Why I Decided to Sell Stuff

To all my fellow veteran troopers, friends, and readers, thank you for your service on this belated Veterans' Day and Remembrance Day.

If anyone's visited or even heard of the Scum and Villainy Cantina, they'll know it was the vision of a big fan who wanted to build something cool and offer it as a service to fans. It's really a great place and I personally love it. I went there when it was just a pop-up bar and afterwards when they decided to stay open indefinitely.

Now I hear word of another Star Wars themed bar that will be popping up in Hollywood (as well as New york and DC) and wondered why somebody just couldn't come up with their own original idea and let things be.

And then I got it. I understood. To a point.

Last week (last post), I decided to post in general about products that I am making that are similar to those being produced by UKSWrath. There were some that called me a recaster for what I was trying to do. Although it was wrong of me to knock his price points or in any way demean his product, the situation started with events on FISD that caught my attention.

I've been apprehensive about publishing this post, but ultimately this is my personal blog, and a space that I feel I should be able to talk about topics I want in regards to my armor builds and overcoming difficulties in the build, even if those difficulties are more social and less technical.

An Apology to UKSWrath / Tony

Firstly, while I have done so privately, I'd like to apologize to UKSWrath / Tony for besmirching his work. Even though we use off-the-shelf tech for these systems, they are very tedious to make. Adding other items like more quick connects makes it even moreso and, frankly, I should probably be charging more for my work (and I probably will) since it can take a few hours to put together a hearing assist system from start to finish (installing it can take another hour or two, depending on the buckets). If you've read my previous blogs, you know that the hearing assists have to be built component by component, by each resistor, capacitor, and jack. It's certainly no easy task for anyone, especially someone who builds a lot of these devices each month.

When I announced that I intended to sell my own product to people through the Anovos Facebook group, I knew there might be consequences. Heck, I'll admit that not talking to the person already making fan kits on FISD/ Whitearmor, and knocking his price point was probably not the best way to go about it, do the general attitudes in the cosplay community about people who "recast" or make clone items, or people who don't "respect" the work of those already doing business.

Being First to Market in the Cosplay World

Although Tony might not have been the first guy to figure out how to make hearing assist (because I honestly don't know), he was arguably the first guy to offer them for sale on FISD. Out of respect for the guy that did it first, members generally don't compete with other members doing ongoing sales for the same or very similar products. Some could argue that this creates a monopoly. Could I compete with Tony on FISD? Sure, but arguably we're currently making very similar products. Do I want to deal with the drama or politics that entails, or being the pariah of FISD? No. That's far too stressful.

And seeing my artist friends who constantly have to fight off other artists, or even large corporations, from keeping people from cloning their ideas, I completely get that.

But as a guy who feels like an artist who was plagiarized, I also feel it.

The Hearing Assist Filter Issue

When I was a child our school hosted a craft fair. I found a salt dough recipe for my best friend and I to make little Nintendo character knick knacks to sell at the fair. In the end, however, he took the dough recipe, made them himself, and shut me out.

If anything, the thing with which I took issue and led me down the path of selling my own product, beyond my wife being unemployed for a few months, was developing an improvement on an old design - not reinventing the wheel per say, but making it easier to roll.

One of my big issues was the noise filter in the hearing assist systems, and its commercialization. While I argue that the final result was because of my published work, UKSWrath will argue that he'd been looking for the solution for a while and had spent quite a sum of money looking for the right combo of filter and USB battery to work with the hearing assist without producing EM noise if fans were also being used on the same battery.

That being said, I don't know if I wholly believe in the coincidence. Those who read my blog will know that I initially found a solution to the EM noise issue (running fans and a hearing assist on the same power supply) was published on 29 November 2016, after messing around with my hearing assist build for days and taking a break for Thanksgiving.

Tracing the threads from Whitearmor alone is suspect:

• I started talking about my solution on 2nd March 2017 when I saw a thread about a FISD member in the UK trying to do what I had already blogged about. Before this, USKWrath had said it couldn't be done, despite having spent $200 researching the issue.
• I finally published my work on 11 May 2017 on the same thread. 
• Thereafter, around 22 May 2017, USKWrath started selling a 5V USB-powered Hearing Assist with an EM filter on his Sales thread.

