2nd Helmet. Kind of jealous, wish this one was the one i was wearing 
Very cool! What processor is running it… what kind of power supply… what’s visibility like when wearing it?
that looks awesome!
great build
Wow what a beauty!
wow that’s ace!
@allanGEE A teensy 3.1, 2 arduino nano’s, and 1 micro. The teensy does the main matrix, 1 nano does the ear piece, 1 nano does the side shields, and the mini does the side circuit cutout. I am not good with coding so I used a different controller for each different feature. The power supply is a 5 18650 to usb 2 - 2 amp unit, powers it for roughly 4 hours (I tried to nerf the brightness as to not be abrassive to onlookers and conserve power). Visibility is quite good, more than you would think. I hand soldered WS2812B chips with about a 1/4 inch vertical spacing, with it being in close proximity to your face it is like looking through a screen door :). The eq on the bottom is just a preprogrammed animation on a max7219 8x8 controller.
I would like to give a huge shout out to Aaron Liddiment for helping me out loads with the coding for both this one and the other one I built, would not have been able to make these what they are without his help 
Awesome project. Quick questions?
What are you using to cover the side panels? Some sort of translucent plastic? Bought or 3D printed?
Actually my brother built the side panels out of 1/8 inch abs sheet. Then I drilled holes equally spaced in the back, 3 per section. Epoxied the led on the back then used aluminum tape at about a 35° angle for reflectors. Poured a thin layer of clear epoxy to help project the light and covered it with a mixture of vegetable glycerin and atv silicone (the vegetable glycerin helps it cure through out when applied in thick layers) it turned out really well and with minimal leds and brightness.
Thanks. Thinking of doing something similar for a costume/t-shirt.
@Aren_Hibbing
Good to know! I’d interested to try something like this in the future…
I’ll do more of an in depth build write up on this one and mine later on. Trying to keep this on the down low as a surprise for some friends (not to give to them, just to show them, lol)
I will also be sure to post pictures and videos of the full costume when it is completed (which should be a week from now, yikes!)
@Aren_Hibbing Great Guy build. Can you elaborate on the ws2812b chips? Did you hand solder ws2812b driver chips to regular rgb LEDs? Is there a reason why you didn’t use 5mm pass through ws2812b LEDs?
When I say that I hand soldered the led’s I don’t mean the RGB led to the chip, resistor, and capacitor. I used the WS2812B breakout board unit’s. They still need to be soldered but they are on a convenient PCB with the resistor and capacitor and acts quite nicely as a heat sink. the PCB also allows a little lee way from filing down for more of a gap between led’s. Also I prefer the breakout boards to the strips for this application because it allows for greater visibility.
If your interested these are the led’s I used
@Aren_Hibbing Thanks for clarifying your led setup. These are a nice alternative to using strips. The 5mm through hole ws2812b LEDs I mentioned earlier were these ones: https://www.adafruit.com/products/1938. They are pricier than yours but they have an even smaller form factor and can be soldered easily. This is my build: http://suniljohn.com/diy-discovery-era-functional-daft-punk-thomas-helmet-and-gauntlet-replicas/ . I’m getting ready to build a toddler sized lit Guy helmet for my son and seeing your bucket is giving me more motivation!