Though it’s been done before, this 3D-printed Thomas Bangalter helmet is absolutely amazing!
Daft Punk hasn’t toured in over a decade, but their music and general look seems to be becoming more and more popular. Perhaps this is due, in some small part, to the fact that Makers can now build a very good replica of their iconic helmets. Though the design for this helmet is available for download, looking at a design and building it are two different things.
In addition to printing and finishing this prop (no small task), redditor “CrazyElectrum” did quite a bit of soldering. Getting all the electronic components to “play nice” with each other certainly took a good amount of work as well!
The helmet consists of 326 LEDS with 10 programmed displays, all controlled via Bluetooth and a custom smartphone app. Meanwhile, the ears are equipped with a pair of WS2812B strips. CrazyElectrum originally employed an Arduino Uno for its brains, but later moved to a Pro Mini due to its smaller form factor, and used six 74HC595 8-bit serial to parallel shift registers.
You can find more pictures of this build on Imgur, and read more about the project on 3Ders. 3D printing files are available on Thingiverse, and code on GitHub.
