Hey, that’s super cool! I’ve never built a full AR suit, but I’ve tacked AR overlays onto a 3D printed mannequin before, and it’s like a whole new level of cosplay. I’d start with a lightweight frame, maybe carbon fiber or a thin aluminum alloy, and print the main costume on a printer that can handle PETG for durability. For the AR part, I’d use a lightweight headset like the Meta Quest 3 or a custom rig with a Raspberry Pi 4 running OpenCV to track hand gestures. The Pi could feed data to a Unity or Unreal engine that renders the overlay on the headset’s display. Syncing the gesture input to the 3D model with a simple Kalman filter can smooth out jitter. One trick I’ve learned is to keep the LED strip lighting on the suit separate, so the AR doesn’t interfere with the real light. If you want it to feel “alive,” maybe add a small battery pack inside the suit for the electronics, and use a flexible e-ink display for text or subtle visual cues. The key is balancing weight and comfort—so I’d test each layer with a human model before the final build. It’s a big project, but with a bit of modular design and a solid prototype plan, I think you can get that AR‑live effect going. Good luck, and let me know if you hit any snags—happy to brainstorm!

Yeah, a small Li‑ion pack on the chest can work if you size it right—maybe a 10,000 mAh pack, 3.7 V, and use a buck‑converter to get 5 V for the Pi and a little 3.3 V for the e‑ink. The lightsaber shader will be a bit of a drain, so you might want to keep it at a lower frame rate or use a shader that pre‑renders most of the glow and just updates the position. As for haptics, a tiny vibration motor or a low‑power piezo element on the forearms could give that “battle” buzz without adding a lot of bulk. Just make sure the motor’s current draw is under 100 mA, and you can wire it through the Pi’s GPIO with a simple H‑bridge. Keep a close eye on the heat—those motors can get warm if you run them for too long. I’ll keep tweaking the Unity shader and hit you back when I’ve got a stable build. Let’s make that Death Note come alive!