- October 25th, 2015, 8:55 am#4846747
The lights look great. I have a feeling you'll be done in time for Halloween.
I am a proud member of Ecto Force Florida and Magic City Ghostbusters, official franchisees of Sony's Ghost Corps.
My Haslab Proton Pack '80's conversion w/ proper LC-1 ALICE frame attachment. Pic heavy.
My Halloween 2015 Budget Cardboard Proton Pack Scratch Build w/ pics.
My Halloween 2015 Prize Winning Uniform w/ pics.
My Haslab Proton Pack '80's conversion w/ proper LC-1 ALICE frame attachment. Pic heavy.
My Halloween 2015 Budget Cardboard Proton Pack Scratch Build w/ pics.
My Halloween 2015 Prize Winning Uniform w/ pics.
- October 26th, 2015, 11:32 pm#4846865
Tonight I got all the cables, boards, batteries and speakers loaded into the pack. I decided to go with sticking everything in the "shell" since the wood is more sturdy than the traditional plastic shell.
Big shoutout to FreekyGeeky for getting a vhook and shook parts to me on short notice. I had a problem mounting the vhook are since it really set up for a thinner shell mount. So I used some flat head roofing nails to mount to my gun block. My next pack will do this differently, but hey, this is my prototype pack.
Got it buttoned up and everything is working pretty good. I think I'm going to parallel up a couple 9V batteries as one seems to drain pretty quick. My next light kit will use the 12V supply only and not need the 9V.
I get a video up tomorrow when there's more light but here's a quick shot of everything mounted. I still need to get the bumper finished.
Still need to get the uniforms finished up in the next night or so.
Big shoutout to FreekyGeeky for getting a vhook and shook parts to me on short notice. I had a problem mounting the vhook are since it really set up for a thinner shell mount. So I used some flat head roofing nails to mount to my gun block. My next pack will do this differently, but hey, this is my prototype pack.
Got it buttoned up and everything is working pretty good. I think I'm going to parallel up a couple 9V batteries as one seems to drain pretty quick. My next light kit will use the 12V supply only and not need the 9V.
I get a video up tomorrow when there's more light but here's a quick shot of everything mounted. I still need to get the bumper finished.
Still need to get the uniforms finished up in the next night or so.
twmedford23 liked this
- October 26th, 2015, 11:36 pm#4846867
Get that bumper mounted now! JK. Been looking forward to seeing this completed. Definitely one of my fav scratch builds!
- October 29th, 2015, 6:39 am#4847022
I don't know what your voltage/amperage requirements are for this pack, but look into whether a USB battery pack you'd use to recharge your phone (like an Anker) will power everything. That is what I use with a Raspberry Pi/Trinket powered pack and it lasts 10+ hours and is rechargeable.
- October 29th, 2015, 6:47 am#4847024
Really great work, man. Congrats on being ready by Halloween!
Demon Vice Commander liked this
- October 29th, 2015, 10:54 am#4847040
Way to go and it looks good. Still need to mount the bumper and ion knob.
Congrats man! Here; you earned it.
Congrats man! Here; you earned it.
I am a proud member of Ecto Force Florida and Magic City Ghostbusters, official franchisees of Sony's Ghost Corps.
My Haslab Proton Pack '80's conversion w/ proper LC-1 ALICE frame attachment. Pic heavy.
My Halloween 2015 Budget Cardboard Proton Pack Scratch Build w/ pics.
My Halloween 2015 Prize Winning Uniform w/ pics.
My Haslab Proton Pack '80's conversion w/ proper LC-1 ALICE frame attachment. Pic heavy.
My Halloween 2015 Budget Cardboard Proton Pack Scratch Build w/ pics.
My Halloween 2015 Prize Winning Uniform w/ pics.
- October 31st, 2015, 8:53 am#4847190
Today's the day, so just a couple quick updates before scrambling to finish a few things up. The bumper is done! It was a Frankenstein of plastic, wood and bondo. I wasn't looking forward to building this and should have started earlier. First, I made the side rails:
Then I duct taped the bottom and layered bondo inside to the correct height. I have figured out that bondo is a builders best friend as long as it's warm out.
After painting, I ended up with this, which I wasn't happy with. The wood grains on the top really stood out and I even layered bondo on top of all this and sanded. I guess I sanded too much. I took the pack to work yesterday but left the bumper off to rework last night.
I sanded it down and layered 2 or 3 more coats of paint on the top and it helped. Still not perfect but it's good enough to go for tonight.
So the final product, all put together and ready to go tonight:
More pictures and video later...
