Luke ROTJ V2 lightsaber

[Media Man]

Just wanted to put it out there that Burroughs computer cards are close to what is on the original prop in terms of vintage clamp cards. A good thing about them is that 1- They seem to be affordable - 2 - They are common - 3 - They pre date all the original trilogy-

I've been on the search looking at different vintage circuit boards, including the arcade machine boards, and this has been my closest find.

Has the correct board ever been found yet?

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[PoopaPapaPalps]

The board and the lever are the last things on the hilt to be fully identified. Just about everything else has been nailed, though. Even the hilt's compositional material, amazingly.

 

[Media Man]

The board and the lever are the last things on the hilt to be fully identified. Just about everything else has been nailed, though. Even the hilt's compositional material, amazingly.

Wow even the material! How'd that get figured out?

 

[teecrooz]

Yeah, many many hours spent looking. This is the closest I’ve managed to come across.

 

[Media Man]

Yeah, many many hours spent looking. This is the closest I’ve managed to come across.

View attachment 1790179

Woah that's close. Do you know what board that is? Do you have one in hand?

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

Wow even the material! How'd that get figured out?

vadermania owns a cast hilt from production of Star Wars, the very same used to make the stunt/FX hilts that became the V2 and V3 respectively. It was x-ray scanned by a process called "XRF (Micro X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis)" at the Natural History Museum in Berlin (if I recall correctly), and he got a technical data sheet containing the material composition to compare to other metals.

I did a brief write up of it here in my RnD thread on my cast project. It also contains a link to the original post about the analysis made by vadermania and LOM ; two members here that really jumped the research into these things by lightyears.

 

[Media Man]

vadermania owns a cast hilt from production of Star Wars, the very same used to make the stunt/FX hilts that became the V2 and V3 respectively. It was x-ray scanned by a process called "XRF (Micro X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis)" at the Natural History Museum in Berlin (if I recall correctly), and he got a technical data sheet containing the material composition to compare to other metals.

I did a brief write up of it here in my RnD thread on my cast project. It also contains a link to the original post about the analysis made by vadermania and LOM ; two members here that really jumped the research into these things by lightyears.

pretty neat stuff

 

[thd9791]

Yeah the Burroughs aren’t very close. I’ve seen similar ones to teecrooz’s and the silver solder was very fragile, peeled right off when I cut the board lol

The prop has some heavy solder in bands that lie under the clamp edge, which I find interesting.

 

[Media Man]

Yeah the Burroughs aren’t very close. I’ve seen similar ones to teecrooz’s and the silver solder was very fragile, peeled right off when I cut the board lol

The prop has some heavy solder in bands that lie under the clamp edge, which I find interesting.

What are some of the boards people have come across so far that seem to be similar?

 

[v312]

This is what I've come across so far that seemed close and cheap enough to get

 

[Media Man]

This is what I've come across so far that seemed close and cheap enough to get
View attachment 1790533

Ah those are cool as well. What board is that?

 

[v312]

Ah those are cool as well. What board is that?

The cut piece was from some broken arcade game. The other boards probably Cincinnati Milacron

 

[Media Man]

Not perfect but closer. Star Wars Atari game ironically, 1983 :/

 

[Media Man]

How about this one

 

[Media Man]

Atari PCBs have been the closest I've found so far. Online catalogs of the boards have blurry pictures but there are quite a few listings on eBay of vintage Atari boards that are close. The search is still on! A thing to note is that filming for ROTJ started in May of 1982 .

 

[v312]

Atari PCBs don't seem to have gold contacts. I think a lot of members have already looked into them with no success. Don't mean to discourage you from looking though, especially with ebay it is a matter of luck to make the right search at the right time.

 

[Media Man]

Atari PCBs don't seem to have gold contacts. I think a lot of members have already looked into them with no success. Don't mean to discourage you from looking though, especially with ebay it is a matter of luck to make the right search at the right time.

Noted, thank you . I ordered that second board for only $25 just as a place holder vintage board so I'll see what it looks like in person.

