These were my daughters evening costume for Shambala 2022.
They took the flapping mechanism from adafruit; https://learn.adafruit.com/animatronic-cosplay-wings With my own software/electronics based around a normal Arduino Mega as I don’t like the Adafruit Feather platform much. 3D printed parts from a generic on demand 3D printing service who’s details I seem to be struggling to find at the moment.
Rather than wire wings, as with the adafruit tutorial, the wings were CNC cut from 1mm carbon fibre by carboncutUK. I then somewhat laboriously clear taped EL wire over the top. In retrospect thicker, slightly more rigid carbon probably would have been a better choice as they ‘flap’ a bit on the mounts.
The adafruit design probably works great for wire wings, worn by an adult, indoors for a short amount of time. It was in no way robust enough for a 5 year old charging around the enchanted woods and Hazel swiftly got fed up of me telling her to be careful and shed her wings. The problem is that moving the wings against the servo gear will strip the gearboxes. I think I’ll devise some kind of clutch system to limit the torque back into them for future designs.
Slightly on the ‘very expensive failure’ end of projects, but they looked cool and will form a decent base for an improved future version.
