Hello all,
(Sorry for the bad screengrab...)
I've had a junkyard thread open for this for a few weeks and have been waiting until there was something interesting (beyond 3d renders) to show before starting a build thread, so here goes.
This kit is being made along with a programmer friend of mine. He does all the coding and electronics design (arduino or teensy-based for this), while I do the shell, graphics and "practical" hardware setup. (I tend to stay out of the coding completely... my guy has worked on actual space probes to Mars and the Rosetta comet... so he likes to do things his way, haha.)
At the time of writing, I'm still working on the outer shell and planning how to do the internals. I tend to study, test and remodel things for weeks before I'm happy. Obviously, with a prop like this there are already lots of copies out there, but I try to not look at them too much so as not to "cloud" my thinking. (The reason I rarely build "finished" kits these days is because I like to figure things out as part of the challenge.) The first thing I do on a build is make a collection of collages of photos, breaking up all the details in different images where I do a lot of changes to lighting, color and contrast to better see how things actually look.
Example: For the eye scanner, there were a number of small details that are very easily missed- things that not many would notice (or even care about). One of those details- a little "slanted groove" present on two corners of one side of the bottom of the shell, drove me nuts for the better part of a week before I figured out how it really looked.
Since one of the main challenges with this will be to figure out how to fit everything inside, that's where I started, with the "physical testing". After checking all available reference, and doing a lot of measuring, I concluded that I would have to use a 2.8" TFT display to cover the entire screen area. This is unfortunate, because a HUGE chunk of the screen will go unused and take up a lot of space inside. But because the display area on a 2.4" is a few mm short (GHAAA!) in the vertical axis, it would leave black lines at the top and bottom, which I don't want. It MAY be that we have to use a 2.4" in the end anyway, but I at least want to try with a 2.8 and not have to compromise accuracy right off the bat! The make and type of display is basically the same as the one used in my Nick Fury Pager buildup a few months ago, just bigger.
Here are a couple "xray" renders showing how much space the display takes. You can see the TFT screen and the frame of the prop screen. (As mentioned, the outer shell is not done yet.)
To save resin, I cut out and printed a section of the shell, where the display shows, and set it up to hold the screen. First, I had to cut away part of the circuit board to fit it at the top. This might look scary, but it was surprisingly easy- there's just ONE connected circuit between the controller chip and the unneeded memory card holder.
The screen was held on by thin double-sided foam tape along the edges, so I just carefully ran a scalpel down the sides to loosen it, then I put some Tamiya masking tape on the important circuits as a reminder to be careful with them, and to protect from scrapes.
First thing to do was remove the memory card holder. I heated up the four contact pads with my soldering iron and carefully lifted it up off the board:
The plastic contact frame comes off easily, by rocking back and forth a couple times.
Some more tape, then it's time to cut:
Not the most straight of cuts, as I was holding it with my hand while cutting and didn't put it in a vice, but good enough.
Here you can see the only connector between the card and control chip.
I stuck some new double-sided tape to the board to hold it to the display, and a piece of masking tape on the outside.
The printed section of frame. Some areas are only 0.5mm thick, but I'm not worried about durability since those areas can be filled from the inside with epoxy glue and be strengthened by internal parts.
To my surprise, the display fit almost perfectly on the first try. It almost "snapped" into place.
From this image, it looks like I will just barely be able to fit the popup mechanism in the middle section (with the cut groove) as on the screen prop. So far, so good.
The screen currently sits about 1mm deeper than on the real prop. There's no getting around this, since I can't get it closer due to the beveled edges of the shell and the size of the display. I MIGHT end up having some 1mm plexiglass cut and glued in place to fill out the gap.
Next up is trying to come up with a suitable spring-mechanism. I have some ideas, and will be stripping a couple miniature bearings from some old hard drives to use until I find a supplier of new ones. (I think bearings will be necessary, because printed resin doesn't "glide" against itself easily, even if it's smooth.) Might have to print the main part of the spring arm in PLA instead of resin for durability. (If I can make it work economically, maybe I can have the outer plates of the arm laser cut in aluminum... we'll see.) There's a chance the spring arm needs to move a millimeter or so off-center because of the display, even with the backing cut off. It's the first real accuracy-change I have to do. Hopefully not.
More soon.
(Sorry for the bad screengrab...)
I've had a junkyard thread open for this for a few weeks and have been waiting until there was something interesting (beyond 3d renders) to show before starting a build thread, so here goes.
This kit is being made along with a programmer friend of mine. He does all the coding and electronics design (arduino or teensy-based for this), while I do the shell, graphics and "practical" hardware setup. (I tend to stay out of the coding completely... my guy has worked on actual space probes to Mars and the Rosetta comet... so he likes to do things his way, haha.)