This is the reason my hearing assist is similar to his because, arguably, I developed the concept first.

My Outstanding Objection

When I originally saw the Velleman MK136, and thought it would be great to add to a bucket, I Google searched the idea and and read up on Tony's threads (among other sources) to improve my design Similarly, Tony probably read up on my work and improved his designs.

The difference is that Tony does so commercially. And while I posted my ideas in the hopes of showing off my work and helping others builders (arguably builders that couldn't afford Tony's work) overcoming similar issues, my intent wasn't to help somebody else earn a profit on my work. Anyone who's an artist, creator, or inventory can understand. And although he reportedly spent a lot of money in R&D, I honestly don't think he could have made that final breakthrough without my contribution.

No Right Answer

Obviously Tony and I aren't the only ones making product or publishing work. Many people reference this YouTube video from 18 July 2012 about helmet electronics, which was also a huge inspiration to me. There are guys who've been making fans "for years" coming out of the woodwork. Some of these people, like the FISD members who handed down the Echo Fan business to USKWrath, work for a profit, some don't. But those that do have arguably been inspired by, or used work from, others before them. People have been borrowing and improving on each other's' ideas since the dawn of time.

Personally, I'm a fan of the free market, competing by price point and innovation, and letting customers decide. But when we start dealing with loyal fanbases, the muddled idea of originality, and trying to break into inferred monopolies where somebody who's already established is being infringed upon, it's a large ball of worms.

Going Forward

I respect Tony, and don't doubt that he spent a bit of R&D trying to figure out how everything works, but to be wholly honest, the timing was and is suspect. Arguably, he just may have figured out one particular USB power bank that works well with the solution I penned.

However, out of respect for Tony, I've decided to not broadcast my sales to FISD for the time being.

Instead, I will do limited commissions on a case by case basis. You can find my Sales page here:

https://obsidiustk.blogspot.com/p/tksnakes-5v-systems.html

There will always be competition for any builder, like those improving on old designs or creating wholly new systems that could undercut what Tony, myself, and others are doing. But I also believe that there will never be a "one size fits all" solution, especially when it comes to price point. New systems are typically priced higher for customers that need the bleeding edge. People who can't afford that will get the next best thing. Although there might be systems in the future that can replace the MK136-based designs, there's no telling when they'll be to market, or how expensive they might be.

In that same vein, I also intend to diversify my product offerings by making products different from those sold by Tony and others. I'll be looking into different fan offerings, cutting down on feedback when using hearing assists with helmet speakers, etc. Consider the hearing assist EM filter as the first in a series of innovations to come.

Adversely, this lamentably means that I will be remiss on blogging about helmet electronics or construction methods, since I'm not interested in any further ideas being used for somebody else's business venture. If someone is going to make earnings off of my innovations, it will be me and those with whom I select to partner.

I'll be putting my current two products (and others to come), on a page connected to the blog as to keep that page updated. Because this blog was originally meant to be about building armor, this will probably be the last time I blog about my products unless I have to announce a change to page host or URL.

Next blog, I hop to have something more positive or lighthearted to talk about. Until then...

NOW SELLING - TKSnake's 5V Systems

It's been awhile since my last update.

The armor is still holding up, although I had to reinforce the butt plate and kidney plate with epoxy and fiberglass mesh, much like I did with the chest plate. I like to keep a bigger return edge on these pieces to make the armor look thicker, but the price for that is a higher chance of cracking. So the reinforcement was necessary to ensure that the armor would last for many years.

A while back I discovered how to lessen or eliminate EM noise in my USB-power Hearing Assist by using a DSL filter, which I published in a blog. Now, I don't mind sharing my info, but a later discovered that it was being used in a commercial venture, without even any acknowledgement.

Edit: For information about my offerings, please visit my Sales page!
(https://obsidiustk.blogspot.com/p/tksnakes-5v-systems.html)

Ordering

If you like what you see here, send an email to TK76235 (at) gmail (dot) com (I've broken the email address here to prevent spam bots from reading it). From there we can correspond and I can send you PayPal instructions to start your order.

