Tron Legacy pedestal CP (proof of concept)

[MikeDeuce]

Had a concept in the back of my head that I wanted to try out (which might put the plans I had for a Vewlix-inspired pedestal into early retirement).

Here's the proof of concept:


Backlit:


I'm pretty sold on it!
-mike

[broberg]

thats freakin' awesome!

[releasedtruth]

Yes, I would consider that the PERFECT reason to shelf the Vewlix for as long as it takes to finish!

[drventure]

Very nice!

[Marsupial]

that is very interesting.

[EvilNuff]

Very nice!  Any chance you're willing to share details on how you did it?

[Bender]

Very nice!  Any chance you're willing to share details on how you did it?

+1

I'm working on something similar but now where near as far along
That looks amazing!

lets see the back of that sucker!!!!

[push2reject]

That is so sweet.  I to am banging around a 'Tron Legacy' style CP in my head.   Is that proof of concept equipped with RGB?

Right now I'm mocking up a font based on the new tron logo/font.



Let me know if I can help with anything.

[EvilNuff]

Did someone say Tron font?
http://www.dafont.com/tron.font?nb_ppp=50
(Yes I know you said new logo/font...but I thought it was worth linking anyways. )

[push2reject]

Did someone say Tron font?
http://www.dafont.com/tron.font?nb_ppp=50
(Yes I know you said new logo/font...but I thought it was worth linking anyways. )

Yup seen it...  And definitely worth a link!  The font I'm building is based on the new movie.

That's the last of the thread jacking.  I'm gonna start my own thread this week.

[Roo]

ooo pretty lights!  shiny!

[MikeDeuce]

Thanks folks! Quite the positive reaction there, guess I'm on the right track

Very nice!  Any chance you're willing to share details on how you did it?

Sure! Nothing too fancy... the CP top is backpainted acrylic. The clear part is spray-on window frosting. Behind that is 1/2" MDF with the clear bits roughly routed out. Behind that is some rough cut acrylic light diffusing sheet (not sure the exact name -- as seen on fluorescent tube lighting). Behind that is a bunch of arrays of LEDs that I rigged up to hit it from a distance (3"-4"). It's kind of sloppily assembled at the moment, so I could see if this would even work out. From the back it doesn't even remotely assemble a finished product.

Because of the distance from the LEDs, there's tons of light bleed. My ultimate goal is to physically isolate/box-in portions of the light banks, so I can have some animation control with an LED-controller. The top part is one group that will change together, same with the bottom part... then I'd like to isolate the 4 quarter-circles around the stick (picturing a pair of opposing sides lit, or some sort of rotating effect).

That is so sweet.  I to am banging around a 'Tron Legacy' style CP in my head.   Is that proof of concept equipped with RGB? Right now I'm mocking up a font based on the new tron logo/font.

Yep! All RGB LEDs, which I've attempted to keep modular, so they're all on their own bit of solderable bread board. It's taking twice as long to solder them up, but it's helped me experiment with several configurations during prototyping. Nice work on that font, too! I could see something like that being very helpful -- will keep in touch

lets see the back of that sucker!!!!

Sure thing -- it's very rough back there though, but I'll grab a shot this evening. The LEDs aren't mounted at all, I just propped them up.

[Bender]

is that set up lighting the buttons too?
And you have a separate LED for the ball top
oh, and I really love the slight shadowing effect from the depth of the cut MDF

really well done!

This is really helpful, I've been using a slightly different approach to the lighting, but basically the same idea with the back painted acrylic (I'm using cut vinyl as the mask, just for this test, but my plan is to paint the final)


1/4" acrylic with LED in the bottom


same wrapped in black electrical tape and lit

[MikeDeuce]

is that set up lighting the buttons too?
And you have a separate LED for the ball top
oh, and I really love the slight shadowing effect from the depth of the cut MDF

Awesome, love the idea-sharing -- great way to push all our projects ahead!

For the buttons I currently have it set up with dual LED diy circuit boards and 2 drilled holes on each Seimitsu (would've been so much easier with Happs, d'oh!). Unfortunately the intensity is not as even (the massive light bleed in that photo actually helps that issue). I might need to take a page from the Franco book with what he did with those nylon tubes:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=93936.msg1035650#msg1035650

For the ball top, the RGB LEDs I have are too fat to squeeze into the ~1/8" drilled shaft so I'm using acrylic rod a la fiber optics. It started as just another theory and it might work out well enough if I can figure out a good way to mount the LED (it's just hot glued in the picture). I'll snap a pic of that as well.

