Ei luj
New Member
First off, I must thank the Lair founders (Kithunter/Andrew, Faken/Dan) and leaders (PredatrHuntr/Jason, Bovine13/Scott, Usurper/Lee, NewPredMaker) and EVERYBODY for providing the forum & contributing info so we can come together and make the Predator come to life
A couple years ago I set out to make a countdown, and even though there was the AVP movie clips as a reference and goal, all I could do is adapt existing electronic schemes and approximate the display.
I took the concept behind a clock display and took the segments and rearranged them in the "characters", and built this board, it has a bazillion #30 wires, each individually wired in It has 13 parts in it.
building it:
front:
back:
Then about 3-1/2 months ago somebody asked about it (Pred-Master-Blaster) and set a fire under my seat.... so I set out to do a more realistic looking countdown, and realized that I needed more space (which I didn't have) and had to tell it more things (which didn't exist in hardware) so this would necessitate..............programming
So I got the programmer and started hitting the books, I found that all the first board's functions could fit into a programmable chip and one other chip.
TWO parts replaced THIRTEEN, wahooo!!!
Here's the round pod that goes to the computer, which has the code in it.
Also the programming board that holds the part to be programmed, plus my prototype plug boards with the LEDs in them:
Now I had this much room in the gaunt, about 3" by 7" by maybe 1.35" or so, so I took paper and figured where a board would fit:
So I came up with this layout showing the windows; later on it helped spot the holes for the switches and mounting posts:
I made a prototype out of perfboard to start, it has a switch with a lever on it that is the ON switch, it gets put in the gaunt so opening the lid applies power.
One square switch is the RUN switch (the other was just for test purposes):
front (it has a dinky little N cell batteryholder in there just for testing):
back (this has blood along with sweat and tears in it, cause the exacto knife slipped; YEOUCH!!):
I didn't want to have to cut the tracks and do point to point wiring for every one (shades of the first one, egads!)
So I went online and got a circuit drawing and board layout program, and did a layout and sent out to have boards made.
Front (another small dinky batteryholder, this one for camera 12 battery):
back:
I fitted it in with the switches and prototype overlay to see how it looked:
Then I took the board layout file and exported it to a drawing program and filled in rectangles where the circles of the LED locations were, this would be the slots in the overlay.
The overlay is made out of box plastic from a stamp set I bought at Michael's crafts
Here's a picture of the overlay on a board, there is frisket film in back for a light diffuser, and the front is painted matte black:
In Bovine13's (Scott's) suit build, Post #18 here http://www.thehunterslair.com/index.php?sh...t=0&start=0 it has small flat batteries that are rechargeable, but in the interest of flexibility for overseas users (different charger power), and cost (rechargeables are EXPENSIVE & the AA's don't fit the pack :0 ), I put a AA pack in there that takes regular alkalines:
In the above picture, its an "original" revision board, and since I wasn't yet sure of the hole locations, I drilled the board.
There's power and ground inside that would be shorted if metal screws were used, so I used nylon ones.
On "A" revision boards, the holes are already in there, and so metal screws can be used.
Here's how the AA pack fits inside, it doesn't come up to the level of the forearm and wrist curves:
also for ease of use, the fuze is accessible:
And since the AA's are large and heavy, I used a smaller 9v battery.
Also I made an extension cable so the 9v or the AA pack can go in the medkit.
I labelled the board with cautions on the screws, battery placement, static sensitive, plus the fuze size:
The tool is handy for getting the snaps apart, and the AA batteries out (the spring ones come out easiest):
I had to be sure there was good contact of the batteries and snaps, the AA pack is snug and held the battery just THIS far away from the end, see lower left battery :0 :
And I labelled everything first pic is extension cable to board, second is extension to battery:
It runs!!! A 9v will give 100 countdowns or more... a half hour's worth of doing power-up, Run, power down and repeat...
thanks again to all
---
Ei'luj
A couple years ago I set out to make a countdown, and even though there was the AVP movie clips as a reference and goal, all I could do is adapt existing electronic schemes and approximate the display.
I took the concept behind a clock display and took the segments and rearranged them in the "characters", and built this board, it has a bazillion #30 wires, each individually wired in It has 13 parts in it.
building it:
front:
back:
Then about 3-1/2 months ago somebody asked about it (Pred-Master-Blaster) and set a fire under my seat.... so I set out to do a more realistic looking countdown, and realized that I needed more space (which I didn't have) and had to tell it more things (which didn't exist in hardware) so this would necessitate..............programming
So I got the programmer and started hitting the books, I found that all the first board's functions could fit into a programmable chip and one other chip.
TWO parts replaced THIRTEEN, wahooo!!!
Here's the round pod that goes to the computer, which has the code in it.
Also the programming board that holds the part to be programmed, plus my prototype plug boards with the LEDs in them:
Now I had this much room in the gaunt, about 3" by 7" by maybe 1.35" or so, so I took paper and figured where a board would fit:
So I came up with this layout showing the windows; later on it helped spot the holes for the switches and mounting posts:
I made a prototype out of perfboard to start, it has a switch with a lever on it that is the ON switch, it gets put in the gaunt so opening the lid applies power.
One square switch is the RUN switch (the other was just for test purposes):
front (it has a dinky little N cell batteryholder in there just for testing):
back (this has blood along with sweat and tears in it, cause the exacto knife slipped; YEOUCH!!):
I didn't want to have to cut the tracks and do point to point wiring for every one (shades of the first one, egads!)
So I went online and got a circuit drawing and board layout program, and did a layout and sent out to have boards made.
Front (another small dinky batteryholder, this one for camera 12 battery):
back:
I fitted it in with the switches and prototype overlay to see how it looked:
Then I took the board layout file and exported it to a drawing program and filled in rectangles where the circles of the LED locations were, this would be the slots in the overlay.
The overlay is made out of box plastic from a stamp set I bought at Michael's crafts
Here's a picture of the overlay on a board, there is frisket film in back for a light diffuser, and the front is painted matte black:
In Bovine13's (Scott's) suit build, Post #18 here http://www.thehunterslair.com/index.php?sh...t=0&start=0 it has small flat batteries that are rechargeable, but in the interest of flexibility for overseas users (different charger power), and cost (rechargeables are EXPENSIVE & the AA's don't fit the pack :0 ), I put a AA pack in there that takes regular alkalines:
In the above picture, its an "original" revision board, and since I wasn't yet sure of the hole locations, I drilled the board.
There's power and ground inside that would be shorted if metal screws were used, so I used nylon ones.
On "A" revision boards, the holes are already in there, and so metal screws can be used.
Here's how the AA pack fits inside, it doesn't come up to the level of the forearm and wrist curves:
also for ease of use, the fuze is accessible:
And since the AA's are large and heavy, I used a smaller 9v battery.
Also I made an extension cable so the 9v or the AA pack can go in the medkit.
I labelled the board with cautions on the screws, battery placement, static sensitive, plus the fuze size:
The tool is handy for getting the snaps apart, and the AA batteries out (the spring ones come out easiest):
I had to be sure there was good contact of the batteries and snaps, the AA pack is snug and held the battery just THIS far away from the end, see lower left battery :0 :
And I labelled everything first pic is extension cable to board, second is extension to battery:
It runs!!! A 9v will give 100 countdowns or more... a half hour's worth of doing power-up, Run, power down and repeat...
thanks again to all
---
Ei'luj