Lighting Guy Manuel

[Thomas Bangalter]

before you guys say THERES ALREADY A THREAD FOR THIS! I am attempting to light my Guy Medicom figure.
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w144/therealsabakunogaara/DSC00435-1.jpg
I just have the visor I am using so far
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w144/therealsabakunogaara/DSC00437-1.jpg
I am looking for a way to animate the bars at least but this is difficult because how small this is. if any of you guys know of a way please let me know, if nothing comes up in the next few days I will just make sides light up.

[Crank729]

Thats Awesome! hope you find a way to do at such a small scale!!

[Agent RayBans]

If I were you I would make a whole new mini helmet from scratch. As rare as the Discovery Medicoms are, the idea of hacking up one of the originals to make it light up sends shivers up my spine.

[Thomas Bangalter]

oh, I am haha, I am currently crafting 2 or 3 mock ups to see how it works, plus the Guy visor comes off so it wont be too bad.

[gbmilan]

There are two ways I came up with that might be able to light up your miniature helmet that I could think of. First idea would be to use those super tiny 3mm LEDS (buy the 8 diff color mini LEDs and place them in their corresponding bar, then wiring them to an arduino) My second idea was to take tiny strips of EL tape and apply them to the color bars (wiring all grounds together and connecting to some sort of arduino/inverter circuit) and put small pices of color gels on them so that they light up according to the code you enter into the arduino. but the second one seems like a pain considering that you'd have to solder wires on to super small EL panels. Anyways if you decide to go in the arduino direction with this project PM me and I can help you with coding :) I hope these ideas help!

gbmilan

[Thomas Bangalter]

Thanks, I like the first idea, do you know of a good place to purchase these smaller LEDs?

[gbmilan]

Thanks, I like the first idea, do you know of a good place to purchase these smaller LEDs?

You can get them at Radioshack, but I would search ebay or an online electronics store since Radioshack overprices their components. Try Jameco or Digikey, they have a lot of good stuff for a pretty good price...

[sporgo]

Im not sure about the scale of that particular model. You should probably use 1mm or 2mm little leds wired up to some chaser boards. The same boards I have been using will work for this. http://www.onlineauction.com/index.php?page=auction:view_item&auction_id=1298975

Just use one led for each color bar and diffuse them somehow. Separating each bar into a separate light region is going to be difficult on that scale though I am sure it can be done. I do not envy you the task of building a light rig on such a small scale. The only plus I can see is the fact that the small number of leds required will simplify the wiring somewhat.

[gbmilan]

Im not sure about the scale of that particular model. You should probably use 1mm or 2mm little leds wired up to some chaser boards. The same boards I have been using will work for this. http://www.onlineauction.com/index.php?page=auction:view_item&auction_id=1298975

Just use one led for each color bar and diffuse them somehow. Separating each bar into a separate light region is going to be difficult on that scale though I am sure it can be done. I do not envy you the task of building a light rig on such a small scale. The only plus I can see is the fact that the small number of leds required will simplify the wiring somewhat.

Wow, I didn't even know that they sold 1 and 2 millimeter LEDs

[Thomas Bangalter]

Thanks for that, ill look them up later, nor did I haha. yeah the diffusing is gonna be quite fun...ill order that board later, thanks for that sporgo, just what I was looking for :D