Plasma Cutter

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Dead Space 211-V Plasma Cutter

×THIS PAGE IS IN PROGRESS×

Holy cow! Pardon my French, but I played the shit out of the Dead Space Remake. Beat my Impossible run, and got all the 'chieves! The Dead Space series has always been one of my favorites. Yes, even 3. Typically, I want to experience new games, man! Seems like a lot of the game companies are trying to buy into the whole remake idea(currently 2023), but if they do it to the standard of the 2023 Dead Space remake, I welcome it.

Well, having just acquired a 3D printer... Of course I went and looked for a model of the iconic 211-V Plasma Cutter from the first game. I managed to find just that, and then some! A user named Ghost3D on Instructables put out a pretty sick set of models to make the Plasma Cutter as close to a reality as it can be at the moment! Here's the link to his awesome guide, models, and code.

At this point in time, blue lasers seem to be hard to find in an reasonably priced, small form factor. I managed to find some violet-blueish laser diodes on Amazon for like, 11 bucks a pop. At first, they were rather long, due to what I presume, was protective metal shielding, but this shielding simply threaded away from the tip of the diode. The laser wires had a regulator chip of some kind soldered between the wires to the laser and the end of the strand. That made it impossible to fully remove the extra metal shielding without cutting the wires between the lasers and the regulator, and resoldering them once the shielding was removed.

The Plasma Cutter's 'magazine' holds a small, 7.4V RC battery that powers the whole ciruit.

I'm usually someone who dislikes variation from canon designs that were great to begin with, but I hot glued the diodes in place so that they jutted out from the front plate a bit. I had to do this in order to allow for clearance with the fin retractor pinion that would sit in the rotator blade behind it. Despite having to improvise, I think it looks pretty rad! I actually had the wiring come loose a few times while trying to route the wires through the pieces. One of which, the whole lead on the diode fell off, requiring me to buy a 4th one to replace it. After that, I hot glued the lengths of wire to the back of the front plate to prevent them from moving around too much while working on the other lasers. I then bent the wires so that they ran under the extender pinion, through the opening in the rotating blade, and into the main body.

By this point, I've assembled the front rotating blade with a micro servo and cool 3D printed pinion-piece from Ghost3D's design, and I glued the fins to the pieces slide along the notches in the rotating blade. The heavier duty servo has been attached to the rotating blade, and all current wires are pulled through the main-body handle of the Plasma Cutter.

Everything's Better With a Fresh Paintjob

UPDATE 9/30/24: Welp, it's only been a year and half so. I've been holding on for dear life, in life, for quite a while, but I'm trying to get back to those things I've lost all motivation for. Being that I originally printed this on my Ender 3 (This was probably the best quality print I had in my experience with it), I wanted to re-print all the pieces on my X1C! I learned a bit about how much to sanding truly needed to be done have a quality print after painting. I could have sanded a bit longer on the main body where the rotating blade connects, but I'm very happy just to see it looking a bit more canon. It wouldn't be something I've worked on without breaking a couple components. I was uh... unsuccessful in removing the lasers from my first attempt, without damaging the connection legs... I still haven't rewired everything- I'm not quite there on my motivational scale yet. I had just enough to print all the pieces again, sand em' down, and paint them over the course of a week so that I could take it as a prop to the Renaissance Festival for Steampunk weekend! I was up until 3AM making final touches and got 5 hours of sleep, only to be told I wasn't going to be able to bring it in. I was unaware, but a CPL carrier had a misfire the year previously, so a new rule was enacted prohibiting any props that even slightly resemble a firearm.

Here's a video of it... kinda working. Don't mind the chair, it's fine, everything's fine. The Plasma Cutter's original code is written so that it does a "quick calibration routine"; It makes sure the "blade" is set vertical at it's starting position, rotates to the specified horizontal position, and returns to vertical orientation. At the moment, I can't seem to get the blade rotator to go to its specified, intended position. No value I set the horizontal rotation to seems to apply. You can also hear the fin extender motor working way too hard doing whatever it's doing.

I got an M6 threaded rod, and asked someone I knew at work to cut it down for me. Then, I took a few pieces of pre-cut heat shrink tubing that was just about the same size as the rod, and shrunk them down, giving a look I'm personally quite satisfied with. Then the end-block stabilizer piece was threaded on with a nut I glued into the hole that was made for it in the original design. Two more nuts were used to tighten this piece and the threaded rod to the main body.

