What is the accepted ESB chest light sequence?

What is the ESB sequence & how did "we" determine it was right?

nobody?

This:

http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/bbt/chest_display.htm

Is the first sequence

The sequence in that link is what was provided to me for the chest display WAY back when (back when the board was still "As You Wish"). My understanding, and I apologize for not remembering names, is that a couple of members watched the Laser Disc version of the movies to find the sequence; as I recall, they zoomed in and watched it in slow-mo! Talk about dedication (or is it insanity?).


ATM
ShackMan

For my boards, I went with what was accepted by the masses as the correct sequence (which is what KaanE posted). I have watched ESB and ROTJ many, many times to check the sequence, but I cannot find a long enough on screen Boba presence to say it's correct or not. A lot of the time, I see it doesn't appear to be lighted at all. I'm not saying the sequence is correct, but it would be nice if someone could say 'I know a guy who knew a guy that worked in the FX department during filming, and here's the screen used sequence'. Anyone know that guy?

Fettronics

I don't know that guy, but I am the guy who headed up the current "accepted sequence." I am fairly confdent the "accepted sequence" is not the complete sequence. This sequence was put together from the carbon freezing chamber scene which is the only time you really can see it in a decent light. We simply took what we saw and put it together, but the problem is, in the scene, they cut away from and back to Fett several times, so there is no doubt this is not the complete sequence, it is just the best we were able to do based on the material we currently have available. I would love nothing more than for someone to fire up the display on one of the suits in the archive and give us something new! This was one of the reasons we had shackman make his boards with modular chips, so we could one day replace them with a more accurate sequence when it was found.

Here is why I ask
I have a reference pic that shows a completely different display.
I have cropped out the chest display section because I cannot post the entire pic.
Anyone else ever seen this?

Nop... But I want to see it No, seriously, I never have seen this pic.

This could mean that we all need new displays... :S

I don't know the guy responsible during filming of the originals, but I know the guy using it during the SE versions. Don Bies ran the archives, as well as wearing the suit (I believe for ROTJ?).

Anyway, years ago, I took a set to him and asked him if he thought it was correct. His response was that he (of course) didn't know the exact sequence, but it looked close enough for him. He also commented that they didn't run the lights in ROTJ, due to bright sunlight washing it out anyway.


ATM
ShackMan

Originally Posted by Fettronics

I'm not saying the sequence is correct, but it would be nice if someone could say 'I know a guy who knew a guy that worked in the FX department during filming, and here's the screen used sequence'. Anyone know that guy?

Fettronics

Actually, I need to make a clarification. There are two parts to the display. The top section and the bottom. We used the carbon chamber scene mainly for the top sequencing. We did to verification for the bottom in that scene but we also pulled pics from other resources. Here is another pic from the hallyway photoshoot that shows one of the displays in the current sequence. I had forgotten about it but that would mean that both the pic posted by S1P and myself are from the same display... so you now have two additional steps in the bottom. Time for new chips shack old buddy!

I know this one isn't clear, but it is the second segment of the established sequence.

Once we reach a general consensus on "what's correct for now", no problem.


ATM
ShackMan

Originally Posted by Brak's Buddy

Time for new chips shack old buddy!

"My" pic is also from the hallway photoshoot.
I thought the lights might differ between this shoot and the carbon chamber scenes.
I just didn't know if the lights were the same or had been changed out inbetween the shoot & the scene

Upon looking at everything, I would say no, they weren't changed... just parts of the sequence that were missing or unclear until now. Pretty nice as it gives us a 5 sequence bottom display (inlcuding off). The top display has 6 sequences so it would seem we are getting closer to what might be considered a complete sequence and this actually might BE the complete sequence as it doesn't seem that the top and bottom line up, so ther might only be 5 total for the bottom.

so I actually made a contribution to this hobby?

Originally Posted by slave1pilot

so I actually made a contribution to this hobby?

Not really, just made more work for me.

I kid ...


ATM
ShackMan

Originally Posted by slave1pilot

so I actually made a contribution to this hobby?

Indeed.

While we still have no idea what the sequence is of the lower section, I would suggest we go at it like this.

Old partial characters
Old complete characters
OFF
New partial characters (image I posted)
New complete characters (image S1P posted)

you could add another off to the end, but I think I would prefer to keep the bottom out of sync with the top.

Does it look to anyone else like the image slave1pilot posted only has 4 characters, and only room for four characters? Maybe it just the angle...

