would have terminated every wire at the perfect length..etc.. but I'll keep moving forward with what I have.

Now look at this little punk!!!!



5845221457_cb3a302554.jpg


Now, the picture above was taken with 100% bright flash at a relatively close range. By the way, after doing some tests, there is NO WAY people can see your face even in bright daylight. Also, my visor is really not that dark in tint, but enough to hide all the unlit LEDs.

All in all, it looks awesome. Obviously, a video will be a better way to show that, but I'll do one later.

The next step is to install the side boards, finish padding the helmet for a good fit and do the final control box.

getting closer.
 
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I like this build because the methods you use seem like something I could actually accomplish, like your idea of using existing hardware (the ShureElectronics board) and modifying it to work.
 
I like this build because the methods you use seem like something I could actually accomplish, like your idea of using existing hardware (the ShureElectronics board) and modifying it to work.

Agreed! Before your build I had pretty much decided it was outside of my skills to make a display, but your method has me thinking otherwise.

Your build has been just as helpful as Volpin's for finishing my helmet, thank you.

I hope you don't mind me asking, but it looks like the helmet has misshapen in the back a little bit. Could you elaborate on what happened?

Regardless, your helmet looks fantastic. I am very jealous!
 
Aw man, that looks amazing. I'm getting goose bumps just looking at it. Like the guys above said, it makes the electronics look like something I could actually achieve.

Can not WAIT to start work on one of these! :p
 
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