Daft Punk Guy Helmet: Final p.16, TRON p.20

Volpin · Sep 17, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

Arafinwe said:
There's an evil Daft Punk in my closet! :lol

DUDE! When I saw that shot, my heart actually sank for a second.

I thought "****! Someone's already done it, and it looks better than mine!"

...then I noticed that's me in the picture. AWESOME pic! How did you find it?

.:MirrorminD:. · Sep 17, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

Volpin said:
DUDE! When I saw that shot, my heart actually sank for a second.

I thought "****! Someone's already done it, and it looks better than mine!"

...then I noticed that's me in the picture. AWESOME pic! How did you find it?

Now thats priceless lol

Agent RayBans · Sep 17, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

Volpin said:
DUDE! When I saw that shot, my heart actually sank for a second.

I thought "****! Someone's already done it, and it looks better than mine!"

...then I noticed that's me in the picture. AWESOME pic! How did you find it?

Ha! That's funny! I found that picture on Flickr, going through Dragon Con photos. If you search "Daft Punk" or "Robot Dragon con" and click RECENT a few pics of you come up here and there. There's a few of a Thomas walking around, too, and another Guy-Man surprisingly, that looks like crap compared to yours. Did you cross paths?

Here's another picture of you:

Pretty sweet :thumbsup

Volpin · Sep 17, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

Arafinwe said:
Ha! That's funny! I found that picture on Flickr, going through Dragon Con photos. If you search "Daft Punk" or "Robot Dragon con" and click RECENT a few pics of you come up here and there. There's a few of a Thomas walking around, too, and another Guy-Man surprisingly, that looks like crap compared to yours. Did you cross paths?

Here's another picture of you:

I must have been blasted, because I have literally NO memory of either of these photos being taken... Thanks for the heads-up!

Ran across the Thomas, we swapped helmets and got a pic.... which isn't in my flickr for some reason right now. I'll have to hunt it down.

Saw the other Guy when I was checking out of the hotel. I think he was at DC last year. His helmet has some LEDs in it I believe.

.:MirrorminD:. · Sep 17, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

I only found 1 pic of the other Guy helmet. It does look like he has LEDs on it.

Megatron · Sep 17, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

you doing the gloves too?

Volpin · Oct 6, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

Megatron said:
you doing the gloves too?

Yes, eventually.

I have posted an interest thread in the JY for those curious about getting a replica. I'm just seeing if the interest is there right now. At this time I'm NOT doing finished helmets, just resin and visor pulls.

http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=71661

On the progress side of things, another replica maker has done the programming for me for the lights. Hopefully I'll be able to test that this weekend once I get everything wired together. Working on the kinks with the chroming process and I hope to have that nailed down by the end of this week too.

Deadline is Oct 31st delivery... WOOOOOOO! No sleep for October!

CardBoard King · Oct 9, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

Anthony Le Reply: OMG... i love it!!

Eclipse · Oct 12, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

Man the end of October can't come soon enough, I really want to see this build completed, it should be something really really special. Fantastic work so far!

Volpin · Oct 19, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

Eclipse said:
Man the end of October can't come soon enough

Don't remind me!

Been a while since I updated this.

Ok... I've had MORE chroming issues now. The painter at the shop where I sent my last 2 helmets had an illness in the family and has been out of town for a while. Because of that, I've sent the NEXT two helmets to Creations n' Chrome in California. They've done DP helmets before so I'm really, really hoping they know their stuff and can knock this out of the park on the first pass. Cross your fingers, no time for screw-ups now!

Updates:
All ribbon cables are built and tested. Everything is working as intended, thankfully!

Housings for the LED colorbars are built. These have since been painted flat black on the outside and reflective silver on the inside

Blueprint for the control box. I've decided to go with AA batteries instead of the 9Vs, mostly due to size issues. The total mAh is actually in favor of the AA's though. There needs to be a few things added to this still, but this was mostly just to make sure all the components would fit. Not shown: Arduino board and microphone/line input board. These are small though, so fitment should be no problem. Its about the size of a thick wallet.

RoCKo · Oct 19, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

most impressive! i can´t wait to see the finished helmet light up...

