It camera also adds bubblestrips.
That, or the scanner takes them away :lol
Lightsaber calc bubbles
- Thread starter Clutch
- Start date
That, or the scanner takes them away :lol
Sym-Cha
Master Member
Hi everyone,
I spend several hours in the studio today and I hope I can upload my shots of my Exactra 19 and TI-2000 (Made in Italy). Okay that works!
Don't know yet how to upload them here Full Size? :confused
However I could not resist withholding my hard work from you any longer.
Enjoy ...
See what I mean with not exactly round, guys :confused
Chaim
Have a good weekend
I spend several hours in the studio today and I hope I can upload my shots of my Exactra 19 and TI-2000 (Made in Italy). Okay that works!
Don't know yet how to upload them here Full Size? :confused
However I could not resist withholding my hard work from you any longer.
Enjoy ...
See what I mean with not exactly round, guys :confused
Chaim
Have a good weekend
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The bubbles are not perfect circles, they overlap eachother except the ones on the ends.
Parks old version was clear circle bubble 'stickers' that attach to a metal plate. His newer ones are inaccutate in bubble size, shape, and it's a continuous stream of bubbles cut-off at seven.
Even MR got is wrong. The Luke and Obi sabers are great, but on the Vader they should be cut between bubble 6 and 7 to fit the clamp, not equally spaced with only 6 bubbles.
Blast-tech has the closest in size/shape/accuracy, but even his are lacking compared to a real bubble strip.
Here's one of my real bubble strips in action.
Parks old version was clear circle bubble 'stickers' that attach to a metal plate. His newer ones are inaccutate in bubble size, shape, and it's a continuous stream of bubbles cut-off at seven.
Even MR got is wrong. The Luke and Obi sabers are great, but on the Vader they should be cut between bubble 6 and 7 to fit the clamp, not equally spaced with only 6 bubbles.
Blast-tech has the closest in size/shape/accuracy, but even his are lacking compared to a real bubble strip.
Here's one of my real bubble strips in action.
Sym-Cha
Master Member
Thanks James and Clutch,
Sofar all of you who posted pictures here with real calculator bubbles have confirmed what I suspected. Since this is about the activator switch of the lightsaber I wanted to demonstrate by means of light :love that probably in the casting process of the bubbles it was not necessary to make them completely half-spherical for their purpose in the Exactra.
If you look closely at these close-ups you can see this clearly. See where I added the red arrows. This is on both sides of the bubbles.
All I want to know : Is there any of you who has a bubbles strip which doesn't have the edges shaved of a bit.
If not ... then I would like to conclude that this is the way those bubbles were manufactured. :rolleyes
Last question just out of curiosity : If I could get someone to remake/cast those exact calculator bubbles as used in the TI Exactra 19 and TI 2000 by using one of my originals ... how many of you, who can't afford or get their hands on a real vintage calculator from the bay, would be interested? :confused
Of course you would have to modify them yourselves as shown at the beginning of this thread by Clutch!
Chaim
Sofar all of you who posted pictures here with real calculator bubbles have confirmed what I suspected. Since this is about the activator switch of the lightsaber I wanted to demonstrate by means of light :love that probably in the casting process of the bubbles it was not necessary to make them completely half-spherical for their purpose in the Exactra.
If you look closely at these close-ups you can see this clearly. See where I added the red arrows. This is on both sides of the bubbles.
All I want to know : Is there any of you who has a bubbles strip which doesn't have the edges shaved of a bit.
If not ... then I would like to conclude that this is the way those bubbles were manufactured. :rolleyes
Last question just out of curiosity : If I could get someone to remake/cast those exact calculator bubbles as used in the TI Exactra 19 and TI 2000 by using one of my originals ... how many of you, who can't afford or get their hands on a real vintage calculator from the bay, would be interested? :confused
Of course you would have to modify them yourselves as shown at the beginning of this thread by Clutch!
Chaim
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if they come out good i would like 1 or 2
There is something in the works right now, I don't want to say too much but hopefully something soon for those wanting better, more accurate bubble strips. I'll say more as things progress.
lonepigeon
Master Member
The Vader ESB/ROTJ Hero saber still has the circuit board intact under the bubble strip. Not sure about the others.
Pics from the archived thread...
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=40270
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Darth Lars
Master Member
I have an intact Exactra 20. The bubbles have flattened sides and the areas around the bubbles is frosted.
The LED circuit board looks like the one on Sym-Cha's TI-2000, except that roughly the three millimeters on the circuit board's lower edge are blue. The underside has the same paint: the green starts at 4 mm from the lower edge.
It looks as if the green color comes from a paint/film that has been painted on as insulator.
I don't know if there is green paint/film under the bubbles, because I have not removed them and it is difficult to determine by seeing through them.
The LED circuit board looks like the one on Sym-Cha's TI-2000, except that roughly the three millimeters on the circuit board's lower edge are blue. The underside has the same paint: the green starts at 4 mm from the lower edge.
