Installing Digital Chest Display.


vadersfavorite wrote:

Thanks a lot for the AWESOME product Shackman!!! These kick major butt and bring the costume to life. If anyone is ever thinking about doing business with Shackman than do it cause this is great stuff. He's also very easy to deal with and actually wants his customers to be happy, can't say that about all sellers. Thanks again and I'm still messing around with how to keep them on my armor. I've already tried a couple ways and I'll see what works best after some more testing. Velcro does seem to do the job rather well.

Thanks for the kind words. Glad you liked them!

Now, if you can just figure out the "best" way to mount them, we'll have an answer to a question I get a lot (and can't help with). :)

ATM
ShackMan
 
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Quick update on the battery life for the FettLights:

I started the running test yesterday at 8:30 AM. Here it is, 8:30AM the next day, and they're still running fine. The thing to keep in mind is that the "usable" life is a subjective call. I don't consider it useable if the lights are no longer visible in decent room lighting.

So while I expect this thing to keep running for several more hours (which would be fine in a dimly lit room), I'd say I got a usable life (IMO) of about 20 - 22 hours.

My "SWAG" (Scientific Wild-A$$ Guess) was pretty close. ;)

ATM
ShackMan
 
last night i mounted the lights onto the armor . i first put down a strip of window tint . the same stuff i used on the visor . then i mounted the lights with a hot glue gun .this secured it very well , so now i'm gonna do the same to the other board on the other side . i went to radio shack and got a black project box , some 9 volt battery terminals , grey wire and an on / off button. put it all together and you get a box that holds the battery and an on / off switch that you can run down to your belt pouch and have a grey wire showing , ( like the movie suit ) .

also , this makes a completlly separate unit so you don't have to cut into shackman's work of art . just put a 9 volt plug thingy at the end of the wire and connect it to the 9 volt cable on the boards .i'll put up a pic soon ...

later , cory
 
I haven't yet decided on how I will attach the lights to the armor. The chest LED's didn't line up to the slots on my armor so I had to do some plastic surgery on the chest piece, lol. I used a dremel to cut 2 centimeters or so off the bottom of the lower slot to make it taller. I then had to reduce the width of both slots and did that by cutting some small pieces of plastic, bonding them to the outer corners of both slots the using Bondo and glaze putty to hide the seams. Besides this also gave me another reason to repaint my armor!!! I have some pics but can't post it here because of Yahoo (enough said!), here is a link though to where I have the pics posted. I reduced the image sizes so hope fully the bandwidth will hold! lol

http://www.geocities.com/sithjedi1/Fett_Armor.html
 

BH2372 wrote:

last night i mounted the lights onto the armor . i first put down a strip of window tint . the same stuff i used on the visor . then i mounted the lights with a hot glue gun .this secured it very well , so now i'm gonna do the same to the other board on the other side . i went to radio shack and got a black project box , some 9 volt battery terminals , grey wire and an on / off button. put it all together and you get a box that holds the battery and an on / off switch that you can run down to your belt pouch and have a grey wire showing , ( like the movie suit ) .

also , this makes a completlly separate unit so you don't have to cut into shackman's work of art . just put a 9 volt plug thingy at the end of the wire and connect it to the 9 volt cable on the boards .i'll put up a pic soon ...

later , cory

Sounds really interesting and I had almost the same idea, and I have my armor with the tinted panel already installed (hot glued to the armor) from one of the Boba Fett lens I have. Instead of hot glue the display to the armor I was thinking about creating my own custom box using pieces of sintra left over from the Jet Pack's closure backing plate. Cutting the panels to size and shape, and then paint it in black so the display will sit snug inside the armor, but with a way that I could also remove the display in case it gets damaged or something, at the same time to protect it from water, sweat and rain.
About the black box for the batteries and on/off switch, sound really nice too. But I'm confused about the other board...did you say that you're planning to install it in the other side of the armor? Cause my big question is...how you gonna do that without the ribbon showing up? (unless you cut a slit on your vest and that somehow doesn't sounds right. I was thinking about doing so, but in the same side, cutting a slit thru the vest and ending in a pocket in the inside of the vest (facing your chest side) where the other board sits inside with the battery,...but this one sounds complicated!

Please, share your ideas and keep them coming...your idea sounds the best one yet! :) (y) I'm probably heading to Radio Shack now...

Robert
 
Are you wanting the dimensions of the components (display and circuit board) or of the lit display area? I would highly recommend not cutting out your slots until after you have your lights. Once you have them, take a piece of clear plastic (heck, wax paper would probably work) and trace the display area. Once you have that, transfer it over to your armor and carefully start trimming, occassionally putting the lights in making sure you are going overboard. Making the cuts just using posted dimensions can be risking and difficult to fix if you cut more than you wanted to. If you weren't planning on using Shackman's display, then here are the estimated measurements for the slots in the chest we came up with based off the MoM suit:

Top slot is 1/8" tall
Bottom slot is 1/4" tall
Slots are 1/4" apart.
Slots are same length; 1 5/8" long
 
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I was planning on sewing a pocket on the inside of my vest for the second board. Other than that, I had planned on running a set of wires down to a belt pouch with an on/off switch, just like my voice amp.
 
I was considering about expanding the wires adding an on/off switch which I could put inside one of the side belt pouches. I'll be posting pics really soon, with probably a tutorial to install these ones on your armor. Hope this works.

Robert
 
hmmm, i hot glued mine inside my armor and than ran teh wires and control box down the outside of the inside the vest, adn i can reach the switch with either arm.
 
Here's the way I did mine, I made a box made of sintra or sign plastic, snug enough to fit the exact size for the chest display. I measured the sizes in all angles so I came out with this, specially thinking in waterproofing the chest display, and at the same time as comfortable as possible to fit under your vest.

EYFFK-Chestlightbox1.png


measuring the right fit of the display, that doesn't wiggle inside the box, which I managed to add a little strip of plastic for a tight fit, which you could add inside in the upper or lower part,

ERVXX-Chestlightbox2.png


And making sure that it fits with the right angles based on the curves on the armor, which most likely you want to trim a little bit the areas where the box connects to the armor. Remember to keep in mind that it has to be fit and close to the armor, making sure that the display is aligned correctly inside and that it work properly from the outside, then hot melt glued to the armor for sealing the box in the areas between the white box and the armor, not touching the brass contacts or the circuit board inside, which should be free of obstacles for the ribbon cable to fit, and avoid damaging the whole system.

TUVVA-Chestlightbox3.png


Hope this helps as an example for everyone. All you need is a little patience with this, not all armor are made the same, including the fact that there's the dark film inside the slots for the effect, besides to protect the display from water and other elements, specially kids sneezing in your armor (or sort of...maybe someone could puke drunk in your armor at a party :lol: )...but you get the idea. Planning to install an on/off switch between the battery adapter and the other circuit board, which will be resting in a pocket inside the vest facing your body, and the switch to place it somewhwere accessible. Any questions, just ask me.

Robert
 
Do these measurements appear a bit small to anyone else? They will barely accomodate my LED display. looks too cramped to me.

Height of top slot: 4mm.

Distance between slots: 8mm.

Height of bottom slot: 8mm.

Length of slots: 43mm.
 
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