Diving Head First Into Electonics...

tubachris85x

Well-Known Hunter
For about a week now, I have been getting into wiring electronic devices for just expeirimental reasons, and to just see what I can do. So today, I went out to Radioshack, and bought some goodies to get started. I figured I would start simple, and assemble a working micro fan with a switch, and I present my first gadget to possibly go into my near completion Jango Helm.

electricfanswitch.jpg


I plan to move up when I practice re-wire a motor and possibly lead to installig a RC servo for the RF.

-tubachris
 
Here's an update. I took the battery pack, and a circuit board from the RC mouse toy car I had, and sodered the wires approprietly, and now I replaced the micro motor with a larger RC car motor I scraped for parts. And here it is, my first self-built RC motor, fully operational. The only issue ow, is how do I install it into my helmet...


newmotorRC.jpg


-tubachrishttp://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/tubachris85x/?start=#imgAnch1
 
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So last night, I was testing the strength of the motor, and if it would be powerful enough to move the RF. Unfortunatly. this motor is not powerful enough. I was sure it wouldnt be in the first place. So the next thing is to find a suitble servo. I just found this online from fastcomponents.co.uk
It's called a sub-micro servo, you can see in the pictures that its only 2 cm long! I see that its also a pretty good price as well. but again, I am not sure how strong it is. Here's the link.

http://www.fastcomponents.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=74

-tubachris
 
Ok, after much persistance, I was able to head to a very large hobby shop in the area. I brought my helm and I go a servo. The had a massive counter full of a few hundred at least. The one I have is 4.8 volt powered, with 2.6kg output torque, roughly 5.7 pounds of torque. The servo itself is just as big as a small rectangular lighter. Anyways, I just need to figure how to arrange the servo horns and practice with the epoxy I got. I'll post pics later tonight if I can, got alot of homework these days...

-tubachris
(As my mom tells me, "If Star Wars was a school subject, you would be a straight A student...")
 
Well, I havent been able to get pictures, but I was trying to solve the voltage issue. Being that the servo I have requires 4.8 volts, I was thinking of adding two more 1.5 volt AA's with a resister on it. However, tonight, when looking for some dinner at the store, I came across the battery section, and found a 4 pack of AAA's, each of which equals 1.2 volts a piece. Simple mathe, 4 x 1.2 = 4.8 At this point, all I need to get now is a AAA battery holder that can hold 4 of them. Since that much is done, the only thing left is figuring how im gonna wire this thing.....

Another quick update on the actual RF. Ive taken two servo horns, cut the arms off so that I have two cylindrical horns. Since im only testing, I used some goop and attached them together so that it would be long enough to reach from the RF to the servo within the helm. Once I know it works I am gonna have to practice with the epoxy so that I dont screw anything up.

Oh the simple things in life we enjoy...

-tubachris
(Who's thankful my girlfriends grandfather is an electrical engineer...)
 
Well, I have been gone all weekend, but I was working with my G-friends grandfather on the servo. I feel that I may have recievd a faulty servo, or there is something we dont know about it. My original intent was to connect it to the RC board and go wireless. When I first attached the RC motor as a test, it only had 2 cables which made it simple to work. But this servo has 3 cables, one red, black and yellow. So now, I know that I cant use this servo on an RC board. However, while working with him, we tried to just power it and for some reason, it would just twitch once. We know there is something wrong with it, because it requires 4.8 volts and we even gave it exactly and just a bit more and it did nothing. We tried wire combinations, and everything. There is one more thing I can try to make it work, but its definatly not going into my helm with switches. He suggested connecting the battery pack to an SPDT as well as the servo. It would be a two way switch, flick one way, it would turn one direction and vice versa. So until I can find a suitable servo that will work with an RC, I wont have one. I am not however giving up on it. I am looking into possibly getting the hyperdyne servo kit that appears to be the rage.

So im going to test the new servo connection method and if it dosnt work, im just gonna take it back.

-tubachris
 
All right. I feel dumb. I should have researched this a bit more. I now know the reason why the servo didnt work. I need a servo control board. I originally thought the hyperdyne servo kit was an actual servo. Apon research I realized direct power to the servo will not work, because it requires pulses that are only created by the control board. Thats why it was just twitching. So now I know why it hasnt been working. The problem now is just gettin a control board, which I can make all the correct attachments, and in turn, connect it to the RC board. For now, I will just have to wait a bit before I can pay for a hyperdyne servo board, or possibly find something equal to it at the hobby shop. I'll keep this updated.

-tubachris
(How did I miss this?)
 
Ah technospeak, a language I'm sadly not fluent in. Perhaps once you get the hyperdyne servo etc, you could create a tutorial with pics showing the step by step progression of installing one in our buy'ce. I know it would help me to set mine up, otherwise I'm clueless right after I've bought the parts needed for the project...Thoughts?

 
Just my 2 cents, but if you get a hyperdyne servo RF kit thing I would install that first and then paint the helmet. I very kind member here painted my bucket, and I have been very careful with it trying to get the servo in. It's been kind of a pain trying not to mess up the outstanding paint job and make the mods that needed to be made.
 