Then I duct taped the bottom and layered bondo inside to the correct height. I have figured out that bondo is a builders best friend as long as it's warm out.
After painting, I ended up with this, which I wasn't happy with. The wood grains on the top really stood out and I even layered bondo on top of all this and sanded. I guess I sanded too much. I took the pack to work yesterday but left the bumper off to rework last night.
I sanded it down and layered 2 or 3 more coats of paint on the top and it helped. Still not perfect but it's good enough to go for tonight.
So the final product, all put together and ready to go tonight:
More pictures and video later...
twmedford23 liked this
- October 31st, 2015, 9:43 pm#4847236
Happy Halloween! Family costumes were a big hit passing out candy tonight. I worked on these up until 3:30 this evening. I figured out my light setup was having problems due to the Arduino being powered up all the time. I installed a reset push button that took care of the problem. So here where are all suited up.
And a couple with my son...
So now I'm going to take a month off of building and start working on two more packs for next year, maybe a trap and a PKE meter. I'm already scoping out servos and thinking of how to do the electronics for the PKE. Hope everyone had a great Halloween.
And a couple with my son...
So now I'm going to take a month off of building and start working on two more packs for next year, maybe a trap and a PKE meter. I'm already scoping out servos and thinking of how to do the electronics for the PKE. Hope everyone had a great Halloween.
twmedford23 liked this
- November 1st, 2015, 9:37 pm#4847325
The next go around will use the 12V battery for everything. This will force me to resize all my resistors, but I think I have some ideas to simplify the board layouts. The MarkII will start soon enough.
graboskyc wrote:I don't know what your voltage/amperage requirements are for this pack, but look into whether a USB battery pack you'd use to recharge your phone (like an Anker) will power everything. That is what I use with a Raspberry Pi/Trinket powered pack and it lasts 10+ hours and is rechargeable.This is on my lessons learned list. Even with 2 9V batteries, I could tell that after 5 hours of playing around my lights were getting flakey. The use of 9V batteries goes back to starting with the original circuit that used a 9V battery with shift registers. I built that circuit 5 years ago and decided to use parts of it it the current design. Since the Arduino has a limited current output, I went with using the transistor triggers to turn them on and off.
The next go around will use the 12V battery for everything. This will force me to resize all my resistors, but I think I have some ideas to simplify the board layouts. The MarkII will start soon enough.
- November 2nd, 2015, 12:30 am#4847336
Congrats on having one of the finest scratch builds that I've ever seen. Everything looks awesome! And it looks like you guys had a blast. That EPA sign is perfection.
- May 31st, 2016, 12:01 pm#4865762
So, I've been studying this pretty closely, and have a few questions, if you don't mind. I have a VERY rudimentary understanding of electronics, but I think I can get this working with a little help. You've got transistors running everything, do you know the type you used? If they aren't necessary, is there any need to change the code, or just correct the resistors and tie right in? You mention using 2 9v batteries, but I only see one batter connector in your photos, do you have one running the Arduino board and a separate battery running lights/sound? You've got the Speaker hooked up to a board that appears to have a heatsink and volume control, is this an amplifier? If so, can you link to your source? And finally you used the adafruit audiofx board, but I've already got an Uno shield, would this be something I could use without modifying the code you provided, or should I just get what you used? Thanks in advance for any help, and especially thank you for making your code available, it's the one thing that has been preventing me from completing my build...
- June 2nd, 2016, 7:50 pm#4866060
SheaClose,
Sorry for not seeing this. I've not kept up to date here like I thought I would this year.
These hand drawn schematics might help answer some questions.
First off, the transistors are needed with the Arduino Mega board. There is a 200mA (or so, don't recall the exact number) output limit for the Arduino board, and all these lights need more juice than that. To get around that, I'm using the transistors as switches. The Arduino sends a very low current to the transistor, which then closes the circuit using the 9V batteries as the power source. I used 2N4401 bi polar transistors as originally designed by Keith Marshall in a circuit from 2002.
In the drawing above replace the single 9V with 2 wires in parallel (+ to +, - to -). The power supply I picked up had a 5V (hooked to Arduino) and a 12V (hooked to the amplifier). The amp came from Amazon, DROK 12V 15 watt stereo amp.
I looked at using an Uno with a sound shield but didn't pursue. The Adafruit board was easy to setup. As far as code changes, I'm sending discrete signals to the Ada board that trigger the sounds to play. Some sounds are set up to loop, others to play once and revert to the power hum track.
Hopefully this helps.
Chad
Sorry for not seeing this. I've not kept up to date here like I thought I would this year.
These hand drawn schematics might help answer some questions.
