dogb Boba Fett ROTJ Hero Build Thread
- Thread starter dogbertwrldrulr
- Start date
Thank you very much, this was super helpful! Based on what I see and your comments in the video, it looks like shiny side out on the vest and dull side out on the neck seal. I was thinking shiny side out on both based on some of the sun reflection, but then you made a comment about how it looks like the neck seal is turned inside out (which is probably was). The "dull" side is just the inside of the shiny side fabric.
Got my jetpack harness in today! I may get some of the webbing sewn in now, but I don't have my jetpack yet so I can't finish it off.
Also, can anyone tell me the purpose of the figure 8 metal thing that goes on the buckle side webbing towards the back (see picture). It doesn't seem to serve a purpose other than "it was there in the movie". I'm still going to include it, just curious if it has a function or not.
Also, can anyone tell me the purpose of the figure 8 metal thing that goes on the buckle side webbing towards the back (see picture). It doesn't seem to serve a purpose other than "it was there in the movie". I'm still going to include it, just curious if it has a function or not.
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Slave1Pirate117
Hunter
It's a keeper for extra length of unused belt I believe.
OK. I plan on threading it on, just wasn't sure exactly what its function was. Will try it out once my harness is all sewn up.
Thank you! I've had great help!
While I wait for more parts to come in, I started working on electronics and some fit related things.
My plan is to try and keep my power supply for everything in my left hip/belt pouch and run power to the various components via Cat 5/6 cable. The main power supply is going to be a portable power bank. There will be 1 master power switch that will turn on/off power to everything. Since part of the CRL is having a silver wrapped cable run from the left chest armor to either the left pouch or thigh, I figured this was a good way to to unify my power and hide the cabling while still meeting the CRL. I plan to ask my flight suit/vest maker (Arkady) to leave a small hole over the left chest in both pieces so I can route cables through it; hip to chest to under suit and then split off to the left gauntlet, jetpack, and helmet. The left chest armor should cover both holes without issue.
I don't have my helmet or jetpack yet so I went to work on the left gauntlet. This is the result. I have a small LED in the housing (with an inline resistor as direct 5V was crazy bright), and I wired up the 2 buttons in case I ever want to use them. Even if I don't use the buttons, it's nice having the wiring just in case and those signals will be available to me in my central power box. Right now I was thinking of using the buttons to turn my helmet fans on and off, but I spoke with a local Fett and he mentioned that I would probably just leave the fans on all the time so the visor doesn't fog up. I'll have to wait and see when my helmet comes in, but he's probably right. The ethernet breakout also tucks nicely up in the shell and even when wearing this on my bare forearms, I don't feel it at all. The ethernet cable I picked out is perfect as its "flat ethernet" and uses super small wires (32 AWG) in a line instead of bundle so it can pretty much bend backwards with a bend radius in mm so it can exit my flight suit, do the 180 and plug in. The only irritating part is that the unplug tab is on the "bottom" of the breakout which is pressed against the gauntlet shell. I mounted the breakout to some velcro though so I can take it out if its too hard to unplug.
The velcro strap was put in my me just to hold it to my forearm while putting it on, it slides a bit and I may get a thicker one and put it more in the wrist area to help keep it in place. It also provides a tiny bit of extra security as the rocket is heavy. I also plan on getting another thicker strap and mounting it (somehow) more to the front where my wrist will be. I had to add an extra strip of velcro to the inside of the flame thrower housing too as my forearms are a little big and its kind of tight even without a flight suit so the extra strip gives me some room to open up the lower shell a bit and ease the pressure.
During transit the bottom of the flame thrower fell off and instead of gluing it back on, I put some magnets inside of it with matching washers on the underside. This turned out to work in my favor as it allowed me to wire the buttons. The magnets hold the bottom on pretty well and short of me flinging my arm very hard, the bottom stays on without any problems. I can always add more magnets if it becomes an issue. The current magnets are all held on with gobs of E6000 so they shouldn't move.
Once I get my audio amp, microphone, and switches in this weekend, hopefully I can keep working the electronics and have more updates on that.
