Building an HMD with no special parts, to make work easier and safer
The optical design will be the most difficult part, but I think I found a solution for this.
Follow the project logs to see the updates. The costs of the prototype amounted to 70Euros.
Video of the working device
Link to the video and Link to the video in German
One of the Prototypes
Hi, the lens is still the problem, because it is not easy to find.
I think, I found a good alternative. A small Fresnel lens. Easy to find, cheap and you can cut it with a pair of scissors.
Hopefully I will find the time to test it.
The focal length is about 110mm, with should be fine.
The new displays just arrived. Will build a smaller version.
I think I will start a new project for this.
Thinks to do:
Finally, all fits together.
Now a nice video of it, a full description and I'm done.
I needed to change the LiPo batteries. I use now a smaller, 280mA, instead of the 330mA. For this I had to change the resistor in the charger circuit. It's 3k smd part. I soldered a normal resistor with the value of 5.6k in place to reduce the charging current to 200mA.
Until now, I heated the reflection screen and bent it to 45 degrees. To make the construction easier I printed a new holder. In the picture, you can see the difference
I finally start handling the 123Design software and my 3d Printer.
I was totally focused on my cardboard design enclosure, but at the end, I had to redesign the glasses due 3d print problems. Now you can adjust the reflection screen, to get the best view.In the next few days I'll test the electronic with the new LiPo, but I'm still waiting for the lenses.
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I finally printed out the covers for the enclosure. The mirror and the lens are mounted with all the electronics. All fits in, and it works great. This one has a lens with a focal point of 100mm.
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All in. The controller, bluetooth, display, charger and the LiPo Batterie.
I just bought me a 3d Printer, and this is the first enclosure for my Dataglasses.
I finaly can recieve all the data from my Owon B35T multimeter, on my data glasses.
The lens was a tricky thing. I had not really an Idea about optics. So I googled and googeld, and I learned a lot about real images, virtual images focal points, and magnification. The best working lens is an Acrylic Plano convex lens with a focal point of 100mm. If you place the screen at a distance of 73mm from the lens away, you will get a virtual image at a distance between 27-30cm. The magnification factor is x3
That's perfect, because another important thing is, that your eyes can only start focusing things at +-25 cm
I found this website to calculate the object distance.
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/geoopt/image4.html
Here are all the parts for the data glasses
I just used a smaller battery.
To use the 280mA battery, I had to change the 3k resistor against a 5.6k resistor on the original board. The charging current is now reduced to +- 200mA.
Hej Alain,
Great project! And thanks for the detailed explanations and images.
I wonder how you connected the USB breakout board, in order to still be able to program the pro micro. Ie. did you connect the D- D+ to pins on the board?
Thanks,
Thomas
Congrats Alain !
http://hackaday.com/2017/06/04/__trashed-15/
Hmm, you might consider swapping the side the battery is on for safety reasons; this project looks awesome!
A fantastic project.
I was wondering if there any mileage in putting the lens before the mirror - like very close to the display? I was thinking this would make the 'transmission' from original display to eye 'standard' - and different lens/display combinations/modules could be used at the back end.
Hello Alain, very nice project that you built up. I try to be able to comunicate an arduino pro micro and my Polar V800. I use an arduino pro micro mother board and a Bluetoot HM-11 module. Currently I tryi first to send somme info on the micro oled screen from sparkfun. For "static" data (I means hard coded) it works but when I try to send data from my modile via Bluetooth is does not work. So I just would like to know how you did connect you HM-11 bluetootj module to the pro micro? RX to TX, TX to RX and GND+VCC or do you put some other connexion? Because I saw on you pictures that you have more than 4 cables between the module and the mother board.
Thanks in advance
Cheers
Tony
Hi Tony, were you able to make any progress on this? I was actually thinking of doing the exact same thing.
I've been wanting to build almost exactly this to enhance my Dalek head control system. Being able to see where the eye is pointing is the next step towards full Kaled mutant transformation!
I need video, but it can be closed circuit, and the electronics can be mounted elsewhere, but I have to thank you for all the insight into the optics!
Alain, thanks for the great project. I'm trying to build this for my first project. Is there a schematic for this.
I did no really make a schematic, just a hint as you connect it, since you can use other modules. I'm actualy working on a smaler version and I hope I can put it online in 3-4 weeks, this time with a complete schematic. Regards Alain
The acrylic plano lenses are for sale in pairs for $2.95 from this site:
It's so cool. Don't you want to sell it on Ebay as a DIY HMD?
Hi Alain, thanks for sharing this fantastic project! As a rc modell pilot, I m planning to use your glasses to view some telemetry data during flight (e.g. heigth, modell plane is currently flying, voltage of receiver battery, ...)
One probem is the mirror, which should be a surface mirror to avoid ghost images...
During search for such a surface mirror a friend point me to try an old disk of a harddisk drive...
Easy to find (for techies like us). Cutting the round disk to rectangular peaces is easy too..
Polish with toothpaste will clean it for final adjustment in housing.
I will give it a try...
Its really awesome! What are the different implementations of this ,other than multimeter ?
Hello! how to send the data by the Bluetooth to the OLED? l'm a new one
This is a great project, i was wondering how well the display works when outside in bright light.
Hi , it works perfect in normal rooms. If you look through a window or outside in a sunny day, the picture disappears. I will try different reflectors with tint foil or mirror foil, to see if this works outside.
Great, I'd be interested to see if you can get a decent image outside. I was wondering how other devices manage this, and did some googling around NEDs (Near Eye Displays). There's a great break down of the optics used in Google glass here: https://www.quora.com/How-does-Google-Glass-project-the-image-onto-the-glass . There's more to it than I thought.
Exactly, I checked also the details of the google glass. That's nothing you can build in your garage :). My glasses are working more like the "peppers ghost" effect.
It was more, like a challenge to me, to see if its possible to build something like this with common things, without looking to ugly. Apart from the Borg look.
Ausgezeichnet. Das ist ja wirklich toll. Gruesse aus Amerika. I am looking to make something like this for my motorcycle. A larger resolution would be great. How can the image be made larger? Thanks for any advice. Tschuess. Mike
i looked for batteries, and just making sure, but i am able to run it off from 3.7V, right? And will 250mAh be enough? Thanks, love the idea, so glad it worked out!
I used a Arduino pro micro on 3.3v 8Mhz. 3.7V is perfect. With 250mAh Batterie it should run for min 5 hours.
The newer ESP32 with bluetooth (and wifi, offcourse) might be a great upgrade for a next version, potentially saving a bit of power as well. Nice project anyway!
Yes you are right. Working allready on a smaller version with a 0.49inch display and the ESP32 would be a realy good option.
Alain Mauer
John Grant
Adam Vadala-Roth
'Serial1' was not declared in this scope :(