Trinket – Starjeff3DWorkshop

Project Round Up! 11th of August 2018

Heya!

Just wanted to do a bit of an update on all current project I’m working on at the moment. Most projects are on hold as I’m a one man crew with limited free time and since I’m taking commissioned work, I don’t really have the time to work on everything. I’m usually working on 2 projects at once: Commission stuff first and then personal stuff if I have some time in the week ends. I won’t list things I wanna make, just projects I have actually started. Some of them will be finished, some of them might not due to a lack of time. Let’s do a round up!

F-11D Blaster from Star Wars (Commission)

State of the project: “Non LED” version was made one or two years ago. The goal of this commission is to add LEDs and improve the 3D model.

Features: Red side LED and front lamp. Also, the front handle was glued on the previous version so I added a small snap mechanism to have it movable. I also took the time to tweak how the model was split for printing to gain sturdiness and to help save some time during post process

N7 Crusader from Mass Effect (Commission)

State of the project: DONE!

Features: None, just a painted prop.

N7 Valkyrie from Mass Effect (Personal Project)

State of the project: 3D model is almost done. I need to slice it up intelligently for 3D Printing.

Features: None, just a painted prop. Might add LEDs if it’s not too much trouble.

M7 Caseless SMG from Halo:3 & Halo:3 ODST (Commission for family/friends)

State of the project: ODST Version is done!

Features: Retractable butt and front handle, Removable clip, sight and silencer for the ODST version.

Custom Light Saber (Personal Project)

Further discussed here

Data Knife from Titanfall 2 (Personal Project)

State of the project: I already made a regular Data Knife a while ago but with no electronics whatsoever. I’m still figuring things out as space availability is rather thin.

Features: LEDs animations when trigger is pulled. A small video is available here

R201 Carabine from Titanfall 2 (Personal Project)

State of the project: Just started the 3D model and as usual, Titanfall 2 props are highly detailed and require A LOT OF TIME.

Features: Removable mags. Maybe more stuff as I go along.

L-STAR from Titanfall 2 (Personal Project)

State of the project: 3D model is almost done. I need to slice it up a bit and optimize everything for 3d printing without compromising ease of assembly and electronics accessibility. I got the electronics almost sorted out but since I learned new tricks with the lightsaber project, I might go back and change a few things

Features: Trigger responsive rotating parts. LEDs.

Here a small timelapse of my first 3D modeling sessions:

And here’s another small video from my Twitter account of the electronics that will go inside it

SE-44C Blaster from Star Wars (Personal Project)

State of the project: 3D Model still in the making.

Features: TBD

That’s all folks!

I actually have some other stuff but I wanted to focus on the more defined projects. I’m also learning Zbrush to be able to tackle more organic designs like this Harry Potter Elder Wand I made a few month ago. Perfect to start practicing Zbrush!

Project Round Up! 27th of June 2018

Jun 27, 2018Aug 11, 2018StarJeffLeave a comment

Heya!

N7 Crusader from Mass Effect (Commission)

State of the project: 3D model is 100% done. It is sliced up and ready to be 3D printed!

Features: None, just a painted prop.

N7 Valkyrie from Mass Effect (Personal Project)

State of the project: 3D model is almost done. I need to slice it up intelligently for 3D Printing.

Features: None, just a painted prop. Might add LEDs if it’s not too much trouble.

M7 Caseless SMG from Halo:3 & Halo:3 ODST (Commission for family/friends)

State of the project: Prototype is ok but 3D model needs some tweaking.

Features: Retractable butt and front handle, Removable clip, sight and silencer for the ODST version.

Custom Light Saber (Personal Project)

Further discussed here

Data Knife from Titanfall 2 (Personal Project)

State of the project: I already made a regular Data Knife a while ago but with no electronics whatsoever. I’m still figuring things out as space availability is rather thin.

Features: LEDs animations when trigger is pulled. A small video is available here

R201 Carabine from Titanfall 2 (Personal Project)

State of the project: Just started the 3D model and as usual, Titanfall 2 props are highly detailed and require A LOT OF TIME.