My plan is to try and keep my power supply for everything in my left hip/belt pouch and run power to the various components via Cat 5/6 cable. The main power supply is going to be a portable power bank. There will be 1 master power switch that will turn on/off power to everything. Since part of the CRL is having a silver wrapped cable run from the left chest armor to either the left pouch or thigh, I figured this was a good way to to unify my power and hide the cabling while still meeting the CRL. I plan to ask my flight suit/vest maker (Arkady) to leave a small hole over the left chest in both pieces so I can route cables through it; hip to chest to under suit and then split off to the left gauntlet, jetpack, and helmet. The left chest armor should cover both holes without issue.
I don't have my helmet or jetpack yet so I went to work on the left gauntlet. This is the result. I have a small LED in the housing (with an inline resistor as direct 5V was crazy bright), and I wired up the 2 buttons in case I ever want to use them. Even if I don't use the buttons, it's nice having the wiring just in case and those signals will be available to me in my central power box. Right now I was thinking of using the buttons to turn my helmet fans on and off, but I spoke with a local Fett and he mentioned that I would probably just leave the fans on all the time so the visor doesn't fog up. I'll have to wait and see when my helmet comes in, but he's probably right. The ethernet breakout also tucks nicely up in the shell and even when wearing this on my bare forearms, I don't feel it at all. The ethernet cable I picked out is perfect as its "flat ethernet" and uses super small wires (32 AWG) in a line instead of bundle so it can pretty much bend backwards with a bend radius in mm so it can exit my flight suit, do the 180 and plug in. The only irritating part is that the unplug tab is on the "bottom" of the breakout which is pressed against the gauntlet shell. I mounted the breakout to some velcro though so I can take it out if its too hard to unplug.
The velcro strap was put in my me just to hold it to my forearm while putting it on, it slides a bit and I may get a thicker one and put it more in the wrist area to help keep it in place. It also provides a tiny bit of extra security as the rocket is heavy. I also plan on getting another thicker strap and mounting it (somehow) more to the front where my wrist will be. I had to add an extra strip of velcro to the inside of the flame thrower housing too as my forearms are a little big and its kind of tight even without a flight suit so the extra strip gives me some room to open up the lower shell a bit and ease the pressure.
During transit the bottom of the flame thrower fell off and instead of gluing it back on, I put some magnets inside of it with matching washers on the underside. This turned out to work in my favor as it allowed me to wire the buttons. The magnets hold the bottom on pretty well and short of me flinging my arm very hard, the bottom stays on without any problems. I can always add more magnets if it becomes an issue. The current magnets are all held on with gobs of E6000 so they shouldn't move.
Once I get my audio amp, microphone, and switches in this weekend, hopefully I can keep working the electronics and have more updates on that.
Gloves from KriptonTop arrived today. The fit is perfect on my hands with very little stretching/bunching so that's good. The color was lighter than I expected, but that will change once they get weathered up a bit. They are also thinner than expected, but its kind of a positive as I still have fine control with my fingers, not like having work gloves on. The only drawback I see is the on the palm, the buttoned opening seems to be a little too tall and goes most of the way up the palm whereas on military dress gloves, that section only goes up about a half inch and uses an actual button vice a metal button. Only really a problem for level 2 and I can probably replace the metal button with a white one myself. These should be fine for basic.
Attachments
lowberg
Active Hunter
Interesting I got a pair from him as a backup and the opening does not go up that far, but yea it won't be seen and doesn't really matter imo.
Your wiring plan sounds very thought out and looking forward to seeing that come together.
Personally I would recommend keeping the helmet electronics untethered via separate power bank inside if you are planning on trooping with the costume. You will want to be able to easily remove the helmet for water breaks ect and if you run a cord to it you will have to deal with routing that cord through upper body softparts/ neckseal ect just seems like a hassle.
I like the option of being able to turn my fans off while having a conversation since hearing in my helmet is really poor with fans running, especially in crowded spaces I can't hear for crap lol I originally put a micro toggle switch on the inside back edge of the helmet and could easily reach up an flick it on and off, but I recently got new fans with variable speed switch Off/Lo/Med/Hi and it works even better
The cables are overkill in length but I shortened them up and wired the fans in parallel right to the switch which runs into a slim USB power bank.