Code

×IN DEVELOPMENT×

I'm not sure how similar this code is to Ghost3D's original make... I've probably made quite the mess out of it, but I wanted to also implement a gyroscope into my design! My code variates by using the gyroscope to automatically extend the fins and turn on the lasers when the Plasma Cutter is raised upwards. When lowerd, the fins retract and lasers are powered off.

I also made an edit to the code so that while the Plasma Cutter is raised, pulling the trigger will retract the fins slighlty and quickly return them to fully extended.

#include <Servo.h>
#include <Wire.h>
#include <MPU6050.h>

MPU6050 mpu;

Servo rotator;   // create rotator servo
Servo extender;  // create extender servo

int rotpin = 9;      // rotator servo on pin 9
int extpin = 10;     // extender servo on pin 10
int buttonpin = 6;  // rotate button on pin 12
int trigger = 7;    // trigger on pin 13
int pos = 0;         // servo position variable
int rotflag = 0;     // rotation flag, 0 vertical, 1 horizontal
int extflag = 0;     // extension flag, 0 retracted, 1 extended
int retract = 5;  // upper travel limit for extender servo
int extend = 5;    // lower travel limit for extender servo
int horizontal = 0;   // upper travel limit for rotator servo
int vertical = 0;  // lower travel limit for extender servo
int laser1 = 2;
int laser2 = 3;
int laser3 = 4;



void setup() {
//ROTATOR INITIALIZATION
  pinMode(buttonpin, INPUT_PULLUP);  // set up rotation uses external pull-down
  pinMode(trigger, INPUT_PULLUP);    // set up trigger, uses external pull-down
  pinMode(laser1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(laser2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(laser3, OUTPUT);
  extender.attach(extpin);           // attach extender servo
  rotator.attach(rotpin);            // attach rotator servo  
  //extender.write(0);          // ensure fins are extended in case the rotator needs to move
  delay(550);
  rotator.write(vertical);           // ensure rotator starts vertical
  delay(550);                       // wait for servo to get there  
  rotator.write(horizontal);           // move rotator horizontal
  delay(550);                       // wait for servo to get there
  /*
  rotator.write(vertical);           // Move rotator back to vertical  
  delay(550);
  extender.write(retract);          // Retract Fins
  delay(550);                        // wait for servo to get there
*/  
  
  delay(500);

  Serial.begin(115200);

  Serial.println("Initialize MPU6050");

  while (!mpu.begin(MPU6050_SCALE_2000DPS, MPU6050_RANGE_16G)) {
    Serial.println("Could not find a valid MPU6050 sensor, check wiring!");
    delay(500);
  }

  mpu.setAccelPowerOnDelay(MPU6050_DELAY_3MS);

  mpu.setIntFreeFallEnabled(false);
  mpu.setIntZeroMotionEnabled(false);
  mpu.setIntMotionEnabled(false);

  mpu.setDHPFMode(MPU6050_DHPF_5HZ);

  mpu.setMotionDetectionThreshold(6);
  mpu.setMotionDetectionDuration(1);

  mpu.setZeroMotionDetectionThreshold(1);
  mpu.setZeroMotionDetectionDuration(1);

  checkSettings();

  pinMode(4, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(4, LOW);

  pinMode(7, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(7, LOW);
}

void checkSettings() {
  Serial.println();

  Serial.print(" * Sleep Mode:                ");
  Serial.println(mpu.getSleepEnabled() ? "Enabled" : "Disabled");

  Serial.print(" * Motion Interrupt:     ");
  Serial.println(mpu.getIntMotionEnabled() ? "Enabled" : "Disabled");

  Serial.print(" * Zero Motion Interrupt:     ");
  Serial.println(mpu.getIntZeroMotionEnabled() ? "Enabled" : "Disabled");

  Serial.print(" * Free Fall Interrupt:       ");
  Serial.println(mpu.getIntFreeFallEnabled() ? "Enabled" : "Disabled");

  Serial.print(" * Motion Threshold:          ");
  Serial.println(mpu.getMotionDetectionThreshold());

  Serial.print(" * Motion Duration:           ");
  Serial.println(mpu.getMotionDetectionDuration());

  Serial.print(" * Zero Motion Threshold:     ");
  Serial.println(mpu.getZeroMotionDetectionThreshold());

  Serial.print(" * Zero Motion Duration:      ");
  Serial.println(mpu.getZeroMotionDetectionDuration());