My pal Brent at TK Talkie is also offering his system for sale if you aren't technically inclined to build your own. If you're interested in purchasing, tell him I sent you :)

So that's what I've been up to lately. I've already started building these for people in the Southern California Garrison, so now I'm offering my services to my first brotherhood, my fellow Anovos armor builders. If things go well I might start competing directly on whitearmor.net.

As an aside, TK Boots is sadly going out of business, so what they have in stock is up for grabs. If you like their boots, hit them up while you can.

Until next time...

Upgrade: Copperhead (RF Noise Shielding vs Wireless Mic)

Welcome to 2017!

In my last post of 2016, I mentioned how running the wireless mic in my helmet made a lot of radio/ RF noise in my hearing assist system. I decided to tackle it in a couple of ways. I did this work before the end of 2016 but only now have enough time to put words to the blog and write about it.

The first thing I tried was to add EM shielding to the mic lead wires from the mics under each of my bucket ear pieces. I did this using tinned copper metal braided sleeving from Amazon. I cut the length necessary for each lead wire and carefully threaded the wire through the sleeving as I expanded and contracted it to increase the sleeve's diameter. This was really tricky and a giant pain, but I ended up getting it done as you can see below. After installing the sleeves I used already-placed shrink wrap to seal up the frayed ends.

After testing, though, this proved to not be too effective. In hindsight, if I had to do it over again, I probably would have used shielded cable to start, but I'm not sure it would have been more effective than the aftermarket shielding I used.

Knowing the shielding may not do the tick, I resorted to my second and more extreme option, one used by musicians using wireless pickups: copper tape.

Copper tape is very conductive and a great way to create EM shielding to prevent noise on lines, create small Farady cages, etc. Since most of my cabling will be tucked behind the wiring bracket I created for my fan system and mounting the hearing assist system, it was the ideal place to install the copper tape, especially since the wireless mic would be mounted on the other side of the tape, with the tape protecting the cable side from noise.

After removing some H&L tape and other hardware, I tediously covered one side of the bracket with copper tape. I decided to do this on the side facing the inside of the bucket as to not require removing all of the previously installed hardware. If I had to redo the entire bracket, I'd probably put it on the other side, but it is what it is, and not visible when I'm wearing the bucket. Plus I don't have to worry about the (remote) possibility of wires shorting out on the copper tape.

After the tape was on, I re-added the H&L tape for the hearing assist and wireless mic, reinstalled the bracket into the bucket and tested.

And wouldn't you know it, throwing a ton of copper tape at the issue worked. There was still a little noise with the bucket off, but with the bucket on and my head in the bucket blocking the rest of the RF noise, it works much, much better than before.

You can also see above that I moved the battery for the bucket systems into the forehead, for two reasons:

1. It makes putting the bucket on easier since the opening is now slightly less narrow without the battery in the back of the helmet (especially since I'll need to worry about the wireless mic now when donning the helmet).
2. In its new home, it keeps my forehead from running into the blower fans also mounted in the forehead (which ended up being an issue during a holiday troop).

Now that EM noise from the fans and RF noise from the wireless mic have both been solved, I'm effectively done messing the the bucket for now. Next, I plan to try out a TKTalkie system that I'll mount int he chest plate with the wireless mic receiver and Pyle Pro personal PA.

And eventually obtaining the hand plates and doing the other stuff for Elite Infantry :P

One more note: you may have noticed that I changed the name for my blog. This is because I changed my 501st nickname across the board to better reflect my TK persona and my personal TK logo. I'm leaving the URL as-is because it would break every older link to the blog if I changed it without paying for a URL redirect service. So for the time being, you can still find the blog at obsidiustk.blogspot.com

Until next time...

Upgrade: BRING THE NOISE (Hearing Assist & Fan Upgrade)

A Short Novel (and apparently my 50th post!)

I'm trying to remember how this rebuild began, but I think it started when I bought my blower fans a few months ago. I bought them while I was working on my initial fan system for the bucket, but since the build was almost complete, I decided to store them for later.

