Commander Sarah Palmer - Scout variant of the MJOLNIR GEN2

[Ashuraa]

This is a rough drawling I did with Paint.

Items you would need for build.

Sports wicking top, Something like this
Small tubing
small fountain pump, like this

sealable bags,
extra fabric



Now, this is a rough drawling I made in paint.

The left is the front view, the back is the right view.

The red is how the tubing would run around the body. You would want to place the tubing densly just under your armpits,a nd around yoru neck to get the most benifit from the cool water.
The blue is a free hanging portion of the tubing. It would need to be sewn onto an extra peice of fabric to give it stability.
The green is where you would place the small pump.
You would make all of this portion a compleatly sealed system.

Now around the free hanging tubbing you would layer a pair of pockets. The top edge of the innermost bag would be attached to the shirt to give it support. Inside these pockets you would use seam sealer, and water proofing material to make them water resistant. You would then line them with the waterproof sealable bags, like ziploc bags. Inside of these is where you would place either your ice packs, perhaps the instant freeze first aid packs, or even crushed ice.

To access it, you would need to place a small zippered area on your underarmor suit to hide it from view.

As the ice melts you take out say your ziploc bag filled now with water, and pour it out, then add new ice, seal put in its pouch and away you go.

 

[GeekGuardianDee]

Progress Notes

I did a little pep work today, 4/6 pages completed, only two more until this piece is finished. Sizing of the piece appears to be just right in two of the three directions, the length and depth; the width (ie. how tall the piece is from the side) still seems fairly large. I am still going to wait to complete the piece before making changes. I have a feeling that this proportion will be perfect for my husband, but my girly arms just aren't that wide.


The elbow opening has been fully shaped now. I still haven't decided how to fibreglass the elbow piece from the inside.


The rest of tonight will be working on the Exo-suit tutorial, and the exo-suit itself. I will take the time to reply to the above posts when I get some exo-suit work done. I've got to stick to the 4 hours a day to keep on schedule!

 

[GeekGuardianDee]

Re: Heads Up Display and System Features

Doing a quick rundown of the elements in your above post - doesn't look too complex so far.
From those, did you have a preference towards any style of the HUDs?

PrePostAmmendment: Did some rough paper sketches for the control device thing, and actual helmet interface between classes.
I think that's all the functions you listed a few posts up.

Control Device concept:
http://i.imgur.com/bj9Ra0x.jpg?1

Potato HUD Mk1
http://i.imgur.com/1gK755K.jpg

Thoughts/Opinions/ConCrit?
(This is open to everyone)

Here are my thoughts:

Control Device:

• Biometric Feedback: To try to reduce clutter I would probably only display the heart rate chart (it looks cool) with a body temperature display. Touching the biometrics display area would bring up more details, with more charts and such. Any warnings would feed through the google glass' Bone Conduction Transducer, bring up a small icon on the HUD, and flash across the control device.
• Lights: Probably reduce this to a colour indicating icon, and clicking the icon will bring up the options to set which lights will come on with which mode.
• Thermal Management: probably include this within the Biometrics detail display.
• Battery charge indicator could be listed as Shields.
• GPS Map display: clicking this will zoom on the map, and provide options for getting directions

HUD:
Realistically the display space for the google glass will limit the information that can be included here. I will want to have icon indicators for major systems, and small views of the map and a rear facing helmet cam that can be zoomed into. I would have to play around with the glass to see if more could realistically fit onto the display area. To get an idea of the display on the glass go here: Revealed: What it's really like to look through Google Glass

 

[WandererTJ]

Just a thought....

Maybe it would be possible to engrave the outlines of the elements that you would see on the HUD from one of the Halo games onto the inner side of your visor, and when you moved your eyes over to a particular part of the visor, the Google Glass would show you the information within that part of the HUD.

I guess I would call them "Hotzones" that display specific information when looked at.

I'm not sure if it is smart enough to follow where you are looking, but it is a possible option for taking advantage of the small display that gets projected onto the glass.

...Is it possible to get the display to take up the entire piece of eyeglass, or are you limited to just the small window inside of it?

EDIT:
To example what I'm referring to, please see this pic:
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/044/4/b/halo_4_hud_by_alexnator-d5f1cfy.png
If that link doesn't work, try this one: http://alexnator.deviantart.com/
or this one: http://alexnator.deviantart.com/art/Halo-4-HUD-327587902?q=gallery:AlexNator&qo=0

Basically, what I would do is add the details of all the dark blue lines, which are essentially the outlines, onto the interior of your visor.
You could also apply the darker shade that is at the top and bottom onto the visor itself rather than using the Google Glass for it.

EDIT 2:
It also doesn't necessarily need to be on the visor itself either, you could have a sheet of clear plexiglass or something that sits between the visor and your face that would have the details on it. Not 100% sure this would work, but it is worth a thought to have a medium.

