Here's what we need to do next:
- Rebuild the backboard.
- 3D print an ejectable "hero" trap.
- Figure out the trap insertion mechanism (Prodestrian has shown me in private what their build uses and generally giving me some advice with our electronics. Thanks, man. I'll get back to your reply. I just haven't had the time to sit down.)
- Figure out the electronics.
The backboard will take us a day to knock out but we just need to get together and figure out what kind of wood, etc. We want something that is pre-treated. The crap wood we have relied on the big box stores sucks ass. It literally sits in a spare bedroom and manages to warp doing absolutely nothing. Thanks for the suggestion xXStevenXx, though I am not sure with all the weight that we can go that route.
We really do need to 3D print ourselves a trap so we can work on the internal trap grab. I have files for one but online printing services are stupid expensive. Like $5 or more for a small part and when each piece is in the cart, it's hundreds of dollars. I'm honestly at the point where I am just going to make one out of aluminum. Either way, we need one to sort out the mech and start building that. If anyone knows of a 3D print service that isn't hundreds of dollars, please let us know?
This next step is one that I have already started to go down the rabbit hole on. I don't know what I am doing but that's the fun part; learning. Anyways, about a year ago, I came across a bunch of random arduino stuff at a thrift store. To me at the time it looked like it was part of a beginners kit, so I bought it and I only paid $1 for all of it. I have some stuff pictured here but there is a lot more to it. I think this is going to be the stuff that we need.
At first glance I didn't know what really any of this was but I had this feeling that once I figured out what it did that I could use it for something (if not for the ECU). Luckily, it appears that I can use this stuff to fashion ourselves a light kit for the unit. I've already started to sit down and mess with the stuff.
Problem going forward is that I am a complete novice with arduino. Electronics I understand to a point, but the arduino coding is what I am going to have difficulty with. The way I am looking at it is it's going to be similar to learning HTML? Haha, I have no clue but that's what it looks like to me. The setup of the ECU is simple but it's going to be interesting seeing how all of this is going to go together and work with the original parts.
That's another thing, all of the original parts are all over the place when it comes to the voltages. This is where I think we need to get a little creative with the setup. I figured that I would start with the button switches first. We have original bulbs with their caps but they require a lot of juice. Wiring the lighting up isn't going to be a big deal but I am not 100% sure how I am going to get them to function with the arduino? Well, I guess I will worry about that when I cross that hurdle. Right now I had wired up the terminals to the arduino and rested one of the LED's on the positive/negative leads inside of the housing. Lit right up and know that we're not going to have issues with that stuff. That's when I figured I could simplify the setup and just try and source some modern day replacement LED's that fit the setup. I ended up finding these:
They came in sets of 5 and in the respectable colors we need (Red/Yellow/Green). Each push button switch uses 4 so we'll have an extra bulb in case one burns out. These are 3V which is the smallest voltage I could find which I believe should work just fine? I just have to wait until these things get here to start messing with all of it. It's going to be some time 'cos I think they're coming from Taiwan?
As far as sound goes, my plan was to just repurpose some old sound kits I have laying around. I have a few of these still and think they'll be useful.
My plan is to reprogram the chip to incorporate the ECU sounds I have put together. I have a Crix soundboard and a Canakit amplifier that I pulled from an old proton build that'll work just fine. I've done this once already with Ecto-1 sounds. My buddy who owns the car has an eprom programmer so it's just a matter of borrowing it for some time. We don't need anything fancy, just for it to work. One of these thingies:
Also, here are the sounds I came up with for our build.
As far as the labels on Sony's ECU, I think it might be the same unit that they built for the end of Afterlife (which was sitting in the Ghost Corps office after the film wrapped)? Plus, wasn't the bumper label discovery made shortly after filming wrapped for Afterlife? I could be wrong since I haven't bothered to check while I type this. I am curious as to what their white Caution label says? I have a feeling they might have used our "old" version of that on the build? Either way, I couldn't make it out in the new film and never got close enough to the one at Ghost Corps to see it (though I have seen it in person once). Either way, would be interesting learning what they went with.
That's all I have for now. I might do a post showing how the push buttons work. That'll be something cool to show and would be some interesting filler outside any progress. Though I might wait to do it after I have these replacement bulbs in hand. I dunno, what do you guys want to see?