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Guide: Boba Fett Chest Display
Hello visitors from the future! This guide is slightly outdated. I recommend checking https://westabyelectronics.com/store/tutorials for the latest guide. Below is kept for historical purposes. If you are making a Boba Fett costume, the display on the chest piece can be especially troubling. Outside of a one or two available on thedentedhelmet.com, there isn’t a lot available. Leaving a builder to come up with alternate displays. Such as using a decal or placing a light behind a printed graphic on transparency sheet. Cheap and it looks ok, but is not animated. An animated display is much more appealing. In this guide, we will go over how to create an animated display for…
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DIY Ammo Counter
Do you need an ammo counter circuit for your project and are bummed that you have to wait for a spot in my build queue to open up? Fret not, here is a step by step how to make one from scratch! In this guide, I will detail how to build your own ammo counter for ~$25 and with only minimal soldering experience. Parts: Dual Digit Seven Segment 0.56inch ‘Common Cathode’ Display Adafruit Arduino Trinket Lever switches that fit in most projects You can use other arduinos or switch and display choices. The linked ones were chosen for number of pins and size. This project uses 16 IO pins from the arduino…
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Taking Commissions
I am closing the store portion of the website. This last year I trialled a commission system and did some small runs. I like doing these runs and one-off commissions a lot more than having a set inventory of kits. If you are interested in me making you a kit below or something custom, shoot me a message or email and I will let you know my thoughts and availability. I will still be selling the following kits. – Halo Cortana Dogtags – Ammo Counters (for Nerf/Airsoft/Paintball and Prop weapons) – Illuminated Power Pushbutton I will give out information on how to make the following: – Izzy’s ZZLT LTAR Display…
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Dynamic Duplicator Script for OpenSCAD
Printing many small objects on a 3D printer is a chore no more. Below is a dynamic script for OpenSCAD that will duplicate a model the requested number of times. The script performs some clever math to arrange the duplicates in columns and rows. You can then export to an .stl and print several objects at once. The example model pictured can be found here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:172553 /******************************************* Dynamic Duplicator Script for OpenSCAD Author: Dustin Westaby Website: http://www.westaby.net Last revised: 7/26/2015 ********************************************/ // Model parameters model_filename = “star_w_hole.STL”; model_scale = 1; model_spacing_y = 50; model_spacing_x = 60; z_position = 18.5; model_rotate = [0,0,0]; //examples: 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 12, 16,…
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Energy Sword 2015
This is the new Energy Sword for 2015. Featuring dynamic and reactive lighting, motion activated sound effects, and an internal rechargeable battery. Videos on the bottom of this post show off the lighting and sound effects. I built my original energy sword design with the help of Sean Bradely in 2009. This work was expanded by Joshua Kane in 2013 / 2014. I took Joshua’s work to the next level with multiple animation modes with reactive and multi fade lighting. Kudos for the sculpting and paint job still goes to Sean Bradely. Note: I abandoned the custom circuit that I detailed in a previous post and instead went with inexpensive circuit modules from Adafruit and Sparkfun.…
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Ammo Counter Assembly Instructions
DIY assembly guide for the ammo counter. If you ordered an unassembled circuit kit, this is the instruction page for you. Assembly order is from the center outward to minimize solder bridges. Keep some solder removal braid handy to remove any bridges between pads. BACK OF THE PCB Install the IC, making sure to orient with pin1 indication on the PCB Install the three resistors. 2x 10k on the bottom 100 ohm on the top Install the LEDs and bend into position to match your install location. LED on top center position (unmarked) LED on bottom marked position. Note: The LED polarity is not marked on the board. See the…
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Supernatural EMF Reader
This is a summary post of my finished “revision 1” EMF Reader from Supernatural. For revisions 2 and 3, please email me for the latest instructions. Below you will find the following sections: Description and Pictures Part List Rough Step by Step Build Instructions Hello Future Reader! This guide is outdated as of 2018. If you purchased a kit from me, you have the 0718 revision. Watch this youtube build video instead of following the guide on this page.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce4PJZl9T2Y&t=1s&ab_channel=DustinWestaby Kits for sale! https://westabyelectronics.com/store/shop/ Description and Background: The EMF Reader in Supernatural is an excellent project for people like me that have some electrical knowledge. What I did was design a…
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Ammo Counter – 5 years of Success
Over the years I have taken pride in my ammo counter kit. As far as I know, it is the cheapest ammo counter kit available. I achieve my low price by my minimalistic design and versatility through programming. Just 6 parts and custom programmed to meet your needs! The ammo counter kit is my longest selling kit and as the 5 year anniversary is coming up, I wanted to go through my records and count just how many. I came up with the number of ~185 ammo counters sold since I first made them available in 2009. Year Sold 2014 25 2013 100 2012 25 2010 25 2009 10 Numbers…
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ZZLT LTAR Display
Announcing general availability of the ZZLT LTAR Display designed by Ryan Bales. This also marks the discontinuation of my previous number display LTAR counter. The ZZLT LTAR Display is an amazing circuit and is the perfect mod for your LTAR tagger. The advantages of the ZZLT LTAR Display over the LTAR Number Display are numerous. Bar graph indicator to match previous generation LTX displays Leverages the LTAR headphone jack to be compatible with all game modes!!! Lower power requirements Designed to match contours of LTAR iron sight Advanced modes to find player number in hosted games Easier installation, just 4 wires. I have put together a video of what to do & not to…
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New Beginnings – Sword 2014
Announcing a new sword electronics design and a partnership. I have been working alone the past years on an updated energy sword circuit design. Something that would allow me finer control of the LEDs without the burden of soldering the old massive LED arrays. Details of my 2009 sword design. Joshua Kane had been working independently on his own sword controller circuit, build completely from arduino modules. You can see a write-up of his original project here: Stunning Halo 3 Costumes and Energy Sword The outer shell of our both swords were made by an amazing sculptor named Sean Bradley. It was through Sean that Josh and I met each other; and…