Energon cube cupholder (glowing)

[Marthony]

Hello,

I plot to upgrade my G1 Optimus Prime 9.1 scale toy costume for use at Halloween this fall. As part of this I want to build a glowing energon cube cup holder for drinking. I've only just begun design work for it, and seek your opinions at this early stage.

First concept to settle: color! Energon cubes back in the 80's were either purple/pink or a more energetic rainbow flowing pattern. I'd prefer to try the latter. I could use a layer of red & blue plastic within to still give it a purplish effect. Also, I've sourced LED's that auto-change their color over about 35 seconds, so rainbow-range would actually be easier for LED's that aren't staying constant. I'd use a layer of opaque white plastic near the outer walls to blur things, after wrapping them in prism plastic to diffract them a bit.

Size: The cube will have to be big enough to contain a tall highball glass from a bar, or perhaps a sport bottle I source out - I have to be able to left the vessel out to prove I'm not bringing in alcohol, and also that I've none while walking between bars. Thinking a 1' cube would be right?

I'd build a handle on my 'end' of the cube for easy holding, and the 9V batteries would also be concealed there. Unit would be mostly plexiglass, colored plastic, LED's, wires, bathroom window prism plastic...and a long straw.

Any thoughts at this stage?

(won't be bringing rifle to the bar)(last time this was in the bar the cupholder & straw were in the chest, but prefer to keep matrix there)

 

[cavx]

LEDs would certainly be bright and they do change colours now, but I think they all change at the same time. So your cube will start off red, then turn orange, then yellow, become green, then cyan, then blue, then magenta (which is your pinky purple colour for the other option) and finally go back to red.

I have never seen see anyone add a time delay to different runs to make different colours. I am sure it is possible though.

That costume rocks.

 

[Marthony]

Thanks Cavx! I'll be upgrading the suit is a series of ways as well, and changing to silver pants.

In this case I'll be powering the LED's via 9V batteries; the seller alleged their units will run on 3V though the upper draw is rated at 3.4V. Though I've my doubts, if the claim is correct I can run 3 LED's per battery, and plan to run 6 batteries this way, for 18 LED's running on 6 separate circuits.

With 6 circuits they should be adequately randomized to avoid the issue you describe.

Do you see any other potential issues?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[karmajay]

The Adafruit Neopixels gives you a lot more control on color and timing.

Check here - https://www.adafruit.com/category/168

 

[Marthony]

Interesting! A bit more advanced than I was picturing, but I'll have a look at their products.

Thanks!

 

[Marthony]

The deed is done!

http://vid1276.photobucket.com/albu...E-3AC8-4414-8428-DE073A05830E_zpsujwztg5k.mp4

The cube is 10" and made with 1/4" plexiglass with reinforcement bits along the joints. The 'cup' used was a 591ml pop bottle that fit perfectly by luck, with generic tubing for the straw system. It worked perfectly for Halloween, though was best in the dark or in a dark bar.

On the down side it weighs almost 8lbs and isn't practical to carry around at a con. I plan to build a smaller, lighter 8" cube with 1/8" plexi and no cup holder. I'm looking at other LED's such as red-blue-green auto-switching ones, we'll see. Still no luck on auto-dimming white or red that I could easily build a post-season 1 energon cube with.

Whaccha think?

 

[Jintosh]

Very cool. I thought it'd be a single color.....but you pulled off the multicolor very nicely.

 

[Marthony]

Thanks! Will build a mono-color version if I can find the right type of LED's or learn the method to make them auto-rotate through a dimming cycle.