Does anyone still make a resin kit for the PKE? I know that GuntahKela used to?
Unfortunately the side-effect of how well designed and executed the Mattel PKE Meters was that the home-grown efforts dried up. The production stopping on the Mattel line may eventually see the return of fan-made options, but at the moment I can’t say I’ve seen any resin kits listed recently that weren’t left-overs from old runs.
Gotcha. If I could still get the matty for a reasonable price I probably wouldn’t bother, but it seems like a fun project if I could find a good kit to start with. I’ve seen the iona on ebay but I think I’d prefer to start with something a little bit closer. Thanks for responding. =)
No worries. I’m in a similar boat to you, as I’ve got a PKE electronics kit I’ve been trying to sell for years with no bites.
Im working on building my IONA PKE. Im thinking I can build it for less than a used Matty PKE. If anyone has the kit for sale less than what the Mattys are selling for on ebay, please hit me up. Im really trying to see if anyone has a resin kit for the outside screen and front and back parts.
If I could find a resin kit I’d certainly be interested, but I’m guessing a lot of people would be. What’s in your electronics kit? Maybe I’ll pick up an iona.
I’ll tell you, if there was a resin kit and an electrics kit I’d probably do it. I’d love to find a way to make an electronics kit that used WIFI signals to vary the meters actions. The stronger the signal the more the meter goes off. It would be kinda useful too lol.
I have an Iona shoe polisher that I want to make castings of to turn into a PKE meter. It’ll be a process as I don’t want to destroy the polisher. So I have to make casting of the front and back THEN using the casted version, cut it up, fill in holes, polish the heck out of it THEN make a casting of the modified top and bottoms. Four total, two part castings. Eight pores of silicon. Luckily the parting lines of the Iona are straight so I don’t need to mess around with clay. Arms would be another thing. Metal? Cast resin with silver paint? I don’t know. I’ll have to test.
A whole other can of worms is the electronics. I’m good with electronics so I would want to go full out. I always thought it would cool to put in an 9dof sensor so you could get rotation of the PKE and then use that as the activator for the arms. Meter is horizontal, arms are in and it’s making a slow beeping. Rise the meter up like you are looking at it and the arms go up and the beeping/lights start going faster! Also a color lcd screen with animations.
Just some ideas.
I also just bought an Iona. Not only is the super high price keeping me away from the Matty one, but i also love to build my own stuff. Its part of the fun.
I’m scratching my head over the electronics. I have 3d printed the faceplate and arms, so thats taken care of. I used an Arduino when i built my trap but the PKE is much more complex as far as electronics go (my trap is a pretty simple belt hanger with lights, not fully functional). I’m comfortable with code so right now it looks like i’m just going to have to build and wire my own stuff then fight with the Arduino code to get everything working. The Hyperdyne electronics pack costs more than the entire Matty meter so thats not even an option.
I like building my own stuff to. I’ve almost bought a proton pack shell a few times (still might) but I would like to make my own so I can make my own fiber glass shells. This would be a good way of getting use to working with silicon/resins.
I thought about casting my Iona just because with all the cutting and shaving its easy to mess up so it would be nice to “prototype” one or 2 and maybe save the Iona, but i know zip about molding and casting. Watched some tutorials and i am not sure it would be cost effective by the time i mess with the silicon enough to get a good mold, then the resin enough to get a good cast. The electronics have me stressed enough not sure i want to add learning a whole new skill set onto this project as well, haha.
During the course of my VERY slow scratch-build of a PKE meter I did a run of resin shells in 2015. I’d be up for selling some of those if there’s interest. I wasn’t planning to mass produce these since the Matty prop is adequate for the vast majority of users.
These shells are based on a modified Iona I’ve been working on since the early 90s. I meant it when I said it’s a VERY slow build. The modifications are based on these photos a friend of mine took in the early 90s:
http://www.gbfans.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=42356
I was worried that the modified Iona would be too fragile to carry around so I created silicone molds and resin versions of the shell halves, the plan being to use one of these for the final prop. The casts aren’t perfect, but they’re useable with some cleanup. I eventually decided to go with the modified Iona for maximum fidelity to the real prop.
I haven’t built this to go with any existing kit. My wings are scratch-built, designed to fit into a custom-made piece of aluminum with linkages to two servos. The final prop will have touch switches and (I think) a built-in charging circuit.
The plan is to drive the wings and LEDs using a Teensy Arduino board. I’m no where near a coder, but I was able to cobble together a sketch (with some help) to drive the servos and LEDs, but in late 2015 I decided to add a sound board for sound effects. I have that sort of working, but I was having trouble trigging the sounds correctly, and that’s where it’s been since then. I’ve been super-busy with our business, and I’ve been putting my recent hobby energies into upgrading the lights and other elements of my 1984 pack.
As I wrote, these resin shells aren’t perfect. There are some holes that would need filling and flash that needs trimming.
If there’s interest in this sort of thing I could arrange to become an authorized seller here.
Cheers.
Shawn
Just a reminder though that you’ll need to sort out a supporting membership before anything can be sold here.
Nice looking PKE kits, great detail on the shell pulls.
Yes, that’s what I meant by becoming an authorized seller. I’ll probably become a supporting member anyway since I’ve derived a fair amount of benefit here.
Cheers.
Shawn
BenofKent Props in the UK is in the middle of designing a 3D printed kit that he’ll eventually sell. Thingverse has a set of 3D files already; you’d just need to add the electronics kit that Hyperdyne (sp?) makes. Or at least, that seems to be one of the only ready-to-go options available at the moment.
I’ve been looking at the 3D printed files as a project to do after I complete the 3D Printed Gigameter. Could likely adapt a lot from the Gigameter electronics, too. Hm.
Unfortunately I’ve never seen a kit that was space friendly to the Iona shell. I’ve been building one for a friend for a ridiculously long time, and had to redo the wiring several times because of poor design. There’s just too much in terms of wires and plugs to fit inside the shell.
I have a few modifications noted that would greatly improve the design, in case anyone starts making new kits.
I have a pcb design done, but know nothing of soldering. It’s based on a pic controller. If there are any electronics gurus out there that would like to help me make it work, that would be cool. I’ll share the files with you.
Are these PKE kits available for sale?
do you still sell pke kits? may i have one how much?