During one of my troops a couple of months ago, in a hotel no less, I had issues with the helmet fogging due to humidity. The small fans I originally started with just couldn't move enough air to fight the humidity. Eventually it got better as the event went on, but for the first few minutes I had a bad fogging issue.

I messed around with the blower fans and discovered that, in my bucket, they were way louder than my little fans. I wouldn't be able to use them without some sort of hearing assist system.

Then a few weeks ago I discovered the Velleman Super Ear Amplifier Kit - MK-136, a solution which apparently many troopers use for hearing assist, namely because it has two microphones that feed into one stereo headphone jack. It was pretty cheap at the local Fry's ($8), so I picked one up along with some replacement soldering components.

Finally, I wanted to ditch the 4x AA batteries the old fan system used, since they didn't have as long of an operating window as a rechargeable USB battery bank.

So my goal was threefold: replace the old 30mm fans with blower fans, assemble and install the hearing assist system, and run everything off of a USB power bank.

This was supposed to be a moderate bit of work, but it turned into a trek - no pun intended. What I expected to take a few hours ended up taking over a week to do. Hopefully some of my knowledge could help someone in a similar situation avoid some pitfalls for a smoother build. Overall it came out great, but it took some extra time to get there.

Phase 1

I didn't want to start this project until after I was done with a troop for BlizzCon. Once that was done, it was time to break out the soldering iron and carefully assemble the MK-136. Below are the results.

I made the following modifications:

• Instead of soldering the mics directly to the boards, I would obviously need them on the bucket, so I soldered them onto some lead wires recovered from an old DC power supply.
• I eventually cut these wires to insert some 3-pin quick connectors in-line in order to make bucket maintenance easier.
• I soldered a lead wire with a a 3-pin connector where the battery box would be connected, to prep the module for USB power. 
• Before I did this, I temp connected the battery box to the module to test it. It worked the first time. This is a big deal for me because I usually mess something up on the first try, but this just worked. Everything had been soldered together correctly.
• I added the 3-pin female connector to the battery box for testing. Later I'd use a lead wire connected to a USB-A male connector for the USB power bank. 

I used 3-pin connectors, as opposed to 2-pin connectors, in order to better keep track of polarity. The 3-pin connectors can only connect one way, making it impossible to accidentally flip the connector.

After soldering and testing, I cleaned the excess flux from the board with rubbing alcohol. Once cleaned, I used some 2" wide shrink wrap to protect the entire assembly. To shrink the wrap, I used my gas stove range and some tongs, carefully warming the wrap over the flame until it was inform and tight.

With the soldering for the module done, it was time to mount the microphones. Taking a page from UKSWrath and other troopers, I placed the mics under each ear piece (after ensuring the left mic was on the left side and vice versa) after drilling out a large hole for each mic, and miniature holes on the black stripe on the earpiece in order to help with the mic's pickup. The mic was secured on either side with low-temp hot glue.

To mount the mics, I had to remove the foam and screws as originally installed by ANOVOS (and reinstalled by me after I blacked out the interior of the bucket). Since I'd need some room behind the mics for the lead wires, I had to redesign this part. I decided, instead of mounting the eye visor to H&L tape attached to the foam, that I would instead mount it to the screws used to attach the ear pieces. To do this, I needed to replace the existing screws (which I'd already replaced with the correct screw types) with the same screw types - but with a longer length of 1" (twice as long as the screws I previously installed).

After cutting the new screws to length, I installed them with washers and bolts. I then placed the visor in the helmet and marked points on the visor (using permanent marker) to drill holes for mounting each side of the visor. This was tricky and I had to adjust the bottom holes since the visor was a little high at first, but it worked out. I then used these holes to put holes into the ANOVOS helmet foam so that I could use it to help cushion the mics from the visor.

On the screws, the order of parts is: earpiece, bucket halves, washer, bolt, foam, visor, washer, vinyl locking washer.

Phase 2

A few things happened after this. I wired the new blower fans to a USB cable (black for ground, red for +) and a switch, which I mounted into the helmet using H&L tape. I then connected the fans and the hearing assist to my power source, an Antec LifeBar 3.