I will post a tutorial to the best of my abilities, but it may not be for awhile, the hyperdyne control board is expensive right now, and I do not know where to find a similar control board. I just need the funds for it and then I can put it all together. Once that happens I'll make a tutorial up, that even the most completly unknowledgable person who's been living under a rock his whole life can put it together.

As of now, my helm is already painted, its not until after that I decided to do this. I dont think it would be that much of an issue of installing it, because the components are obviously inside. I imagine the only issue would be drilling a bigger whole for the servo gear w/ servo horn. However, there are still some touch ups I need to make because last night I discovered the power of a hot glue gun, and realized an alignment error with the mandables. It required a screw driver and my now painful thumb to take the visor off and remove the excess glue. Fortunatly, there is no damage to anything except my thumb, and a partial area on the helme that just merely got scratched. Easily fixed. This weekend, I will fix the mandable issue, and reattach the visor.

Back the servo project, hard enough as it is to get the parts right now, I dont intend on letting this idea go down toilet. Sure enough, it will happen.


-tubachris
(who was wondering last night how the mandables became uneven after extensive prep work and posistioning was done)
 
How much does the Hyperdyne servo cost? I've never really looked them up as I just learned about their existence the other day. I assume it's over $100 or so?

 
How much does the Hyperdyne servo cost? I've never really looked them up as I just learned about their existence the other day. I assume it's over $100 or so?


Servo Controller Board - $55.00
RF transmitter - $75.00
Servo - $35.00
And shipping, worth every dime.
 
Well that's not as bad as I thought really. I'm just wondering if my big head is gonna fit in my helmet with the servo etc, pcu fans x2, headset and microphones, camelback hose for a drink without taking my helmet off. I think that's all I have planned now anyway. May be a tight fit to say the least.

 
Well, thats alot of things to be having inside your helm, then again, your trooping, so its kinda necessary, and a comodity to have in the heat. For me however, I dont troop for (1) all I have is a helmet (2) no money to make a suit (3) no place ive seen to troop at, and (4) I just really like the helmet morso then having a whole suit. Dont get me wrong, I'd love to have one, but right now for me its not a necessity, nor is the helmet, but I decided since I will most likely never have a suit, that I would just get a helmet, cause its cool and a really nice display item. I really want to install a servo because to me and people who arent really into this, will think for that brief second, "is that thing real?" With certain things Ive seen so far in this hobby, you may think "well, this suit isnt functional, its just a costume." In many ways, thats right, but in others, its wrong. Yes, they arent made for battle, the blasters dont shoot, the flame thrower, well with certain people are real, but with all these upgrades and devices installed make these suits functional. They are user friendly when made to specifications. Like Dha_Syntir said, hes putting in fans, a mic, a camel back hose and may do a servo. The water hose and fans are what make it user friendly, and with the mic and servo, make it a functional suit. My reason for this is becaue it could be just a costume, but with everything like those mentioned above that are installed make it more then just a costume. I like to think of it as a fully functional Fett.


The reason for making my helm with little devices, will to me, make it seem that much more real. Although we are only imitating fictional things, we make them real to the eyes, the imagination and to those who wish to believe things like this, are real. Its exactly like music. We make music to entertain, excite and inspire people. Whats so different from the affects of our art work? Obviously the inspiration for me doing this came from this site. Its exciting seeing our suits in real life, knowing that its not everyday you see exact copies of famous movie characters. And all thie little things that I imagine the trooping does, also entertains, such as the parades and such. As Ive heard on this board awhile ago, when in costume, your are actors, in turn, your also a performers. As a musician, I do exactly the same, just another form of art. In marching band, Im the Tuba player, the stereotypical big guy (6'7 265lbs) playing on a seemingly large instrument. In some ways, that can be similar to this, because your fullfilling a role seldom seen in the world. I can say seldom because half the kids in my school never even heard of a tuba. Just to end my little rant by which I dont even know how it started, I will say that overall, the two thins are indirectly related. For I wouldnt even be a musician, if it werent for the music of Star Wars, and I wouldnt be sitting here writing about it if it werent for you guys, so I thank you for inspiring my current hobby.

-tubachris
(Who's gonna be the bad-a$$ souaphone player tonight in the marching band competition)
 
Well as far as electronics goes, tonight, Im gonna install that 12v computer fan inside my helmet. I went by a radioshack yesterday and bought a smal batery holder that can hold one of those tiny 12v batteries. So Im just gonna attach it all together with that switch, and probaly hot glue it all in, or velcro, not sure yet. Gonna feel nice to have circulating air inside, especially during halloween and whatnot when I'll be runing around outside.

-tubachris
 
Cool Chris, I'd like to see a pic or two after you get it all together and all. I want to see how you've mounted and placed yours. It'll give me a better idea of how and where to place mine for maximum effectiveness. My plan was for at least one fan ould be mounted somehow so that hot sauna-like air would be blown out the back through the key slots or whatever. Then have another fan or two inside to cool things down. Was that wrongheaded thinking, or would it be feasible?

 
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