Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous (PASIV) device, "INCEPTION" *spoliers?*

Just joined this forum specifically because of the PASIV prop. This movie blew my mind, and even if I don't get a PASIV prop made any time soon (I'm planning on it, but the only tool I have is a Dremel) I will definitely be watching what you guys do.
I have been scouring the net for screenshots, and I will post them soon.
 
Haven't checked this thread for awhile, so I totally missed the one made by Engineer! Well done, for a quick prop on a budget!

And looking forward to more updates *cough* Chronos *cough*.
 
Wanted to breathe some new life into this project. Just to set some facts straight, I confirmed with Zero Halliburton that the case is indeed the P5-SI model.

“… yes it is definitely the P5-SI. We do not make the case anymore. The case was also made last about 4 years ago and had been around for over 10 years. We do make a CP4 with our new manufacturer but the locking mechanism is totally different. We do not use the lock system anymore.”

As for the rest, most of it looks to be custom… most. Art Andrews posted some really great high-definition photos of the actual prop. While zooming around I gathered some info on the parts that were sourced elsewhere.

The timing belts are labeled with the number 072053562262 on them. This is the UPC number for a “Gates 36MXL012 PowerGrip Timing Belt - 9257-0119". Perfect fit.

I’m pretty sure the storage unit for the four vials located on the left was 3D printed due to the infill pattern on the top. Makes sense as this would have to be custom made due to the side hinge recess.

In some pictures it looks like there might be some raised numbers/letters on top of said vials. Can’t quite make them out, any ideas?

The battery cases might be 3D printed as well due to what looks like layer lines. It looks to hold a 5 wide Li-Ion battery pack (maybe fits a second row underneath, so 10 total) or just standard AA. Inscribed on top of at least one of those cases is “Battery Case OA 001” and maybe the second. I really don’t think it was custom though because a battery case is easily sourced and what would be the point of it being a functional box (notice the locking tabs for the bottom plate of the battery box) if that portion (being recessed under the plate everything is mounted to) is not even seen. Anyone have any luck with this??

I’m certain the brass air valves and fittings that connect to the metal piston looking objects (Manual Valve) are available parts. Ideas?

The digital readout look to be a six digit red LED timer but closer matches come up when looking up "electronic counter". The actual prop readout looks like a LCD screen when off though, so maybe the countdowns we see in the movie were inserted during post production??

Thoughts about the couplings that let the IV lines pass through on the case?

All in all it would be awesome to knock out any variables. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

-Matt
 
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Thread necromancy!

I decided to get around to building one of these. My Zero case comes in next week, and I've already ordered the vials (thanks!) and the timing belts (thanks!). I'm in contact with a steel fabricator to get those parts created, and zooming into the Flickr photos I can see print lines on the central Somnacin housing, so I think almost everything that isn't metal or glass is 3D printed.

I'd like to do this prop 100% verisimilitude justice, with working countdown timers and motorized IV tube reels. I'll be posting progress as it goes.

Looks a lot like those rows of white/yellow squares in the back lining are an LED light strip. And the tubing going into the IV adaptor is doubled up, correct?
 
So after a bit of sleuthing I think I've identified the hydraulic cylinders. Zooming into one of the Flickr photos, I noticed some writing on one:

DE6mynO.jpg


That's the logo for a Clippard Minimatics air cylinder. The older style used the engraved logo at the end, the newer ones have it horizontally across the center. Extrapolating an approximate size scaled from the vials, I'd guess the main cylinder part is about 2.5". I found this:

CLIPPARD MINIMATIC 9PS-¾
rW2jXyW.jpg


Which looks to my eye about the right width for that length. The rounded square bits at each end appear to be some standard brass valve fittings:
oHEVe5m.jpg


t28Qncj.jpg


The needle valve bit on the end here:
65AJwqV.jpg


Looks like it's a Clippard M-MNV-1K needle valve:
8lmov1Y.png


I'm not sure how exactly some of the parts are gunmetal while others are brass, because nearly every Clippard part from this vintage is all brass, so I'm guessing they colored parts to match the base plate in the case. I'm still working on finding the mounting bracket for the cylinders.

I also found a suitable bellows pump for the vacuum chambers:

PMB40-NBR-G18FS: 41mm 4.5 bellows NBR suction cup with G1/8 female fitting with screen
C50aCHS.png


The coupling can be cut off and leaves a pretty flat surface to glue down the 1" silver discs (still looking for spun metal versions).

