If you happen to like watching these “luxuries that wealthy individuals have, which you might by no means afford” movies, you will have seen fancy home windows on vehicles and homes which have electronically-controlled tint. Porsche, for instance, gives the “Variable Gentle Management” function on the sunroof of the Taycan. For his most up-to-date challenge, YouTuber LeMaster Tech used comparable know-how to add a visor to a Halo helmet that may change from opaque to clear on the press of a button.
The important thing part right here is PDLC (Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal) switchable good movie. The working precept behind PDLC good movie is just about the identical as that of standard LCDs. The movie is filled with embedded liquid crystal molecules and with out present, their orientation is usually random. The polarity of the molecules doesn’t enable mild to go via. However after they obtain present, all of them align and light-weight can get previous—the movie turns into transparency. Nonetheless, this movie doesn’t enable for management over particular factors and so it could possibly’t show pixels. The complete sheet of movie acts as one enormous pixel.
Along with that neat habits, this PDLC good movie is versatile and might be minimize to form. To kind the visor, LeMaster Tech trimmed off a considerable portion of the movie and it nonetheless labored as supposed.
That movie went in a resin solid Halo ODST helmet made by Anthony Andress of enforce_props, who makes a speciality of high-quality prop/cosplay armor. The movie requires 20V to change into clear and that energy comes from a big battery pack. An Arduino Nano controls that energy, so it could possibly toggle the visor between clear and opaque states. The Arduino itself receives its energy from the identical battery pack via a buck converter.
However even when the visor is clear, reflections from ambient lighting could make it tough to see the wearer’s face and that might diminish the impact. So, LeMaster Tech added inside illumination with NeoPixel LEDs. These mild up the wearer’s face and make the transition from opaque to clear very apparent. A 3D-printed handheld controller has three buttons to regulate the transparency, LED shade, and LED results.
LeMaster Tech has completed his portion of the challenge and now it’s Andress’s flip. He’ll be working his magic to provide the unpainted helmet a end worthy of the Halo franchise.