Delta7
Member
Dude, read the thread first.
Dude, read the thread first.
Fuzz
New Member
Hey guys, I'll level with you, yes I am but another n00b to this awesome site that I have stumbled upon due to indy mogul's
'product placement'.
Iv'e been scouring the internet looking for a Pipboy 3000 of any kind, whether it just tells me the time via a terrible digital clock or is made completely out of paper and hot glue (one of these does exist ).
The hard work you've put into these is truely amazing! Every picture on this thread has been of something awesome or at least of something leading to awesome.
I haven't made any replica props yet but I think this would be a brilliant starter project, especially since you're supplying the parts it's just a case of assembling them and I love fallout with a passion. I shall pm you Skruffy but consider this me adding my name to the long list, that is assuming you're still going ahead with another run.
'product placement'.
Iv'e been scouring the internet looking for a Pipboy 3000 of any kind, whether it just tells me the time via a terrible digital clock or is made completely out of paper and hot glue (one of these does exist ).
The hard work you've put into these is truely amazing! Every picture on this thread has been of something awesome or at least of something leading to awesome.
I haven't made any replica props yet but I think this would be a brilliant starter project, especially since you're supplying the parts it's just a case of assembling them and I love fallout with a passion. I shall pm you Skruffy but consider this me adding my name to the long list, that is assuming you're still going ahead with another run.
Delta7
Member
I'm working mine over with the dremmel right now, and I just realized something. i have no idea how to put together the electronics that came with it. I'm searching through the walkthrough right now, but I can use any help I can get. Hahaha. Specifically with the LEDs and the El screen that come with the kit. Never soldered before........
Delta7, the EL screen is pretty easy to wire... just snip the end of the wire that comes from the inverter that has the connector plug (NOT the battery wire, but the other one! :lol) and solder those two wires to the two leads on the EL sheet. It should now light up nicely.
If you are feeling ambitious, you can cut ONE of the battery wires coming from the 9V battery and connect each part of the wire to the pushbutton switch. Now you can mount that switch anywhere in the cast that you like and you won't have to try and get to the switch on the inverter itself as that may be a challenge depending on how you have the inverter mounted in your cast.
Human, I took a screen-cap from the game, edited it to remove the player name (on the ones in my kit - the one I used for my own build I kept the player name), and changed up the brightness and contrast a bit so it would look better printed.
I also have to throw a thank you and shout-out to Majonaise for his suggestion back in post #198 to use a transparency instead of paper. I tried this and LOVED the improved result. With some green lighting film to adjust the color somewhat, you get a nice, bright, evenly-lit screen. It's a little subtle under bright lights, but in a dark environment it shows up SUPER well.
I will try to get some pictures taken of my v2.0 build with how my wiring is going together and to show off the transparency a bit.
If you are feeling ambitious, you can cut ONE of the battery wires coming from the 9V battery and connect each part of the wire to the pushbutton switch. Now you can mount that switch anywhere in the cast that you like and you won't have to try and get to the switch on the inverter itself as that may be a challenge depending on how you have the inverter mounted in your cast.
Human, I took a screen-cap from the game, edited it to remove the player name (on the ones in my kit - the one I used for my own build I kept the player name), and changed up the brightness and contrast a bit so it would look better printed.
I also have to throw a thank you and shout-out to Majonaise for his suggestion back in post #198 to use a transparency instead of paper. I tried this and LOVED the improved result. With some green lighting film to adjust the color somewhat, you get a nice, bright, evenly-lit screen. It's a little subtle under bright lights, but in a dark environment it shows up SUPER well.
I will try to get some pictures taken of my v2.0 build with how my wiring is going together and to show off the transparency a bit.
