Advice Needed on Iron Man Electronics, Motorized Faceplate

StormyStorm

New Member
Hello everyone. I'm a noob when it comes to electronics and cosplay, so please forgive me if this was obvious.

Basically, I want to create a motorized Iron man helmet which lifts up an down, as seen in the movies. After researching and looking around, I'm just getting more and more confused. I get the jist of it, but I was wondering if there was a simple way to just make it move correctly.

Any advice or direction is appreciated. Luckily, I have access to a 3D printer, so that helps to narrow down options a tad. Thank you for reading!
 
What you want is made up of four parts:
  • Hinge Mechanism
  • Servo
  • Electronics to tell the servo where to move
  • A way to tell the electronics you want to move the servo
Which parts are you having trouble with? As I recall there's a hinge design on Thingiverse you could print out, have you started there?
 
What you want is made up of four parts:
  • Hinge Mechanism
  • Servo
  • Electronics to tell the servo where to move
  • A way to tell the electronics you want to move the servo
Which parts are you having trouble with? As I recall there's a hinge design on Thingiverse you could print out, have you started there?

I'm mostly having trouble with figuring out how to rig the electronics, and which electronics would be the best to use. But I'm still a bit confused on the whole mechanism overall.

The one I'm most interested in is this: Servo Hinge for Iron Man Helmet by ByteSlinger. But I'm not sure how it works. Thank you for your reply.
 
Well, he mentions what kind of servo to use, and he also recommends the Arduino Nano for controlling it, which I think is one of your best options.

(Possibly over explaining here... It's what I do...)

Servos have three wires that run into them. One is for DC+, one is for DC-, and the other is the signal wire. This signal wire basically acts like someone flipping a light switch on and off really fast, and however fast it is alternating tells the servo where to go (always on being one extreme, always off being 180 degrees the other way, on and off equal amounts being in the middle). The Arduino will manage the signal wire for you, so you can set the servo to any in between position that better suits your helmet. You'll tell the Arduino that you want to open/close the helmet with a simple button somewhere. So your end result will be a battery, button, and servo, all connected to an Arduino. The Arduino will require some programming, but it will be very, very basic and easy to get working, and many people will be able to help you if there's something you don't understand.

You're going to print out the holder and mount the servo inside. You're then going to do a test fit to see if it fits in your helmet tight and that the servo swings the right way. Then you'll glue the mount in place.
 
Well, he mentions what kind of servo to use, and he also recommends the Arduino Nano for controlling it, which I think is one of your best options.

(Possibly over explaining here... It's what i do...)

Servos have three wires that run into them. One is for DC+, one is for DC-, and the other is the finals wire. [...]

I think I understand a bit better, thank you very much for the advice. I may have a few questions down the road, which I might ask later. Thanks again for the help.
 
You could also use a servo checker, $8-11.00 no programming... attach power, servo and away you go...this can be mounted in an easy to reach location. Controls servo with no programming and is pre-built. Just another option, it's what works for you.
 
A button would be the easiest solution. You would connect the button to some pins on the Arduino, then you'd program the Arduino to send an open/close signal to the servo whenever that button was pressed. The Arduino would save what the last signal it sent was, then send the opposite signal this time around, so one button will both open and close the helmet.

People have replaced the button with various other sensors, such as tilt sensors (rapidly jerking your head back would open the helmet) or NFID tag readers (so you don't have to press a button so much as brush past it with the right tag). I'm going to be using a Hall Effect sensor (which detects a nearby magnet) to operate mine. No matter what you use, the principle will be the same: Arduino gets a signal, Arduino sends a different signal.
 
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