ANH (Stunt) TK build

[CallMeMrTibbles[501st]]

I'm sure my voice must be being picked up, but I'm really not noticing it, and even with the Bluetooth system I'm not noticing any delay.

 

I don't have my voice changer / amp yet though (on order, should be here in a couple of months). That may make a difference.

Edited July 30, 2021 by CallMeMrTibbles

[RageQuit[501st]]

On 7/30/2021 at 2:24 PM, CallMeMrTibbles said:

I'm sure my voice must be being picked up, but I'm really not noticing it, and even with the Bluetooth system I'm not noticing any delay.

 

I don't have my voice changer / amp yet though (on order, should be here in a couple of months). That may make a difference.

 

Looks like I will find out first for the both of us.

I have installed the voice amplification system and am halfway thru installing the hearing assist system. I still have to source some type of helmet mounted speakers to go with it, am going to start researching that this week.

[CallMeMrTibbles[501st]]

Good luck with it mate.
Looking forward to seeing it all fitted

[RageQuit[501st]]

Have a couple of questions re my attached photo.

Red 1 - The tighter the belt is pulled the greater the deformation at this point. I have added some ABS reinforcement on the inside and will monitor. Going to install the “V” ABS mod listed in the build threads to hopefully pull the top of the butt plate in to align with bottom of upper armour.

Green 1A - The belt slides up by itself and needs to sit in position Blue 1B. I’m thinking of putting some velcro in vicinity of Purple 2 to help it align. Would need to not velcro the area where the TD metal clips slide down.

Edited August 4, 2021 by RageQuit

[RageQuit[501st]]

Ongoing helmet fit-out:

Electrical component functionality test completed:

1] Helmet fans fitted

2] Hearing assist test successful

3] Voice system with iCom test 90% successful - some feedback when running amp at 100%. I bought a $50 pair of Sony headphones, trimmed off the over head loop support and velcro'd them in. They sound output is great - really happy with the cost and performance.

 

Component physical install:

1] All hardware fits well with plenty of space to spare

2] Cabling routes to be finalised

3] Cabling route covers to be finalised

 

Am using velcro to cover the cable routes with a still to be determined fabric/material fixed to the back side of the velcro to make inside of helmet look cleaner.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2021 by RageQuit

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

You will find the belt will ride up because of the angle of the kidney plate and pulling the belt too tightly.

 

Having a thin frame I had to add some foam behind my ab plate to help fill the gaps between my body and the armor, without the foam the sides would keep flaring and overlapping.

 

Adding V tabs behind the butt/kindey plates will help keep those pieces in alignment, also check how loose or tight your strapping is. 

 

 

[RageQuit[501st]]

Thanks gmrhodes13,

The ab plate to rear plate is a fairly snug fit, I replaced the side 3 x elastic straps with no-stretch webbing with snaps. Gives me the opportunity to widen this gap slightly if required. The overall around the torso fit is pretty snug, so may need to widen the from to rear armour side gaps slightly which should reduce the drag on the butt plate deformation. 

Does your ammo belt rear sit flush to the top of the butt plate?

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

3 minutes ago, RageQuit said:

Does your ammo belt rear sit flush to the top of the butt plate?

No it sits above, pretty much like screen seen.

Here's my TFU version.

 

 

Screen references ANH.

 

                  

[RageQuit[501st]]

14 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

No it sits above, pretty much like screen seen.

Here's my TFU version.

 

 

Screen references ANH.

 

                  

 

ahh awesome thanks - for some reason I had in my mind the bottom of the belt sat flush just above the butt plate.

[RageQuit[501st]]

Draft install of cables worked well. I do have a Catch 22 situation :/

 

1] Voice amplification with iCom - works fairly well.

2] Audio assist - works really well.

3] Fans [Henry’s Helmets] - working as expected.

 

Turn on 1 & 3 - All good. The fan noise is not picked up by the internal microphone.

Turn on 1 & 2 - Audio assist external microphones pick up and magnify audio out from external speakers back into internal helmet speakers. No lag just makes my voice sound extra loud to me. Can live with that.

Turn on 2 & 3 - Audio assist external microphones pick up and magnify sound of running fans back into internal helmet speakers. Major PITA. 