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I also wanted to include some guidance on what I consider to be the hardest part of a build: de-soldering the volume knob from the sound amp to replace the cast-knob on the front of the Pip-Boy. The knobs are attached *firmly* with 5 points of connection. I found that as I applied heat from my soldering iron to melt one of the connections, once I got it loose it would immediately harden as I moved to the next connection. Sometimes it would give a little, sometimes not at all. What I ended up doing to loosen it was to use a heavy steel clamp to grip the knob and to use a bit of tender downward force in addition to gravity & the weight of the clamp to slowly work the knob off the board. I just slowly melted a connection, pulled a little, then melted another connection and pulled a little more. By doing this I was able to *slowly* work the knob out of its seating on the board. Make sure to be careful while you do this. If you break one of the leads, it pretty well sinks the entire endeavor.
Once you work the knob out, eyeball measure the distance to where you will want to mount it in the cast, cut some wire to length, and solder the wires into place. I also used to heat shrink tubing around my wired to keep things tidy and to give them some more protection and durability.
Here's my amp in a cast to show how the knob should orient:
A close-up of the amp with the knob removed:
A close-up of the knob with the new wires soldered in place:
The back-side of the amp board where the wires come through:
To attach the battery, you just need to solder in a 9V battery connector like this. I don't have the input or the speaker connected here to keep from cluttering up the image, but the green light off to the right indicates that the board is getting power.
You can also use this battery to power the yellow LED. Wiring this in series with the amp board, the LED does not even require a resistor, though I need to do some more stress-testing of this. Choosing and wiring the right resistor is the weakest part of my electronics skill-set, but usually they burn out in a flash if you get it wrong and this one lasted for at least 5 or 10 mins while I was playing around with this for the pictures, so it should last long-term.
Once you work the knob out, eyeball measure the distance to where you will want to mount it in the cast, cut some wire to length, and solder the wires into place. I also used to heat shrink tubing around my wired to keep things tidy and to give them some more protection and durability.
Here's my amp in a cast to show how the knob should orient:
A close-up of the amp with the knob removed:
A close-up of the knob with the new wires soldered in place:
The back-side of the amp board where the wires come through:
To attach the battery, you just need to solder in a 9V battery connector like this. I don't have the input or the speaker connected here to keep from cluttering up the image, but the green light off to the right indicates that the board is getting power.
You can also use this battery to power the yellow LED. Wiring this in series with the amp board, the LED does not even require a resistor, though I need to do some more stress-testing of this. Choosing and wiring the right resistor is the weakest part of my electronics skill-set, but usually they burn out in a flash if you get it wrong and this one lasted for at least 5 or 10 mins while I was playing around with this for the pictures, so it should last long-term.
I have found the easiest way to do this is use some sort of 'solder remover', thus each point of connection becomes completely free as you go. The 'cheap and easy' method is simply to use the end of some speaker wire, which will actually 'suck' the solder off the connection.
YouTube - How to Solder : Removing Solder‏
This video shows the professional stuff, but I've used speaker wire just as easily, so long as it's fine enough.
Satxer
Sr Member
So, I have yet to really work on my kit... But, I did get the music part figured out. I picked up a little digital voice recorder, and left it sit by the tv speaker for a couple hours while I left the game run. There were a couple of slight issues I ran into with how it turned out, but I think I can get that cleaned up by recording it again, a little more away from speaker. It has a little distortion to it, but I think that adds to the effect, as I am sure the Pip-Boys weren't transmitting in dolby digital! I've been listening to the recordings all morning!
Satxer, as far as the music goes, if you look around on the internet (check your favorite torrent site) I'm sure you can find nice, crisp, clean copies of the music files. For us PC gamers, they are nicely installed in mp3 format as part of the game install, so they are easy to share. No ThreeDog broadcasts, though.
Delta7, yes you can absolutely cut the EL sheet... that's one of the beautiful things about EL! When cutting to reduce length, make sure to do so from the edge that doesn't have the leads, obviously.
Delta7, yes you can absolutely cut the EL sheet... that's one of the beautiful things about EL! When cutting to reduce length, make sure to do so from the edge that doesn't have the leads, obviously.