 

[GeekGuardianDee]

Re: Help Needed - Ideas for Systems Features

Audible warning at 2% ('Spartan the battery levels are critical')
Rather than having the dialog, you should definitely use an audio clip of your shields going down.
When you plug yourself in to recharge, you should use the sound clip of the shields restoring themselves.
Likewise, if you unplug yourself, it would be cool to have it sound like your shields go down temporarily, and then are restored soon after. (I forget how long it takes for them to recharge, maybe a 5-second delay or so)

Well I guess I am imagining that a Spartan ops suit has an AI program, like Cortana in Master Chief's suit. Wouldn't that AI warn the Spartan about system malfunctions or imminent shut downs? Please let me know if this is not how it actually works, remember I have not played HALO. I think in my mind I am assume this type of system works like Jarvis and Iron Man, where Jarvis is always telling stark that the suits systems are reaching critical failure, or his altitude is too high. Am I wrong? And I guess I should also ask, does anyone know if Palmer was ever issued an AI? I haven't seen or read any mention of it, but I am not really immersed in the 'HALO-verse'. I think using both dialogue warnings and sounds would be pretty cool. I don't think plugging the suit itself in to recharge would be practical, but am really liking the idea of a battery magazine pack, for example having battery packs that clip in to the suit like the magazine clip would in a gun.
*Clip in pack* <--Action
"power pack connected" <--AI voice dialogue
[Sound of Shields being restored] <--Sound effect
"system power levels have been restored" <--AI Voice dialogue

All of the AI dialog will be wired through to the bone conductive speaker in the google glass, as opposed to being annoyingly loud all the time for everyone around to have to listen to. The dialog could be triggered to emit through speakers, especially for the 'project experience' mode.

Cooling System
Maybe add a "Amount of Time passed since last refilled"

The cooling system I am planning on using would be a closed system, ice COULD be added to the reservoir(s), but is not required to make the system function (room temperature water will still provide tremendous cooling when applied to the body's pulse points). The system should not require re-filling at any point. The cooling system is separate from any hydration tanks that I may choose to add on later, as the cooling system will have additives to help keep the water temperature cooler and prevent the radiator from getting gummed up.

Experience Projection
For the forward facing cameras, are you planning on essentially implementing 2 HUDs? One that you see and one that is overlayed on the output of the camera. ...or are you planning on having a camera inside the helmet, over the top of your right brow that is also looking at the HUD your glasses are creating?

The Experience projection is basically a way to show others outside the suit what it is like to be 'inside' and wearing the suit. I am not going to let other people that I don't know hop in and out of my suit to see what it is like, but I have to be able to demonstrate how the tech has been integrated into the suit. What I imagine working well is me in my suit standing near to a projector and screen set-up (or large monitor) with speakers. On that screen would show the video feed from my helmet cam (Foward Facing) with the HUD items arranged similarly to in the game. Essentially this would be used as a flashy display to compete with the robotics displays at the university's open house.

Spartan Locators
• (See motion tracker information below)
• In-game, when you look at someone (either centered in your vision or with your reticle), their name shows up above them, when non-centered, you can sometimes see their call-sign/clan-tag.

I think that for the actual HUD on the glass just the triangular direction icon would be used, on the control panel the names could display when the person is in the front 45 degrees and within 30 feet. I don't think I will be able to ACTUALLY create a motion tracking system within the context of this suit, where is motion tracking tech at these days anyways? I am assuming it's still pretty much military applications, right?

Here are some HUDs (either from in-game or custom made by someone, in relation to Halo)
But, as you can see, in looking at them, all of them contain certain elements:
• Border around the screen
• Compass, centered, very top
• Shield and Health (Health is exclusive to Halo 1 and Halo Reach) this is just below the Compass
• Projectile Distance Overlays (at both top and bottom)
• Grenade Type(s) and Count - Top Left, active grenade slot is highlighted
• Active Weapon - Top Right, shows all the bullets in the clip visually rather than a number, but it does show a number for total ammo available for the weapon
• Secondary Weapon - Silhouetted behind the primary weapon with total ammo on count
• Motion Sensor, Bottom-Left, shows enemies in red, friendlies in blue, and I think party members in green (maybe).
• Active Armor Ability, Bottom-Left, just above the motion sensor
• Center - Weapon reticle. Though this is centered in-game, you should make the reticle move based on where your gun(s) is(are) pointing in relation to your forward-facing vision.
• Bottom-Right - empty, typically reserved for scores during matchmaking
• (Not shown) When you are getting shot from the left/right/behind, there are arrows at the far left or right of the screen to indicate the direction you are being shot from.

Thank you for rounding up all those reference images. I am not sure how much we will be able to actually re-create from the game, as I am restricted by the display size. But I will definitely keep these notes in mind when I do go through all the system integration.

Additional Features you could implement:
• ODST VISR Mode
• ODST Face illumination -

- - - • See how the visor of the helmet goes from clear to solid at 1:16, and around 2:16-2:20.
- - - • Some have done this in the past by including LEDs within the helmet that shine on your face so people can see you.
• Motion tracking sensor, as mentioned with the details of the HUD above, could include:
- - - • I would include friends/family as green dots, 405th members as blue dots, and everyone else as red dots
- - - • If you want to go up and above, people who are crouching or not moving should vanish from the motion sensor

VISR Mode - upon a quick look at this on HALO-pedia, it looks like a gps like system with locator pings for other military personnel, and mission objective information. I think I have listed similar features above.
Face Illumination - That would be cool. I think this could definitely be something that gets integrated.
Motion Tracking sensor - I was thinking of using a ping system to track other members of the 405th through an app. A full motion tracking sensor is another bird entirely; as I said earlier has this stuff even begun to trickle down to commercial application? I guess besides film editing purposes.

