Markus
Sr Member
The mechanical setup with the gears looks quite complex to me. Have you considered a solution with a cheap ammeter (with a modified scale) which is controlled by PWM through a rotary encoder?
iklask
New Member
Those could be useful for the rad meter, but I think the idea of the radio knob was to get a very specific gear ratio/mechanical feel to them.
I've seen other people use ammeters for the rad meter. I'm probably going to copy this guy.
Markus
Yes, purchased that exact meter years ago, it isn't small enough for the rad gauge. For that I am using the smallest air core motor I could find.
For the radio I need to record the input as well as move the needle. I could read the knob electrically and the move the needle, but this wouldn't have near the tactile feel of a geared knob. Also the knob and needle need to move along the same axis, so there wouldn't be room.
Yes, purchased that exact meter years ago, it isn't small enough for the rad gauge. For that I am using the smallest air core motor I could find.
For the radio I need to record the input as well as move the needle. I could read the knob electrically and the move the needle, but this wouldn't have near the tactile feel of a geared knob. Also the knob and needle need to move along the same axis, so there wouldn't be room.
ZadeWilson
New Member
Dang, that is a beautiful build.
THIS IS HUGE!
Okay it actually about the size of a mini-fridge, but it is a huge step up in being able to 3D print my own parts instead of relying on Shapeways.
This is the Form Labs Fuse 1. The business I work for reserved way back in 2017, and it just arrived this week. Every once and a while I will get to print some personal parts on it.
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I snuck a set of Holotape parts into the first test print we ran overnight.
The image above shows a raw Shapeways part (Left), compared to a Fuse 1 raw part (middle) and a dyed Shapeways part (right).
The Shapeways parts come as a white nylon, and can be dyed other colors. The Fuse 1 parts are gun-metal grey, so they can't be dyed lighter colors, but can be painted or dyed black.
The parts come out of the machine caked in powder. It took quite a bit of cleanup but I think the results are outstanding.
The backside of the Pip-Boy contains the battery, charger and USB circuits. To connect the front electronics to the back I had a wire running across the gap between the two sides. And a large metal pin for the hinge.
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The issue is that the wire would have to extend and retract about an inch each time the Pip-Boy is opened. This will eventually wear out the cable, and in general it is hard to push a wire. Eventually the wire is going to get crushed.
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So lets see how complicated I can make the hinge by turning it into a slip-ring electrical connection!
To make a slip-ring hinge I stacked a steel pin, plastic spacers, zinc plated brass spacers, and another steel spacer onto a long nylon screw.
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The pin is then locked into the back-half using set-screws. Six regular pogo-pins connect the power board to the slip-ring hinge.
Six roller-ball style pogo-pins are located on the front half and they pick up the power and signals off the slip-ring.
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It took quite a few revisions and whole day to work out an electrical connection that is not visible from the outside. I noticed that the middle of the hinge on the in-game Pip-Boy is a larger diameter than the two sides. This was what helped me to get it all to fit with only a tiny gap visible at the backside.
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If it weren't for proprietary intellectual property, I'd want to nominate you for some sort of recognition in the industrial-design arena. You're taking this to places I'd never imagined realistically possible -- and then squaring and cubing it again beyond that.
Voltaire Surge
Member
Do you havw all the pictures on your website of the progress so far, in case someone wanted to look and not go through every page on here? I'm pumped you're gunna be working on this again, on and off.
SentencedToBurn
Active Member
Dude the way you've done those connections though... The build itself is already insanely detailed and precise, but IMO that particular piece of engineering is next level.
Voltaire Surge I have been meaning to make a "without everyone's comments" sort of progress log.
Otherwise I have every image except for the GIFs in a flickr page here:
www.flickr.com
Otherwise I have every image except for the GIFs in a flickr page here:
Pip-boy 3000 Mk4
CAD model created from scratch of the Pip-Boy 3000 Mk4. Created in Solid Edge, rendered in Keyshot. Thanks to dragonator for the inspiration and his own model which I referenced.
www.flickr.com
GUI work has been started in full.
Currently I am hammering away at the Pypboy code that was available on Git hub, trying to update it to fit the look of the 3000 MK IV Pip-Boy instead of the Fallout 3 regular Pip-Boy 3000.
You can download the code from my Git hub page and run it on a desktop to see what it looks like so far. (Make sure to install python and the requirements.txt stuff). I am having to learn Python while digging through someone else's code which is making this painful. I would start over, but this already has a working map function, and radio (which is disabled in the current code)
Once I get a GUI with all the proper pages laid out properly I will work on getting the electronics to actually interface with the gui.
Voltaire Surge
Member
Have the circuit boards already been done or those gunna be after the physical interface is programmed? I can't wait to see how you sort out the ingame interface.
Considering all the displays I tried using over the years the HyperPixel at least works! I didn't have any motivation to work on the other aspects of the electronics if there way no way to actually make the primary function of the Pip-Boy usable.
I made schematic prototypes for all the circuits years ago, buy they will all need to be updated or rethought.
