Index

Cybernetic Furry Augmentation

Are you tired of being limited to only fluff and foam? What if there was a way to augment your fursona into the ultimate electron supercharged cyber-fluffball? Ok, Cybernetics on feeble human flesh is still in its infancy... but hey, I can put flashy lights and doohickeys all over a fursuit for you no problem! 

Alright, I'll admit the lead-based solder fumes are starting to get to my head a little, but its all in the name of progress and cool looking fly as fuck. I've been tinkering with electronics since the age of 8 and learning code for the last 2 years. the year is 2022. The planet is on fire and agriculture is struggling. The price of bread keeps going up and up, but I can buy microcontrollers for pennies on the dollar. 

Thus, when god gives you Arduinos... make cool flashy lights with them!

Maybe the protogens are on to something with the whole "ram eating" thing...

Anyway, what this means is that I have an array of microcontrollers and electronic components to source from online vendors. Electronic design requires careful planning, and thus, contacting me through my Telegram or Twitter to prepare build schematics is imperative. We need to plan where the components and batteries will be stored in your suit, how much battery capacity you need to last a full day at a con, what microcontrollers if any will be used, any many more factors specific to each case. 

Commission Pricing

I can either add electronic components to a suit that I build for you, or I can retrofit an electronic system into an existing fursuit with...minimally invasive surgery, which will cost more. As always these estimates are heavily dependent on the complexity of your commission. If a commission involves pre-existing code I or another wrote there are no additional fees. For example, A script for rainbow graphics with WS2812 LED's would not cost extra. If you however, wanted me to make custom animations for a 32x32 LED sheet, that would cost extra. If I just need to modify pre-existing code and change it a little there will still be an additional fee, but much less comparatively. 

Finally, for LED's, if you select the ws2812b type LED's with an ESP-32 microcontroller, and you have a mobile hotspot on your phone, you can use a phone application called WLED for full control. here is the WLED website. In that instance the "coding" is essentially done by you on the phone. The app is surprisingly thorough with the effects you can customize, yet if you need very specific animations you will likely still need to resort to custom coding from me. If you opt for the WLED system there will be no additional fee for coding. Here are some rough price estimates for various electronic commissions:

• LED strips integrated into a fullsuit, with similar coverage to that of a harness. Battery pack capable of running for 8 hours on a belt or hidden in digi padding:

• Dumb strip (12v RGB strip with 3 trimpots Knobs to control the color of red green and blue)  ~$400

• Pseudo-smart strip (12v RGB with 3 mosfets to control red green and blue color via arduino. Can glow and pulse between colors but not change LED's along the strip itself)  ~$500

• Smart strip with SMD's (Surface mounted LED's,~100 LED's per meter) ~$650

• Smart strip with COBs (Chip On board, ~400 LED's per M) ~$800

• Coding new animations for ws2812b $30 per new unique animation

• Button, Switch, or Rotary Encoder controls No additional fee

• Stomp-reactive LED controls  (IMU's) add ~$200

  • Stomp-reactive toggles add ~$150

• Total body kinesthetics reactive LED controls (IMU's) add ~$300

  • body kinesthetic toggles add ~$200

  • body kinesthetic complex control add ~$300

• Touchless magnetic LED controls (hall sensors) add $150

  • Touchless magnetic toggles add ~$100

• Wifi controls (WLED) No additional fee (must be ESP32) WLED website 

• Bluetooth Controls add ~$10 per serial input with  Serial Bluetooth App 

• Add a voice modulator and amplifier to your suit ~$300

• Add a voice amplifier to your suit ~$200

• Add a bluetooth sound system into your suit (around 50 watts, loud boombox volume, requires large digitigrade legs or protogen armor) ~$500

• Add sound level LED's with an LM3915 add ~$50 per LM3915

• Integrate sound levels with LED strips graphics (will not work with WLED) add ~$200

• Add analog Ammeter add ~$30

• Boombox Backpack: The same bluetooth sound system, but stuffed into a backpack (works with any fursuit, or no fursuit, can customize heavily) ~$400

