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Best device(s) for this cosplay

Amethyst

I'm assuming many of us here are gamers, and I don't have a better clue where I'd put this. I plan to make a Samus cosplay, from Metroid. Not dedicated to one yet, but thinking Varia suit. 

I have honestly been planning this for many years, but funding left me lacking. On that note, I'm thinking of a Patreon or something, but not sure what rewards would be. Off-topic from the site, but feel free to give ideas!

For the main topic, I'd previously planned to use a mini RasPi and maybe a PICAxe, but an restarting my design with a clearer head:  but I fell behind on tech and don't know what's available. Here's the list I'd like to try to include if you have clever ideas to add, I'm all ears!

-An intake and exhaust fan in the helmet, like RasPi mini fans (5v), for temperature and breathing. I plan to fit these in the "ears" of the helmet that the hoses attach to.

-Some kind of screen in the helmet that can tell me information from the board. Looking at battery level, temperature, and possibly proximity sensor information.

I'm not sure how I can implement this though. I was previously thinking of an oLED display in the past, but they were expensive. I'm wondering if it's possible to create a reflection display off the helmet "glass" (acrylic) over the face? I've seen it work on car windshields, but what am I looking for?

-Some kind of "life form" detection I can use, eg infrared or other ideas? I would feed that input into my display.

Arm Blaster:

-Ice Beam using compressed air, unless there's a good electronic alternative? 

-Ping pong or Airsoft pellets. Which would be cheaper to build? Doesn't need to be high pressure, of course. 

-Fireballs by flash paper and cotton with a glow plug. Suggestions on safest way to control it? Not sure I want a 12v stepper in my arm cannon, not sure if a lower voltage would do the job?

Overall, what electronics do you think are the best ideas to try for something like this that's generally low power, but collectively can be demanding?

The suit is planned to be built with overlapping panels, eg outer thigh strapping over inner thigh armor. I will probably hot glue the wires on the outside of the lower layers and use connectors for LED wiring and any possible sensors I may use (eg motion sensor for behind me). Looking for what your experience is on best budget connectors for that.

image

  • in reply to cstanton
    cstanton said:
    I'm not sure the pico projector he has linked is still in stock or available

    Farnell appear to be still selling them (but 100wk+ lead time).

    Buy Now

    Mouser have 200+ in stock.

  • in reply to Amethyst

    This looks a fairly low cost way but may be tricky to fit it all inside unless you can oversize the helmet.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omNDLQ4cKnY

    It looks like it uses a convex mirror creating a virtual focus point somewhere outside of the helmet. You might want to try a quick test to see how close you can comfortably focus.

  • in reply to Amethyst
    Amethyst said:
    Thanks for pointing that out! I didn't know 12v ran at lower RPM.

    It's typically because they also tend to be larger fans, say 80mm or higher. You tend to find smaller fans are 5v.

    Amethyst said:
    would the higher RPM be less audible to me (since higher frequencies penetrate less), or are higher RPM fans just generally louder?

    It will be less audible because as you say, higher frequencies can penetrate less, but it'll depend on the materials. Higher rpm fans are also generally louder as they run faster and so try to move more air - there are other aspects that can affect the acoustics of fans, such as their enclosure and what gaps they are pulling air through.

    Amethyst said:
    There a term for the level of sound emitted by fans, or a bearing type that would be cheap but quiet?

    It's usually measured in decibels. So you'll see that some fans say "the sound is xdB" where x is a value of sound measurement. For example, my partner's laptop measures about 40dB across the room, but it has a 50 hertz whine to it that is very piercing, so it seems like it's a lot louder than it actually is.

    Amethyst said:
    Not having controls handy is why I was thinking of just having it plugged: IDK where'd I'd put a switch or pot.

    Indeed, and how would you make it look appropriate and in style with the suite? To me its weighing up the practicality of it versus making sure it still looks true to the intended design. I think that designing a 'capacitive touch' control may start to over-engineer the solution, especially for a first pass depending on time and budget constraints.

    Amethyst said:
    without potentially blinding a person when it's shining light onto the helmet?

