I wanna make something like this for electroluminecant wire, did you figure out a way to have the electricity leave the spooling area? The only similar items I see are large cable retracing spools and thing little retracting lanyards and I need a bit of both in what I wanna make.
@@riceniceman548 My design uses a set of Pogo pins against a PCB to act as a slip ring. However, having worked with EL wire in the past: You will probably get sparks or arcing between the pogo pins and PCB due to the high voltage. There is also the issue that EL wire doesn’t like to be wound up tightly (repeatedly). LED noddles may work, but aren’t very strong under tension. The wire has to be quite strong or reinforced for it to pull against the spring tension.
@@ZapWizard that's unfortunate that El wire doesn't like to spoil up. I want to find a way for a length of it to retract into the handle of a kind of laser sword and be pulled out later, I want it for it's thinness and flexibility to make the beam really look like a laser being emitted from the handle. I wonder if I could get a similar effect from some string that reacts to blacklight, but I don't think it would glow bright enough to make it look like a laser beam.
I suppose the retractable aspect could be a secondary priority to just making the light look right... All the other beam katanas out there are sturdy, single piece units. Even so, maybe I just make it so the El wire can be detached so the rest of the unit can be folded up without hurting the lights.
Couldnt find the update to see if you ever fixed the problem, i have made a similar device with alos a similar problem. What was happenign is i had too much surface area rubbing against the case which is what is happening with your one from what i can see. If you were to slightly thicken up the case and have a tube connected to the coil and have the spring up against the tube in the middle you could reduce friction and in turn allow the spring to fully self wind. That was my fix a bit hard to describe other then it looks like a table top spinner from the side but with a handle on boths sides.
I never got this working quite right. I did reduce the friction by building a thin bearing surface into the part (basically less surface area in contact on the back side) The primary issue is just getting enough strength to fully wind the cord without also making it impossible to remove.
There is no reason to 3D print bearings, unless you need very high quality bearings, they're really cheap to buy from places like ebay. You could get a couple thrust bearings with needle rollers making them very thin for like $5. Sandwich the rotor in between them and you should have a pretty low-friction mechanism.
I’m not rly into this and I don’t know much about it, but wouldn’t it work if you would have it retract automatically all the time and then just have a button to press to activate a lock mechanism, and then pressing the button again to “unlock” it, which would lead to the wire retracting.
@@ZapWizard Thanks for sharing these videos. I was wondering if you have any information anywhere on how you finalized this part? I watched the 3rd prototype video.
@@CommandAttack This whole thing requires a lot of experimentation, to get it to work you have to balance the spring force, cable length and such. This design shown here only extends about 8", you can get better by hacking an existing USB car charger that extends.
Ah man I seem to remember a protruding connection, sorry lol. The twist action would be a great feature though. I was thinking maybe you can build in a mini repair kit. Like a screw driver that can be stored in the body. I would imagine that the lone survivor would be able to repair his pop-boy on the go.
Wish I could help on the development on this. I am currently studying electrical/computer engineering. Do love the mechanical engineering stuff, but have no idea how to do it.
I wanna make something like this for electroluminecant wire, did you figure out a way to have the electricity leave the spooling area? The only similar items I see are large cable retracing spools and thing little retracting lanyards and I need a bit of both in what I wanna make.
@@riceniceman548 My design uses a set of Pogo pins against a PCB to act as a slip ring. However, having worked with EL wire in the past: You will probably get sparks or arcing between the pogo pins and PCB due to the high voltage. There is also the issue that EL wire doesn’t like to be wound up tightly (repeatedly). LED noddles may work, but aren’t very strong under tension. The wire has to be quite strong or reinforced for it to pull against the spring tension.
@@ZapWizard that's unfortunate that El wire doesn't like to spoil up. I want to find a way for a length of it to retract into the handle of a kind of laser sword and be pulled out later, I want it for it's thinness and flexibility to make the beam really look like a laser being emitted from the handle. I wonder if I could get a similar effect from some string that reacts to blacklight, but I don't think it would glow bright enough to make it look like a laser beam.
I suppose the retractable aspect could be a secondary priority to just making the light look right... All the other beam katanas out there are sturdy, single piece units. Even so, maybe I just make it so the El wire can be detached so the rest of the unit can be folded up without hurting the lights.
add some tolerance in your print to reduce friction. and pre tension the coil may help
Couldnt find the update to see if you ever fixed the problem, i have made a similar device with alos a similar problem. What was happenign is i had too much surface area rubbing against the case which is what is happening with your one from what i can see.
If you were to slightly thicken up the case and have a tube connected to the coil and have the spring up against the tube in the middle you could reduce friction and in turn allow the spring to fully self wind. That was my fix a bit hard to describe other then it looks like a table top spinner from the side but with a handle on boths sides.
I never got this working quite right. I did reduce the friction by building a thin bearing surface into the part (basically less surface area in contact on the back side) The primary issue is just getting enough strength to fully wind the cord without also making it impossible to remove.
Maybe 3d print some bearings? I'd love to make a pip boy and your channel helps so so much :D you got yourself a new subscriber!
There is no reason to 3D print bearings, unless you need very high quality bearings, they're really cheap to buy from places like ebay. You could get a couple thrust bearings with needle rollers making them very thin for like $5.
Sandwich the rotor in between them and you should have a pretty low-friction mechanism.
Hi, I'm interested. Is there a way to buy your product?
This isn't a product, its a prototype mechanism. The cord only extends 3ft.
I’m not rly into this and I don’t know much about it, but wouldn’t it work if you would have it retract automatically all the time and then just have a button to press to activate a lock mechanism, and then pressing the button again to “unlock” it, which would lead to the wire retracting.
Do you have the stl files? This is amazing
Just the full Pip-Boy files which are in the project log (linked in the description), nothing for the model shown here which was a prototype.
@@ZapWizard Thanks for sharing these videos. I was wondering if you have any information anywhere on how you finalized this part? I watched the 3rd prototype video.
@@CommandAttack This whole thing requires a lot of experimentation, to get it to work you have to balance the spring force, cable length and such. This design shown here only extends about 8", you can get better by hacking an existing USB car charger that extends.
insted of the usb on the black part put it on the wight so it looks lile the one in game
You should make a removable cap that goes over the usb port. That way it will look more like the fallout 4 connection.
Ah man I seem to remember a protruding connection, sorry lol. The twist action would be a great feature though. I was thinking maybe you can build in a mini repair kit. Like a screw driver that can be stored in the body. I would imagine that the lone survivor would be able to repair his pop-boy on the go.
Wish I could help on the development on this. I am currently studying electrical/computer engineering. Do love the mechanical engineering stuff, but have no idea how to do it.
cool)
bruh please upload it to 3d printer!
Hi, I'm interested. Is there a way to buy your product?