• Add a 12v cooling fan to your body suit or head ~$100

• Make it variable add ~$30

• Make it variable and light up variably with fan speed add ~$20

• Add a Peltier cooler (will use batteries quickly)  add ~$100

• Make the battery even bigger for the Peltier add ~$100

• Add LED's to eyes ~$100

  • Arduino controlled, glow/pulse and RGB add ~$100

  • Simple, dome-top LED's on and off just the ~$100

    • Variable brightness with potentiometer add ~$20

    • Make it RGB with 3 potentiometers add ~$50

• LED Arduino fursuit goggles like mine ~$250

• Integrate a 16x16 ws2812 pixel array into the suit ~$200

  • • Add graphics and images ~$3 per unique frame (eg a 4 frame animation would cost $12)

(The prices of arrays and frame coding scales with pixel count...eg: a 32x16 pixel array would be 2x these prices for everything)

• Integrate a 32LED WS2812b ring into the suit ~$150

• Arduino-servo controlled moving ears or other smaller extremities ~$350

• Mobile DJ table (See DJing, Audio and Automotive for description and pics of the prototype. Meant to be a companion of the Boombox Backpack mentioned in the bullets above) ~$400

• Costco Mk.1 DJ battle-station (see DJing, Audio and Automotive for description, pics, and videos of the prototype in action) ~$1200

Slated Prototypes

This is a non-exhaustive list of some bigger electronic fursuit projects I may try to Prototype, and rough price estimates:

• Arduino-Mosfet-12v servo controlled tails or large extremities ~$1000

• Palm-vision (fingerless gloves that fit over your paws with cameras in the palms. Makes you look around with your hands. Streamed to a headset) ~$1000

• Fog-on-Demand( A system of vinyl tubing underneath the bodysuit that expels fog from all over your body all at once. ~$800

• Powered fursuit heely's (12v brushed DC motor to power singular roller in the heel of fursuit feet. Will only work with digitigrade legs that extend to the knee. Battery storage in the calf foam) ~$1600

• Back-mounted Flapping wings (12v brushed DC motor with planetary gear reduction and spring assist to gently beat a pair of dragon/avian wings) ~$1800

• Pseudo-Jetpack (Slated to mount on the back of the Protocake armor, This will have a large 25 watt bilge fan powering a loud siren whistle to mimic a get engine. Additionally, a 100w kanthal wire coil will vaporize fog fluid to be blown out by the fan. LED's hidden in the bezel of the exhaust will scatter off the fog and give the illusion of an afterburner flame)  ~$2400

Coding

I am most experienced with Arduino IDE but I plan to learn Python and Micropython. Most Microcontrollers will work with ArduinoIDE, including Teensy's, ESP's, and RaspberryPi Pico's / Zero's. I have built some scripts from the ground up, but coding usually involves reverse engineering chunks of other peoples scripts and gluing them together to do what you want. Below is a list of some scripts that i've written and modified for arduino IDE. Any modified scripts are accompanied with a link to the original script. 

Original JtingF/Kaiborg script for maxx7219 protogen face

My first modification of protogen code, not optimized

Second modification of protogen code, still with issues

Third modification of protogen code. This is the version I currently use

Script for my animated LED goggles. Uses FastLED library. Written by me

Script for Xeons arduino controlled eye, neck, and mouth lights. Written by me.

This is a script I wrote that turns note inputs into buzzer frequencies to make buzzer music

This one plays the Spamton theme from delta rune lmao        

• LED's! These are probably what you want the most! there are a few different types though:

  • Single dome tops (individual LEDs of any color you want that I individually solder together) very low tech Here 

  • LED strips (usually WS2812b strips are preferred. these are individually addressable, meaning I can code arduino to make them display whatever dynamic patterns you want Here 

  • LED COBS (a little more expensive than regular strips, but the LED density is way higher so they almost look like a solid glowing strip. Much higher power consumption due to all the lights) Here 