I'm not sure if you mentioned it earlier, but having an intake/exhaust system using fans for airflow into the helmet would be a nice addition. When I say this, I mean that it would be nice if you had some externally open vents on the helmet that had fans behind them that would intake the air and distribute it around your head.
But... if you are considering on wearing your helmet while riding on a motorcycle, having vents in the front where air can flow in and vents in the back so air can flow out is pretty standard these days when it comes to motorcycle helmets

And don't forget to consider getting a motorcycle helmet breath deflector so you aren't always fogging up your visor.

Definitely planning some fans in the helmet, the helmet is going to get so jammed packed I tell you. But fans before lights, lights before cameras; oh and head space before EVERYTHING. I won't be riding a motorcycle with the suit, because I am pretty much a big chicken. I was planning on getting a breath deflector though, learnt all about those paint balling.

but those don't compare to the most important feature of all....

Being able to get out of your armor by yourself
Finding a way to quickly jump out of your armor to either just cool off or go to the bathroom after you've been holding it for the past 3 hours is pretty nice.

This will be a conundrum I am sure. Maybe I will hide flap seam in the exo suit somehow; you know like the long-johns they wear in the cold parts of Canada (Like these). I am pretty sure I am joking about this... But I will have to give it some thought. I think with the armor strapping being integrated into the suit it will be a matter of parachute clipping the arms off, pulling the chest piece apart and off, then opening the exo-suit like a wet-suit. Unwieldy but not impossible.

Suggestions for your husband's weapon to carry:
Well, everyone loves the shotgun, or even the rocket launcher, but why have those when you could have this......

?

One downside, some conventions have rules against things on fire. Not sure why......

ACK! I have a four-year old, do you even realize how much my insurance would *poop* bricks having something like that in my house? Oh man, all I am picturing right now is my daughter holding that thing, laughing maniacally, and torching our house. Maybe no actual live weapons.

I did find an assault rifle with the scout skin on it, it looked pretty cool. My husband seemed interested in it, but I think we are being realistic about the fact that the weapons are a long way down the road for us.

Something to consider: Make your ammo magazines removable. Use them as the housings for your batteries, which will make them easier to replace when you need to replace them and it puts the batteries out of the way to allow you to have more room in the rest of your weapons for tech.
I'm not 100% sure on this, but If you had a capacitor or a rechargeable battery within the gun, and had your ammo counter designed/set up so that it would get reset when you removed the magazine and added it back in, it would be nice because then the gun wouldn't die when you removed the magazine temporarily.
Another tidbit, if you get the rest of the above working, you might be able to hide the power switches for the gun within the handle, which would be accessible when you have the magazine pulled out. basically, you would just have recesses within the the area that the magazine goes into, and then you house your switches in those recesses, deep enough so that the magazine doesn't hit them, but not too deep, so you can still switch them on/off.

I will definitely make a note of these things for when we get to planning out the weapons in detail.

 

[GeekGuardianDee]

Just a thought....

Maybe it would be possible to engrave the outlines of the elements that you would see on the HUD from one of the Halo games onto the inner side of your visor, and when you moved your eyes over to a particular part of the visor, the Google Glass would show you the information within that part of the HUD.

I guess I would call them "Hotzones" that display specific information when looked at.

I'm not sure if it is smart enough to follow where you are looking, but it is a possible option for taking advantage of the small display that gets projected onto the glass.

...Is it possible to get the display to take up the entire piece of eyeglass, or are you limited to just the small window inside of it?

From what I know about the glass, and it is not a whole lot, the glass does not capture an portion of the user's face. Eye motion sensing would require a camera mounted in the helmet, tracking eye movements.

As for the glass display, the only specs I have for sure for the display is that it has a max resolution of 640 X 360 pixels. Most of the info will really have to be sussed out when I get my hands on a pair and can start playing around with the software and hardware systems.

 

[AWACS89]

You should be able to rondo (resin mixed with bondo, not sure of the ratios though) the inside of your elbow piece. And then if you wanted more support, you could probably add foam to it.


Now have you thought about anyways to hydrate yourself while wearing your armor? Or do you plan on just taking off your helmet and drinking from a bottle? I know when I play airsoft in about 20-30 pounds of gear (gun, mags, plate carrier, water, food) for only a few hours, I sweat a lot, and I have to hydrate a quite a bit so I don't get dizzy and get muscle cramps. When I'm out playing, I carry about 3 liters of water in a hydration pouch and will drink most of it within 3-4 hours. Obviously there's a bit of a difference between airsoft and cosplaying at a convention , but it seems like you're going for quite a bit of realism, so I figured I would mention it.

Also, if youre fiberglassing/bondo/rondo all of your pieces, your armor is going to be awfully heavy I would assume. Have you thought about molding it once its built? In my mind, I feel like would be a bit lighter if it's all plastic, but I could be wrong. What all my military friends tell me is "Ounces equal pounds and pounds equal pain."

If you mentioned either of the things I brought up that concerned me a little earlier on, then my bad. There's a lot of reading, so it's possible that I had skipped something haha. Am I looking too much in to this? Maybe haha.

With all of that being said, I really am looking forward to this. I'm particularly interested in the exosuit/undersuit cooling and your helmet seems like its going to be incredibly awesome! Can't wait to see more from you, I'm going to subscribe so I don't miss anything xD

 

[WandererTJ]

I completely understand that I make REALLY long responses/posts, and I don't want to detract from your thread with what I have to say, so I'm putting each topic of my response into spoilers.

