This has been a long crazy process with lots of failures along the way. What started this:
-The 2021 Ghostbusters Afterlife movie renewed my love for the franchise
-Hasbro released their Proton Pack Haslab crowd funded campaign
-I missed the campaign and had to buy off ebay right after it started arriving a peoples houses because it looked so awesome
-I got the wand first, then the pack
-I loved it the way it was and knew I was just going to put an A.L.I.C.E. Frame on it but that was all I thought I was going to do
-It was really bothering me that the pack shut off after 5 minutes and the wand shut off after 30 seconds
-It also really bothered me that sound wasn’t very loud
-I started to see videos and posts about people modifying the pack to both make it sound louder and to keep it on all the time
This all officially led me down the rabbit hole of modifications and upgrades using Facebook Groups, GBFans.com forum posts, reference photos, Etsy, YouTube, and Instagram
I ultimately started my mod journey by getting the best Always-On mod made, which I happened to win in one of his contests. The Groundhog mod from Noah Voiding (playday_tng). It kept the pack alive forever by flipping a switch mounted in the extra switch spot in the pack that hasbro left. I also added a Talentcell battery instead of the D Cells so it was rechargeable.
Next was sound. This does require replacing the hose loom between pack and wand as well. This is were all went wrong. My Electrical Engineering skills were very rusty and I never was very good at it. It’s why I never went into that field. This build has ultimately made me more confident in my Engeineering skills.
-I originally wanted to connect both the Wand and the Pack to the same bluetooth speaker. I bought the speaker I wanted to use and decided to
try my idea. I was going to have the pack go out of the left and the wand go out of the right speakers inside the bluetooth speaker. This would
work by connecting both to a 3.5mm aux jack. Well the grounds are different on the pack and wand so I ended up blowing out the wands audio
chip.
-After getting a warranty replacement from Hasbro I decided to use a small mixer circuit board to do what I wanted instead. OMG, tons of
troubleshooting occurred with that. Buzzing noises, humming when the vibrate motor turned on, strange distortion sounds, and 2 more burnt
out wands. My dad and I used an oscilloscope and separate power supplies for the pack and audio board and never could get it to work right.
-After the last burnt out wand I finally decided that 1 speaker wasn’t a good idea anymore. I will go to a 2 speaker solution (1 for the pack and 1
for wand and technically 3 speakers because a third speaker for music). I decided that Noah Voiding (playday_tng), has modded so many of
these wands that I would ask him for help with my wand. I got so freaked out about breaking it again. He agreed, soldered the power/sound
wires to the wand board, got the connector on the end of my wand to connect to my new hose put into the wand end, and installed his new
Always-On mod called the MPB (Mother Puss Bucket). This one adds 2 switches in the wand (1 controls pack and 1 controls wand always-on
modes). This replaced my Groundhog mod.
Then it was all the external mods. Grips, Ribbon Cables, stickers, new wiring, Clippards, metal motherboard, smoke kit, etc. I just kept finding more and more and built it the way I wanted it.
Everything was great but the bluetooth speakers I was using didn’t last very long on a battery. I finally decided as the GPstar kit finally became available that it’s time to pull the trigger on it. It replaced my entire audio and always-on system with a full electronics replacement. It was the best decision I ever made!!
Then all the external modifications. This was a massive rabbit hole and you will see on the Modifications page the gigantic list of them that I did to make the pack look the way I wanted. It even got me to get back into CAD design for 1 part of the project and had my work 3D printed and shipped with every one of Noah Voiding (playday_tng)'s Smoke Kits. It's a replacement N-Filter Cone because the original hits the Smoke Kit fan. Some of these aren't available anymore but that brings us to present day. I still have a few things I want to do but overall it’s complete!!.
The final weight is 25 lbs
This shows the circuit I ended up with that worked for a while before I ended up with the GPstar solution
It consisted of the original Hasbro electronics, a Talent Cell battery pack, 2 JBL GO2 speakers with volume controls to get the level right, a new loom hose with audio and power running through it, and Noah's MPB Always-On Mod inside the Wand
This shows the final circuit for the GPstar Kit. This is all the component from the Batteries, GPstar boards, WavTriggers, Smoke Kit parts, Speakers, Amplifiers, WiFi Board, etc
NOTE: This is oriented looking at the pack as if the motherboard is open and you are working on the inside of the pack and is missing all the wiring for the lights, vibration motors, and other stock elements. This is just the additions
For reference:
Red/Orange Lines with White Squares is Power
Purple Lines with Pink Squares is Data
Green Lines with Yellow Squares is Audio
Red Ovals are Batteries
Blue Boxes/Circles are all the Controller Boards
Green Boxes/Circles are Audio Boards/Speakers
Hasbro Haslab Plasma Series Spengler’s Proton Pack
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Hasbro Plasma Series Spengler’s Neutrona Wand Afterlife
These were the original units purchased. The wand I bought directly from Hasbro while the pack I missed the Haslab campaign so I had to buy off ebay
The guy that sold me the pack was an early backer so he got the green slime attachments as well as the marshmallow ones. My slime/marshmallow attachments are inside the cabinet I carry my pack around with while the mini-pufts are on a display in my living room
From here the pack is about to change drastically