Agent RayBans · Oct 19, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

You've got to make a video showing the lights in action! How are you planning to do the look of the "equalizer" lights near the chin?

Also, did I read something about a microphone? Care to elaborate?

Dai Bendu · Oct 19, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

Gotta love the Daft Punk.

Can't wait to see this thing in action

Volpin · Oct 22, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

Volpin said:
Cross your fingers, no time for screw-ups now!

...dammit

One was a dud. The second one turned out pretty good. Much better than the last batch, but still only an 8/10. I'm hoping they can refinish the one above to be a 10/10 with some more time and their own primer. I'm guessing a lot of these issues are coming from prepwork and finishing work not agreeing with one another.

Size comparison vs CRTSHCTR's helmet (his was there getting chromed too and turned out much better than mine)

Mine is a lot larger to accommodate the electronics and to scale for my taller client. Width and depth seem to be pretty similar, mine's just a helluva lot taller.

Arafinwe said:
You've got to make a video showing the lights in action! How are you planning to do the look of the "equalizer" lights near the chin?

Also, did I read something about a microphone? Care to elaborate?

I will definitely post a video when I have something to show. The microphone is a selectable input effect. The Arduino reads a line-in and moves the rainbow colored lights based on sound intensity, much like a VU meter. You will be able to use the built-in microphone as input, or run a line-in from a headphone jack as well.

boodha · Oct 22, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

Whoa, that mic idea is brilliant! That's gonna be pretty damn cool
Sorry to hear about the chrome issues, but it looks like you're on the case!

Volpin · Oct 26, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

I've been working on this nearly non-stop, though my efforts on making my deadline seem to be for naught. More on that later.

ELECTRONICS:

I used white foam (ganked this trick from Lightsaber replicas) to diffuse the LEDs and reduce the hot-spots in the bars. They're still noticeable, but diffused as much as possible without sacrificing too much brightness

One band finished. Both are done and ready, I just don't have a shot yet.

CHROME:
F_CK. I've pulled EIGHT helmets so far, and to date I have ZERO with good chrome. Long story short, I won't be able to make the deadline of the 31st because I don't have a good base to put this thing into. Something happened with the latest batch which looks like it melted the helmet. Really getting tired of making so many of these and getting nothing out of it.

Distortion. The base is .5" wider

And the top bar is kinked and pulled away as well

To say I'm getting frustrated would be an understatement.

On the plus side of things, major thanks to Jimbo for cranking out some fantastic code work. Here's his contribution in action (YouTube vid)

Chronos · Oct 27, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

Sorry to hear about all the troubles...

The LEDs look sweet though! :thumbsup

TV8 · Oct 27, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

Don't give up, this is an awesome project and will be well worth all the setbacks.

dexter1138 · Oct 27, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

This is an impressive build.

You may want to try gel coated fiberglass, resin is just to flexible for this application.

Plus you can polish the gel coat and the paint will go on slick as glass.

Nice work!

Dex

Volpin · Oct 28, 2009

Re: Daft Punk Helmet Build

dexter1138 said:
You may want to try gel coated fiberglass, resin is just to flexible for this application.

I'm starting to think this is the way to go. Lord knows I've got to try something else. Burning all this casting resin is getting me nowhere. Anyone have any recommendations on a good shop to get gelcoat at?

Update:
Made a new wire dome for the helmet. Correct colors as per the latest publicity photos of Guy's helmet. I kind of think it looks a bit too "christmas-y" but its accurate!

Control box finished. Arduino as well as the power supply lives in here. 6 AA batteries should give it 2-4 hours of life, depending on which LED effect patterns are used. The two potentiometers on the side control pattern and speed of the visor LEDs, while the switch turns the whole thing on and off. A DB9 connector supplies the helmet with 5V power for the ICs, 9V for the LEDs, and signal.

I'll be putting a clip on the back side of the box so it will sit on a pocket or belt, much like an external battery pack for a camera flash or microphone. This will make potentiometers adjustments easier. (remember, when you take progress shots, have as much crap in the background as possible so it looks like you know what you're doing!)

Lastly, a size comparison

Daft Punk Guy Helmet: Final p.16, TRON p.20

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