It looks as if the green color comes from a paint/film that has been painted on as insulator.
I don't know if there is green paint/film under the bubbles, because I have not removed them and it is difficult to determine by seeing through them.
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Sym-Cha
Master Member
Well James,
It seems that customers are lining up already. I am very anxious to see your efforts.
Please take note of the flattened edges when replicating ... now that it has been established to be accurate indeed.
Keep up the good work!
Chaim
Well James,
It seems that customers are lining up already. I am very anxious to see your efforts.
Please take note of the flattened edges when replicating ... now that it has been established to be accurate indeed.
Keep up the good work!
Chaim
I'm providing a real bubble strip to someone here on the RPF to be cast up un-modified in clear acrylic I believe. It's from an IT 20, not the 19. I'll let him chime in if he wants, or wait until there is more progress to show. I'm driving it up to his shop tomorrow.
When I get home I'll check my 'Luke toe pic' shot and see if I can tell if the original Luke ANH had the circle bubbles or the flattened edges version.
Yeah, I made that avatar to play along with everyones joke about me.
defstartrooper
Sr Member
Interested in acrylic copies.
Sym-Cha
Master Member
Hi James,
I took the liberty of asking Joerg Woerner of the Datamath Calculator Museum the same question as posted here earlier. And here is some revealing news. I hope you will read this before you see your guy tomorrow perhaps you can put it to some good use.
Here's what Joerg said about the process of making the original TI calculator bubbles :
Hello Chaim,
Good observations – now I can really apply some knowledge I aquired
I’m an engineer at Leuze electronic and our products always combine electronics and optics. Most of our products use plastic molded lenses, something I know about!
The Exactra lenses are plastic molded parts and tooling is not easy. A tool is either cheap or has good optical surfaces. But we need for the Exactra only a small portion “optical quality”, the remaining part is just for easy handling and fixture on the PCB. What they did is a cheap tool for the part with a so-called insert for the lens surfaces. An additional part of polished steel “inserted” into the cheap “main tool”. What you observe is the “dividing line” between these two parts of the tool. They used probably one tool with two different inserts, 9 bubbles and 7 bubbles. Frozen or not? Easy, too: Sometimes depending on where or when it was manufactured, the toolmakers choose a rough surface of the non-optical parts of the tool.
Greetings from New York,
Regards,
Joerg
So it seems that all the calculator bubbles real and replicated should have flattened edges!
Lots of success with replicating your Exactra 20 James.
Chaim
P.S. At least I know that Joerg would be very pleased if no more still functioning Exactra's were destroyed when there's a perfectly goodlooking replica that would please all of us just the same as the real thing hence the reason why mine are still intact even both my Graflex Flashguns haven't been modified into lightsabers .... yet :angel :confused ... but they will be ... they will be :lol
I took the liberty of asking Joerg Woerner of the Datamath Calculator Museum the same question as posted here earlier. And here is some revealing news. I hope you will read this before you see your guy tomorrow perhaps you can put it to some good use.
Here's what Joerg said about the process of making the original TI calculator bubbles :
Hello Chaim,
Good observations – now I can really apply some knowledge I aquired
I’m an engineer at Leuze electronic and our products always combine electronics and optics. Most of our products use plastic molded lenses, something I know about!
The Exactra lenses are plastic molded parts and tooling is not easy. A tool is either cheap or has good optical surfaces. But we need for the Exactra only a small portion “optical quality”, the remaining part is just for easy handling and fixture on the PCB. What they did is a cheap tool for the part with a so-called insert for the lens surfaces. An additional part of polished steel “inserted” into the cheap “main tool”. What you observe is the “dividing line” between these two parts of the tool. They used probably one tool with two different inserts, 9 bubbles and 7 bubbles. Frozen or not? Easy, too: Sometimes depending on where or when it was manufactured, the toolmakers choose a rough surface of the non-optical parts of the tool.
Greetings from New York,
Regards,
Joerg
So it seems that all the calculator bubbles real and replicated should have flattened edges!
Lots of success with replicating your Exactra 20 James.
Chaim
P.S. At least I know that Joerg would be very pleased if no more still functioning Exactra's were destroyed when there's a perfectly goodlooking replica that would please all of us just the same as the real thing hence the reason why mine are still intact even both my Graflex Flashguns haven't been modified into lightsabers .... yet :angel :confused ... but they will be ... they will be :lol
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I dropped my bubble strip off today. It does indeed have the flat edges ! Very hard to notice unless you're looking for them.
Caster is concerned at shrinkage but the acrylic he's going to use has a crazy-small shrinkage rate and he's hopeful the cast and pulls will be fantastic. If I find out more, or he chimes in, more info to follow.
Caster is concerned at shrinkage but the acrylic he's going to use has a crazy-small shrinkage rate and he's hopeful the cast and pulls will be fantastic. If I find out more, or he chimes in, more info to follow.
James, I know it’s a little early but do you have any idea on price range and the size of the run?
