This past month I have been working more on my two jobs and waiting for the CNC machine to be fixed and ready for use. Its quite a temperamental machine it seems and we're working out the driver and electrical shortcomings.

Well, today I had a couple hours to work on the interior skeletal system of the boot some. I hope to pick up the pace! Here you can see what is inside the shin that will be aluminum for the prototype. just above the boot, this bone system connects into under the knee. I have been doing drawings of the mechanics for the boot for the past month, but won't be posting those draftings so the 3D work is what you will see.

The shin plate, skeletal, my leg and the calf. There is more to add and some arms and articulation for the linear actuator. My leg definitely has more calf to it than what is here I think, but the other proportions are really close.

Adding a gasket and configuring the ankle joint here.

It has been a while since an update. Alot of projects are going on right now for me but we are doing research and software work. I also need to save money for the main mechanical/ electrical items for the next phase of the project. Until the boot and interior skeletal within it are finished I won't be moving towards the magazine article and fund raising for the project. More 3D modeling is going on, but I will make some nice renders soon with the inner workings and what will be CNC aluminum.

Later!

The past few weeks have been super busy with working in NY and two other jobs. The team has been meeting and discussing/ planning various components in the suit. Its really exciting to envision some of the newer mechatronics components. 

I just made this comparison for armor scaling as it relates to a full body scan that I have of myself. This shows how Marvel really pushes the 7 plus heads high hero standards. Who in the world could have such a small head? They would have to be eight feet tall or something! Here you can see what an actual suit proportion would be for someone with a medium sized head and standing at 6' 1' with a thin frame (me). 

The MK 42 suit on the left and my body scan model on the right.

I took the helmet, torso, arms, and legs separately and scaled them to fit over this profile.

Here is the side by side from the movie to real life. The legs may even be thicker but this is pretty close to what it would look like as an armor suit scaled to my body.

Here is how the mechanism looks and how it works so far!

As you can see, we had only enough time after soldering the final wires to the board to tape it into position for demonstration. I will just create a housing for the electronics sometime next week after getting back from NY.

For right now, there is only one lock set on the left side of the calf as you see here. However, with both sides locked there won't be any play when force is applied pulling apart. Awesome work so far from our computer and electronics engineers on the team! :)

Well, we were able to successfully display at the Mini Maker Faire on Saturday! The lock mechanism was soldered just in time and it worked to demonstrate an auto locking function. Here are some pics from the start of that day. Five of the eight of us showed up for the event, which was good because we had to address the huge amount of people coming to ask questions. Kevin also showed up later on (who is working on programming a voice command "e-butler" system). I will take some more pics of the finished boot tomorrow, as I had no time to do so this past week in cramming in prints and assembly.

Setup time at the little 10x10 booth.

Matt and his girlfriend programming the gauntlet control for display.

I demonstrated the locking and movement of the boot all day, so my arms got red sun burnt!

I let kids try on the V1 boot and walk around in it. They were so excited!

The team, (minus Kevin who showed up later).

Getting Ready for the Maker Fair

Tickets are inexpensive, bring the whole family! :)