Originally, I was hoping to use 2x smaller USB banks, mounted on each side of the bucket similar to what I had done with the AA packs I originally used. However, this meant I'd have to double up on charging the banks and remove the harness to get to the batteries. In addition, the original banks I tried didn't have any LED power indicators to let me know how much charge remained. They were also defective. So I returned them for something better.

Running both the hearing assist and fans from the same bank, however, presented a new problem: EM noise. While running the fans, EM noise created from the fans' electronic oscillation would create electrical feedback into the hearing assist module, and into the headphones.

Now I needed a low-pass filter. This is basically a capacitor and resistor in-line with the circuit, which acts as a settling pool for the current to reduce or remove EM noise. They're not hard to make, but knowing the capacitance and resistance needed can be tricky, especially with a module that can have a variable output for speakers/ headphones.

I thought hard about this roadblock, about creating a low-pass filter that would filter out any noise not within a normal hearing range. Then, with the help of my IT and ISP knowledge, it dawned on me: just use a DSL filter.

For those unfamiliar, a DSL filter is used between analog phone equipment, like a phone or fax machine, and a phone system that also has a DSL modem/ router. DSL equipment uses higher frequencies, which can impact regular voice traffic under the 5KHz range. The filter keeps the DSL frequencies off of analog gear.

I grabbed a spare DSL filter and decided to test in in-line between the USB power bank and the hearing assist module, with the module acting as the "phone" side and USB bank as the "line" side. I started by cutting the phone lead in half so I could strip some bare metal for testing by holding the leads in-place.

I connected everything, started the fans, and then connected the hearing assist module.

And it worked. I tested it at varying volume levels and, although not perfect, it cut out almost all the EM fan noise.

Now that I know it worked, it was time to remove the casing (to better fit it into the bucket) and integrate it with the hearing assist module.

EDIT: For my EU friends and others who just want to piece something form components, as far as circuit diagrams go, a full DSL filter will look something like this (click to enlarge):

The basic DSL filters I'm sourcing, which work fine, looks something like this (although it's hard to tell the exact component values as they're not well labeled on my components):

(END OF EDIT)

With the casing removed, I de-soldered the telephone lines and RJ11 jack. Then, I cut the pinned lead from the hearing assist module in half, and soldered the filter in-line.

I wrapped the module in 3/4" shrink wrap the same way I wrapped the audio module, although the wrap was barely big enough to fit over the big caps used on the filter.

Phase 3

More things happened after this.

Even with the hearing assist system and the low-pass filter, I was still picking up a lot of mechanical noise from the blower fans with everything mounted in the bucket. I was at another impasse.

After much thought, I decided two things:

• The tiny fans did a decent job on most days and were quiet, but couldn't move enough air around when things got hot and humid.
• The blower fans would move a lot of air, but at the cost of being able to hear easily.

So I decided to use both fan systems - a low-speed system and a high-speed system. I moved the blower fans from where I had mounted them (behind the Hovi tips) to my forehead (which I can do since I'm using the ANOVOS harness system instead of helmet pads). The original fans would stay in place on the existing fan harness, and I would run lead wires up the inner top of the helmet to power the blower fans (I used a bit of 4-conductor scrap USB cable for this, with red & black wires for one fan and green & white for the other). Both fans would use the same USB-A jack for power (since the 2nd port on the power bank would be for the hearing assist system) but would use two separate slider switches I already had available.

To get the hearing assist module and filter ready for mounting, I put H&L tape on them, along with the corresponding point on the fan mounting bracket. I did have to remove the wire between the module and low-pass filter and replace it with a longer wire so the filter could be installed on the back of the harness (with the wiring) and the module on the front (so I could have easy access to the power and gain while wearing the bucket).

I got both fan systems wired to the same USB-A cable, and installed two switches. Everything worked... for a bit.

Phase 4 (Final Phase)

The wiring with this installation was a mess; too many wires were soldered together, the USB-A cables were too stressed, and the thin 24-gauge wire in those cables wasn't up to the task. This caused both fan systems to loose power. Instead if having two working fan systems in the bucket, I now had no working fans in the bucket. The design was sound, but the implementation needed work.

