Hey all, it’s been a while since I had any projects going on, what with a new job, moving a few states over, and having a baby. This has been something I’ve wanted to tackle for some time, and only recently I’ve had the free time to get around to it.
A few months back I found out a college friend of mine is working for a 3D printing company and has basically unlimited print material as a job perk. He’s kept track of my Facebook posts on my previous projects and has graciously offered me spare machine time at a very friendly rate.
As I originally intended to do with my proton pack’s thrower assembly, I’m modeling the Giga Meter in SolidWorks for export and printing. I’ve used every bit of reference material available, from screen grabs to others’ estimated measurements of the Redman polisher’s parts, and gotten some rough blueprints made up which I’ve since modeled in SW. There’s still much to do, but I figured I’m far enough along to post my progress.
This is what I’ve got done for the main body thus far. I’m doing my best to design it for only 3D printing and making it as difficult as I can for people to recast it (because, let’s face it, when stuff like this is made, certain asshats like to get their grubby mits on it and make cheap knockoffs while claiming all the work as their own; screw those guys). Rather than having two halves that pop or screw together, the main body will be one unit that other parts will attach to through threaded inserts and captive screws, if I can find them in the right size (if I can’t, well, normal screws will work, too).
This would be the “battery box” for the underside of the main body. I’m having the fins attach directly to it so the main body can stay relatively low-profile for ease of printing.
This is what I’ve got done for half of the handle so far. This is only the basic profile so far and still needs mating surfaces and insert holes aligned with the main body model.
I’ve also been learning as much as I can on Arduino and other hobby-type circuits. I’ve got code written up and the entire circuit designed for 3x 7-segment displays, the spinning dome, and a scanning sound. All of this will be linked to a wheel potentiometer in the handle’s forward rounded edge and coded such that turning up the potentiometer will increase the separation angle of the microphone ears (via servos), pitch and frequency of the scan beeping sound, and 000-999 number on the 7-segment display. GB2 doesn’t really show all that much of the giga’s functionality beyond Egon scanning that concentrated slime in the street and a few passing scans of other things, so these features aren’t all that beyond the scope of what’s seen on screen.
I’ll be sure to post updates as often as I can manage them. I’m going back on a rotating 12-hour shift at work so I’ll have blocks of days off, most of which will be spent with my son, but I will definitely try to have this finished within a few months and maybe, just maybe, a chance at a run of these and the electronics kit by Halloween 2014. No promises, though.
EDIT: Many have asked what clear domes I used in this build. They’re the same as AZSpidey’s: https://kitkraft.com/products/3-1-2-88-9mm-clear-domes
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