  • Black-light LED strips (can be used to charge surrounding UV reactive parts of your suit) Here 

  • WS2812b grids and rings (turns out if you just manufacture a strip into a sheet you can turn it into a low resolution screen! The same is done with rings) Here 

  • MAXX7219 LEDS (they are most commonly used in protogen heads and are small 8x8 LED arrays that update faster than WS2812b)Here 

• EL (electroluminescent) wire (this is relatively cheap wire that outputs a perfectly smooth light along its length. They are however quite dim compared to LED's and output a sometimes annoying 1000hZ noise. Here 

• Fans (all sorts of sizes and power ratings to keep you cool. usually 5v or 12v. I have an easy method to give you variable speed control for any fan we add to your suit. Here 

• Speakers (High power speakers and amplifiers if you want to jam, or lower power speakers for microphones and voice modulators Here 

• Servos (Little motors that I can control the position of parts with microcontrollers. Perfect for mounting ears to so they randomly move around. very good at animating things) Here 

• LCD displays (small '"TFT" type displays can be used with ESP32 or Raspberrypi microcontrollers. essentially lets you put a tiny TV screen somewhere on the suit. Here 

• Piezo Buzzers (I wrote some code for generating robot music with buzzers. Can be programmed to make various noises when you use certain functions)Here 

• Voltage/Amperage indicators (Add a nice technical flare to any cyborg. Actually gives useful information too! Can use analog ammeters for dynamic needle wobbling) Here 

• Lasers (individually they are pretty cool, but combining a mirror or prism could produce really cool holograms in tandem with a fog system)Here 

• Fog systems (I plan on making a mock jetpack for my protogen and will experiment with custom heating vessels to do more cool fog things)Here 

• Water Pumps (sounds crazy, but I have plans to pump a UV reactive fluid through tubes for a glowing bubbly cyber-look)Here 

• Galvanometers (very fast moving tiny mirrors that can be used to draw vector graphics with a laser)  Here 

• Peltier Coolers (very power hungry, but they are effective in instantly cooling you down inside a suit)Here 

• Brushed DC motors (more powerful electric motors like in drills. Could be employed for big moving or rotating parts)Here 

• Linear Actuators (similarly powerful, move slowly but with lots of torque to push a rod out. Specific use applications)Here 

• Wifi (2.4gHz capable microcontrollers can relay system information like voltage amperage and temperature, or even relay camera data to your phone for streaming. Imagine a integrated fursuit go-pro that streams real time wirelessly) WLED website here 

• 12v Servos (more powerful servos that can have their positions completely handled with a microcontroller. Most applicable for Electronic fursuit tails that move on their own) Here 

Input Systems

• Buttons, Momentary press. Tap once to trigger Here 

• Switches, toggle on/off Here 

• Potentiometers (Rotating knobs with a Max and a Min, think volume knob)Here 

• Rotary Encoder (kind of like a potentiometer, but it can keep spinning. it just recognizes which way you turn it. Great as a selector) Here 

• Photodiodes and Photoresistors (good for letting something turn on/off automatically if dark or bright) Here and here  

• Capacitive Touch sensors (These are really cool but be advised that they will not work with paws on) Here 

• Hall Sensors (Sense a changing magnetic field. Can be used alongside little magnets in the fingertips of your paws to control your electronics by simply waving your hand over the sensor) Here and magnets here  

• Piezo Transducers (Small quartz crystals that trigger if they get squished. Could be put in areas like feetpaws to trigger lightshows like some sweet 90's sketchers) here 

• Bluetooth audio modules (Receiver systems for bluetooth. Simply attach to an auto system to stream music to it) Here 

• Strain gauges  (similar to piezo transducers, but respond to stretching instead of squishing. Could be integrated into a glove to sense finger flexing)Here 

• Inertial Measurement Units (IMU's) (the same types that are used for my Slime trackers (see The VR page ). They are basically accelerometers and can sense when they are moved or rotated in any way. Could allow for very cool dynamic lighting if incorpirated correctly) Here 