---

AI Usage and Dialog

Spoiler

While I know you haven't played the Halo games, it might be a good idea to at least watch all the cutscenes on youtube. They should be on youtube for each game.
You could also watch a walkthrough video of each game as an option to pick up dialog between Chief and Cortana that happens while you are playing.

Cortana talks to Chief more in regards to the mission and artifacts and such rather than system malfunctions like Jarvis does.

I feel like I remember her often saying things like "It appears that the covenant.... bla bla bla"

....actually, come to think of it, you might be able to look up all of Cortana's quotes from each game, so if you really want to have an AI that communicates with you, that would be something that you should definitely check out. Looking up a list of quotes will probably be a lot less time consuming than watching videos.

---

I personally do not know if Sara Palmer has an AI, nor do I remember if any of the GEN2 Spartan-IVs have AIs.
However, I will say that given that she is a Spartan Commander, there is a good chance she does have an AI to help her control the field of battle with her Spartans, but if she does, I would guess that her AI is no where near Cortana's level.

And there is something I would like to comment on...
I don't think I've ever seen Sara Palmer actually wearing her helmet.
Maybe she does at some point and I've forgotten, but most of the time you see her without it.

Battery Magazines, Storage Compartments, Ease of Access for Electronic Components

Spoiler

In regards to "Battery Magazines" or whatever you might like to call them, with my Halo Reach build, there is a torso attachment that carried ammo clips for the pistol on the Spartan's belt, as seen here:

However, Halo Reach Spartans were a lot more like Batman than Spartan-IVs are. Spartan-IVs don't really have utility belts or pouches everywhere on their armor.
But could you take certain liberties? Sure!
If Palmer primarily uses pistols, knowing where she keeps her spare magazines would be a great idea!
Additionally, making the magazines so that the could function as batteries for either your pistol OR your armor would be awesome.

I know you have a lot planned for what will be taking up the cavities within the armor, but there is one thing I've been considering on doing with my own armor.
I originally saw something like this in that ODST video I showed you earlier; towards the end, the video shows the ODST opening his chest plate from the top and he places the ODST flag within it.
Since most Spartan armor has such a large space that sticks out in front of your chest, it would definitely make since to make use of that space.
This idea doesn't necessarily have to be for Accessories like pistol magazines, but it could also be used in a manner of easy-access to on-board systems.

Here is the details of the idea:

Spoiler

1st, you have the external side of the chest. Think of it like a box with no lid and the open side is facing your body.
2nd, you would add an internal side of the chest, it would be the piece closest to your body, and it would form the "lid" of the box.
On this piece, it would be clever to mount electronics, especially things like computer fans that could draw air in from vents/slits on the external side of the armor and be used for forced convection on your body.

Also, I think it would be smart to keep your electronic components that have a higher chance of getting hot in the large shoulder pieces / jet booster looking things. Keeping hotter things further from your body would be nice. Also, keeping those components there rather than within the chest cavity, will ensure that IFF you actually do try to make use of forced convection in the chest cavity for cooling your own body, you won't need to worry about drawing in hot air caused by those components.
Keep in mind though, if you make those shoulder pieces heavy, they will need to be properly reinforced in order to prevent flexing.
Remember to make sure to make all your electronics fairly easy to access.
You might consider making the jet-booster-looking-things detachable; perhaps make it so that they slide up and off of the back of the main torso. Then you could have a hinged door that opens and gives you access to the components. If the components in the jet-booster-things rely on power from the main suit, you could probably make a tether for them fairly easily. This goes in hand with making them detachable.​

3rd, connecting the "box" and the "lid" you would have hinges at the bottom, which would allow you to open the chest piece. The only trick here is making sure that the hinges are linear with one another, otherwise opening and accessing the panel will cause issues.
4th, at the top side, opposite of the hinges, in order to open the chest panel, you could use a male/female lift lock/snap (sorry, I don't have the technical term for this... I think "Squeeze Release" might actually be best) on the male side, you would have a convex dome, and the female side you would have an opposite concave dome.
On the "Box" piece, You would have a 3-sided bracket, either C-shaped or Z-shaped (without the diagonal) and the brackets would mount on each side. These would have the male/convex dome facing towards your armpits. On the "Lid" you would have L-shaped brackets that stick out from the lid with the female/concave dome facing towards your sternum.
What this does, is it allows you to press inward on the sides of your chest piece, flexing them slightly, which would release the male from the female allowing the dome to "pop out" which would allow you to open the chest.

I hope this makes sense!

While the idea might not work for the front side of your chest piece (the Scout chest piece does have a lot of contours to it), keep the idea in mind for other sections of your armor, as it might work in them as well.

Motion Sensor

Spoiler

While not quite the motion sensor they had in the Alien movies, or the motion sensor Halo has, or even the Heartbeat Sensor from the Call of Duty games, it appears there is something that does exist: The T-Cube MT-1268 Motion Tracker (and I'm sure there might be others, this is just the first thing I found)
http://motiontracker.eu/index.php?content=info&lang=en
It seems to be used for Paintballing and Airsoft matches and you use it to find your own team, which would also be carrying the device.
Price is about $500.
I'm not sure if the price is for a single unit, or if it includes a set of them. Hopefully the latter obviously.
Here's a semi-cheesy video on the product:

Now all you need to do when you come across a xenomorph is hope it accepts one of these as a gift and then carries it on its person allowing you to hunt down the pesky alien.....

