The helmet being reconstructed has been gutted and its insides blown clean.
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| Helmet cleaned up and being rewired. |
The team color LEDs were not so good. One LED was too dim and did not match the others, and another one had a cracked leg. Both of these and their dropping resistors were replaced, and the whole chain rewired neatly.
There was no speaker; a 1980s vintage paper cone speaker was added. It fits perfectly in the recess provided.
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| Laying out the new wiring. The terminal strip is new and serves to make repair easier, should it ever be needed. |
The original harness was also secured with duct tape, but it was just trash. Sloppy connections, wads of wire, and a big pillar of ground wires soldered together in free space.
All of this was removed, including the peculiar stubby cable that was too short (and doesn't actually plug into any known connector). This new cable uses the correct mil-spec connector, plugs directly into the suit, and matches the original in appearance if not durability.
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| Incorrect helmet connector on left. Correct connector on right (plugs into back box on vest). |
On the other end of this cable, I went with a cheap screw-terminal strip since this will be for display purposes only. All this and some layers of felt for appearance's sake complete the display helmet.