The display uses all the pins (except for some shared i2C) on the GPIO header. I need to experiment and see if I can drive the display with just the green pixels, and free up the red/blue data lines for other use.
Otherwise I could use the RP2040 processor to handle all of the GPIO and analog inputs. Then just have it send data to the GUI over USB HID or Serial over USB. I may have to do audio over USB also since the i2s pins may be available.
I made schematic prototypes for all the circuits years ago, buy they will all need to be updated or rethought.
The display uses all the pins (except for some shared i2C) on the GPIO header. I need to experiment and see if I can drive the display with just the green pixels, and free up the red/blue data lines for other use.
Otherwise I could use the RP2040 processor to handle all of the GPIO and analog inputs. Then just have it send data to the GUI over USB HID or Serial over USB. I may have to do audio over USB also since the i2s pins may be available.
Progress on the GUI. I figured out how to animate the Vault-boy, and make the top menus selection effect work.
The code cycles though a list of images from a folder. The head is a separate image. They can be changed just like in the game to match the player condition. To give him that little kick in his step the animation moves around a bit with each frame.
It looks great when running on a PC, but when loaded onto the Pi CM4 it suddenly is janky and uneven, despite the scan line effect staying fairly smooth. I used a time based animation hoping it would be framerate independent Something to solve another time.
If someone knows python and wants to help dig around the code and help me optimize the frame rate that would be great.
The top menu is a bit of a hack. For some reason I can't seem to make it render on update. Instead it is being re-rendered every frame. Perhaps I will clean that up sometime once I learn more python. This get the self/parent thing but I can't seem to figure how who is the parent of what section I am working with. And the super thing is still confusing as hell. All the explanations on that concept assume I know a dozen other programming languages and can cross compare their concepts.
Do you want a Pip-Boy themed radio program? Well look no further!
The Pypboy code already had some code in there that will randomly select a audio file in a folder and the play it, However, the folders and station names were all hard coded in. It was a major pain to add a new station.
I wrote some new code that goes through and parses all the folders in /radio. It skips any folders which don't have audio files. Then it pulls a station name from a "station.py" file inside each folder.
This means adding more radio stations is now just a simple matter of dropping more audio files into folders, and putting a simple text file to set the name. You can order the stations in the GUI by numbering the folders.
I have removed the audio files from my GIT, so you need to provide your own for now. Some of the previous version of Pypboy have a few audio files if you need. I have extracted the files from the Old World Radio mod for now to greatly expand the radio set.
I also added volume control via PageDown and PageUp that works one any screen.
To make the Radio Off station work drop this Silence.ogg file into the folder.
I also have prototypes of the three boot screen sequences working (Press F6 to see them, then 1,2,3)
Now I just need to figure out how to make the damn GUI change modules on its own instead of via keyboard input.
matyluft
New Member
Hi Zapwizard, hwo are you? the job you are making is truly amazing and I cant believe how awesome it is. I want to ask you if you've already release the stl files so it can be printed. if not, can you? ( if you did, sorry, I didn't finish reading this post). The reason that I ask is that finally I could afford to buy me a computer that can run games as fallout, which it is my favourite game since I was a kid. And 3 days ago I bought fallout 4 and I heard I could play it with pipboy app, and I knew that there were a pipboy were you could put your cellphone and play the game asi if you have the real pipboy, which is awesome. But I live in argentina, and due to economical problems and import/export limitation I can't buy the special edition pipboy 3000, if it still exists, so this is why I ask if you can release the stl files, I have a friend that owns a 3D printer, and I want to make a pipboy for me to play with. I knew I had to model it myself, but since you've already did it, maybe there a chance for me just to adapt those files to my phone.
any way, thanks and sorry to disturb you. Awesome job you are making and I hope you could help me !
any way, thanks and sorry to disturb you. Awesome job you are making and I hope you could help me !
The CAD files are here: Pip-Boy Unfinished Version - Google Drive
Make sure and read the readme file located there. These aren't the latest files (as in what you have seen recently in the thread) but are pretty good if your looking for a start. The files are not designed for FDM 3D printing, but I have printed it before on a FDM with mixed results. With enough sanding you can put together a display mockup.
My design is also not compatible with a phone. Nor will the GUI I am now working on interface to the game (at least not yet).
Make sure and read the readme file located there. These aren't the latest files (as in what you have seen recently in the thread) but are pretty good if your looking for a start. The files are not designed for FDM 3D printing, but I have printed it before on a FDM with mixed results. With enough sanding you can put together a display mockup.
My design is also not compatible with a phone. Nor will the GUI I am now working on interface to the game (at least not yet).
matyluft
New Member
thank you soooo much !!! I know your version it is not for cellphone, baut the shell of the pipboy is perfect so I will look to adapt thtat to my cellphone so I can play happily as a child !! Thanks thanks thanks !!!
By the way, I'm a graphic designer student, so I can produce vector files and images if you need help with that. I intend to print for my self several fallout propaganda found in game, and decorate my room with it.
By the way, I'm a graphic designer student, so I can produce vector files and images if you need help with that. I intend to print for my self several fallout propaganda found in game, and decorate my room with it.