Weapons

Spoiler

You have a kid, say no more!
Since that is the case, I totally suggest making a converted nerf gun.
As the base, I would use the: Nerf N-Strike-Night Finder
It is my personal favorite, although most people seem to like to convert the sniper.
The Night Finder has the capacity to fire a single round. It is muzzle-loaded and you must cock it back in order to prepare it to fire. It is spring loaded (and you can modify the spring , but since you have a kid, don't)
Modified Night Finders have an extremely long range for a nerf gun, which is what makes it the best in my opinion.

Now, for converting it to a Halo weapon, I have a feeling an overachiever would make it so that the firing mechanism would be pulled back electronically.
Plus, if you have access to a shop, you could probably pretty easily make pieces that would allow you to separate the trigger from the rest of the weapon, allowing you to make any weapon rifle or pistol.

Anyways, while it might be an idea to consider for another day, making a gun that can actually fire, but do so in a safe way would be really cool, not only to me, but your daughter as well I'm sure.

Armor Assembly/Disassembly

Spoiler

Here is a picture of Sara Palmer:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VAC4jrCrD...0/10911-offsite_resizing_halo4spartanops3.jpg
Here is a picture of a Lift-Release Seat Buckle:
http://www.seatbeltsplus.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/Chrome--lift-latch-buckle-lap-seat-belt-alt-1.jpg

Maybe you already see where I'm going with this, but if not, here is a picture showing where those lift-release buckles would be applied:


Taking your armor off? Easy, all you need to do is lift up on your shoulders from the rear edge where the front of the chest meets up with the back.
Putting your armor on? Also easy, all you need is a wall behind you.

As an alternative, you could try using a press-release lap belt buckle like this one:
http://www.seatbeltsplus.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/1201-buckle.jpg

Either way, I think that both Lift-Release and Press-Release are better options over Squeeze-Release for use at the top of your shoulders. I do know that there was someone here (Carpathia I think) who make use of magnets in order to get the tops of the shoulders to meet up.

EDIT:
This video shows Master Chief's armor being assembled:

It shows how basically the top side of the shoulders latch down/in.

EDIT: Added a video of Master Chief's armor assembly.

 

[GeekGuardianDee]

Progress Notes

So this was the result of yesterday's work, a finished forearm piece!



Things I learned:

• It is easier to work from one point on the piece to the other, rather than just all over the place from connection to connection.
• Elmers clear glue takes about 30 seconds to provide a decent hold, longer if there is a fair amount of force.
• Using too much glue = too much mess.
• Proper marking and scoring will make things 100 % easier; improper marking and scoring definitely makes things 100% harder.
• Taking the time to scale things properly in Pepakura designer does not necessarily mean that it will be the size you expect when it prints out.

I still am worried about the teeny-tiny space to get the bondo in the elbow piece.


The size of the piece seems to be correct in the length and width, but the opening at the upper forearm seems really huge, even when accounting for padding the exo-suit.


And the knife got a bit dull so the scoring of the wrist ring was a bit deeper than it should have been, resulting in tearing of the folds in some areas. I am sure some paper band-aids can be used to connect these for hardening, but don't really want this to crop up a whole lot in the future.


Working on the husband's forearm now and putting all of the above into practice. More progress notes tomorrow...

 

[GeekGuardianDee]

You should be able to rondo (resin mixed with bondo, not sure of the ratios though) the inside of your elbow piece. And then if you wanted more support, you could probably add foam to it.


Now have you thought about anyways to hydrate yourself while wearing your armor? Or do you plan on just taking off your helmet and drinking from a bottle? I know when I play airsoft in about 20-30 pounds of gear (gun, mags, plate carrier, water, food) for only a few hours, I sweat a lot, and I have to hydrate a quite a bit so I don't get dizzy and get muscle cramps. When I'm out playing, I carry about 3 liters of water in a hydration pouch and will drink most of it within 3-4 hours. Obviously there's a bit of a difference between airsoft and cosplaying at a convention , but it seems like you're going for quite a bit of realism, so I figured I would mention it.

Also, if youre fiberglassing/bondo/rondo all of your pieces, your armor is going to be awfully heavy I would assume. Have you thought about molding it once its built? In my mind, I feel like would be a bit lighter if it's all plastic, but I could be wrong. What all my military friends tell me is "Ounces equal pounds and pounds equal pain."

If you mentioned either of the things I brought up that concerned me a little earlier on, then my bad. There's a lot of reading, so it's possible that I had skipped something haha. Am I looking too much in to this? Maybe haha.

With all of that being said, I really am looking forward to this. I'm particularly interested in the exosuit/undersuit cooling and your helmet seems like its going to be incredibly awesome! Can't wait to see more from you, I'm going to subscribe so I don't miss anything xD

I think your solution to the elbow might be the one I go with. Rondo slush the interior for a few layers then fill the remaining space with spray foam just to be extra sure. Saves me from having to do 6 layers of rondo, and fills the space so I don't lose my keys in there or something.

