While I’ve been working on other things (and also, you know, my day job) I’ve had my 3d printer humming along producing parts in the background for the jump kit. The 16-neopixel rings fit nicely into the holder I modeled up for them inside the thruster, and the etched acrylic disc I have made looks like it’ll work for diffusing the light.
I was a bit concerned about the proximity of the LEDs to the acrylic disc, since if they’re too close they’ll be individually visible. To combat this, I modeled up a quick spacer that sits in the cavity on the holster, which pushes the disc a comfortable distance away (and also adds a neat rocket detail for anyone looking!)
Today I finished a 45-hour print of the left third of the canister. Relieved to see that it came out okay!
Everything fits nicely, though I have a lot of cleanup work to do.
I also started remodeling a few other parts on the canister – particularly, the right half now has four cutouts. These will be inserts for miniature rocker switches – specifically, these Cherry mini ones, which will be used to control certain parts of my pilot costume.
With regard to the entire pilot costume I’m contemplating, I figured the jump pack would be a great place to conceal a battery pack for a number of the lights and other systems in the costume (helmet fans, chest lights, etc), so I started working on the main canister body to make the interior easily accessible. I modeled a quick ‘hatch’ on the side of the thruster that will be against my body with a handle.
I need to either design a hinge mechanism to go up at the top, or punch some holes in the top seam so I can use a small metal hinge from a hardware store or something.