• Electret Microphones (standard voice microphone. "breakout boards" with these are cheap and have pre-amps integrated. The gain can be turned way up to pick up sounds from far away) Here and Max4466 breakout here  

• Cameras (either I2C or USB interface for microcontrollers usually. The actual camera modules are quite small) Here 

• Thermal Cameras???  (individual modules have gone down significantly in price. If you want predator vision you might be in luck) Here 

• Bluetooth (Capable microcontrollers can serial interface with your phone and receive any sort of command and send any sort of data) Serial Bluetooth App

• Wifi (similar to bluetooth, but uses less power on your phone. The caveat is you need to set your phone as a hotspot to communicate when not near your homes stationary router)WLED website 

Microcontrollers, Amplifiers, and other control systems

• Arduino (Usually Nano) (cheap microcontrollers. The clock speed isn't great but they are tolerant to higher voltages and work for most applications. I also have a lot of experience with them. Arduino Uno's are usually used for prototyping before applying a Nano permanently with solder on the pins) Here 

• Teensy 4.0 or 4.1 (similar framework to Arduino but with a faster clock) Here 

• Other ATmega328 chips (other microcontrollers can have the same CPU as Arduinos just with different bootloaders) Here 

• ESP-8266 (a bluetooth and wifi capable microcontroller, not super fast, but still much faster than Arduino and about the same price. Runs on 3.3v, as such it requires logic level converters often) Here 

• ESP-32 (just like the 8266 but faster and slightly more expensive) Here 

• WemosD1 Mini (A compact cheap version of ESP8266 with fewer pins) Here 

• RaspberryPi Pico (Cheap raspberryPi's with a similar form factor and purpose to Arduino Nanos, but significantly faster. Mostly compatible with arduino IDE, but not entirely) Here 

• RaspberryPi Pico W (like the Pico but with wifi capability (not bluetooth though)) Here 

• RaspberryPi (1-4) (The full-size RaspberryPi's. Essentially an entire modular computer in a neat little package. Can update many LED's seamlessly and it can even compute LED graphics given computer images or render windows. Makes coding LED graphics much easier. Can apply dithering and other algorithms to improve the LED image. They are supposed to be $40 USD but the chip shortage has inflated them well over 100. Not practical for now but wait a year or two for the price to come down. Check out CoelaCant's protogen Here to get an idea of what they are capable of) Here 

• Velleman Mk171 (A simple audio amplifier/ voice modulator kit that uses a HT8950 IC. Changes Pitch real time or adds robot modulation. Perfect for use in protogens and synths) Here 

• Small Audio Amplifiers (PAM8403 class D or LM386 class A/B) (If you just want a voice amplifier in your suit without all the weird effects, either of these modules is suitable) PAM8403 Here / LM386 Here  

• Relays (Electromechanical switches, used to turn high power components on and off using the lower power signal from an arduino) Here 

• Mosfets (Large Transistors that can control medium-large amounts of current. For our applications these can be used to adjust high power delivery with an arduino beyond just on/off like with relays) N-Type Mosfets Here / High Gain Darlington Transistors Here  

• Large amplifiers (Class A/B) (10watts and up, Integrated Stereo Mosfet amplifiers for cars. They make smaller ones perfect for loud suit applications)  Here 

• LM3915's (10 segment Audio Level indicator chips, datasheet says 9v but i've used with 12v successfully)  Breakout kits here / Chip packs here  

• Logic Level Converters (Necessary when using ESP or other 3.3v Microcontrollers to drive LED strips. The strips demand 5v logic) Multi-gate type Here (these are cheaper but cant keep up at higher speeds) TXS0108E type Here (these use an integrated chip and are regarded much better)

• Prototype Breadboards (the solderless kind for trying out new circuits on a snap-in board) Here

• Prototybe PCB's (These are basically just PCB material but as a big grid of holes. These are what I always use if I need extra boards in fursuit electronics) Here 