- The goal is to make a prop-accurate replica of the eye scanner, with some added "role play animations" functionality (since a real screen will be used, it would be a waste not to) and to make it fairly easy to build as a kit.
- It will probably have two electronics modes "movie accurate" and "role play", but the second will use graphics captured from the film as much as possible.
- I want to stay as close to prop-accurate as possible. That means that I will not break accuracy for the "role play" part without a lot of thought. it has to REALLY be worth it. (Real-world limitations on available electronics hardware will play a big part in this.)
- Hopefully, I'll be able to make the lens pop up. This is one of those accuracy things... to match the prop, it should pop up with a spring, but adding a real display may leave too little room for the mechanism. I'm also concerned about durability, because earlier experiments with "spring action" mechanisms have proven troublesome with resin 3d prints- they tend to crack with shock impacts. We'll see.
At the time of writing, I'm still working on the outer shell and planning how to do the internals. I tend to study, test and remodel things for weeks before I'm happy. Obviously, with a prop like this there are already lots of copies out there, but I try to not look at them too much so as not to "cloud" my thinking. (The reason I rarely build "finished" kits these days is because I like to figure things out as part of the challenge.) The first thing I do on a build is make a collection of collages of photos, breaking up all the details in different images where I do a lot of changes to lighting, color and contrast to better see how things actually look.
Example: For the eye scanner, there were a number of small details that are very easily missed- things that not many would notice (or even care about). One of those details- a little "slanted groove" present on two corners of one side of the bottom of the shell, drove me nuts for the better part of a week before I figured out how it really looked.
Since one of the main challenges with this will be to figure out how to fit everything inside, that's where I started, with the "physical testing". After checking all available reference, and doing a lot of measuring, I concluded that I would have to use a 2.8" TFT display to cover the entire screen area. This is unfortunate, because a HUGE chunk of the screen will go unused and take up a lot of space inside. But because the display area on a 2.4" is a few mm short (GHAAA!) in the vertical axis, it would leave black lines at the top and bottom, which I don't want. It MAY be that we have to use a 2.4" in the end anyway, but I at least want to try with a 2.8 and not have to compromise accuracy right off the bat! The make and type of display is basically the same as the one used in my Nick Fury Pager buildup a few months ago, just bigger.
Here are a couple "xray" renders showing how much space the display takes. You can see the TFT screen and the frame of the prop screen. (As mentioned, the outer shell is not done yet.)
To save resin, I cut out and printed a section of the shell, where the display shows, and set it up to hold the screen. First, I had to cut away part of the circuit board to fit it at the top. This might look scary, but it was surprisingly easy- there's just ONE connected circuit between the controller chip and the unneeded memory card holder.
The screen was held on by thin double-sided foam tape along the edges, so I just carefully ran a scalpel down the sides to loosen it, then I put some Tamiya masking tape on the important circuits as a reminder to be careful with them, and to protect from scrapes.
First thing to do was remove the memory card holder. I heated up the four contact pads with my soldering iron and carefully lifted it up off the board:
The plastic contact frame comes off easily, by rocking back and forth a couple times.
Some more tape, then it's time to cut:
Not the most straight of cuts, as I was holding it with my hand while cutting and didn't put it in a vice, but good enough.
Here you can see the only connector between the card and control chip.
I stuck some new double-sided tape to the board to hold it to the display, and a piece of masking tape on the outside.
The printed section of frame. Some areas are only 0.5mm thick, but I'm not worried about durability since those areas can be filled from the inside with epoxy glue and be strengthened by internal parts.
To my surprise, the display fit almost perfectly on the first try. It almost "snapped" into place.
From this image, it looks like I will just barely be able to fit the popup mechanism in the middle section (with the cut groove) as on the screen prop. So far, so good.
The screen currently sits about 1mm deeper than on the real prop. There's no getting around this, since I can't get it closer due to the beveled edges of the shell and the size of the display. I MIGHT end up having some 1mm plexiglass cut and glued in place to fill out the gap.
Next up is trying to come up with a suitable spring-mechanism. I have some ideas, and will be stripping a couple miniature bearings from some old hard drives to use until I find a supplier of new ones. (I think bearings will be necessary, because printed resin doesn't "glide" against itself easily, even if it's smooth.) Might have to print the main part of the spring arm in PLA instead of resin for durability. (If I can make it work economically, maybe I can have the outer plates of the arm laser cut in aluminum... we'll see.) There's a chance the spring arm needs to move a millimeter or so off-center because of the display, even with the backing cut off. It's the first real accuracy-change I have to do. Hopefully not.
More soon.