 

[thd9791]

I have only ever seen one arcade board with gold traces and it didn't have very many silver leads. The search continues but you're in the right ballpark. Well-made boards of that era have those solder dots it seems

 

[BRRogers]

Have to chime in too- Obviously keep looking at your leisure!
During the video tech boom... which frankly was more of a component and manufacturing boom in the 70s-80s a lot of the boards are very (for lack of a better word) 'incestuous'. Manufacturers across regions and international manufacturing were trading secrets, processes, component rights, techniques, (even patent holding employees) at an alarming rate... and pcb manufacturing process were copied and repeated notoriously... not necessarily due to standardization but rather lack of regulation. Honestly... that's why looking at vintage pcbs IS such a mess.
One really has to hone in on a very specific manufacturer, timeframe, product genre that *exactly* matches... and basically find out who was making those- then figure out if that is an offshoot of a product or a process that was specific for the *that factory*. That was the case with the Casio LC-785... and some of the other reasearch on PCB elements from that timeframe (relevant for the Rotj V2)

The difficulty is noting that this boom created hundreds- thousands- hundreds of thousands of end user products... all unique
That said- treat the search like a"warmer, colder" game.
If you find something similar but get colder as you look at more examples from the timeframe/ manufacturer.. that's worth shelving.

That said. As I understand (until more photos surface)
The V2 pcb is a green soldermask backed plain FR4 board with a hint of copper layering underneath, so multi process and probably complex operation atypical of basic consumer products.
HEAVY gold traces indicate a high quality board with a need for durable connections and reliability (elements uncommon for 1983 or prior arcade games)
Tin coated traces are normal but filled (tented) vias indicate *again* durability and reliability of connection between a multilayer board.

The OTIS boards were in an elevator... a very simple board function but incorporated a lot of elements described above for the purpose of... reliability, movement, longevity...

Keep all that in mind - so... not saying it isn't an arcade game board but it probably isnt

 

[thd9791]

Have to chime in too- Obviously keep looking at your leisure!
During the video tech boom... which frankly was more of a component and manufacturing boom in the 70s-80s a lot of the boards are very (for lack of a better word) 'incestuous'. Manufacturers across regions and international manufacturing were trading secrets, processes, component rights, techniques, (even patent holding employees) at an alarming rate... and pcb manufacturing process were copied and repeated notoriously... not necessarily due to standardization but rather lack of regulation. Honestly... that's why looking at vintage pcbs IS such a mess.
One really has to hone in on a very specific manufacturer, timeframe, product genre that *exactly* matches... and basically find out who was making those- then figure out if that is an offshoot of a product or a process that was specific for the *that factory*. That was the case with the Casio LC-785... and some of the other reasearch on PCB elements from that timeframe (relevant for the Rotj V2)

The difficulty is noting that this boom created hundreds- thousands- hundreds of thousands of end user products... all unique
That said- treat the search like a"warmer, colder" game.
If you find something similar but get colder as you look at more examples from the timeframe/ manufacturer.. that's worth shelving.

That said. As I understand (until more photos surface)
The V2 pcb is a green soldermask backed plain FR4 board with a hint of copper layering underneath, so multi process and probably complex operation atypical of basic consumer products.
HEAVY gold traces indicate a high quality board with a need for durable connections and reliability (elements uncommon for 1983 or prior arcade games)
Tin coated traces are normal but filled (tented) vias indicate *again* durability and reliability of connection between a multilayer board.

The OTIS boards were in an elevator... a very simple board function but incorporated a lot of elements described above for the purpose of... reliability, movement, longevity...

Keep all that in mind - so... not saying it isn't an arcade game board but it probably isnt

Wow! Thank you for this, I had a feeling.

For the newbies out there, I get so many questions, the Otis boards are not screen accurate, they weren’t used in any SW film.

Even closer I’ve found Clare relays and the metal was REALLY high temp solder, I tried to reshape the tinning a little and failed. Those are industrial as far as I know.