*Update*
Hi Everyone. Apologies for the delay on this promised update. I've been really busy as you all know, sending out confirmation messages and responding to everyone. It took a little longer than I expected, but I got there eventually!
Thank you to everyone who's paid so far! And to everyone who intends to. The cut off (when I intend on ordering the parts), is 7th Sep.
I haven't contacted those who have ordered a stand alone PCB yet, as I you haven't seen them yet, and the 7/9/20 date doesn't apply to these.
I did receive a picture from the manufacturer today.....
These are still in production and have another process (gold plating) to go through before being cut out, but I couldn't resist sharing!
The other image is the stand-in microcontroller that will sit inside the blank square. It has one of the gold foil labels I've had produced applied.
Hopefully you can picture the final thing based on the concept I mocked up:
I can't wait to get hold of one of these and get one built up to show you! I especially can't wait to get one installed in the Hero from my first run!
Another welcome development is that I had a delivery of new T-Section. I'm happy to say that it's a massive improvement on the previous run! The T profile I sourced previously was a little thin for my liking, but it was the closest thing that I could find at the time. All attempts to have them manufactured came to a dead end, with the 3D printed ones I had made warping and chipping due to their size (Which is why they weren't included in the kits).
Well, I'm happy to say that I've finally found something that is as close to screen accurate as you can get! They are also a much sturdier material (the last ones were a little rubbery in texture):
*New ones on the right
I know I said I was done with adjusting the model, but there was some discussion behind the scenes regarding the grenade section...
In order to put the grenade ring thickness debate to rest once and for all, I decided to do a little old-school photogrammetry using photoshop.
I took the most side-on high-res shot of the grenade available, blew it up to 4K, increased the contrast and played with the levels to remove any bloom, and then proceeded to use the analysis tools inside of photoshop to get accurate measurements for each ring and each gap between them (to three decimal places of a mm). I used the known distance between the first ring and the neck ring to set the scale.
I then built a reference grid inside of 3DS Max using these measurements, for me to snap the vertices of the model to along the X axis:
The model changed very little, so I won't be updating the renders and overlays. It was a valuable exercise though, as it adds to the certainty that the model is perfect before sending to the manufacturer.
Now I'm definitely stepping away from the model!
Thanks again to everyone for your support on this project!
MTFBWY!
Dave
*Anyone who would like to jump onboard before sign up closes, I'll be placing the order for the parts on the 7th.*
