Sound and Fury(ious Repairs and Overhauls)

BACK FROM THE DEAD A****LES!!!

I'm just kidding, I love you guys! But seriously, I'm FINALLY UPDATING THE BLOG WITH NEW INFO.

Happy belated May the 4th!

It's been too long since my last blog post. But like many, I'm never done working on my armor, and never done fiddling around with things, especially with people enabling me.

Armor Repair

Anovos armor is dainty in that it is thin in many places and likes to crack. Higher CRL approval requires some edge returns on torso armor to give the appearance of thick armor; lamentably, this often leads to cracking, which is especially true with the thin Anovos pulls.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I reinforced the kidney plate with epoxy and fiberglass mesh to keep it from cracking, but the return edges just want to crack anyhow, especially near the ridge portion that runs up the back. Because the previous work prohibited me from repairing it on the inside of the edge, I had to work on the outside instead.

Although not as desirable of a repair, after sanding and polishing it's not terribly noticeable, especially when assembled next to the back plate.

Also thin are the ammo belt pieces for the main belt and thigh ammo pack.I reinforced these with thin, long scraps of ABS, CA glue, and much clamping. For the main ammo belt, I'll need to go back later and fill in some small cracks before they grow larger.

For the thing ammo pack, it had been cracked near the rivet hole during a photo shoot.I had to grind out the rack, fill with ABS paste, sand and polish; I also reinforced from behind with ABS strips and CA glue.

During the course of may troops the right cheek of my bucket developed a bend line. So I sanded it lightly, added some ABS paste, shaped, smoothed and polished. The ABS paste left some very tiny bubbles that I may fill later.

I had some tabs on the edge return of the butt plate that kept the armor from popping out too much compared to the kidney plate. Lamentably, this only caused the edge return to crack a lot, even with reinforcement. Thankfully, there was still plenty of inside edge return to apply a copious amount of Scrap ABS and ABS paste. I had to thoroughly paste the top as well due the edge return becoming uneven after cracking and repairs, to smooth the surface back out.

And... I got another crack in my chest plate, just past where I did all the reinforcement, of course. If what I did for the kidney plate pans out, I might due that to the chest plate as well, especially with a sanding block to help smooth and mold. Some edges of the chest plate have become uneven during past repairs, so I might just kill two birds with one stone, and thicken up that edge return for the entire edge.

But that's a topic for another blog post.

Fans/ Bucket

My bucket was a mess. I overbuilt it and it was hard to don and take off because the opening was narrower due to the oversized bracket. For reference:

I decided to move away from a bracketed design and instead use tape and hook & loop straps to secure fans and wiring directly to the inside of the bucket. Some of this had already been added, so there was plenty of fuzzy loop tape at strategic spots in the bucket. Hearing assist leads to the mics are held in place with copper tape, although it's admittedly not as resilient against EM noise from the wireless mic - but more on that in a moment.

I also (finally) replaced the wonky Anovos helmet harness and went with pads. Because my head is long, the top of my head needs to rest directly against the top of my bucket for me to see correctly through the eyes. however, placing pads front, back, and to the sides offers a lot of stability without compromising stability.

(Later I removed the forehead pad since it was causing my forehead some pain during my second May 4th troop. I'll need to troop without it, but so far the bucket still seems pretty stable and more comfortable without it.)

I'm also messing around with alternative fan methods. like using micro-fans instead of big blowers. Two micro-fans don't move as much air as a big blower, but they kept my bucket cool enough in the warm WonderCon main hall and made so little noise that I didn't need to use my hearing assist at all.

Even during 89 degree heat that I was in on May 4th, the mini fans did pretty well, but the analog speed controller I'm trying out is somewhat wasted upon them since they don't blow much air except at max speed. I'll be adding modular disconnects between the fans and controller so I can swap with the big blower fans and experiment between speed, noise, and cooling. Without the bracket, I can swap fans whenever I like.

As for the aforementioned wireless mic, I actually don't use it too often. The main reason, as I discovered at Comic-Con last year, is because in large groups it's possible that one's mic will pair with another's receiver, or vice versa. Nothing irritates me more than another person's voice cracking wise form my chestplate. Running a corded mic into my chest plate is the only way to guaranty that the voice coming out of my amp is MY OWN. Plus I need to run the cable from the sound glove anyhow, so it's a necessary evil.

Speaking of which...

TK-Talkie Sound Glove+ Update

Back in December of last year I started playing with TK Talkie firmware v3.15, a beta firmware that supported... a sound glove. Of course, the case (which I received from TK-Talkie) wasn't designed to support a sound glove, so I improvised by adding an RJ45 female jack to the case as a dongle, after wiring all the necessary pins on the Teensy board.

The sound glove itself is just a series of buttons attached to the hand, underneath the normal glove, using elastic straps. For my glove, I used four microswitch buttons and Cat5 cable, with each pair soldered to a button. Of course it connects to the TK-Talkie with an RJ45 male end.

I might change this design later to go with the TK-Talkie fashion of connecting sound gloves, which is 4-conductor 3.5mm jacks. v4 supports up to 6 buttons total, so typically 3 per glove (3 + ground = 4 conductors).

Initially, I had some issues with the buttons breaking off the wires, so I CA glued them onto scrap ABS backings, which I then sewed onto my elastic finger loops, for extra reinforcement.

My setup is slightly different, but here's Mr. TK-Talkie with his own sound glove for reference. I keep my buttons on my first knuckle on my left hand, whereas he puts them right on the fingertips of his right hand. It's just a matter of personal preference.

 

v3.15 was a beta version and worked well enough for the Hollywood Christmas Parade and our troop for an Anaheim Ducks game, but couldn't be configured with the app being a beta implementation (more of a proof-of-concept). Sound files had to be specifically named in a specific folder to work, so it was possible to change sounds, but couldn't be controlled per profile.

v4.00 on the other hand, paired with the v2 assistant app, adds those features and more. Sounds can be swapped on the fly. A button can be set to use the PTT/ Voice Activation/ Sleep function, used for two sounds, or used to adjust levels for various sounds on the box, like effects, voice, loops, etc. You can read more on TK-Talkie v4 here.

I was able to play with the v4 firmware and v2 app on May 4th, during troops at a children's play center and a wedding. It was endlessly fun to play the Imperial March on a whim, to tell people to "Move along, move along," or to inspect a wedding gift and verify that "These aren't the droids we're looking for."

There are endless possibilities, especially when one considers multiple profiles you can create on the TK-Talkie and then swap on a whim with the app. Look out San Diego Comic-Con! So even a basic TK can have some fun with the sound glove, on top of the other functions that the TK-Talkie supports and adds with v4 firmware - which I'll probably discuss at length in the next blog post.

Until next time, carry on troopers!