I have though about incorporating a hydration pouch into the suit in various areas, the torso piece is turning out to be pretty prime real estate and will mostly be devoted to the cooling system components and electronics. The butt-pack pouch will be wear I contain the embedded systems circuits, so there a ton of electronic heading into and out of this area (no H2O here!). I think the thigh piece is the first real option, and getting a re-seal able pouch that can be filled with water or electrolyte solution and hook the drinking tube through the suit (I will already have tubing channels running through the suit, so one more won't be a big deal). The bite piece of the hydration tube could live in the shoulder of the torso piece and be closed away when not in use. It is harder to drink from tubing that long, but not so hard that it wouldn't work, most hydration pouches use gravity to help boost the beverage pressure through the drinking tube. Weight wise I would not be looking to hold a huge hydration pouch in the suit, more or less a largish size juice box. This way I am forced to refill with cold beverages at regular intervals. Actually this reminds me, I was thinking of adding a breathalyser test unit to the helmet. You know, Spartans never drink and drive.

As to the weight issue, I am trying to be mindful of the weight of the suit, and beginning to build up my body's ability to handle a lot of weight. I am experienced with wearing 80+ pound dresses with corsets restricting my breathing while dancing for 9 straight hours, so I think I CAN bear a fair amount of weight. Really one of the main reasons I am dead-set on the fibre-glassing route is that I think it will be the most durable over time. I really want something that I will be able to pack into airport luggage, sit and lay in, play capture the flag in, pick up and carry my daughter with, and store away for certain periods of time without worrying that pieces will begin to fall apart. I saw a video Adam posted to YouTube testing the various plastic casts and they seemed more fragile than I would really like. One thing I can say is that when I go through the effort of making the suit I am absolutely gonna make sure I am able to wear the thing!

I am glad to have you following along. The exo-suit video is being appropriately troublesome in its editing stages and I have had to break it into multiple parts (to prevent over-saturation of neuron side-effects, like glazed eyes and drooling), but I think the suits will be supremely kick ass when all is said and done. I am kind of wanting to hold off a bit on the fabrication of them to see how Evakura does with this latex molded fabric, but the patterns are in high swing. I should post updates of those patterns...

 

[AWACS89]

Holy crap, 80 pound dresses/corsets?! That's crazy haha.

Source Hydration makes a small water bladder, http://source-military.com/reservoirs/112-kangaroo-collapsible-canteen-1l.html

I love my source bladder, super easy to clean out, and the snap tubes make it a breeze to refill. Also a few different type's of valves to choose from. The tube maybe be too short, though I'm sure something could be jury rigged to make it longer.

Keep up the good work!

 

[transmut1]

The idea that WandererTJ had for making your magazine as the battery pack for a gun prop, I have already created this for my M6G pistol, works like a charm, but takes some machinery or cnc equipment to accomplish.
I will eventually have my write up on this whole design on the forums soon.

Also, this is already a cooling vest I'm looking into http://www.veskimo.com/liquid-cooled-microclimate-vest.html I'm working on designing the closed loop heat exchanger, so there is no water pack needed, except maybe as a small resivoir. Once I figure that out i'll be able to put up the design for your guys to make on your own or I could sell them as a kit.

 

[GeekGuardianDee]

The idea that WandererTJ had for making your magazine as the battery pack for a gun prop, I have already created this for my M6G pistol, works like a charm, but takes some machinery or cnc equipment to accomplish.
I will eventually have my write up on this whole design on the forums soon.

Also, this is already a cooling vest I'm looking into http://www.veskimo.com/liquid-cooled-microclimate-vest.html I'm working on designing the closed loop heat exchanger, so there is no water pack needed, except maybe as a small resivoir. Once I figure that out i'll be able to put up the design for your guys to make on your own or I could sell them as a kit.

I look forward to that write-up, if you remember, please PM the link when you get it posted so I won't miss it.

Yeah the Veskimo vest system is quite similar to what I have in mind. The things I will be doing differently are:

• Instead of having tubes running throughout the torso area I plan to minimize the contact area to the body's pulse points. The neck, inner elbows, wrists, groin, inner knees, and ankles. Cooling where it really counts.
• Instead of having a large reservoir filled with icy water I will have two smaller reservoirs filled with coolant (water with additives) that ice paks CAN be inserted into (not required). Water cooling directly on the pulse points can drop your core temperature quite quickly and circulating ice water on a cold day could stress the body by being uncomfortably cold. I, for one, do not like the feeling of cold against my body (ie. cold cans of coke against my neck) unless I am very over heated. Circulating room temperature water in these instances will still help me maintain my core body temperature without being uncomfortably cold.
• I will be adding a radiator unit with fans to help cool the water while it circulates. This is really what will allow me to use the cooling system without ice water. By installing a radiator and fans (like in a CPU cooling system, or a car engine) the coolant can release the heat it has absorbed from my body and then return to the reservoir tanks. Finding the right location for this radiator and fan set-up has and will be quite the challenge but I think this will be the ticket to providing comfortable cooling over the longest period of time in almost all conditions.

From the research papers I have read these facts have rung true with me and are my focus for my cooling system:

• Maintain maximum surface area contact with the body's circulating system. This is achieved by using lots of thin walled delivery vessels at the pulse points.
• Even room temperature water that is moving at a rapid speed can quickly lower your core body temperature. This is why I am focusing more on a radiator system, rather than ice water.
• A cooling collar at 0°C can decrease the average volumetric body temperature by as much as 0.69°C/hour. Adding patches to all of the body's pulse points would effectively multiply this cooling effect.