Features: Removable mags. Maybe more stuff as I go along.

L-STAR from Titanfall 2 (Personal Project)

Features: Trigger responsive rotating parts. LEDs.

Here a small timelapse of my first 3D modeling sessions:

And here’s another small video from my Twitter account of the electronics that will go inside it

SE-44C Blaster from Star Wars (Personal Project)

State of the project: 3D Model still in the making.

Features: TBD

That’s all folks!

Custom Lightsaber Project

Jun 23, 2018Jul 14, 2018StarJeff2 Comments

Introduction

Let’s open this blog with a personal project I’m working on in my limited spare time:

A CUSTOM LIGHTSABER!

Yeah I know, I’m super original but I can’t help it. I’ve wanted one since I’m 5 so let’s get to it and make Past Jeff proud. I’ve actually started this project a few weeks ago but I haven’t done much and I kept going backward as I’m having a hard time finding the right electronics for the job.

Specs of the project

Right now, as I’m still a newbie in electronics, I just want it to be able to light up to a specific color (that can be changed thanks to an auxiliary button). When I’ll have a good setup and better understanding, I’ll see if I’ll try to add sounds and light effects based on movements but since it’s a bit out of league in terms of coding, I wanna start simple (never used audio amps and accelerometers/gyroscopes)

The Electronics

First thing I need to settle is the electronics I’m gonna use since it’s gonna directly impact the design (overall diameter for the battery pack):

2 meters of Neopixels strips (WS2812 chips) (144/m or 60/m depending on the brightness needed)
A small microcontroller to control the neopixels
A couple of buttons to turn the saber on and off and selecting the color
A battery pack to power up everything

The core component is the Neopixels strip but they can drain quite a lot of current. About 20mA per pixel.

If I use a 800mm blade with 144led/m pixels, that makes about 110 pixels x 2 strips = 220 pixels total. 220 pixels * 20mA=4400mA=4.4 Amp

Same blade length but with 60led/m, 50 pixels x 2 = 100 pixels. 100 pixels*20mA= 2000mA=2Amp

This greatly limits the choices of battery so I initially went with a 4*AAA battery holder that would have house 4 NiMH for a total of 4.8V that could deliver roughly 2000mAh. I thought about using a phone powerbank (2000maH with 5V regulated) but the max output is only 1A.

The problem with this build is that the battery pack that I planned to use (4*AAA in square, not like the schematics) is too big (31*31mm). Typical lightsaber hilts are about 28mm in diameter and 290mm in lenght. After a few online searches, I noticed that a battery type was quite popular for lightsaber makers: the 18650 Li-Ion battery. It’s has between 2000 and 3000mAh and operate at 3.7V. It’s small and packs a lot of mAh, perfect right?!

Only problem is that the Arduino Nano operates between 6-20V… But luckily, there are other boards on the market, like the Adafruit Trinket 3V. It’s super small, got enough processing power for what I plan to do and will work perfectly with the Li-Ion battery. Only drawback is that I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to add an accelerometer/gyro + amp for sounds based on movement with this build.

The Hilt

With the electronics sorted out, I decided to tackle the hilt. As usual, I decided to go with 3D printing so I opened up my 3d modeling software and started modeling the key parts and designed the casing around.

As you can see, I went with an original design. I searched online and took inspiration of designs bits I liked. The idea is to have a “core” that can be used a template for future build. Here’s the prototype and almost final look (may be subject to changes)

The blade

So, I also need something to house those neopixels right? I decided to go with a D25mm plexiglass tube. Two strips, placed back to back, will be wrapped in foam and inserted in the sanded tube to have a good diffusion.

I’m still experimenting to see if 144/m strips are absolutely needed or if 60/m strips will be enough with clever diffusion.

And that’s it for this project so far! As said earlier, It’s a personal project I get to work only on week ends.

What’s next? I need to continue testing the blade to get the best diffusion and I need to order some Trinkets 3V as I only have Nano’s and 5V trinkets at home. When I’ll get that, I’ll be able to start soldering the electronics.

Stay tuned for more!

If you liked this, be sure to share it!

XOXO Jeff