Satxer
Sr Member
I think part of the problem was that I also had the Air conditioner running in the backround. For the most part, it really doesn't sound too bad. Plus, I like the Three Dog broadcasts that pertain to the character I had, so it adds flavor to it. Not to mention, the way that it doesn't sounds adds the flavor to running around with a Pip-Boy that could be receiving a not so perfect signal from time to time.
Mmm, if you have the PC version, there is a way to extract the data files and get to the 3 dog sound files. I have them extracted and plan to write an app for my phone (Pre).
What you need is FO3Archive. It will extract all the sound files.... 3 Dogs stuff is under Sound/voice/maleuniquethreedog
BTW, the sound files are ".ogg" but apps like mediaMonkey can convert them to MP3.
Happy hunting!
EDIT: And if you don't have the PC version, it's available @ some Walmarts for $20 and you get all the expansion packs. There was only 1 store in my town that had them and they had 1 copy left after I got mine (about a month ago).
-- Sent from my Palm Pre using Forums
What you need is FO3Archive. It will extract all the sound files.... 3 Dogs stuff is under Sound/voice/maleuniquethreedog
BTW, the sound files are ".ogg" but apps like mediaMonkey can convert them to MP3. Happy hunting!
EDIT: And if you don't have the PC version, it's available @ some Walmarts for $20 and you get all the expansion packs. There was only 1 store in my town that had them and they had 1 copy left after I got mine (about a month ago).
-- Sent from my Palm Pre using Forums
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Drewid
Well-Known Member
I extracted the Three Dog (and a few other files) a ways back. Here's a link the RAR file I have on google docs. They are still in the OGG and you will need a program like Audicity to merge some of the soundbites together. To keep the voice flowing smoothly, the files are small and contain a small sentence at a time.
Example: "Three Dog here with an important service announcement. Don't feed the Yaoi Guai. That is all."
Is in about 4 different files. Maybe 5. It's been a while since I looked at them.
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B9...MjhiMC00NDAyLWE0NWYtNjBjNDYyZTk4MjEx&hl=en_US
Enjoy
Example: "Three Dog here with an important service announcement. Don't feed the Yaoi Guai. That is all."
Is in about 4 different files. Maybe 5. It's been a while since I looked at them.
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B9...MjhiMC00NDAyLWE0NWYtNjBjNDYyZTk4MjEx&hl=en_US
Enjoy
I extracted the Three Dog (and a few other files) a ways back. Here's a link the RAR file I have on google docs. They are still in the OGG and you will need a program like Audicity to merge some of the soundbites together. To keep the voice flowing smoothly, the files are small and contain a small sentence at a time.
Example: "Three Dog here with an important service announcement. Don't feed the Yaoi Guai. That is all."
Is in about 4 different files. Maybe 5. It's been a while since I looked at them.
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B9...MjhiMC00NDAyLWE0NWYtNjBjNDYyZTk4MjEx&hl=en_US
Enjoy
Those are the files I was talking about. I've been paranoid about posting stuff like that because of the other forum I frequent, Precentral. I also grabbed the sound effects for the pip boy and all of the icons.
Still debating how to distribute the PIP Boy app once it's made. Maybe it could go through as a "sound board" in that you can select a directory to play music from and it would randomly inject Two Dog's sayings between songs?
-- Sent from my Palm Pre using Forums
Drewid
Well-Known Member
If your sound board is going to have any intelligence with selecting Three Dog quotes, you would probably want to keep separate directories for the DJ and the music. It would also make sense to keep a history of what was played so repeats don't have too often (or at all). The game's internal history was bad (and New Vegas' was worse). I once heard Johnny Guitar three times in a row. Sheesh.
Mr. New Vegas just REALLY liked that one so he kept on spinning it. Personally, if I never hear Johnny Guitar again, I'll have lived a happy existence. :eek