 

[GeekGuardianDee]

Holy crap, 80 pound dresses/corsets?! That's crazy haha.

Source Hydration makes a small water bladder, http://source-military.com/reservoirs/112-kangaroo-collapsible-canteen-1l.html

I love my source bladder, super easy to clean out, and the snap tubes make it a breeze to refill. Also a few different type's of valves to choose from. The tube maybe be too short, though I'm sure something could be jury rigged to make it longer.

Keep up the good work!

Yeah those outfits really put into perspective how hard people have worked over the centuries to be fashionable. It really is no wonder that women were known to be rather fragile and prone to fainting. In those outfits I was hard pressed to lift anything over 10 pounds.

That bladder is exactly what I was thinking, and yes the tubing and attachments are relatively easy to get a hold of depending on the bladder system you order. Essentially a re-usable juice box in your pocket, right?

 

[Chernobyl]

For your consideration: if you're still thinking on creating your own coolvest from tubing, might I suggest nasal cannula tubing?

I come across a lot of different types of tubing at work, and after having checked over a few for flexibility and wall thickness, this seems to be the best tubing to use. You'll be able to create a dense patch on your undersuit without compromising on your own flexibility, and the tubing itself shouldn't have problems with kinks and blockages as long as it's sewn on correctly.

 

[GeekGuardianDee]

For your consideration: if you're still thinking on creating your own coolvest from tubing, might I suggest nasal cannula tubing?

I come across a lot of different types of tubing at work, and after having checked over a few for flexibility and wall thickness, this seems to be the best tubing to use. You'll be able to create a dense patch on your undersuit without compromising on your own flexibility, and the tubing itself shouldn't have problems with kinks and blockages as long as it's sewn on correctly.

Thats exactly the plan. PVC medical tubing is flexible and has the thinnest walls of any others i've seen. On the plus side, one of the local hospitals is switching out all of their old tubing stock for new, so I get the old rolls for FREE! I really like that I will be able to have many rows of this tubing closely packed together to really maximize surface area for the cooling patches.

I have the tubing specified in my next build update, which I hope to post this weekend. But the timeline for the embedded systems features proposal has been accelerated, so that will have to come first.

 

[Jason 078]

I’m an Army veteran and have a bit of experience dealing with heat. From Iraq to Texas to Yakima, the Army has no shortage of sand-filled heat holes. As long as you keep your core cool, you’ll be cool, too. However, cooling vests aren’t the be-all/end-all of cooling. But, they are a good place to start.

The typical vest, such as the Veskimo one, will go a long way in keeping you comfortable. But, comfortable and cool are two separate things. However, it is a really good start that can be built on to make it great.

You mention about pulse-points. You are right that they can keep you cool, but you don’t need to hit all of them. You just need to make five additions to the standard cooling vest to make it perfect for any climate. Those five additions are the back of the neck, inside of both arms, and inside of both thighs. I would highly suggest against putting cooling pads on your calves or the inside of the forearms to prevent over-cooling and potential hypothermia.

With that said, there are a couple of suggestions I would like to make.

First, you don’t want this to be connected to your armor. Modify or build a vest to hook this up under your armor. You can even anchor the armor to it. But, it will weigh the armor down if you actually build it into the armor. That could pull the armor or make it uncomfortable.

Second, you don’t really need a radiator with this. When it comes to cooling, never disregard the cooling property of a length of copper tube. Zig-zag it on the outside of the pack, or inside a pocket, and you will bleed waste heat from the water. Throw an ice pack into said pocket, and you will be comfortable in a desert shoot. With the copper tubing, you shouldn’t even need a very large reservoir for the water since it will be cooling through the copper.

Third, the only piece of actual tech you need is a battery operated liquid transfer pump. I was originally looking at battery-operated bilge pumps, but those seemed a little bit larger than the space you have (her upper back seems like the only real place to house something like this). However, a 2 D-cell pump could easily be modified to circulate the water through the tubes. You might even be able to hook a resistor up to a more powerful battery pack for it to last longer.

Your idea is definitely an awesome one, though. If you’re able to get it into a compact enough system, I know a great many stormtroopers who would throw money at you to build one for them!

 

[GeekGuardianDee]

I’m an Army veteran and have a bit of experience dealing with heat. From Iraq to Texas to Yakima, the Army has no shortage of sand-filled heat holes. As long as you keep your core cool, you’ll be cool, too. However, cooling vests aren’t the be-all/end-all of cooling. But, they are a good place to start.

Thanks for taking the time to chime in. Having someone who has some actual experience with real temperature extremes will be very helpful.

The typical vest, such as the Veskimo one, will go a long way in keeping you comfortable. But, comfortable and cool are two separate things. However, it is a really good start that can be built on to make it great.

You mention about pulse-points. You are right that they can keep you cool, but you don’t need to hit all of them. You just need to make five additions to the standard cooling vest to make it perfect for any climate. Those five additions are the back of the neck, inside of both arms, and inside of both thighs. I would highly suggest against putting cooling pads on your calves or the inside of the forearms to prevent over-cooling and potential hypothermia.

The picture, below, shows the areas I am planning to apply cooling patches, does this seem realistic, or overdone?

With that said, there are a couple of suggestions I would like to make.

