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Camouflage Yourself Like Daft Punk [How-To]

Make possibly one of the coolest disguises ever…

So Daft Punk’s ubiquitous helmets don’t exactly allow for blending in with the crowd, but we couldn’t help but highlight this elaborate undertaking from Harrison Krix (that was actually commissioned by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo himself), which took a full 17 months to actualize. We doubt you’ll be able to replicate this how-to (but if you attempt it, please let us know!), but we thought you might be interested in following along with his steps to see exactly how one of these crazy LED helmets are made…

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Before Krix could illuminate the helmet, he sculpted, casted, and gave the helmet a chrome finish. Read those steps in Part 1 and 2 of the helmet-making process. We’ll focus on the illuminating feature in this How-To.

After designing custom circuit boards, sending them out to BatchPCB.com for printing, and purchasing all the LEDs, Krix could finally start soldering all the components. Once all the boards were made, he built encasings for the colorbars from styrene sheets and mounted them to a vacuum-formed styrene dome. Then, construction of the wiring harness for all the lights began. Kris said there’s over a mile of wire wrapped around inside of the dome!

Next, he placed white foam pads over the LEDs to help diffuse the light. Eventually, he glued corresponding gel sheets over the LEDs and foam.

With help from James Moss, who programmed the lighting array with an Arduino, he assembled the lighting rig by using a DB9 serial connector to bridge the harness and the Arduino. In addition to switching on and off, the lights on the helmet are also programmed to change in speed and pattern.

Next, Krix added color bars to the chin of the helmet and EKG meters in the ears. T-nuts and allen screws were used to mount the lighting rig on the helmet, and the bases were glued together using plumbing epoxy. After the lighting rig was secured, he started routing wires and mounting the boards—protecting them from damage with a layer of styrene sheet.

Lastly, Krix added some foam to protect the wearer’s head… [insert “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” joke here.]

Visit Krix’s How-To for further instruction, more detailed photographs, and tips on where to buy materials.

All images courtesy of Harrison Krix.