I started over with the wiring with the following modifications:

• I installed screw-down terminal blocks onto the mounting bracket to help keep wiring clean and make installation easier. This would reduce the amount of soldering, cold solder joints, and wire stress.
• I used three blocks total: 2x 2-terminal blocks as positive blocks for the low (radial) and high (blower) speed fans, respectively; and a 1x 4-terminal block as a grounding block for everything.
• I spent $8 on an on-off-on 3-position toggle switch that would be used for both fan systems. There wasn't really a need to have both systems on simultaneously, and using one switch for both systems would reduce the amount of wiring.
• I replaced the stiffer USB-A cable I was using with thinner, more pose-able cables in order to make connecting the system to the power bank inside the helmet easier. Thankfully, the wire gauge for the red and black power leads was of a similar gauge to the old wires, but would still require reinforcement.
• I used solid-core copper lead wires between components and the screw-down terminals. I soldered tinned stranded wire from the fans and USB-A wires to solid core wires, and then screwed those down into the terminals. Solid core is more resilient and easier to screw down, and would overall improve the life of the wiring through wear and tear. It's also stiffer and easier to cable manage.
• I installed plastic anchors for the USB-A cables to eliminate stress at the solder joints (fastened with spare Chicago screws I picked up to fix a missing screw from my holster). I also installed more tie-down anchors to help with cable management.
• I re-did all the quick connected for uniformity, and added quick connects on the hearing assist module for the mic leads, to make work and maintenance easier.

Finally, everything worked, although I have to be careful when I put the bucket on to leave enough room for the blowers to work. I may add some stiff foam to the forehead as a spacer between my head harness and the fans.

Mounted, everything looks clean, and works great. You can see the blowers near the forehead, the hearing assist module and controls on the left side of the bucket (right side when it's inverted) and the LifeBar wedged between the back of the bucket and the back of the head harness (secured with H&L tape). In the top of the bucket I installed more H&L tape to have more mounting options for the LifeBar, blower fan cables, and other possible future hardware.

Earphones for the hearing assist can be tricky. With all the holiday shopping I don't have time to pick up a good pair of helmet speakers (as used by motorcyclists and skiers) as recommended by squad mates, but I was also recommended an inexpensive pair of RCA headphones (only $5 from my local Fry's) that work in a pinch. Of course, this means I have to put on the headphones before I get the bucket on, and then tuck the spare cabling into the bucket's chin, but until I have a chance to research and perhaps install some helmet speakers, they'll do for now.

Other mods (aka H&L Tape Is Our Friend)

In addition, I recently acquired a wireless microphone and receiver on sale at Amazon. I used H&L tape on the fan bracket and the mic to install the mic into the bucket, but have it easily removable for charging and storing.

For the personal PA, mounting the wireless receiver directly onto the PA makes it stick straight up, putting pressure on the 3.5mm jack due to the curvature of the chest piece. Instead, I used H&L tape to mount the receiver to the plate, and then used a small 3.5mm extension wire to connect it to my Pyle Pro.

Update 30 Nov 2016: after some advice from a fellow ANOVOS Builder FB group member and additional testing, the 2.4GHz feed used by the wireless mic creates RF noise on the hearing assist, which causes a mild to moderate radio buzz on my headphones, even with my head between the mic and the hearing assist module. I may try to create an RF shield for the hearing assist module, or may just revert to a wired mic int the meantime. Any further mods will be covered in a future blog post.

I also added more H&L tape to the inside of the chest piece for my elastic shoulder straps. I've been having issues with the back of the ABS shoulder straps popping out of the elastic loops, and realized that ti was because there was too much space between the chest and back piece at the shoulders. the extra H&L tape allows my to pull the elastic shoulder straps in to close the space off and keep the ABS shoulder straps in their elastic loops on the back plate side.

I might also fasten a holiday hat to my bucket using some magnets from the build :D

I still need new hand guards, new Hovi tip mesh, some thermal detonator modification, and a frown repaint on my bucket before I submit for Centurion, but I'm thinking about finally submitting for EIB this month or next. In any case, any work done to the armor will be documented here for reference. If I don't have any updates before year's end (I don't foresee any happening), then to my readers:

Happy Holidays

and a

Happy New Year!

Until my next update...