Bringing the Helmet to Life

Halloween was coming and I wanted a fancy dress. I did not wish to go purchase one thing and I did not wish 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 good friend prompt Iron Man. It was good, however I had each intention of doing it proper. 

The helmet mannequin was designed by drumguy560 on the Reproduction Prop Boards. I did plenty of digging and though this mannequin has been round some time, it nonetheless appears to be the neighborhood favourite for 3D printing. It additionally has some wonderful element within the mouth space. I am reposting the information 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’ll be able to see the way it all matches collectively.

I printed the Iron Man helmet with MatterHackers’ PRO Sequence Crimson PLA and customary collection Gold PLA. I like the best way the gold appears to be like; it is semi-translucent, so you’ll be able to see the infill sample (image does not actually seize this). The purple items had been printed on an Ultimaker 2 at 0.1 mm layers, and the gold ones had been carried out 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 because of the positive layers. We additionally had so as to add plenty of obligatory help materials, which additionally elevated print time.

In some unspecified time in the future I intend on portray every little thing with Rustoleum, however for the aim of displaying 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 a little bit small for my head, and my head just isn’t huge. I printed it at 100% and I can not 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 high. 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 more durable than it ought to have been. I do know that lots of people have carried out this earlier than, so I searched and checked out plenty of totally different approaches. I wasn’t actually happy with the present designs folks had printed, and the nice ones appeared to have been saved 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 is able to 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. It is a great place for retaining the entrance arms hidden. The helmet has two slots alongside the highest which had been clearly supposed for the face plate mechanism. The again arms might undergo there. I lower these out utilizing a Dremel. I all the time prefer to benefit from the pure options of the prop. This makes it extra life like. I’ve discovered that when artists design issues like this, they normally have some thought of how the piece would really work, even when they do not flesh it out absolutely.

Motors, Arms, and Stuff

The motor is a typical HiTec pastime 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 could take a few iterations to get the lengths of the arms proper, and the positions of all of the joints, so I briefly fitted every little thing along with scorching glue. What I didn’t understand is that scorching glue and PLA stick to one another REALLY WELL (it’s because the new glue partially melts the PLA).

4 Bar Linkage

By in depth analysis (watching the film so much) I decided that the faceplate ought to transfer out a little bit 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 photos 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 high of one another. This was the end result:

In SolidWorks, I traced over the composite picture and marked the place the joints can 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 can be and the place it had to connect with the face).

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

Placing all of it collectively

That is the top end result. The whole lot is scorching glued in place contained in the helmet.

The half that the motor was glued to was sort of flimsy, as a result of the vent was proper there. So I took a Craftypen and added some additional 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 bother opening generally. This was because of the Grashof situation. The entrance arms would attempt to go a technique, however the again arms would attempt to go the opposite means and it could get caught. This was fastened by including some weight to the entrance of the face (a bolt), so it could are inclined to tilt in the precise path.

The entrance arms are what prevents it from going again additional. I intend on enhancing this sooner or later  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 change and a 5V PSU. For sensible use, I will want one thing extra compact and everlasting. However, for now, this works.

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

#embody

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:

#embody

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 an alternative of PLA. Extra versatile, extra sturdy, and does not soften on a scorching day. 

• Bigger. The default scaling is a little bit too small. I’ve to take away the jaw to get it on my head, and even then its a decent squeeze. I don’t have a giant head.

• Folding components in again, like this man did, would make it so much simpler to get on and off.

• Transfer one set of arms to aspect temple space as an alternative of the brow. I must redesign every little thing to be able to do that, and the arms would not be as hidden, however it could remedy plenty 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 completely happy printing!

For extra helmet enjoyable, take a look at our CES response video to our challenge.