Turn on 1, 2 & 3 - Audio assist external microphones pick up and once again magnify sound of running fans back into internal helmet speakers. Sound output from 1 is OK, however with the running fans it all starts to sound like I’m at a rock concert with everything mixing together. Tweaking volume levels not providing much of a solution. Definitely not able to troop with all 3 units running.

 

I think I need to experiment with quieter fans, test that and see how it goes. Any suggestions would be great.

 

In the short term I can troop and have the fans running and either Voice Amplification OR Audio Assist running - not both at the moment.

 

 

Edited August 4, 2021 by RageQuit

[RageQuit[501st]]

Quick update.

Firstly many thanks to Mighty Atom for his help in solving my noisy helmet fans problem. Always great to have a garrison member help with their knowledge and physical support

The hearing assist system is way more functional now I have installed a 5VDC converter [running about 3VDC] - fans super quiet and do not interfere with the hearing assist.

I am going to put in a helmet switching system which amongst other functions will enable me to bypass the 5VDC converter if I need to run the fans harder for hotter days.

 

[RageQuit[501st]]

As per my post here I have decided to abandon my helmet mounted speaker system [amp + iComm] for a chest mounted solution. I wasn't happy with the low audio out levels and feedback and have gone for a chest mounted solution.

I had an old Aker amp and have mounted that along with the iComm box with velcro behind my chest. Am getting much better audio throw and clarity with the only issue to date being feedback if volume is too high when using the Aker headmounted mic. To counter that I have been researching throat mic solutions.

I order a cheap throat mic from a local supplier [Jaycar] which I received today - it turned out to be pretty crap [cheap and that line is discontinued - go figure]. I have this throat mic currently in route from supplier, a few troopers here have used it with positive results, am looking forward to testing once received.

In the meantime I made up a switching system to mount behind my chest, one switch simply kills the microphone with the second switching microphone  inout between the iComm box and the Aker amp. This will let me easily kill the mic if needed during a troop, plus toggle between static bursts [iComm] and normal speech [Aker direct] if required.

Bench testing worked perfectly, just need to make a box to house it all and position behind chest.

I went down this route as the switches I am using are easily controlled while using gloves.

Also going to parallel a larger momentary switch off the Aker switch and mount that along with the two toggle switches.

 

[RageQuit[501st]]

Pretty much finished the helmet fit out, electronics completed and eye shields screwed in place.

Fitted with Ukswrath Audio Assist and Henry’s Helmet fans with a DC Converter and DPDT switch.

 

My issue was with the fans running at 5V the Audio Assist kit picked up too much noise, so with the switching system I can run at 5V for maximum cooling [Audio Assist off] or switch to 3V and turn on Audio Assist.

 

I did buy a couple of DC converters with external control knob with the view to manually dial the voltage up and down as I needed, however when I reduced voltage under 5V both fans would stop running. This happened on both DC converters so there was an issue I couldn't rectify. Using the DC Converter The Mighty Atom sent me I used the on-board pot to reduce voltage to 3V and the fans simply slowed down. The one issue was I couldn’t adjust V on the fly [needed a very small screwdriver to adjust the pot], so with that in mind I knocked up a switching system with a DPDT switch I had lying around.

 

Very happy with the end result, looking forward to testing it at a troop.

At the moment the helmet interior is bloody messy and will redo the interior lining to make it look neater.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2021 by RageQuit

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Have you thought of just running one fan at a time, that's all I use and it's enough even on the hottest troop, I keep the second charged and read in case I need to switch over, but that's only at very long weekend events.

[CallMeMrTibbles[501st]]

If you can be bothered to rewire your voltmeter, you could consider one of these....

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Voltmeter-DIY-Mini-Digital-Timer-LED-Display-Car-Electric-Clock-Thermometer-/383581823026?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

(UK eBay but shipped direct from china)

It's a voltmeter/thermometer/clock, and I mounted it in the front of my lid near the back of the hovi tips. I had to put some masking tape over the display otherwise it lit up my face so much you could see me through the lenses.

It's utterly overkill, but very geeky and I love it

[RageQuit[501st]]

On 10/10/2021 at 8:36 PM, CallMeMrTibbles said:

If you can be bothered to rewire your voltmeter, you could consider one of these....

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Voltmeter-DIY-Mini-Digital-Timer-LED-Display-Car-Electric-Clock-Thermometer-/383581823026?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

(UK eBay but shipped direct from china)

It's a voltmeter/thermometer/clock, and I mounted it in the front of my lid near the back of the hovi tips. I had to put some masking tape over the display otherwise it lit up my face so much you could see me through the lenses.