    You can usually alter how bright the backlight is on these displays, either to a fixed level or to a manual control, it will depend on the screen used.

    Also consider that you could put a piece of transparent film in front of the LCD or OLED screen to mute the brightness, like a smokey piece of plastic, or some people resort to a clear piece of acetate film and painting it or covering it with ink.

    Amethyst said:
    So question here... there a way to play a sound file when it's still loading? EG loading the Raspian screens in memory?

    This guide might help you: https://zedt.eu/tech/linux/how-to-play-sounds-or-run-anything-on-startup-and-shutdown-with-raspbian/ and appears to be a mostly sane way to do it.

    Amethyst said:
    It uses a compressed air: If you turn it upside down, it sprays out the liquid that turns into a crystalized mist. I heard this can cause instant frostbite,

    I haven't personally experienced that, but I tend to 'run hot' as it were, you'd have to have direct skin contact with it and I doubt you'd be directly spraying people - but it is a risk factor.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Yeah this is doing the 'peppers ghost' effect, and you can see similar with car projectors

    https://www.theverge.com/2014/8/5/5970705/this-tiny-projector-puts-smartphone-apps-on-your-cars-windshield

    I think you'd benefit from looking for and buying a suitable small screen that works with your hardware of choice, and then you can try finding angles that work with the confined space of your helmet  - the simple act of angling the screen at say, your visor, would work for a heads up display in most cases and then you need a way to mount it.

    It may take some experimentation, and there might already be similar solutions for motorcycle helmets because that's kinda similar but I don't have any concepts on hand right now.

  • in reply to cstanton

    The car windshield (and the theatre stage for that matter) has the advantage that it is far enough away for the human eye to be able to focus on it.

    Anything inside a helmet will likely require some additional optical trickery to move the perceived focus point outside of the helmet. 

    Virtual images
    http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/geoopt/image2.html#c1

  • in reply to beacon_dave
    beacon_dave said:
    Anything inside a helmet will likely require some additional optical trickery to move the perceived focus point outside of the helmet. 

    Indeed, it may even be best to directly look at the screen - without mounting schematics/information/layout it's good to throw these ideas and limitations around for awareness.

  • Amethyst said:
    Some kind of screen in the helmet that can tell me information from the board. Looking at battery level, temperature, and possibly proximity sensor information.

    Some form of tactile sensor array might be an alternative worth considering here.

    Small vibration motors on your back could potentially indicate proximity behind you from different sides.

    They could also be used to indicate a low battery warning and other alerts.

    I'd imagine that you could hide a display panel in the arm blaster for other general status information.

  • in reply to Amethyst

    ROFL - I had built a robot costume out of cardboard awhile ago. It was Transformer-ish with big lower legs, I used a SWAT utility belt to mount the batteries on my waist.........qty 2 scooter batteries, 12V 7000mAhr each. 

    I wore the costume at a science museum haunted halloween night. The exhibit included a scary dark room withlittle things that go bump in the night. I couldn't see well while wearing my robot helmet with tinted visor, so turned on all the lights on the costume at once. It lit the room up way better than with its normal lighting. The legs had 2 foot long white LED strips meant for automotive applications.  That really agitated the guy running the dark room, exposing all the nooks and hiding places :-)  

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Would the arm blaster be held or would it be attached to the arm ?

    If it is attached, then that could leave the fingers free to operate controls hidden inside the blaster.  It would also make any wired connections easier. 

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    The helmet is a bit big in its own right. But yes, something like this is amazing.  But The space thing, looking at the helmet... do you have any ideas how to try it? My brain is stalling.

    My planned thought was to have at least one fan, in the separated left ear bubble, which pushes air through the hose to the front inside the mask. If I don't use an exhaust in the right side, or maybe in addition to, I can put this. But I'm stalling on if this is the best idea, whether to section off that bubble or not: Eg leave just a hole for the projector?

    I'm making this out of foam to start probably, I don't have a 3D printer. I'm still figuring out best way to mount things for angles for trying.