(Staged with a coin on top):
9AUa7Ka.png


For the clear chambers around the pumps I found: https://www.eplastics.com/shapes/plexiglass/tube/clear-cast/ACRCAT1-750ODX-125
CAST ACRYLIC TUBING 1.750" OD X .125" WALL THICKNESS
6Y8L5BN.jpg

The pumps are 1.61" wide, so in a 1.75" acrylic chamber with 0.125" wall thickness, that leaves 1.625" of space for the pumps -- a nice snug fit. ePlastics will also go ahead and cut the acrylic into 3 inch sections for you.

I'm 99% sure the rows of white/yellow dots in the back of the case near the hinge are LED light strips. I found these with a black background:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F32XGRY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
JxbDWAy.jpg


The bits between the lights don't look accurate, but this is as close as I've been able to find and should work well enough.

The IV tubing is very thin and needs to be quite flexible. The best I've found is:

Medical Grade Micro Vinyl Catheter Tubing/0.011" ID x 0.025" OD (+/- .003") = .28mm ID x .64mm OD/(100' Coil)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U33MWUK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
1xskq2g.jpg


The photo isn't great so I'll let you know how it works when mine comes in.

The IV tubing reels I'm almost certain are either taken from an electric multiplier fishing reel or heavily kitbashed from one:
rlTZoDT.png


The worm drive shaft, reel, and line guide nut on the shaft look pretty much identical to parts you'd find in one. Some of the metal particularly around the mounting brackets on these looks sort of rough milled and may be custom, but the functional parts (if indeed the reels were actually motorized) is probably from a level-wind fishing reel.

ASSLf3s.jpg

Since there seem to be a lot of found parts in this prop, I very badly want the large metal disc in the lid to be something found also so I don't have to fabricate it. It looks a lot like an automotive disc rotor, but smaller (6 to 6.5 inches) and has no mounting holes. There *are* disc rotor blanks available without bolt holes out there, but nothing I've found has anything close to those curved grooves.
 
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Received all the air cylinder parts and it's definitely a match. Just need to color some parts gunmetal. Also vacuum pumps and 1" silver tops came in. Only thing is the silver tops I think are supposed to be spun metal, and these are smooth. I've tried brushing them and it's kinda better, but I'm not sure yet. Doesn't matter much -- these will be the tops inside the vacuum chambers and not that visible. The 1.5" metal discs on top of the chambers will definitely be spun.

Also the LED light strip is very close and will work great. Should get vacuum chamber acrylic and IV tubing next week.

Also pretty sure I found a source for the center activation push button silicone cover. I'll wait until it comes in next week and verify before posting that one.

I think for the (6?) tubing ports that run outside the case, I've decided to go with a magnetic collar around the holes and a steel knurled cap to plug into them. It's either magnets or screw cap, and it's really really tough to locate a screw cap around that size (0.75"). Also coming next week.

Liking the look so far! 3D printing of the center vacuum housing is in progress.

j0pcOxB.jpg
 
One other interesting thing. Zooming and panning around the Flickr photos, I came across one of the upper vial ports where it looks like a vial was removed:

Pb8mMSR.jpg


So that's interesting... which got me looking around the rest of that image, and here we have a complete vial just laying there:

SrqSHSC.jpg


So now we have the caps. These are injection (or "sterile injection") vials. I've been able to find similar caps but I'm having trouble with that narrow neck. The aforelinked vials were for 6 drams, and they seem pretty close. 6 drams worked out to about 22ml, and I've been able to find these kinds in either 20ml or 30ml. With the narrowed neck, I'd guess more toward 20ml. But I haven't gotten any in to test with yet.

And even then, how do we suppose these vials stay in place? Some sort of rubber gasket they pop in and out of? My original plan was to use the black screw caps and just use a dot of velcro :)
 
Oh yeah, it's also apparent if you look at the entire photo set that the upper part of the case rotates. I'm not talking about the 6" metal rotor in the middle -- I'm saying the ENTIRE round part rotates, vials, timers, IV reels and all. Every single part that is cut inside the backing plate rotates. Just look at some of the photos how the Clippard hydraulic cylinders seem to be on opposite corners from photo to photo... and how the black push button also seems to move... and how that one squared off corner moves... and how that one empty tubing reel seems to jump around and... D: it becomes apparent that the entire upper section, everything is rotatable. I have no idea why it does this, not even in movie logic, because we never see it moving, and if you had the IV tubes running out of the port holes, it wouldn't be able to spin, but the ability is there.
 
4GT3oti.jpg


The hydraulic valves came out great. All the parts were brass, so I hit it with some metallic aluminum Krylon. All I'm missing is the other little brass connector on the back end that has an air hose connected to it. Looks like the air hose is still intact in the upper case parts, but missing from the bottom ones. It's obscured in most pics so it may take some time to track down. Doesn't look too complicated though.
 
