Jasper’s body armor was completely re-designed and re-built earlier this year. Over the next few posts I’ll give a few details of what the changes are, and how the fabrication process went.

Here’s the original version from Dragon*Con 2009:

To start with, the base layer for the back was removed and replaced with this samurai-inspired flexible system of small wooden planks, hinges, and leather straps:

Future posts will show how the shoulder harness and canisters were re-worked.

We’ve plunged into the world of programmable microcontrollers with our first Ardunio experiment!

Shown here is an Arduino Uno (SMD version) with an Adafruit Motor Shield with a hobby servo attached.

The servo has an aluminum tube bolted to it. Using an example program (Arduino programs are called “sketches”) loaded from the Mac via USB, the Arduino can be made to move the aluminum tube back and forth. The rate of movement, delay between movements, and many other parameters can be easily controlled. What’s even better, is that when the Arduino is disconnected from the Mac, it continues to run the sketch.

Our initial plan is to integrate an Arduino into each of our power packs to control lighting, sounds, and motion (such as the needles on the gauges, for instance). Later we will retrofit them into our weapons and other gear as well.