  Serial.print(" * Clock Source:              ");
  switch (mpu.getClockSource()) {
    case MPU6050_CLOCK_KEEP_RESET: Serial.println("Stops the clock and keeps the timing generator in reset"); break;
    case MPU6050_CLOCK_EXTERNAL_19MHZ: Serial.println("PLL with external 19.2MHz reference"); break;
    case MPU6050_CLOCK_EXTERNAL_32KHZ: Serial.println("PLL with external 32.768kHz reference"); break;
    case MPU6050_CLOCK_PLL_ZGYRO: Serial.println("PLL with Z axis gyroscope reference"); break;
    case MPU6050_CLOCK_PLL_YGYRO: Serial.println("PLL with Y axis gyroscope reference"); break;
    case MPU6050_CLOCK_PLL_XGYRO: Serial.println("PLL with X axis gyroscope reference"); break;
    case MPU6050_CLOCK_INTERNAL_8MHZ: Serial.println("Internal 8MHz oscillator"); break;
  }

  Serial.print(" * Accelerometer:             ");
  switch (mpu.getRange()) {
    case MPU6050_RANGE_16G: Serial.println("+/- 16 g"); break;
    case MPU6050_RANGE_8G: Serial.println("+/- 8 g"); break;
    case MPU6050_RANGE_4G: Serial.println("+/- 4 g"); break;
    case MPU6050_RANGE_2G: Serial.println("+/- 2 g"); break;
  }

  Serial.print(" * Accelerometer offsets:     ");
  Serial.print(mpu.getAccelOffsetX());
  Serial.print(" / ");
  Serial.print(mpu.getAccelOffsetY());
  Serial.print(" / ");
  Serial.println(mpu.getAccelOffsetZ());

  Serial.print(" * Accelerometer power delay: ");
  switch (mpu.getAccelPowerOnDelay()) {
    case MPU6050_DELAY_3MS: Serial.println("3ms"); break;
    case MPU6050_DELAY_2MS: Serial.println("2ms"); break;
    case MPU6050_DELAY_1MS: Serial.println("1ms"); break;
    case MPU6050_NO_DELAY: Serial.println("0ms"); break;
  }

  Serial.println();
}

void loop() {
  
  //GYROSCOPE CODE - Read and store XYZ values. 
  Vector normGyro = mpu.readNormalizeGyro();
/*
  Serial.print(" X = ");
  Serial.print(normGyro.XAxis);
  Serial.print(" Y = ");
  Serial.print(normGyro.YAxis);
  Serial.print(" Z = ");
  Serial.println(normGyro.ZAxis);
  //========================================
  */
  delay(10);

  if(normGyro.XAxis <= -350) {           // if gyroscope is moved up past range
    if (extflag == 0) {           // and if fins not already extended
      extender.write(extend);     
      delay(250);      
      digitalWrite(laser1, HIGH);
      digitalWrite(laser2, HIGH);
      digitalWrite(laser3, HIGH);
      Serial.println("Fins Extended, Lasers On"); 
      extflag = 1;            // set flag to extended
      delay(10);
      while (extflag == 1) {
        if (digitalRead(trigger == LOW)) {
          Serial.print("Trigger LOW");
          //extender.write(5);           // retract fins slightly when trigger is pulled
          delay(250);
          //extender.write(extend);           // extend back out, rapidly for shot-effect.
          delay(400);
        } else if (digitalRead(buttonpin == LOW)) {            // then check if rotate button is pressed
          Serial.print("Button Pressed");
          if (rotflag == 0) {           // if blade is vertical
            rotator.write(horizontal);
            delay(100);
            rotflag = 1;            // set flag to horizontal
          } else if (rotflag == 1) {
            rotator.write(vertical);            // otherwise rotate to vertical
            delay(100);
            rotflag = 0;            // set flag to vertical
          }  
        }
        if (normGyro.XAxis >= 350) {
          extflag = 0;
        }
      }
    }
    if (normGyro.XAxis >= 350) {            //If gyroscope is moved down past range
      if (extflag == 1) {           // and if fins are extended
        extender.write(retract);
        delay(250);
        Serial.println("Fins Retracted");      
        digitalWrite(laser1, LOW);
        digitalWrite(laser2, LOW);
        digitalWrite(laser3, LOW);      
        extflag = 0;            // set flag to retracted
      }
    }
  }
}