My intention is to build in a speaker with a triggered sound file or two (perhaps with the actuator running down my sleeve), and add some blinking LED's etc, as well as painting it black and adding more hoses for aesthetics.
Any thoughts on what I can use for the sound-player module, and how best to go about installing and powering a couple battery-powered LED's? There is a little space inside the helmet for electronics and batteries, but not a ton.
I"m a new maker wannabe, and this is my first go... any help is appreciated!!
My first thought would be one of those programmable sound recorder ICs like are used in greeting cards. Radio Shack also marketed a sound recorder/playback IC a number of years ago (although I kind of doubt that it's still marketed, but it may be worth researching).
Failing those, there were some very primitive speech producing IC chips that could be controlled from a microcontroller. I haven't looked at those things in about 20 years, but I would hope that they're still available. They used to be used in various "talking" instrumentation, and had a really eerie "robot-like" voice.