It's utterly overkill, but very geeky and I love it

Am ordering one today, be great to get an idea how hot it gets in the helmet. Thanks for the info :)

[RageQuit[501st]]

On 10/10/2021 at 5:20 PM, gmrhodes13 said:

Have you thought of just running one fan at a time, that's all I use and it's enough even on the hottest troop, I keep the second charged and read in case I need to switch over, but that's only at very long weekend events.

I need both fans running to provide sufficient air at a lower speed, had them in the same position in my TX helmet and definitely needed both running.

[RageQuit[501st]]

Pretty much completed my chest amplifier system.

Wearing my glove I can manage all switches and the amplifiers volume dial.

‘B’ is the mute/unmute microphone switch.

‘C’ directs the microphone output either to the iComm first or bypasses it and goes straight to the Aker amplifier. Handy for when you want to talk to someone without the random static bursts.

‘D’ is the MP3 player for background sound. Stuck a bit of rubber on the centre control switch to make it easy to control.

‘E’ I can adjust the Aker MR1506 volume in the field depending on the environment.

 

[Troopacoola[TK]]

Ongoing helmet fit-out:
Electrical component functionality test completed:
1] Helmet fans fitted
2] Hearing assist test successful
3] Voice system with iCom test 90% successful - some feedback when running amp at 100%. I bought a $50 pair of Sony headphones, trimmed off the over head loop support and velcro'd them in. They sound output is great - really happy with the cost and performance.
 
Component physical install:
1] All hardware fits well with plenty of space to spare
2] Cabling routes to be finalised
3] Cabling route covers to be finalised
 
Am using velcro to cover the cable routes with a still to be determined fabric/material fixed to the back side of the velcro to make inside of helmet look cleaner.
 

 

 

 

Lots of cable running out of that lid. Could you not reduce this?

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[RageQuit[501st]]

10 hours ago, Troopacoola said:

Lots of cable running out of that lid. Could you not reduce this?

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 

 

What you have referenced  was my original design which has since changed. If you look at my above posts you can follow where I pulled the Aker Amp and iComm out of the helmet and chest mounted them. My helmet only has cooling fans and Ukswrath Hearing assist amp system.

[RageQuit[501st]]

I need to reduce the length of my thigh armour, have already increased the moon-shape cutout and am still getting the back of my knee grabbing the armour, especially on the ammo belt side which reduces my ability to walk comfortably and also transverse stairs.

From the photo [I have the Police stick] I can afford to loose some length on each thigh and still look symmetrical - looking at cutting about 30mm off the top of each thigh.

I will loose the return around the top edges and am wondering how everyone else has gone re this - not perturbed if I keep the returns or not, just interested in how others have tackled this issue.

 

 

Took a couple of hours this afternoon using a dremel with cutting disk and 400 grit sandpaper. Can now go up and down stairs with plenty of space behind the knees.

Had a read of this post which was invaluable: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2021 by RageQuit

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

On 12/1/2021 at 9:46 PM, RageQuit said:

Took a couple of hours this afternoon using a dremel with cutting disk and 400 grit sandpaper. Can now go up and down stairs with plenty of space behind the knees.

 

Glad my tutorial helped, Geoff, any photos?  

[RageQuit[501st]]

12 hours ago, justjoseph63 said:

 

Glad my tutorial helped, Geoff, any photos?  

Hi Joseph,

I was on the fence line as to how I would trim the armour and what to do about the returns.

Your post was extremely helpful, thank you very much.

With the returns gone the additional benefit is the 2 drop plates on my belt sit flatter due to the thighs coming in about 10mm which was the return edge depth roughly.

We are doing Oz Comic Con next Saturday [11/12th Dec]], I will put up some photos from this event showing the altered thigh heights, etc.

Have also passed on your post to another TK in our group who needs to make quite a few changes to his kit.

Cheers.

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

COOL!  Looking forward to seeing those updated pics, and have a BLAST on your troop!

[RageQuit[501st]]

Oz Comic Con weekend was a blast.

Few photos below, trimming the 20mm off the thigh tops made a big difference for knee clearance - still tempted to take 10mm more as the thighs were still banging into the codpiece and butt plate [more slightly annoying than restricting movement].

You can see the colour difference between my PVC and the purer white of the ABS kit.