There are 5 numeric displays on the light board. However, the slots in the armor aren't large enough to accomodate all 5 lights. The last light on the right is partially cut off due to the armor. In the pics S1P and I posted, you see no 5th character... I don't know if that is a combination of the angle and the fact that it would already be partially cut off, or if there are only 4 characters lit for this part of the sequence. Since we see no hint of a 5th character in either pic, I would simply leave that one off.

You can see in these pics the 4 numbers and the 1/2 five:

Is there any more activity with this thread?

I thought I'd revive this thread to let y'all know I'm on the brink of getting my new chest light board design done. It will be a one board solution (as my other boards), but will have the ability to select the characters displayed on the seven segment portion as well as the top light sequence. I'll be using a 16F687 PIC micro controller, which is a step up from the 16F505 I use currently. I'll also be moving to a PCB since the circuit will be more complex and would be a nightmare to wire up by hand. This will also allow me to sell the board as a kit.
I'll keep all of you posted when they're ready to purchase (hopefully within a month or so).

On the Shackman lights: So we will be able to buy upgrade chips for our current light sets when they are available then??? How hard are these to install??? Is it something we could do ourselves, or will we have to ship the whole unit back to the Shackman??? Just curious.
D

My new light boards are ready! The new design will allow you to have any sequence you want up to 20 'steps'. You can see the details about the board in my other thread.

Jon
www.Fettronics.com

You all can tell me if this has already been noticed (and maybe that is how some boards already are made), but doesn't it look like the top lights each are composed of four vertical light bands like IIII . Is that what everyone else is seeing?

I see that as well

Yes, they did use 4 rectangular LEDs for each of the top 5 light sections. That might have been the only type they had available back then.

My boards use 5 large rectangular LEDs for the top lights.

Jon
www.Fettronics.com

Originally Posted by Seven

I know of at least 7 different sequences for the bottom display (including one off). I speculate that there are 10...Least that is what I am doing for on my board.

Wow! I know of 4. I would love to hear about these additional sequences!

Originally Posted by Seven

I know of at least 7 different sequences for the bottom display (including one off). I speculate that there are 10...Least that is what I am doing for on my board.

Still waiting to hear about these...

Me too! Do tell (and show).

Jon
www.Fettronics.com

This is a silly question but here goes.

I realize it looks like the fett chest lights are 5 sections. With a row of 5 above it.

Now are they still being made like this to be 'acurate' to the original board, or is there any reason its not being done on a 1 x 3 in LCD that could be programmed to do anything.

Im just curious, while making mine, I found a lot of options for screens, pics, and interfaces, but wanted to hear from you gurus first hand.

Thanks.
m2

My board design has gone through a lot of phases before setting on using the Micro Processor, but I've always used 7 segment displays. The one thing to consider if you want to make your boards small but still programmable is knowing how many outputs you have available on your controller chip. The chip I use has 17 usable output pins, so 5 seven segment displays and 5 top lights take up all of those. This is using a 20 pin chip. I've seen 40 pin and higher, but I've never played around with them, as I'm not sure my PIC programmer handles them. If you're talking about controlling a grid of some sort, you're talking a lot more segments to control, which would probably mean using another type of controller chip to feed in to from the Micro Processor to output the pattern.
I just like to keep it simple, I guess. The fewer the components, the less that can go wrong, right? Although, your idea is intriguing.

Another thing to consider is that LCDs aren't very bright, even with back lighting. Do you have some links to what you're considering?

Jon
www.Fettronics.com

Originally Posted by Stormrider

I realize it looks like the fett chest lights are 5 sections. With a row of 5 above it.

Now are they still being made like this to be 'acurate' to the original board, or is there any reason its not being done on a 1 x 3 in LCD that could be programmed to do anything.

Im just curious, while making mine, I found a lot of options for screens, pics, and interfaces, but wanted to hear from you gurus first hand.

As technology has improved, there are definitely better ways to make the display, but I think you would find that most members would argue to have it made as close to the same way as it was, even though the technology is a bit dated at this point. Take the little LEDs at the top. The way fettronics has made them is to use 5 large horizontaly oriented rectangular LEDs which makes sense and is logical. However, the original display has stacked sets of vertically oriented LEDs to create more or less the exact same light... This approach is more tedious and doesn't make as much sense as what Fettronics originally did, but logical or not, that is what people want because it is closer to the real deal.