Your idea with the 1/4" acrylic is also really clever... If the sides were also painted/masked I could see those allowing exceptional control over light bleed.

Exciting stuff!

[HaRuMaN]

I tried the fiber optic route and found it to be too dim (when lighting RGB balltop), so I had some custom shafts / balltops made that would accommodate a 5mm RGB LED.

[Bender]

Your idea with the 1/4" acrylic is also really clever... If the sides were also painted/masked I could see those allowing exceptional control over light bleed.

got the basic idea from an old thread by theCoder

As far as the Ball top, I ran the wires through the shaft and just put the LED in the Balltop
Why do you need to put the LED Through the shaft?

As it happens I'm also lighting up some Seimitsu buttons. I found that with a plexi insert inside the clear plastic plunder you can just get an led in there if you grind it down a little. It lights up the button perfectly evenly cause it's centered in the insert, then I just put a circle cut out over it like you did on yours
(I have very limited space below the CP so I couldn't go franco's route)
I'll try to post a pic later

PS: my first attempt was exactly the same way you did yours (two hot spots, one on each side very disappointing)

[HaRuMaN]

the LED wires (4 wires) wouldn't fit through a standard hollow shaft.  Also, the RBG LED, wouldn't fit in a standard ball top.

[Bender]

I sanded the little ring around the bottom off and it fit fine
also I soldered the wires right to the bottom of the led and used thin wire (put the resistors on the other end by the LEDWiz)
cant remember if I drilled out much in the ball top I think I did a little

I used wire from inside a cat5 cable


Ahh I see, so you did like Franco and rethreaded the ball top too, yeah that's a lot easier if you have access to machining a new shaft for sure

(I got some special shafts from Franco later that I haven't used yet, but I can't wait to put them to work)

[HaRuMaN]

How did you deal with twisting?  (If the joystick twists too far, breaks the wires)

Mine have jacks on the bottom (like stereo jacks), and plug into the LEDwiz like that, so they can be twisted to infinity...

[Bender]

I just anchored the wire near the base of the stick (with slack) the wire from the mini plug (which has 2 layers of heat shrink tube near the plug so it can take the stress on that part)
so essentially the mini plug doesn't turn to much the shaft just spins around it

[HaRuMaN]

Actually, Franco made my stuff for me...   

[wp34]

Awesome, love the idea-sharing -- great way to push all our projects ahead!

Thanks for the explanation.  I've been working on a similar concept but had never thought about painting.  My idea was WAY over-engineered.  Very nice work.   

[EvilNuff]

I wonder how it would look if you printed a design out on transparency film (like for a projector) and put that under the plexi to light from below...could you get say the common lightning or rom's fusion graphic only lit up?

[Bender]

I wonder how it would look if you printed a design out on transparency film (like for a projector) and put that under the plexi to light from below...could you get say the common lightning or rom's fusion graphic only lit up?

unfortunately backlit film when printed on is still semi transparent so it wouldn't look nearly as good(think black area of a marquee), but if you could light isolate certain areas as mike has suggested you could light up individual areas differently

[Bender]

Mike what are you using for the black button inserts?
Are you painting the black then frosting the whole back over that?

I gotta say again the design and execution is just awesome, I like it more and more each time I look at that CP, plus I just can't help imagining some cross color fade animations or some flicker ect. soooooooooo many cool possibilities

I'm gonna go watch the original Tron now

[Santoro]

Looks cool Mike, watching with interest.

[EvilNuff]

unfortunately backlit film when printed on is still semi transparent so it wouldn't look nearly as good(think black area of a marquee), but if you could light isolate certain areas as mike has suggested you could light up individual areas differently

That is disappointing...I may still try it just to see.  It sure would be slick to have an entire image lit up...

I agree with Bender, looking better every time I see it!

[Bender]

unfortunately backlit film when printed on is still semi transparent so it wouldn't look nearly as good(think black area of a marquee), but if you could light isolate certain areas as mike has suggested you could light up individual areas differently

That is disappointing...I may still try it just to see.  It sure would be slick to have an entire image lit up...