Your wiring plan sounds very thought out and looking forward to seeing that come together.
Personally I would recommend keeping the helmet electronics untethered via separate power bank inside if you are planning on trooping with the costume. You will want to be able to easily remove the helmet for water breaks ect and if you run a cord to it you will have to deal with routing that cord through upper body softparts/ neckseal ect just seems like a hassle.
I like the option of being able to turn my fans off while having a conversation since hearing in my helmet is really poor with fans running, especially in crowded spaces I can't hear for crap lol I originally put a micro toggle switch on the inside back edge of the helmet and could easily reach up an flick it on and off, but I recently got new fans with variable speed switch Off/Lo/Med/Hi and it works even better
The cables are overkill in length but I shortened them up and wired the fans in parallel right to the switch which runs into a slim USB power bank.
I agree on the gloves that it should be fine for basic as you can't see the inside. As I hope to hit Level 2 one day I did reach out to Clothears to see how quickly they can make a set of gloves for me. The pricing document says 10 months
but hopefully a single set of gloves can be done sooner.For the helmet electronics, I am going to try the cable and see how it works. The disconnect is going to be right at the back of the helmet with some slack so "in theory" I can just reach back and pop the cable off and then the helmet comes off. I am going to see if I can mount the ethernet breakout "upside down" so the tab is easier to reach (tab on inside of helmet vs pressed against the outside). Sounds good in theory, but we'll see how it works in practice. I should get my helmet late next month or early August so I will have time to mess with it and see if its bothersome or not. Part of that cable is also the audio cabling for my headphones and mic for the personal audio amp so if I get rid of the cable, I'll have to find other options for those.
Here is the first rev of the electronics pack. The loose USB-A connector plugs into the power bank to power the whole thing. The loose USB-C plugs into the mini mic amp mounted to the top for recharge power. The disconnects for the main body components are all Cat 5/6 disconnects so I can use commercial cables. I also have 2 RCA connectors (1 mounted, 1 loose) and an 1/8" stereo. As I wrote before, the left gauntlet uses flat ethernet so it can make the tight turn from sleeve into gauntlet. Jetpack and Helmet are using PoE Cat 6 (24 AWG). The JP uses that so the cable fills out the strain relief on the XLR connector to protect the solder joints. This way the required connector and cable also serve a purpose and I don't have to try and hide it. I wired 2 of the pins in the required XLR connector for power so I can run the JP beacon off the main electronics. Helmet uses that gauge so I can run the required current for the fans. The hard mounted RCA jack provides power to the chest electronics; the loose RCA will provide recharge power to my voice amp; and the 1/8" stereo provides the audio signal to my voice amp. All of the RCA jacks are color coded too so I can't mess up what plugs in where. At present, the whole pack is 5" x 7" and about 1.5" thick. I measured another person's pouches so this should fit inside the left belt pouch with the connectors facing "up" so I can simply open the pouch and access the connections. The power buttons are also easily accessible through the outward facing side of the pouch without having to open it. The rocker switches also require a deliberate press to change so I shouldn't have to worry about accidentally turning things off mid-troop. The top piece also does a good job of blocking out the lights from the relays so they won't shine through the fabric.
On the top of the electronics pack is my main power switch, 2 recharge switches, power bank pouch, and the headset amp. The power bank pouch has 2 pouches so I can house extra power if needed. The headset amp allows me to put a lavalier mic somewhere on my costume (likely hidden in the belt) and run a pair of headphones off of it (up through the helmet line). The little amp, lavalier mic, and headphones work wonders; I put them on and covered my ears and I could easily hear my wife on the phone in the other room. The power buttons on the amp are also readily accessible and I could likely get to them through the pouch. The main power switch turns on the main electronics and activates power to the gauntlet LED, JP LED, chest electronics, and makes power available for the fans. Fan power is then turned on/off by the 2 buttons on the gauntlet. The 2 recharge switches turn on the recharge lines for the mic and headset amps so I don't have to pull them and recharge them individually, just plug in the main power bank and flick those on and they charge in place. I have already tested the recharge circuits and I can run everything (LED's, chest electronics, and fans) while charging and it doesn't overload my power bank or cause any overcurrent issues with my wiring. The only item I don't have on hand is my JP LED, but that won't make a difference.