Batteries

• BMS (battery monitor system) (Necessary for every battery stack. Maintains equal charge in all the cells and prevents overcharging) 3S BMS for 12v LiPO here / 4S for 12v LiFePO4 Here  

• Lithium Polymer batteries (LiPO) (3.7v nominal 4.2v max batteries. 3 together in series is more-less a 12v battery. Tend to fail after 3 or 4 years)

• 18650 batteries (This is a specific size of LiPO cell that everyone uses. Common in vapes. Looks like a big AA. commonly spot welded together into battery banks with nickel strips) Here 

• Pouch Cells (flat packs like what is in your phone. Susceptible to puncture and/or overheating if a big array isn't vented properly. very good conformation in specific use cases for suits since they are, well, flat) Here 

• Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries (LiFePO4) (similar to LiPO's but they last way longer, 10 years+, and don't blow up. The Nominal voltage is only 3.2v and the max is 3.6. 4 are needed in series to make a "12v" battery. They have their own type of BMS)

• A123 batteries (they make LiFePO4 batteries in the same conformation as 18650's) Here  

• Pouch Cells (they also make pouch cells of these) Here (Battery space website) 

• Sealed Lead Acid Batteries (SLA) Cheap batteries with decent storage and power delivery. Used in electric scooter and power wheels trucks. Allready 12 volts. The major downside is they are *heavy* because, well, lead.  Here 

• Capacitors (Can be used to quench transient power spikes, makes the load on your batteries a little smoother) 1.6F stack here / Huge 5v audio capacitors Here / Smaller Electrolytic Capacitors kit here 

• Spot welded Nickel (these are the strips I use to connect A123 and 18650 cells) Here 

• 3D printed shells (Necessary for diy LiPO or LiFePO4 battery banks. Will prevent puncture or compressive load on the batteries Printer filament here 

• Fuses (very necessary to keep your batteries from exploding. the plan C safety mechanism) Fuses Here /  Fuse Holders Here 

• 12v Chargers (Car chargers work nicely for custom 12v battery stacks or SLA's. I swap the alligator clamps out for a much more aesthetic plug-in harness) "car" type charger Here/ Smaller 3 amp charger Here  

• TP4056 chargers (industry standard modules for charging individual lithium cells with 5v power from a USB, charge rate is about 1/2 amp) TP4056 Here /  IP2312 (Faster 3A type C) Here 

• DC buck converters (Downregulates the 12v system power to 5v for microcontrollers with around 95% efficiency. Why do I assume we want 12v to begin with?  Firstly, many electronic components need 12v, secondly, higher voltage means less power loss across the network of wires through your suit) Here 

• DC boost converters (similar to buck converters but for increasing the voltage. May be necessary for some high power 24v components or 19v laptop charging) 2 amp up to 24V Here / Tougher 15A 60v Here  

Connectors and Harnesses

• USB type A, Micro, or Type C (all can handle atleast 1 or 2 amps over the power rails, Type c can carry more but needs pull-up and pull-down resistors) Type A Here / Micro Type Here / Type C Here 

• Barrel Jacks (easy to connect when you cant see them, doesn't need oriented like USB. they only have 2 pins for carrying power though)Here 

• Audio Jacks (3.5mm stereo jacks and RCA jacks. can also be used for other low power signal connections) Female RCA Here / Male RCA Here / 3.5mm Stereo Male Here / 3.5mm stereo female Here    

• Aviator Connectors (The preferred connection type for fursuits. Especially with data lines, a momentary disconnect of 1ms will corrupt the whole system till you reset it. Aviator connectors are inserted, then the bezel is threaded on. They are completely immune to random disconnects) 4 pin aviators Here 

• Solder Joints (These are the de-facto way to connect permanent fursuit electronics. solder joints cant disconnect momentarily when you jump around or nudge against them. I solder almost everything on fursuit electronics) lead-Rosin core Here 

• Lever Nuts (Quick connects for internal terminals)  Here

• Screw Terminal Blocks (slightly less quick connectors for internal terminals) Here 

• Butt connectors (crimp-ends for splicing 2 wires together. Usually solder will be preferred over this, usually used with heat shrink) Here 

Ok, so I know thats a lot to take in, but dont worry, just because there's a million options doesn't mean you have to pick a million things. When discussing a commission with me stick to what you want the end result to look like or do. Let me provide you a few options of achieving that result with the above components, and you decide whats most enticing. If you just want some cool looking lights we can do that with something as simple as an LED strip, and arduino, and a button. You get to decide how much complexity you want to add!

