Building a Portal Turret with motion controlled audio and lighting

Step 13 Finished Turret in Action

And that's it.  All that's left is to take some fancy pictures to show off the result of all this hard work.

Here is a short video of the final turret in action.

Comments

[saucybagles]

if weight is not an issue couldn't you simply smooth paint and gloss the clay and not mold the pieces for roughly the same effect on a budget? im sure the aluminum could support a extra few pounds...

[CitizenSnips]

Potentially you could do this yes. My master was quite heavy though and I'm guessing the stress on the legs would have eventually caused the whole turret to collapse. It would be worthy a try though if you wanted to try and save some money.

[rmuijen]

is it possible to make 1 for me? i must have it!! i dont care what the price is i want to buy it !

[CitizenSnips]

I'm not making any more at the moment. Sorry. Working hard on new projects!!

[Farrelbark]

SO, have you gotten the okay for mass production yet? I mean, as awesome an as thorough as this instructable is, it's not really feasible in many people's agenda's in the least bit. If possible, people would definitely buy this. It can be done, we have the technology.

[CitizenSnips]

I wish I could mass produce them although I don't personally have the means. Don't think Valve would like that very much though since they own the rights and all. There is a huge market for them though if they ever decided to capitalize on it.

[Farrelbark]

E.X.A.C.T.L.Y. You should show this to Valve studios and see if they're interested.

[P0rt4L TOO]

@farrelbark Awesome idea, but then thatll just make all this work im doing to recreate it kinda fruitless, hu:P cuz then i woulda just had to buy 1 and modd it. would be epic tho, there would be ppl modding them all over the internet

[knan12]

so cool its real

[knan12]

so cool its real

[pjohnson8]

Sell the mass-produce ability to valve for the laser-cutter you want and how much it cost you to make the device. Personal thoughts.

[Farrelbark]

Maybe add a pivoting feature to the design once movement is detected.
Perhaps a more complex pop-out function for the "arms" as the start of the motion-activated pivoting action!
Don't know how to do that, but I know it's possible.

[P0rt4L TOO]

Hey, My idea exacly, im gonna attempt to make one exacly like this but with more hollow space in the center for room for moving parts. not a pivoting feature cuz i am only 16 and horrible @ programing lol. imma see if i cant make it full sized so i can have more room for the electronics, ofc since the master of recreating things from games couldent do it with that leg setup ill prob cheat a little lol. i am planning to put a small homemade C02 powered airsoft pistol sort thing inside the gun box on the arms. the way i currently have in mind to make the arms go in and out is a rail system. that might change over time. I am bad with molding material and making plasic molds so i might get help from my local art instructor. i already know theres no way i can make it come out as good as he did, but im hoping for a very simular resualt with the extra features i discribed above:)

[CitizenSnips]

I'm all for someone attempting to make a full scale, fully functional, minus real bullets, version of this guy. A word of caution though that what you have described is an absolutely massive undertaking. This is probably 6-12 months worth of work for an experienced industrial engineer and will probably cost a few thousand dollars to make. This is part of the reason that I made mine slightly smaller with no moving parts. I'm not trying to discourage you but simply want to make sure that you do your research into all of the aspects involved before tackling a project of this complexity. Do your research, price out all the materials that you will need, do lots of planning, and prepare yourself for a very long project. Best of luck and I'd love to see progress as you go.

[P0rt4L TOO]

@citizensnips. Im @ an engineering magnet school whos head engineering instructor happens to love portal. im using Autocad(3d forming software) to make the turret parts, then sending that info to a lathe sort of machine that shapes it from the info i sent to it via autocad. then im using ur molding technics to make a hollowcast in apoxy. i estimate the electronics to be very cheap. a simple PID sensor run by arduino that activates the voice, the arms poping out... And yesh. the guns. low power home made airsoft guns to be specific. I have senior friends (im only a soph) to help with programming and assistence from my art teacher if i need help witht he molding. I have mesured out a life sized version(58") and its waay to big. im thinking about 4ft or ur 3ft version but not 58 inches lol. If you may, please tell me what parts/materials you estimate will cost in the thousands range.
Thanks again for ur advice:)
PS: May i have ur permission to enter this into an creative engineering competition in Florida? my teacher suggested it.