The helmet also has 2 stereo audio lines, one for my headphones, and one for my mic/amp. lowberg, the helmet fans I picked are the same as you linked (when I clicked the link it noted that I have purchased these before). They are quiet and blow quite a bit of air. Again, I need to see how this works, but I plan on having wired headphones and a mic inside the helmet that I can wear inside the balaclava to help keep them in place. They plug into the ethernet breakout so the cables will be fully contained inside the helmet. The current mic I have wraps around my head and I may change that just mount it to the inside of the helmet so I don't have to mess with tucking the cabling in anywhere. Can't do that with the headphone cable, but I stuffed the extra wire inside my balaclava as a test and it didn't bother me in the least.
For my chest electronics, it came with an attached USB power cable and I just rewired it so that its a red male RCA to match what I have on the main pack (extension cable will be part of the cable bundle so its disconnectable.
For the personal amp, I was thinking of putting it inside my vest. Arkady puts a pocket on the right inside of her vests and the amp I have will fit in there and is only about an inch thick. That way my voice is closer to my head but out of the way of everything else. I am hoping its also close enough that if I need to adjust the volume, I should be able to stick a finger under the armor and access the volume knob. The helmet mic audio goes through the connected Cat 6 cable and ends at the female 1/8" jack coming off the pack. Part of the cable bundle will be an 1/8" stereo cable that plugs into that loose connector and the top of the amp. I also plan on having a custom made (by me) RCA->USB-C charge cable as part of the bundle to power/recharge the amp while in use; that's the loose white RCA cable.
I am going to have to make a second iteration though. I didn't do a great job lining up the holes for the standoffs and when I installed them, some were slightly crooked and I have cracks forming in the plastic. One corner has already broken off due to being too close and I overtightened the screw. I also need to run some grommet edging around the edges to protect the edges so it doesn't cut holes in the pouch fabric.
For the interested folks, here is some info on the pieces:
R1 - This is the main power relay, activated by the main power switch and provides 5V to TB2.
R2 - This is the fan control relay, activated by the front button on the left gauntlet. It receives its common relay power from TB2.
R3 - This is the fan hold relay. Since the activation button for R2 is momentary, the coil activation voltage is lost when the button isn't pressed and the relay would turn off. This relay solves that. Once R2 is activated, it provides power to the common on R3 whose NO position routes that power right back to the input on R2, thus "holding" the relay closed. Once the off button on the gauntlet is pressed activated R3, the NO voltage on R3 is lost and since the ON switch isn't pressed, R2 looses its coil voltage and turns off.
TB1 - This is the common terminal block for 5V ground for the whole system. All ground/negatives route here.
TB2 - This is the common 5V source power once main power is activated. The recharge circuits don't use this and can charge straight off the power bank regardless of main power selection
LG - Connector for the left gauntlet
JP - Connector for the jetpack
H - Connector for the helmet
Unlabeled - The RCA connector for the chest electronics (no good way to label it)
Since this picture was taken, I have since covered the bare copper wire seen with shrink tubing to prevent shorting. I unfortunately can't shrink tube the contacts on the switches as there is not enough vertical room once its closed. I use 1" standoffs between the 2 plates and trying to 90 degree turn the wires after soldering put a lot of strain on the solder joints.
One of my favorite parts is the power bank I found. I figured this was pretty on theme for the costume. Its ROTJ SE Fett, but it's close enough.
This is all probably overkill, but its one thing I like doing. I don't care much for painting or other things, but designing electronics is fun for me. You should see the boxes I built for my Christmas light show.
Here you go. Its pretty much overcast today so these may not be as good as having direct sunlight or even shade, but its natural light. I can try and get some more later if the sun makes an appearance.
Sun came out. Top row is the gloves in direct sunlight, bottom row is in the shade with the sun out. Hopefully this is what you were looking for.
I don't think so. The grey coloring is very even and consistent. If he did dye them, he did a fantastic job.
