Daft Punk Helmet Build Log

[piemadd]

For Haloween this year, I plan on building a Daft Punk (Thomas) RGB Led helmet. I am open on reccomendations. Schematics of the project will be posted later so other people can use it. Here we go:

 

I plan on using 200 Common Cathode RGB Led's for the project. So far, I have come up with using an Arduino to upload the code, and 38 TLC5940 Led controllers. The leds are cheap, at just over 16 usd. The controllers on the other hand are pricey if I want them to arrive on time, at $80 total. Any reccomendatons for an alternative would be great. Thanks!

 

The square is the area the leds will take up.

[paps511]

Check out the RPF Forum (Replica Prop Forum)

http://www.therpf.com/

[piemadd]

4 minutes ago, paps511 said:

Check out the RPF Forum (Replica Prop Forum)

http://www.therpf.com/

Right now im looking at the electronics components, but thanks!

[piemadd]

UPDATE:

 

I have changed my mind on the controller. I am now going to go with the STP08DP05MTR. With 8 channels, it will only cost me $60 instead of $80 for them. Thanks to @mariushm for the insight.

[mariushm]

@Implosivetech be careful, most of these drivers are current sink type meaning they work with common anode leds.

You power the leds all the time with some voltage and the led driver connects the cathode of eac color in the rgb led to ground through an internal resistor or some current limit mechanism (mosfet or something inside) allowing only a particular amount of current to go through. The maximum current is set through an external resistor and then the brightness of each led is further controlled through PWM (turn leds on and off lots of times each second).

This will matter because red leds have much lower forward voltages (1.7v-1.9v) compared to the other two colors which may need 2.8-3v to work. So, at the same amount of current, red leds will usually be much brigher than green or blue leds - you'll probably want to adjust brightness of red chanels at something like 75% of the other channels.

Also, considering you're working with RGB leds, it would make sense to work with led driver that has a number of channels multiple of 3 .. a led driver with 24 channels would make sense to me. You'd simply shift in 3 bytes for each led, so 24 bytes in total, keeping things nice and simple.

It also makes your code easier if you want to control the brightness of red chanel because you only have to do that once when you initialize the chips.. the red channels will be the same on each chip. 

With 8 channel led driver ICs for 8 rgb leds you'd have you'd have  [ chip 1 : R G B R G B R G ] [ chip 2 : B R G B R G B R ] [ chip 3 : G B R G B R G B ] - it's just messier.

 

if you chose that particular chip because of price, keep in mind it's that cheap in VOLUME, it's more expensive if you buy only 10-25 of them. if you chose it for easy of soldering, there's 24+ channel drivers in same package, relatively easy to solder.

[piemadd]

UPDATE:

 

Because of time restraints, I am going for some presoldered stuff. It will be more like a normal computer build than having to build every part from scratch. Here are the parts:

 

HiLetgo UNO R3 Board ATmega328P CH340 with USB Cable for Arduino - Compatible With Arduino UNO R3 Mega 2560 Nano RoboT

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AR7YJ3O/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A30QSGOJR8LMXA

I went with a knockoff because it is cheaper. 

 

5pcs 8x8 4mm Dot Matrix Common Cathode Red LED Display Modules 1588BS

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OK9010G/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3B2Y7HLMJUU6V

 

I also need a driver board for those. If anybody has some free time, try to get one with the following specs:

 

-Amazon Prime Shipping

-Under $7 US

-8x8 controller

-RGB

[piemadd]

UPDATE:

 

Found a driver board. Not sure if there is a matrix included or not. I will also but the matrixes just in case, but then I will return those if this one comes with the matrix.

 

Link: https://www.amazon.com/forum/-/Tx2DAXIXIPFXT2J/1/ref=cm_cd_naredir?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B01IR66C4G&cdItems=25&cdNewQuestion=1&store=generic&cdPenName=

[Jonathan W]

On 10/16/2016 at 10:45 PM, Implosivetech said:

UPDATE:

 

Found a driver board. Not sure if there is a matrix included or not. I will also but the matrixes just in case, but then I will return those if this one comes with the matrix.

 

Link: https://www.amazon.com/forum/-/Tx2DAXIXIPFXT2J/1/ref=cm_cd_naredir?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B01IR66C4G&cdItems=25&cdNewQuestion=1&store=generic&cdPenName=

So what ever happened with this?

[piemadd]

8 minutes ago, Jonathan W said:

So what ever happened with this?

I ran out of time. I am going to pick up on it during july or august of 2017.

[Paytend01]

On 11/7/2016 at 7:55 AM, Implosivetech said:

I ran out of time. I am going to pick up on it during july or august of 2017.

RIP

[piemadd]

3 minutes ago, Paytend01 said:

RIP

Ikr. I started planning too late. Instead of a helmet, i might make a giagantic led matrix that can fit on a morph suit.