IV port holes have all been drilled! That was scary. Washers are attached and plugs have been chromed. Still working on the inside. Trying to find a magnetic ring that's the right size to not bump up too close to the case edge of hinge parts.

go7TWr5.jpg


The IV tubing I linked above is way too small. Should have paid more attention to the OD and ID dimensions. So still hunting for that.

The acrylic tubes for the vacuum pumps came in this week, and they are perfect:

Exr4G19.jpg
 
Progress continues trying to figure out the design for the machined and printed parts in both halves. In the meantime, I have some IV tubing in that I think it the right size. More on that later.

This past weekend I started shaping the sheet metal that will form the "base plate" of each half, and I'm pretty pleased with the results. It's amazing how quickly it's starting to look like the machine and less like a random briefcase.

Cr1Dl2h.jpg


I also finished installing the washers, magnets, and plugs for the tubing port holes and the design works nicely. I did find another source for the top spun metal discs that are on each vac chamber, and I should be able to show those off in a few days. Spoiler: those too had to be custom made.
 
I'm sure this is not exactly it, but the closest I've been able to find for the 2 momentary valve switches in the lid is:

10-32 Non Exhaust Push Button Valve 61233086 - MSC
bm7E22E.png


With one of these attached:
Clippard 11752-1-PKG Hose Adapter, No 10-32 x 1-8", NPT x Barb, Brass
OkrP80d.jpg


I'm pretty sure that same hose adapter is on the back end of the Clippard air cylinder also, at least on one side. Appears to have been removed on the other cylinder (and none of the lower case cylinders).
 
Spun aluminum vac chamber top discs came in, and they are spot on! These are 1.5" diameter, 1/8" thick, with a 1/8" taper on top. They are the same inner diameter of the chambers, hence the scotch tape holding them up. Printed pump housing should be ready soon.

7pGDY6h.jpg


lN53BoZ.jpg
 
Received the first printed part for the PASIV -- the lower pump housing. Huge thanks to Futurescape3D for producing this part and for help with the design. They will be helping with several more parts as this build progresses. The housing was a perfect fit for my vacuum chambers and somnacin vials. I may replace the white collar around the pushbutton with a cupped nylon washer, if I can ever find one the right size.

Next up: finally tackling those tubing reels. Given the very tightly packed nature of this case, those are going to be custom fabricated in aluminum. Hopefully the next update will show how those fit. The "reels" in the photo are just some household thread spools for staging.

X2C9gHP.jpg
 
Update! I've received the housings for the 8 timers (thanks Futurescape 3D!) and I should be able to sand and finish them by the end of this week. Getting the sizing just right has been tricky, but this leaves just enough room on the North and South sides to squeeze in the assemblies for the tubing reels.

I still don't have a prototype yet for the reels, so I'm still using the thread spools for staging/fitting for now. The final metal spools shouldn't be that different though. Aside from getting the timers in place, I've also started laying out the upper vaccuum/Somnacin vial housing. It's pretty straight, kind of 2 skewed squares. The other thing I'd like to focus on in the next few weeks is the final cutting and laying out of the sheet metal base plates on both upper and lower sections. I'm thinking of epoxing a steel frame to the inside of the case and using hex standoffs slightly raise the base plates and keep them level, similar to how a motherboard is mounted inside a PC case.

I've also been slowly figuring out how I want the reel motors and timer electronics to work and sourcing those parts. So far I have a couple of test LED displays, the countdown increment buttons, and the reversible worm drive shafts, with some spur gears on the way to wrap the timing belts around. I haven't thought about diving head first into the electronics phase of this build just yet since I'm still sourcing parts and working out scale, but soon that will have to be conquered.

Timer Housings:
hHBfAW1.jpg


Timer Housings in Lower Layout:
Xtgq8jx.jpg


Timer Housings in Upper Layout pattern:
Fe1HgjP.jpg


Timer Housing Prototype with Drive Shaft:
SyUtPGj.jpg


For the Upper actuator button/knob thing, I've decided that sourcing a similar part is going to be difficult to near impossible, so I'm putting out a WTB thread for anyone who is willing to take on sculpting/molding/casting this in some type of rubber for me.

