Bringing the Helmet to Life

Halloween was coming and I wanted a dressing up. I did not need to go purchase one thing and I did not need to put on something lame. With the brand new WASP printer that simply arrived in our showroom, I needed to make the most of its energy. Lastly, a pal prompt Iron Man. It was excellent, however I had each intention of doing it proper. 

The helmet mannequin was designed by drumguy560 on the Duplicate Prop Boards. I did a whole lot of digging and though this mannequin has been round some time, it nonetheless appears to be the group favourite for 3D printing. It additionally has some glorious element within the mouth space. I am reposting the recordsdata right here (with permission) in your comfort.

It is not likely apparent the place the smaller items go, so I additionally included a Blender file of the absolutely assembled helmet so you possibly can see the way it all matches collectively.

I printed the Iron Man helmet with MatterHackers’ PRO Sequence Crimson PLA and commonplace sequence Gold PLA. I like the best way the gold seems to be; it is semi-translucent, so you possibly can see the infill sample (image does not actually seize this). The purple items have been printed on an Ultimaker 2 at 0.1 mm layers, and the gold ones have been performed on a WASP 40 70 at 0.2 mm layers. I estimate the full print time at about 120 hours. The print time was a bit longer as a result of wonderful layers. We additionally had so as to add a whole lot of mandatory assist materials, which additionally elevated print time.

In some unspecified time in the future I intend on portray the whole lot with Rustoleum, however for the aim of exhibiting off the capabilities of 3D printing, the helmet will stay unpainted for now.

Most of it’s held along with superglue, nonetheless there was not a very good floor for this between the highest and center purple items. I ended up utilizing a soldering iron on low warmth to weld them collectively on the within.

The default scaling of the helmet is somewhat small for my head, and my head isn’t huge. I printed it at 100% and I am unable to get it on with out eradicating the jaw. As soon as inside, although, it is fairly roomy. I take this as incentive so as to add servos for the jaw and face plate.

The face plate doesn’t match completely across the prime. I think that the WASP was not likely calibrated nicely. I used our temperature managed vacuum oven to heat it up simply previous the glass transition temperature of PLA (65 C). Then I bent it into form and used tape to carry it in place because it cooled off. It matches completely now.

This was actually tougher than it ought to have been. I do know that lots of people have performed this earlier than, so I searched and checked out a whole lot of totally different approaches. I wasn’t actually glad with the prevailing designs folks had printed, and the great ones appeared to have been stored to themselves. In the long run I made a decision to provide you with my very own factor based mostly on a 4 bar linkage. This might let me get the exact movement I needed.

Going into this, I knew roughly the place I needed the arms to go. I made a decision to place the motor beneath the middle piece on the brow, like this man did. This can be a great spot for protecting the entrance arms hidden. The helmet has two slots alongside the highest which have been clearly meant for the face plate mechanism. The again arms might undergo there. I minimize these out utilizing a Dremel. I all the time wish to make the most of the pure options of the prop. This makes it extra real looking. I’ve discovered that when artists design issues like this, they often have some thought of how the piece would truly work, even when they do not flesh it out absolutely.

Motors, Arms, and Stuff

The motor is a typical HiTec passion servo that I received out of the storage. I designed this factor to carry it, together with the arm on the opposite aspect. The joints are 623ZZ ball bearing and M3 screws.

These are the again arms, which match beneath the slots within the helmet.

I knew it might take a few iterations to get the lengths of the arms proper, and the positions of all of the joints, so I briefly fitted the whole lot along with scorching glue. What I didn’t notice is that scorching glue and PLA stick to one another REALLY WELL (it is because the recent glue partially melts the PLA).

4 Bar Linkage

By way of in depth analysis (watching the film quite a bit) I made up my mind that the faceplate ought to transfer out somewhat bit first, then flip up and again. The trick to getting the right movement is to determine the right lengths of the arms and the right positions of the joints.

I took footage of the helmet with the faceplate in 3 totally different positions; closed, open, and midway open. Then I introduced the pictures into GIMP and overlayed them on prime of one another. This was the consequence:

In SolidWorks, I traced over the composite picture and marked the place the joints could be in all three positions. This absolutely outlined the arcs and gave me the size of the arms and the centerpoints. It additionally helped that I had already arrange the entrance arm (since I knew the place the motor could be and the place it had to hook up with the face).

I refined it somewhat extra and got here up with the next dimensions for the 4 bars:

Placing all of it collectively

That is the tip consequence. All the pieces is scorching glued in place contained in the helmet.

The half that the motor was glued to was type of flimsy, as a result of the vent was proper there. So I took a Craftypen and added some further materials round there to strengthen it. You may also see the chamfers on the entrance of the slots to assist information the arms in.

The helmet was having hassle opening generally. This was as a result of Grashof situation. The entrance arms would attempt to go a technique, however the again arms would attempt to go the opposite approach and it might get caught. This was fastened by including some weight to the entrance of the face (a bolt), so it might are inclined to tilt in the precise course.

The entrance arms are what prevents it from going again additional. I intend on enhancing this in some unspecified time in the future  by including a bend to them, so they do not hit the highest.

The setup I’ve proper now’s principally for testing. It is simply an Arduino Mega 2560, with a toggle swap and a 5V PSU. For sensible use, I am going to want one thing extra compact and everlasting. However, for now, this works.

That is the Arduino code to make use of for the toggle swap:

#embrace

Servo faceServo;

void setup(){
  faceServo.connect(9);  // Servo PWM     - Pin 9
  pinMode(40,INPUT);    // Toggle Swap - Pin 40
}

void loop(){
  if(digitalRead(40)){
    faceServo.write(45);
  }else{
    faceServo.write(180);
  }
}

And that is one other sketch that permits you to set the servo angle over the serial port:

#embrace

Servo faceServo;

int command =0;
int angle =0;

void setup(){
  faceServo.connect(9);  // Servo PWM - Pin 9
  Serial.start(9600);
}

void loop(){
  if(Serial.accessible()){
    angle =Serial.parseInt();
    if(angle <=180and angle >=0){
      faceServo.write(angle);
      Serial.println("Shifting");
    }else{
      Serial.println("ERROR");
    }
  }
}

• PET as a substitute of PLA. Extra versatile, extra sturdy, and does not soften on a scorching day. 

• Bigger. The default scaling is somewhat too small. I’ve to take away the jaw to get it on my head, and even then its a good squeeze. I would not have an enormous head.

• Folding elements in again, like this man did, would make it quite a bit simpler to get on and off.

• Transfer one set of arms to aspect temple space as a substitute of the brow. I must redesign the whole lot in an effort to do that, and the arms would not be as hidden, however it might resolve a whole lot of issues it has with the movement. It additionally would match higher with the unique artist’s intentions (there’s a bolt proper there).

Whether or not you go off the plans of Model 1 or 2, good luck and glad printing!

For extra helmet enjoyable, try our CES response video to our venture.