Many of my coworkers saw me wearing an Iron Man helmet at work last week. Many of my followers on LinkedIn saw my Halloween post featuring the helmet. This article is the story behind it. Yes, there will be leadership lessons, as always.

Three months ago, my 16-year-old son, Caleb, asked me if he could buy a 3D printer with his own money. I wasn’t surprised by his request. For years, he’s been following several science and engineering YouTubers such as Hacksmith, Stuff Made Here, Smarter Every Day, Veritasium, Mark Rober, and others. We often watch them together as a family.

After researching the best printer that would fit his budget, he bought an Ender-3 V2 3D Printer.

He spent most of his free time in the next two months learning the art and science of 3D printing. There’s a lot to it. He augmented his 3D printer with 3D-printed parts to make it more functional and reliable. He made prints from public designs on MakerBot Thingiverse. He learned how to scale, slice, orient, and support 3D models using Ultimaker Cura.

Most notably, he didn’t learn any of this from me. He figured it out. I’ve never 3D printed anything. I’ve never used any of these tools or resources.

About a month ago, he decided to do something ambitious. He was inspired by YouTuber Frankly Built to build a fully functional, motorized, and lit Iron Man helmet.

This required mastery of the 3D printing lessons he had learned so far, and much more. It turns out, that printing the helmet parts, while not easy, was the easiest part. From there, he learned how to join 3D-printed pieces together, fill, sand, prime, and paint. He did all of this on his own.

Next up was the electronics. We sourced the MG90S servos, LEDs, limit switch, and Arduino Nano microcontroller. Caleb reached out and asked for my help with the wiring and soldering. He probably could have figured it out but wanted a second set of eyes on the wiring diagram, and a second set of hands soldering the delicate connections.

Testing

After all of that work, it didn’t work. Not at all.

Troubleshooting

We double-checked the wiring, and it all seemed good. I asked him how he programmed the Arduino.

He said that he downloaded the code from GitHub, compiled it in the Arduino IDE, and loaded it onto the Arduino microcontroller. I asked him to show me. We retraced his steps and determined that the code was not uploading to the Arduino. It wasn’t throwing any useful error messages, but it also wasn’t showing any confirmation of success. We decided that was the root cause.

Community

I explained to him that GitHub isn’t just a repository, it’s a community. I asked him to go back there and describe his issue to the project contributors. They responded immediately and invited him to their Discord channel, where he posted his problem.

Meanwhile, I was troubleshooting too, and learning more about the Arduino community. I tried a bunch of things that I thought might work. I tried installing the IDE on a different computer. I tried updating to the latest IDE patches and device firmware. None of that changed the outcome.

We were about to give up, thinking we accidentally fried the board with the soldering pencil. Then we found a relevant post in an obscure support forum. Someone suggested using an older bootloader if the Arduino was manufactured before 2018. I had no idea when it was manufactured, but I knew it was the cheapest price on Amazon. So, that suggestion was worth a shot.

Caleb and I were side-by-side when we recompiled the code using an older bootloader. In a glorious moment, the LED eyes on the helmet came to life. Success!

Contribute back

Caleb was ready to move on with the finishing touches, but I told him to stop. He had to contribute the solution back to the community. The code was free on GitHub. He had a responsibility to share his learnings with others.

He wrote up the steps to solve the problem, took screenshots, and posted them to his original thread. He even found a similar thread with the unsolved problem and posted his solution there too. It wasn’t long before he received a few notes of gratitude from others that were dealing with the same problem.

After that, he learned to modify the code, customizing it to his preferences. He also came up with the design idea of placing the limit switch in the chin area to actuate the open/close mechanism.

On display

I wore the Iron Man helmet to work for our Halloween costume contest. My objective was to draw attention to his accomplishment. I didn’t buy this helmet at Target. My son made it. Everyone who saw it was impressed.

Feedback

On Halloween night, Caleb wore the helmet as he strolled the neighborhood with his siblings. Each stop was an opportunity to demonstrate the mechanics and talk about the process he went through to create it. It was a special moment for me to see my son receive positive reinforcement from countless adults on Halloween night. He is quiet and not used to drawing that much attention.

The number one question he received was, “Where’s the rest of the suit?” They asked that with full confidence, given enough time, he could certainly make that happen.

Leadership Lessons

1. YouTube isn’t always a waste of time. There’s some great stuff out there. Check out the links above.
2. The key to motivation is Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. Caleb chose his project. I didn’t assign it. Caleb taught himself the skills he needed. The upcoming Halloween holiday provided the purpose to stretch his abilities.
3. Support. While Caleb bought the 3D printer and most of the materials, I helped with the sourcing. When he got overwhelmed with wiring, I lent a hand. When he got stuck, I helped. When you are working with top talent, remember what they need from leadership. They need support, resources, and encouragement. They can do the rest themselves.
4. Contribute to the community. None of us are succeeding alone. We all rely on a community of others that contribute to others for free. This leadership blog is my example. Caleb’s Discord post was his. What’s yours?
5. Show it off. I had to push past my shy inhibitions to wear an Iron Man helmet to work. Many are used to seeing me do that by now, but I still need to muster the confidence. Caleb had to do the same thing when demoing his creation to a bunch of neighbors. That’s part of the deal. Creative works that sit on the shelf do not change the world. Leaders need to make the leap and put their work out in the public sphere. That’s the only way to get feedback and improve. That’s the only way to make a difference.

I hope you enjoyed this article. I’m a proud father. I’m not just proud of what Caleb created, but how he got there. It gives me immense joy to share this story with all of you.

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