PPS:If you want ill send you the autocad version of the turret and a way to legally get autocad for free

[P0rt4L TOO]

lol,forgot I mentioned the airsoft guns in last post. ignore my repetitiveness

[P0rt4L TOO]

Oh my! I see where it gets expencive when i clicked on ur link for the molding steps. Do you think I can do the autocad to lathe process out of plastic(say, butter plastic) have it solid. and renforce/dont make the legs exacly to specs)? that cuts out both the expencive silicon and apoxy and replaces it with a block of butter plastic,err thats what i think its called. anyway, block of cheaper plastic + lathe=no silicon=alot cheaper?

[CitizenSnips]

Hey if you have access to that kind of equipment, by all means use it as best you can. I didn't have the luxury of tools like that so you could definitely cut out some of the process. You could even just lathe the body shell in halves and make it hollow outright. You could even save your self more time by ripping the 3d model straight out of the game and bring it into autocad.

[P0rt4L TOO]

Great idea.I'll see if my teacher can help me pull it from the game itself. im currently in a class that doesnt work with autocad so i need him to show me how to do everything on it.
Thanks a million for all ur help:)
Joey

[P0rt4L TOO]

sorry if this sound nooby..but how do i access portal beta to take the portal file out? i been trying for awhile now. even downloaded portal beta project. but i cant figure out what to do lol

[Farrelbark]

Wow, wasn't expecting you to have so many various resources at your disposal.
DO IT. AND MAKE A INSTRUCTABLE or slide show thingie OF IT FOR THE INTERNET TO SEE! >:D

[Farrelbark]

You should Co-Op the brainstorming & creation of this.

[DemonSpawn]

Dude you should get what Soul_Walker said, that would be SO cool!!!! not as if it isnt now!!! I think future goal is build one that can sing and dance to that final song from Portal 2!!!

[CitizenSnips]

Yeah I started this project before Portal 2 came out and didn't want to have to restart it half way through. I would love to go back and make a turret from Portal 2 that sings and dances!!!!!! Maybe someday

[knan12]

are the guns real they might be cool if the sensor spot something it will fire thats so swwweeeeeetttt

[A1v1n1]

Make the Leopard Giant Turret King thing of actual size :D

[battle axe chrome]

it should shoot air soft bb's

[GTAtomten]

Incredible work man!
Just shows that taking your time with details pays off.

[bkerry1]

HAHAHA that is slick, man!

[manuelgorman]

Sir, I love you.

[A1v1n1]

Fill the whole inside with bullets :D when u open the turret all of it spills out

[dragozzino]

Man, I really, really want one of these. Portal is one of my favorite games. Are you selling any of these and if not, how much did this cost you and how long did it take.

[isalas]

this project is incredibly bad ass, but in my opinion, the body could've been a bit thinner, other than that, it is perfect-ish

[cbaker13]

This is super-duper-duper-duper-duper-duper awesome! If I had one of these, I would probably just stare at it and think of how awesome it is and I am for making one until someone slapped me.

The only thing that I would suggest, and it's not even an improvement, just something different, is making it play the turret version of Exile Villify instead.

[coryalex]

I'm in love with your build. I wish I had one of those for my game room. :)

[sdobbie]

Now for one that fires plasma.

[mlynch1]

Oh my gosh, this is so incredibly cool, I've been geeking out about this for the last half hour. I totally think you should sell these if you'd be allowed to. I would buy one if I could afford it (not sure how much it would cost, but with all the work you put in to it, probably quite a bit!). This is so amazing, incredible, fantastic job. My absolute favorite instructable EVER.

[urisiti]

oh i would totally buy one of these from you, my husband would crap his pants if i got this for him!

[wanderson1]

No moving parts? Blasphemy! Not really :P this is really awesome :D I wish it could've atleast turned and retracted into its "Shell" when inactive tho :(

[k0k0s79]

Freaking A M A Z I N G ! ! !