Stage 8 – Servos and hinge

NOTE: This full tutorial has been moved to my new blog at http://www.otakuandfit.com/stealth-iron-man-mk-vi-cosplay-made-w-fiberglass-and-foam-tutorial/

Stage 8 – Servos and hinges

Materials I used for this stage:

Batteries + switch + microcontroller

• Small servos from hobby shop
• Push rods
• Pololu Micro Maestro 6 microcontroller + Users guide
  

  Pololu 6 Channel Microcontroller

• Wire
• 100 ohm resistor
• Soldering Iron
• USB cable
• 2 x 6v rechargeable batteries
• Chicago Screws
• Sintra
• Hi temp hot glue
• Apoxie Sculpt

Steps:

1. I purchased hinge plans and installation guide from another Iron Man maker to save me the time of designing hinges, although there are a lot of other good sources on the hinge topic out there
2. I made the hinges out of sintra. I cut them to shape then sanded down the rough edges.
3. I glued Chicago screws into place for the hinges, and then used Apoxie Sculpt to fixate them in place. I sanded down the excess as well.
4. One I had smooth movement of my faceplate, I began the installation of 2 servos in the helmet. I experimented with different positions of the servos, but ultimately the initial suggestion of having the servos in the back of the helmet became the best working. I hot glued them which seemed to hold fine.
   

   Servos mounted in helmet

5. I then measured and cut down pushrods to connect the servos to the hinges. I manually tested the motion in order to determine that the placement was satisfactory
6. I then followed the manual for the Micro Maestro microcontroller in order to wire a button to one of the chip’s channels. This will be the button that activates the servos
7. I followed the example script in the manual in order to have a push of the button activate servo movement. Once understanding single servo movement, I modified the script to move both servos
   

   Micracontroller with wiring

8. After having both servos in motion, I carefully modified the script in order to obtain the proper servo movement for my helmet. I noticed there was a point where the servos would rotate the hinges too far, thus warping the helmet. Once I reached that point, I returned it to a point where it would not warp.

Here’s a short video of servo action on my second helmet using the same method as the above:

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