User avatar
By RettMikhal
#4899805
Finished this design just weeks before Halloween. My friend's kid really wants to be RGB Venkman after watching the series on Netflix with his dad. I volunteered to make him an RGB pack ever since he was born, and since I have lots of free time before I start grad school, now was the time to do it. I designed the pack using SolidWorks, which probably took longer than actually assembling it will take. I made as many things possible 3D printed, with attention on ease of printing (making things hollow, having sloped overhangs, having good thickness for walls, etc). Anything large and flat, like the motherboard, will be cut out of acrylic as I have some spare sheets lying around.

The parts are in the process of 3D printing as of today (10/17) so here's hoping I have time to finish it. I've already sacrificed the electronics in favor of upgrading it for Rhode Island Comic Con (11/20) instead, and I may just leave a few access panels open. I also was going to scale it as he is a child, and then I said "do you really want to build him ANOTHER pack for when he gets older? Just let him grow into it!" Also, it means anyone can use it as it is full scale. Being mostly hollow it will not be very heavy until the batteries are added.

Here is the entire assembly:
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The proton thrower detail. I found it really hard to determine how exactly the thrower mounts. While there are plenty of images of a hook like device coming from the crankbox, there's very few of the bottom of the gun, and the ones there are look like a very basic hook that would not actually work in real life. I know Tiki Studios made one that uses the hook style, but ultimately I decided, given this is a child with limited dexterity, to just mold in and glue some rare Earth magnets to make a magnetized holder which quickly and easily latches onto and disconnects from the crankbox. I briefly thought about putting his name embedded in there, but in my experience thin things like fonts print like garbage and require cleaning. My thought process: this is already the only one like it in the world, it's unique enough. Plus he can sign it with sharpie. Kids love sharpies.
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I made a Bill of Materials to help me keep track of what I need to make an STL file for, what I need to manufacture, and what I need to buy. My friend said the BOM looked cool and he even wants it framed, so I will post it here.
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Note that 3D printers (low end ones, at least) do not print in color so the colors seen here are for reference in the model, only. In reality it will print whatever color the filament is, I will assemble it, prime it, and paint it. Any suggestions on the right shades of colors would be appreciated. I'll keep posting with updates.
GBDRE760, Kingpin liked this
User avatar
By RettMikhal
#4900531
Here is the Mark 1 of the project, in time for Halloween. I had to rush out some aspects of it due to time as 3D printing is a difficult and time consuming mistress. I opted to make the EDA box and spacer cover out of MDF, and I left out the PPD as well as the top cover for the ion arm. Lastly I used the tried and true pie pan for the cyclotron until I can get the time investment to 3D print the correct version.

Lots of things went wrong with this, obviously. The biggest problem was getting the holes made in the 3D printed parts to line up with the holes in the MDF motherboard. I realized while building it that I had given myself no way of laying out the holes besides just measuring and laying down a line in pencil, which did not work out well. As a result, the tolerance stack up is garbage and it resulted in me having to break the bumper part in order to get both sides secured. Luckily I had used an internal support column made of PVC and a support ring to hold the cyclotron, so the bumper was decorative. I'll fix it for version two when I use it for Rhode Island Comic Con. Another problem is I had to mount the Alice Pack first and then mount everything else later since the components would cover the holes; I'll fix that by adding a permanent thread.

The guno printed a bit too small, and with TERRIBLE quality because the raft lifted at the beginning of the print. I am just going to scrap it completely and start over.

Also for all this work I did so my friend's kid could use it on Halloween... he ended up not wanting to. Probably because it was a little big for him, but mostly because kids suck. In fact he didn't even want to keep it, which makes my plans to upgrade easier. Maybe when he's a little older he'll appreciate it.

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