First, you don’t want this to be connected to your armor. Modify or build a vest to hook this up under your armor. You can even anchor the armor to it. But, it will weigh the armor down if you actually build it into the armor. That could pull the armor or make it uncomfortable.

Second, you don’t really need a radiator with this. When it comes to cooling, never disregard the cooling property of a length of copper tube. Zig-zag it on the outside of the pack, or inside a pocket, and you will bleed waste heat from the water. Throw an ice pack into said pocket, and you will be comfortable in a desert shoot. With the copper tubing, you shouldn’t even need a very large reservoir for the water since it will be cooling through the copper.

Third, the only piece of actual tech you need is a battery operated liquid transfer pump. I was originally looking at battery-operated bilge pumps, but those seemed a little bit larger than the space you have (her upper back seems like the only real place to house something like this). However, a 2 D-cell pump could easily be modified to circulate the water through the tubes. You might even be able to hook a resistor up to a more powerful battery pack for it to last longer.

Your idea is definitely an awesome one, though. If you’re able to get it into a compact enough system, I know a great many stormtroopers who would throw money at you to build one for them!

First, I absolutely agree, my exo-suit design will incorporate a military shoulder harness and waist belt to distribute the whole suit's weight more effectively. Parachute clips will be used to attach armour pieces to the harnesses through the exo-suit. The reservoir/s and weighty parts will also be attached to the harnesses in the same fashion. I got these hints from the Armour Strapping 101 article.

Second, a radiator is just a more efficient design of a copper coil heat-exchanger. They already have these systems designed in a compact form for CPU cooling, so I don't know why I would revert to copper coil. I also am not excited about the prospect of having any copper tubing visible. This is HALO, not steampunk.
Yes the radiator will require the use of fans, which will in turn require the use of more power, but I have to power the pump and other features, so I am already going to need to provide some significant power sources.

Third, I was planning on using a submersible pond pump. A 92GPH one is available at Harbor freight for less than $10 and it's dimensions are less than 6 cubic inches. Of course Q = WCΔT, where Q = rate of heat heat transfer, W = flow rate of fluid, C = specific heat of fluid, ΔT = temperature change of the fluid. So as long as the components can handle the pressure, the greater the flow rate of the pump unit, the greater the heat transfer rate over the entire system. The 200 GPH one at HF is only $11, and is less than 9 cubic inches. The pump unit would live inside the reservoir and outlet into tubing that flows along channels in the exo-suit. As for batteries I think I may opt for lithium-ion battery packs, as they are easy to charge and can pack a good steady charge in a fairly small space.

I don't know what the size specs would be for storm trooper gear, but if you gave me a set I could see if I could work something up that'll work for both. Probably won't go into making them for people, but definitely would make up a video tutorial so they could make it themselves.

 

[WandererTJ]

While I wouldn't worry so much about hypothermia, only hitting the points that Jason suggest would simplify your system quite a bit. I don't think going past your knees or elbows is necessary.
How often do you ever notice your calves or forearms feeling hot?
Our extremeties naturally operate as fins/rods for cooling. While you can add more cooling by hitting these points, you are also likely doubling the length of tubing and the amount of fluid that needs to be pumped and you are requiring the pump to work more against gravity. Resistance will also occur from the small bends in the tubing around those locations because your wrist and ankle are clearly much smaller in diameter than your thighs or forearms.

While copper tubing might seem old fashioned, in the army, I would imagine it would be preferred since you might not have access to a surplus of batteries or a cpu cooling unit, which could also break in the field and is a lot harder to maintain/fix in the field. I also wouldn't be surprised if hand squeeze manual pumps were used in the field over electronically powered ones.
Jason is speaking from his experience and I do like his point of view. You are both correct.

As for the pump, I dont know the details of the one you are using but I would make sure you bleed any air out that is in your tubing before running it, as certain pumps can be damaged when ran dry.

Are you planning on using any refrigerants?

As for your cooling unit, make sure that air is being passed over it, do not keep it inside stagnant air within a part of your costume, make sure that it has access to external vents.
Remember, refrigerators produce heat externally while cooling its internals, making certain that the heat can be vented off will be important so that your armor doesn't end up eventually baking?

Do you know what the thermal resistance is of fiberglass and fiberglass resin?

Sent from my phone, sorry for any typos.

 

[Jason 078]

I would really recommend that you put nothing over any bendable joint. A heavy suit is difficult enough to move around in without having anything that could potentially impede your flexibility. Though, if you were trying to rapidly warm or cool someone, you have the right idea.

Place your hand in the crook of your elbow and tell me what you feel. Now, move your hand up to your armpit. It’s hotter in the armpit because the artery is closer to the surface. You don’t need to place a cooling area over every artery point, only the major ones.

There are two things that I can suggest. All you need to cool are the areas in red in the picture below. Don’t put a cooling spot right up in the armpit or right into your… um… inseam. It should be centered in the inside of the upper arm rather than right up against the peripheral artery. It isn’t healthy for blood to be too cold going back into the heart. The inside of the thigh is the same way. You want it lower than the base of the femoral. The cooling pad in both places should be about a hand-span in width.



Now for the fun part. You don’t need to make an entire Exosuit. Sure, it might look cool, but it won’t be cool. Instead, anywhere that is completely covered with armor should be made of mesh. This will help to circulate air and keep the weight of the under suit down. You should replace anywhere that is completely covered with armor. Even if it is just a patch of mesh.