First off, the transistors are needed with the Arduino Mega board. There is a 200mA (or so, don't recall the exact number) output limit for the Arduino board, and all these lights need more juice than that. To get around that, I'm using the transistors as switches. The Arduino sends a very low current to the transistor, which then closes the circuit using the 9V batteries as the power source. I used 2N4401 bi polar transistors as originally designed by Keith Marshall in a circuit from 2002.
In the drawing above replace the single 9V with 2 wires in parallel (+ to +, - to -). The power supply I picked up had a 5V (hooked to Arduino) and a 12V (hooked to the amplifier). The amp came from Amazon, DROK 12V 15 watt stereo amp.
I looked at using an Uno with a sound shield but didn't pursue. The Adafruit board was easy to setup. As far as code changes, I'm sending discrete signals to the Ada board that trigger the sounds to play. Some sounds are set up to loop, others to play once and revert to the power hum track.
Hopefully this helps.
Chad
- June 8th, 2016, 10:14 pm#4866875
With the showing of Ghostbusters in the theatre tonight, my son and I suited up and went to the movies. Afterwards I wanted to get a better video of the pack electronics since there seems to be some interest in my Arduino code, so here's everything hooked up with fresh batteries.
Not completely perfect, but I think it does the job. Again, I fully recommend using one of the great sound kits available to save a lot of time and head scratchin'.
Not completely perfect, but I think it does the job. Again, I fully recommend using one of the great sound kits available to save a lot of time and head scratchin'.
Hugo Santos liked this
- May 7th, 2017, 5:55 pm#4893345
Great build! I suspect you'll get people looking at it years after you've done it. Like me.
Do you have a source for the LED bargraph? Everyone I find seems to be the wrong size...
Do you have a source for the LED bargraph? Everyone I find seems to be the wrong size...
--
Vade Retro, Bucco! Philosophus Naturalis Sum!
Vade Retro, Bucco! Philosophus Naturalis Sum!
- July 28th, 2017, 12:19 pm#4896290
I probably picked it up at Amazon. I don't remember the details, but I think I had to cut another segment display in half to get a closer number of lights by gluing them together. If I find the details, I'll post.
- November 2nd, 2017, 12:23 pm#4900519
Regarding your IM about drawings, the ones I have posted here are the only ones I put together. The best way to figure out the circuitry is to look at the input and output channel definitions in the Arduino code. I tried to annotate everything so I could troubleshoot when things didn't work. I hope you're able to get your pack up and going. I'd still recommend picking up a light and sound kit - I spent weeks getting this code to work, and it still has some buggy parts if left running for a long time.
Hugo Santos wrote:Gran Trabajo !!!! Tienes el codigo para arduino?? quiero empezar el mioSorry Hugo, been a while since I've been on here. Too many other projects going on. The latest version of my Arduino code is near the bottom of page 2 of this thread.
(Great job !!!! Do you have the code for arduino ?? I want to start mine)
Regarding your IM about drawings, the ones I have posted here are the only ones I put together. The best way to figure out the circuitry is to look at the input and output channel definitions in the Arduino code. I tried to annotate everything so I could troubleshoot when things didn't work. I hope you're able to get your pack up and going. I'd still recommend picking up a light and sound kit - I spent weeks getting this code to work, and it still has some buggy parts if left running for a long time.
Hugo Santos liked this
- November 21st, 2017, 8:24 pm#4901189
Termine la noche de haloween y mi hijo estaba feliz de usarlo, y yo mas por ver como disfrutaba su proton pack que contrui con mucho cariño, eres el mejor propcicle!!! tu código también el mejor de todos,
si con un poco de falla al dejarlo encendido por largo tiempo, pero todos felices por verlo!!!
si con un poco de falla al dejarlo encendido por largo tiempo, pero todos felices por verlo!!!
propcicle liked this
- November 26th, 2017, 9:41 pm#4901312
Let’s see a picture of your pack in action.
Hugo Santos wrote:Termine la noche de haloween y mi hijo estaba feliz de usarlo, y yo mas por ver como disfrutaba su proton pack que contrui con mucho cariño, eres el mejor propcicle!!! tu código también el mejor de todos,Hugo - glad to hear that this thread helped you out. This site was a great resource to me and I’m glad to have helped someone else. The coding with all the MILLIs timers to probably the root of the issue when left on for extended periods. I wired up a push button switch to the RESET input on the arduino that would reboot it when I needed to get the sequencing back in line.
si con un poco de falla al dejarlo encendido por largo tiempo, pero todos felices por verlo!!!
Let’s see a picture of your pack in action.
Hugo Santos liked this
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