Hey /cgl/, I have an idea for a costume I'd like to make an attempt on, but it involves a digital display on the front facing portion of the mask/helmet. Does anyone have any experience or tips on how one would go about doing so? I haven't found much in the way of kits that weren't for daft punk helmets.
tl;dr I want to be able to display pictures on a mask and don't know how.
Does anyone have any experience with this?
For wiring and control, the phrase to google is "DIY LED matrix." The rabbit hole goes as deep as you want it to. Also learn to solder, it comes in handy!
Whatcha making?
Oh shit almost forgot to yell and mention the help thread
>>8788250
Got the weird idea for a Flowey costume. Surround the display with appropriate petals and use the display and possibly a voice changer to mess with con-goers.
>>8788253
there's no need to yell, let's turn this into a LED,etc. general thread
>>8788257
Oh, well this could potentially make your job simpler. Since the character only has a limited number of expressions, it'd be easy to only place LEDs for each expression, and make a circuit for each one. Like a neon sign. That takes all the fancy control elements out of the equation.
>>8788269
I thought of that, but I feel that I would run out of space if I tried that.
>>8788275
In what way?
>>8788278
Some parts of the face I could just leave on, but others would be shared by some expressions but not all. I think I would just run out of physical space at some points.
>>8788291
arduino
>>8788307
Got any tips or favored sources of information on babbys first arduino?
>>8788308
>>8788291
An arduino MEGA would probably be able to deal with this, it has 54 I/O pins. If you need more you can always buy port expanders.
What you want to do is wire the leds that are always on directly to the power supply (remember to give every led a suitable resistor of course). Then the ones that change, wire to the arduino, Then in the software you'd need to specify which leds are turned on for each expression as constants, and just set the outputs to the appropiate constant to change the expression.
For tutorials literally google. You're talking about the most popular dev boards on the planet here :p
theres probably DAFT PUNK tutorials out there or a designer you can contact.
>>8788342
>using an i/o pin for each LED
But who was shift register
>>8788240
I'd also check out /diy/, they are probably much more knowledgeable about this kind of stuff than /cgl/. Just be very exact with your questions and they can easily point you in a good direction if google hasn't already
>>8788342
This is bad advice. They definitely do not need that many pins or something that big and bulky for this project. They aren't saying they'll run out of io ports, they are saying that if each expression were a separate circuit, then they'd run out of space for lights in the shared spaces (this was a bad idea too, sorry op).
Echoing the actually good advice here: google 'led matrix' and go from there, that can explain how to hook them up, power them, and interface them. They are many ready made ones you can use depending on how big you want it, weather you want it to be flexible or not. If you want to do the minimal amount of soldering you can use a matrix of programmable leds. If you have more specific questions on the topic feel free to ask, I love electronic costume projects.
>>8790624
There's only like ten faces, don't be a pussy
>>8790624
Is there a practical minimum of distance that the LEDs have to be placed from each other to not be a huge pain in the arse to wire?
>>8790624
Also, are weird resolutions like 16x21 or 16x24 possible, or do I need to work in powers of 2?
>>8791099
please learn how to trip.
>>8791299
Are you...calling yourself out?
>>8791099
Like >>8791280
said it can be whatever you want, if you're wiring it yourself then having a power of two makes the wiring a little prettier in that it's 'even' but it doesn't impact how it actually works at all. If you're looking at prefab boards, then 21 is an uncommon dimension but there are so many sources for that stuff you might find it if you are good at searching.
I'd like the green pieces to maybe just subtly glow, I don't want anything over the top. What would be the best way to go about this?
>>8793225
that's the joke anon, literally anyone can name themselves OP and claim they're OP now
>>8793417
Radioactive material
>>8793417
1. Sand a piece of acrylic, leaving the base edge clean
2. Shine LEDs up through the base edge
3. ??????
4. Profit
It's how these work
>>8793884
They need a light-guiding or emission acrylic from tap plastic or any plastic provider for that matter. It won't show the light and color well on plain clear
>>8793417
It might be a good idea to order a small batch of different LED types so that you can get as close to the colour as possible, that doesn't look like a typical blue.
I've been wanting to cosplay Grindarella for a while, but have to figure out pretty much everything. I've never worked with LEDs, I have no idea how I'd see out of the helmet, not sure how to do the arms.
>>8793941
News to me! Neat
>>8793417
EL panels or edge lit acrylic.
>>8794311
Seeing out of the helmet isn't too much a problem so long as you ensure it stays dark inside, it's how mascot costumes work.
The lit-up face can be done as replies to the op said. The easiest way to do this is to hook one pin of the microcontroller to each row and column through a suitable resistor, and find sample led matrix code to adapt. Or if you have more electronics experience you could use a shift register or led matrix controller IC.
>>8794311
You will have really limited vision, mascot costumes do work by being dark in the inside, however, they don't have an led matrix overlayed the whole face.
You will be able to see some though the gapes between the lights but it won't be easy on the eyes or super clear, you should really have a handler with you while you wear it.
As to how to make it (assuming there are some facial animations and not just one face), look up basic stuff on how to light up a led, then look at how to light up a led with a microcontroller, then look up the same stuff suggested here about led matrices. You will probably have to make your own. For how to set and position the led within the helmet, there are already a number of daft punk build write ups on the internet, so I suggest you look at those to figure out the non electrical parts. They'll also cover the specifics of vision and getting around in one.
>>8794311
My plan with the flowey mask was to overlay all the facial expressions I planned to use and find out what pixels are never lit and just use those for eye holes, covered with some dark mesh of course.