At this point, I can divide up the remaining work into a few groups:

1) Parts to be printed:
- Upper vacuum/vial holders
- L shapes
- Battery packs
- "Riveted" seams around the base plates
- Spare vial holder in left corner

2) Parts to be machined:
- Tubing reels (all their associated assembled parts)
- Rotor in upper section
- 4 "quadrant" pieces around lower pumps
- 4 "quadrant" pieces around upper pumps
- Brackets for the Clippard hydraulics

3) Electronics.

4) Putting it all together.
 
Little bit of progress over the past few weeks. First off, I finished all the sanding on the Timer housings, all the way from 80-grit to 3000-grit! It took a long, long time to separately sand all 8 bodies plus the 8 separate top covers, but when I finished they were smooth as glass. The paint went on great so those are all finished and look wonderfully manufactured. I'm honestly a little surprised printed plastic could turn out so nice. I did have to file down the inside of the cutouts for the buttons a tiny bit so they would fit.

I also completely stripped down the collar/washer around the activation button and repainted it glossy. It's a little bit frustrating though because in close up photos of the prop, the collar is clearly sitting on top of the pump, but in half the screengrabs from the movie, the collar is underneath the hole in the pump so that it's nearly flush:

6sxbKzD.jpg


So, have to make a judgment call here, and I'm sticking with on top of the housing. I also added a bit of padding since my button boot was sticking up too high. It might be a little too high still, but that's about as far down as I can drop it before it starts tapering, so this is much better.

6ovpny1.jpg


AJTPdwt.jpg


I've also been experimenting with the assembly of the timers/reels with reel motors. I got a bunch of these: DC Gearbox Motor - "TT Motor" - 200RPM - 3 to 6VDC to play with, and after Dremeling off one of the axles and a couple of extraneous bits, they JUST fit inside the Timer housings. So, if I can find a way to connect these to my drive shafts, they just might have enough power to spool the tubing. They are reversible too, so connecting these to a 3-way toggle switch is probably the way to go for Fwd/Rev driving the reels.

sciupsn.jpg

Here I've just staged it for size testing with a scrap of sheet metal acting as the end plate, and a steel dowel pin. The final pins probably will probably only be different in that they are tapped at both ends, as there appears to be an M3 hex cap screw outside both the Timer and the End Plate. Also this isn't one of the final Timers, but a shorter prototype that I've kept around for testing.

Speaking of that End Plate, I just last night noticed this:

8ISpu3t.png


These 2 Upper and Lower Reels have different End Plates! Why?! I can't figure out yet. Maybe it was a space issue and the case wouldn't close without the bumps colliding? I don't think most of the Reels are flatter on top, but there aren't enough angles in the reference photos to say for sure. Looking around a bit more, I noticed:

J9EU8Kz.jpg


I can't say 100%, but it appears the drive shaft might not actually connect to anything inside the Timer. So it's very possible all of the motorization details are just visual effects and they never actually mechanized anything. Even so, I'm going to try to get mine to work.

And another thing that might be faked:
WphwxaA.jpg


This is a screengrab from the opening scene. Now in all frames of the film where the Timers are off, and in close up photos of the screen used prop, it appears to be a green LCD display on these, which I don't believe would ever be able to produce an LED dot matrix like this. But if this is faked, they went above and beyond to fake it, since if you crank up the brightness you can even see the "off" pixels, and some red light leaking through the imperfect button cutouts.

So whether I can recreate actual working timer displays is still up in the air. The entire timer housing is 1"x3" on the outside, with just a bit less space inside, and the cutout for the display itself is only 0.35" tall x 1.35" wide. And so far I haven't been able to find an LED matrix that size.

And lastly, I'm now getting around to working out the dimensions of the 4 circle "wedges" in the lower half. Looks like an inner radius of 1.75" (to match the vacuum chambers) and an outer radius of just under 10", and around 0.75" thick with about .05" sunk below the base plate. As with everything in this build, mocking it up in paper and cardboard first is the path to success.

fMuDDhu.jpg
 
So one mystery solved: there are 2 kinds of reel retainer plates because they match up with opposites, probably to avoid them colliding when the case is closed. Even so, curious why they aren't all just the Flatter sides all around? Probably a stylistic choice.

So basically in the Upper half: North & South are Curved, East & West are Flatter.
Opposite in the Lower half: North & South are Flatter, East & West are curved.

The opposites in the Upper/Lower halves are similar to the way the tubing port holes alternate both top/bottom and left/right as you go around the case.

One thing I've been stuck on for awhile: what's going on with this gear at the end of the drive shaft? Finding a spur gear itself isn't hard, but what is that wide collar/bushing behind it? It's obviously to prevent the belt from slipping off, but is it the same part as the gear itself? I haven't been able to find anything. I don't even exactly know what to search for.
 

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