Biohazard/Radiation - Halloween Costume

by mada

26K2320

Intro: Biohazard/Radiation - Halloween Costume

My 2007 Halloween Costume. I didn't document the build process enough for an instructable but I did take lots of pictures after it was done.

The Geiger counter, which I found while browsing The Electronic Goldmine inspired the costume. I started with the Geiger Counter which (as disclosed by EG) was broke to begin with. I added blue LEDs on the gauge in place of the needle and used a sound-to-light module to activate the LEDs when the sound from a record/playback module played a looped Geiger counter noise through a speaker.

I bought the gas mask from eBay ($9 I think) and wired in a green LED light bar from SparkFun to light my face. Also, a mic was wired inside the gas mask which ran to a voice changing module. The voice module was wired to a speaker that was attached to the outside of the suit, with it I could change the pitch of my voice from very deep to very high and robot style.

I used washer drain hose and attached it to one filter port of the gas mask to run the wires for the LED bar and the mic in to the control box. An additional hose was attached to the mask and then to a fan box to blow fresh air into the mask.

The Geiger counter was powered with 4 AA batteries for the record/playback module and a 9v battery for the LEDs. The mask LED bar and voice changer were powered by two 9v batteries (wired parallel - I was paranoid about the batteries dying). The suit fans and the fan light bars were powered by 12v sealed lead acid batteries (I used two wired in parallel - again paranoid about battery time, this was overkill). The sealed lead acid batteries were carried in a backpack that I wore inside the suit, the fan boxes and the speaker were velcroed to straps of the backpack to help support them.

There were two fans for the suit, one blew air into the mask via a hose and the other blew air directly into the suit. An unintended but welcome consequence of the fan blowing into the suit was that it inflated it adding a comic effect to the whole thing. I was somewhat surprised at first since it's only an 80mm case fan but it's a Panaflo high speed so it does move quite a bit of air. I can't stress enough that ventilation was very important, this was a real Level B chem suit, it's like being in a human size Ziploc - without the fans I would have passed out. In reality a suit like this would be used with a SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) but since those are probably like a billion dollars I opted for the fans. All in all it worked out pretty well, it was hot and I sweet like a pig but I was able to stay in it as long as I needed to - then went home and took a shower.

Supply list:

Geiger counter - The Electronic Goldmine (I can't find them here anymore but you can find them on eBay)

Gas mask - [href="http://search.ebay.com/gas-mask_W0QQ_trksidZm37QQcatrefZC6QQfromZR10QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQpqryZgasQ20maskrQQsabfmtsZ1QQsacatZQ2d1QQsaobfmtsZinsifQQsaprchiZQQsaprcloZQQsofocusZbs eBay]

Level B chem suit - Spill 911 (cheapest I could find)

Blue LEDs and Light bars - SparkFun

Voice changing module, sound-to-light module and record/playback module - Electronics123.com

SLA Batteries, wire, switches, project boxes and other miscellaneous items - All Electronics

20 Comments

computek272 14 years ago

You could have also used a Training Suit. It looks the same, is way cheaper but does not protect you from anything, since it's only for training. Why would you need it to in this case anyway?

dtoma 14 years ago

Wow your right thanks for the tip.  I found one for 23 monies, http://www.edarley.com/finditem/25425#tabpos

mada 14 years ago

You'd think... all the training suits I looked at were as expensive or more than the real thing.

Articas 15 years ago

cool but it looks bulky but still cool

zace123 15 years ago

I found a cheaper suit

mada 15 years ago

That's great... mind sharing where you found it?

zace123 15 years ago

they also have some great boot covers look around the site you will most likely find something useful

Renagade 15 years ago

very nice costume! question what voice changing module did you use? plan on using one for one of my costumes _

mada 15 years ago

the one i used is this - one

It's the MK171, you can find it at most electronics places and it requires mild soldering skills. It works well.

Renagade 15 years ago

THANX! i'll try and use it! btw know anywhere where they sell it cheaper by any chance :P?

bounty1012 15 years ago

reminds me of the guy from timesplitters when you select him he sneezes inside the the suit and gets scared.

rocksalt2342 16 years ago

it kinda looks like a hazmat suit for fat people

!Andrew_Modder! 16 years ago

Tho's biohazard radiation suited up ppl scare me :-X, lol idk why it just is weird :-P

mada 16 years ago

Scared some kids with it... they didn't know what to make of me and would just cower behind their parents leg, good times...

a grain of alt. 16 years ago

Very cool. Looks like you put a lot of time and thought into it- hope ya won a costume contest or something with it!

mada 16 years ago

Thanks, Nope nope didn't win any costume contest... I had planed to enter it in the Make/Instructables contest but got busy and missed the deadline.

mada 16 years ago

thanks.