How I Made Guy-Manuel’s (Daft Punk) Helmet

Hi world!! I've decided to do this Daft Punk helmet as my first Instructable since this is the project that introduced me to Instructables a million years ago :] Let's get to it.

Video Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Helmet:

1.75mm PLA Filament - 1kg Spool (2.2 lbs)

Epoxy

Bondo

Bondo Putty

Zip ties

Wet/Dry sanding sheets assortment pack

6in. clamps

Visor:

1” x 4” x 8’ pine board (frame)

2’ x 2’ BCX plywood (bottom of the box)

48” x 24” Pegboard (top of the box)

Wood glue

Big clamps

Plastic wood

Foil tape

Staple gun

Hole saw

Jig Saw

Bucket vacuum (or any vacuum)

The visor plastic: Clear Polyethylene Terephthlate Glycol-Modified Sheet, 0.03" Thickness, 24" Width, 24"

Lens Tint

Clear enamel

Electronics:

Dragon Board 410c

Sensor Mezzanine Board

Addressable WS2812B 5V RGB LEDs

Potentiometer

Microphone

Voltage Regulator LM2596

Speaker USB audio adapter

12V battery pack

Details:

Wire rainbow ribbon
Old school button caps (from my local electronics shop)

There are 58 parts to print (including the visor) and each part took me about 2.5 hours on average to print. So start printing! I used @bendiger’s files on Thingyverse.

I started with the visor prints since those were the bigger prints and also to get started on the visor. @bendinger made it so it is super easy to assemble with zip ties. I did have to add tons of support to print the parts and the support messed up the zip tie holes, so I had to finish those with a dremel to make the holes.

Once I had all the visor and helmet prints I put them together with zip ties, added a bit of epoxy to bind all the parts together and make it sturdier. I had to hold the parts together with clamps overnight to allow the epoxy to cure. I sanded the epoxy imperfections with the dremel.

I put a thin layer of Bondo on the visor and helmet to hide the print lines and make them super smooth. Be careful to not cake the Bondo, by applying a thin layer you are making sure you stay true to the shape of your helmet and visor and also you are saving yourself a lot of sanding time.

I tried using a flexible putty knife to apply and scrape off the Bondo, but it was very hard to do this. The easiest way I could apply the bondo was with my fingers. Do it with gloves and at your own risk.. It cures very fast, so I made small batches and applied by sections. Once the helmet and visor were covered and the bondo had cured, I sanded starting with the lowest grit I had and moved up until it was smooth.

When I thought it was completely smooth I primed it, but that is when I noticed all the imperfections. So I used Bondo putty to fill all the dips and started sanding again. This took about 2 weeks of sanding almost every day.

I decided to paint the helmet black since it is my favorite color and I knew that I would not be able to achieve the original chromed gold look with the budget and tools I had at home.

To make the vacuum forming rig I made a box with holes on the top and attached a vacuum to it.

I measured my kitchen oven as a baseline since I was going to use that to heat the plastic. Keep good ventilation around you and make sure you don’t melt your plastic inside the oven (like I did).

I cut the plywood and board to make a box with no top. I used wood glue to put them together, clamped and waited 24 hours. I added plastic wood to the inside to make sure it was sealed and also taped it with foil tape on the outside. You need to make sure it is completely sealed so the vacuum actually works.

I made a hole on the side of the box to fit the vacuum hose and glued a peg board on top of the box. Then I glued 1’ foam strips (these were recycled from other packaging) along the edges to make sure I would make a seal when placing the frame on the box.

I made a frame with the same dimensions of the box, glued and clamped for 24 hours. I measured and cut the petg sheet, and stapled it on the frame. I suggest removing the blue protective sleeve in a clean environment.

This is the hardest step. It took me 4 tries to get it right. I couldn't find anywhere online how hot and for how long I was supposed to set the oven and leave the frame with the petg inside the oven. And it makes sense since it might vary depending on your oven.

Here is what worked for me:

The visor mold was sitting (I glued 3/4' plywood risers under the mold) on the pegboard side of the box and the vacuum was running. The oven was set to 350 degrees and I put the frame with petg inside but left the oven door slightly open so I could watch it. I left it in for about 3 mins until the plastic sagged. This is the moment you have to "feel" it and be brave on how much you want it to sag - you leave it 3 seconds longer and the plastic might touch the grill of the oven and it is game over. But you take it out too soon and the plastic is not soft enough to cover the mold.

After the ~3 mins in the oven I took out the frame, flipped it, and put it on the mold, the vacuum sucked all the air and I had my visor. The vacuum rig worked really well... after the 4th try. I should emphasize that YOU HAVE TO BE VERY FAST during this step. The plastic cools down very fast.

I used the car lens tint to tint the visor. I sprayed on the outside, not sure which way is better, but I really liked how it looked after I applied the clear enamel coat. It was very shiny and dark and you can’t see the insides, but I could see through it, and the LEDs shined through it.

You don’t have to use the same stuff as I did - this can be done with any microcontroller or mini computer. I used a Dragon Board and a Mezzanine sensor board, because I wanted to try them :)

I cut the addressable LEDs in sets of 4, placed them in the 3D printed containers and soldered them together.

The Dragon board takes 12V and the LEDs 5V so I used a voltage regulator to bring the voltage down. I put the port to the battery and the voltage regulator on a protoboard and stacked it on top of the mezzanine board (see pictures). I plugged the USB audio adapter to connect the microphone and speaker and the pot came with the mezzanine board so it was also pluggable.

The Dragon board is a mini-computer and the mezzanine is like a microcontroller that interfaces with the Dragon board.

I wrote a Python script that ran at start-up on the Dragon board. The script processes the sound levels that come in through the microphone and sends them through serial to the mezzanine which controls the LEDs. I sent the bass and treble values to light up the LEDs with sounds. The mezzanine also interfaces the potentiometer to the Dragon board. The pot is the switch to control the different modes. I made 9 modes, 5 pre-programmed rainbow patterns, 3 sound modes, and one that was controllable by a website.

Python script: https://github.com/estefanniegg/YouTube/blob/mast...

Mezzanine code: https://github.com/estefanniegg/YouTube/tree/mast...

The website I wrote is hosted in the Dragon board. It has a color picker a play, pause, and next buttons which play about 6GB of Daft Punk music I put in the Dragon board. So it is like a very old iPod.

I made the board automatically connect to my phone’s hotspot so they would be on the same network and I could access the website through my phone.

This is the demo of the website.

I used the wire ribbon to decorate the back of the helmet I got the button caps at my local electronics shop. And everything, and I mean everything left, was put together with a glue gun.

The battery pack is placed inside on the back of the helmet, the boards on the left side, the LEDs to the front, the pot is at the bottom front close to the microphone, and the speaker is by the boards.

I hope this is useful, please please let me know if you make one, I would love to see it. I made 3 videos to capture the process.

Code on :]

Estefannie