I agree with Bender, looking better every time I see it!

you could do a combination of the 2 and back paint black, then an have an image in the lit area printed on backlit film
that would look pretty cool

[MikeDeuce]

Thanks for all the feedback to those of us just joining us!

re: Ball-top lighting, thanks for setting me straight -- I'll see about shoving an LED under the ball top threaded insert instead, that oughta take care of the tricky mounting issues, at least.

unfortunately backlit film when printed on is still semi transparent so it wouldn't look nearly as good(think black area of a marquee), but if you could light isolate certain areas as mike has suggested you could light up individual areas differently

When the lady and I started toying around with screen printing, we ran into this issue when exposing the screens using printed transparencies. We ended up having to layer a few prints to achieve an opaque image, and even then, I think we had to print one upside-down because you could see faint lines where the toner flowed slightly less (and printing upside down makes that faint line flipped over to the other side, if that makes sense). They make an ink that's optimized for that sorta stuff: http://www.silkscreeningsupplies.com/site/799934/page/618436  but I've never tried it.

Mike what are you using for the black button inserts?
Are you painting the black then frosting the whole back over that?

I gotta say again the design and execution is just awesome, I like it more and more each time I look at that CP, plus I just can't help imagining some cross color fade animations or some flicker ect. soooooooooo many cool possibilities

Just some circles I cut out of black vinyl and slapped on the white inserts... otherwise the buttons are completely normal (minus the holes I drilled underneath). re: the animation: yes! That was *exactly* my inspiration for doing all this.

Here's one of my earliest mockups:


I thought it would also be fun to play with the color vs. color for the different players, but the aesthetics weren't quite there. Some refinement later, and I arrived here:


Here's a shot of the backside... the bottom still has the light diffusing bit, and it's removed from the top, so you can see the frosted acrylic there (and a bit of the black backpainting):


And here's how I intended to light the buttons -- with a small piece of solderable protoboard that I cut to size... Each LED could be independent in this set-up, but I'm not convinced that's a practical route to go with the real build:


But like Bender said, those hot spots are really disappointing. Maybe I can stick with 2 bright RGB LEDs and go with white PVC tubing, Franco style, since I don't really have height restrictions. Whatever is less time-intensive at this point, since I'd prefer to be done with this before the movie comes out (just jinxed myself!), especially if it blows

[MikeDeuce]

And not to set my sights too high, but since this is a pedestal build, my idea for the base is to whip up something loosely-inspired by our friend, the recognizer:

[JustMichael]

And not to set my sights too high, but since this is a pedestal build, my idea for the base is to whip up something loosely-inspired by our friend, the recognizer:

Just be careful how you play on it.  Play well enough and it may decide to capture you and take you to the game grid.  Play too well and it may just derezz you...

I have to admit though if a pedestal looked like that I would be like "Holy $#!T  What is that??!!" as I stand there awestruck.

[Rick]

And not to set my sights too high, but since this is a pedestal build, my idea for the base is to whip up something loosely-inspired by our friend, the recognizer:

Just don't make it in 1:1 scale.  Still, that's AWESOME!!!

 

[Bender]

oh, My Sweet mother of awesomeness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

can't wait to see that
Start Building, NOW!!!!

[wweumina]

I agree.  It's encouraging to see innovative builds like this going on.  Between this and the 4/8 way servo based switcher on the Main Forum, this board is getting it's groove back.

[Rick]

It's encouraging to see innovative builds like this going on.

I agree.  I think we should have everybody who's going 'against the norm' and building something custom 'meet up' and do a show of some-sort.  (Yes, I'm looking for any excuse to park the Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3 beside a glowing Recognizer-infused Troncab.  )  Imagine the possibilities.  If we can a group of customizers in the same room, it could lead to a whole revolution.  Or, at least, some serious business opportunities.

 

[Franco B]

Wow, there is some interesting stuff bouncing around in this thread, I love it!

I'll be watching this one for sure 

[push2reject]

I havn't seen much talk of Tron Legacy around the forums yet but I think it's something alot of us are pretty excited rezzed about.

[EvilNuff]

This is a really incredible idea...I liked what I saw before you said the words "pedestal build" and "recognizer" together...but when you combined those...

Please to finish ASAP.

[Marsupial]

I need to learn to use my router to do that...

[MikeDeuce]

I need to learn to use my router to do that...

All it takes is a drill and some sanding (and some 1/4" MDF or similar thin sheet good), and you have yourself one heck of a router template:


Already looking forward to the weekend and hoping I haven't dug myself too deep already