Tips and Tricks for making the Helmets

[ThreeFN]

Damn.. this thread exploded recently. Good to see people are back at it!

Nah, it's because I talk too much

Hit a rather major stumbling block this afternoon. I'm using Optiboot on the arduino to reduce the bootloader size and fit more code on my arduino. I've already overloaded the program memory beyond what would fit with the regular bootloader. For some reason, optiboot is crashing when above about 28KB, even though I have a little over 31KB theoretically available when using optiboot. I have no idea what's going on. Done tons of random things to try and fix it, none of which worked.

As a back up, I can directly load code via the ISP rather than USB. The problem? It takes over 3 minutes to load the code, after the minute and a half to compile. I also have no idea why it takes so long, it should be faster than loading via USB. Not very conducive to rapid coding these problems.

Bugger all...

[sporgo]

I posted a video of the VM120 controller board in action hooked up to my lights. This shows what most of the the pre-programmed patterns look like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEOspTDWTYI

If you order the board assembled the outputs come with jumpers installed. You can solder the resistor for each channel directly onto the board if you prefer it that way.

[Thomas Bangalter]

Sheesh sporgo, those are really accurate looking, well done.

[dylanwellshoora]

Does this look too wide? It's 6 1/2 inches from edge to edge at the biggest point

[Ratfuzz]

Hey guys, after a long hiatus, I'm back... still without helmets!

I got really busy since my last post, but now I should be able to get back to working on the helmets. How have you guys' projects been coming/come?

[ThreeFN]

Hey guys, after a long hiatus, I'm back... still without helmets!

I got really busy since my last post, but now I should be able to get back to working on the helmets. How have you guys' projects been coming/come?

Well, just got a whole lot better. I didn't solve the bootloader-near-empty-memory problem, but I did manage to strip out a few hundred bytes of code. I'm at about 28.25kB, and things are compiling and loading correctly, so I hopefully have room for further expansion/debugging. Code never gets smaller after debugging

I might spend the rest of the afternoon figuring out if there is a way I can the 'goggle view' onto another screen, so I can take some pictures for you guys. You can see the current generation HUD I've set up. Still probably no video, because I haven't gotten to doing the gloves.

I expected to be coding all weekend, getting the code goals DONE ahead of expectation is a surprising change.

Think I need to write up the next shopping list already. I've got the power regulators and another raindowduino (to drive the bars) on the short list.

[NNinja555]

Hey guys, after a long hiatus, I'm back... still without helmets!

I got really busy since my last post, but now I should be able to get back to working on the helmets. How have you guys' projects been coming/come?

I'm still lazy and putting off finishing my helms.

[ThreeFN]

Does this look too wide? It's 6 1/2 inches from edge to edge at the biggest point

It's really hard to tell without your helmet (temporarily) attached for scale and reference. So, um, maybe?

So after searching for usb capture dongles, cheap <10" TVs, portable DVD players, etc, I actually found a quick, easy way to get images (and maybe video) directly from the goggles. Luckily, the lens elements in the goggles do a good enough job to move the focal length back. With my iPhone's focusing camera, and small lens, it's pretty simple to just shove the camera up to the lens of the goggles and get some pretty decent images. About as good as any option that involves photographing a screen. There's a little distortion from the goggle lens/prism element, but not to bad for 10 seconds of tinkering and for free.

So here's the current version of the HUD:


Full Size

Hopefully the annotations are straightforward enough.

Everything you see is working now (none of it is a place holder). I do admit the ammeter itself isn't hooked up, but there's a pot taking it's place, which is currently cranked open. Hence the 60W power draw in the display

It's no F-16 HUD, but then again less than 1200 lines of code drive it. Not bad.

[sporgo]

That is most impressive ThreeFN you are certainly going all out on this project. I taped together a mock up of my simple light system and posted another video on the tube. These bars are just temporary things built out of plastic. I hope to build some proper assemblies with quality color gels and diffusion if I can ever find the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1xnZubUYsM

[ThreeFN]

That is most impressive ThreeFN you are certainly going all out on this project. I taped together a mock up of my simple light system and posted another video on the tube. These bars are just temporary things built out of plastic. I hope to build some proper assemblies with quality color gels and diffusion if I can ever find the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1xnZubUYsM

Welp, the party line on this project is "to continually one up itself." Although I think recently I've hit the point where I can complete tasks/goals faster than I can come up with new concepts to add and make my life more difficult and the project longer winded. Like I heard someone say recently, "the light at the end of the tunnel has stopped being a train."

Diffusion is definitely going to help out here. After you pick a diffuser material, and you know the dimensions of your "boxes," you might want to make a single bar with a bunch of "loose" (pigtailed) LED's so you can try different configurations to get even lighting. Other than that, you're basically there.