3d Printing, Laser cutting, and PCB fabrication

3D printing works great alongside electronics projects. See The VR page for information on slime trackers, and how I modified a thingiverse model for custom cases. 

I actually bought my k40 laser cutter before getting my ender 3 3D printer, but it doesn't get nearly as much use. for specific applications like etching, cutting precise stencils, or badges, its perfect. One promising application that I intend to use it for, is making custom PCB's.

Truth be told, the MAX7219 arrays used in many protogens are showing their age. Among the most advanced proto-engineers are Coelacant and  JtingF. They use custom PCB designs  fitted with ws2812 SMD's in pretty tight spacing. It makes for an optimal display but to get the PCB's you need to order from JLPCB or similar manufacturer. Its very expensive and takes months to get to you. 

I've heard of potential success in making PCB's using a simple CO2 laser like mine. First a coat of spraypaint is applied to the copper cladding, then a negative of the PCB traces is sent to the laser which etches off only the paint. The PCB is then dipped in a suitable acid wash like Iron(III) Chloride to remove the copper. Finally the paint can be removed with acetone. For SMD boards where I dont have to drill any thru-holes this may indeed be a viable strategy. I purchased the models for Coelacant's Protogen head a while back and all of the PCB files are in SVG format, something I can easily send to my laser cutter. 

The only other hurdle is LED placement on the board. I could potentially pull it off by hand after flowing the traces and using a heat gun, but it would take a very long time. The most practical solution would be to get an electronic parts picker. I could go out and get a dedicated picker...or... potentially, make some modifications to my 3d printer! Either way, several things need set in motion before any custom protogen faces are getting made. 

Showcase

Props

Props can act as a better base for fancy electronics due to the reduced wear and tear compared to a fursuit with flexible joints. Generally speaking, props electronic quotes should be a little cheaper than a similar quote for fursuit modification. 

The Medic gun and Miniguns were sort of a rush job before Colossalcon 2022. I Planned to originally add a drill motor to the Heavy minigun to make it spin but ran out of time very quickly. It still turned out great as a static prop though. 

Radioactive Stuff

So where'd I get this obsession with nuclear physics? Its really just the pinnacle of science. I only have a cursory understanding of it anyway, actual physicists are on a whole nother level!

My sona was originally going to be chuzzlepuff, my cosplay name. I was gonna be a pretty standard natural color jackal... but then the name came to me. Yes the name came first, randomly one day sitting in the break room of my auto shop. YELLOWCAKE. ITS PERFECT. ITS COOL. ITS CUTE. ITS RADIOACTIVE. I proceeded to quite literally design my sona as I built the fursuit. It all revolved around that name. As times gone on i've adopted the identity even more.

I started by purchasing a pretty standard beta/gamma digital detector and a few thorium samples. Eventually I decided I wanted a cooler geiger counter...*THE* geiger counter...the CD-V 700. They are from the 50's but you can get em on ebay for around 100 dollars but they need rebuilt. I ended up buying 2 along with a rebuild kit to swap parts until I had one functional counter. Now I have a few different cool cases along with a CDV715 and several dosimeters, good for if we uhh, actually get nuked. 

Any nuclear obsessed individual worth their salt has radioactive uranium glass and fiesta ware, I've also got several thorium mantles for calibration, and tritium tubes (imagine glowsticks that glow for 20 years). 

For kicks, at cons I stash sealed marked packages of thorium under my paws and in a second tongue of my fursuit. Its not harmful, but people get a kick out of it when the counter goes off near me.