Graflex 2.0 Sabers - Show your work / Talk Electronics

[JKKS]

JKKS, you should talk to your sabersmith as most can figure mods like this themselves.

Will do of course. I also noticed that Roy is providing measurements on his website for the TFA style rivets he's offering as an alternative in his Luke ESB set. Those are 3x12mm flat head rivets. Should do the trick I guess.

 

[Shoot2Thrill468]

Hi everyone!


First of all, congratulations on your beautiful Graflex sabers and keep up the good work. I'm especially looking forward to Shoot2Thrill's video series!


Like a few people here, I've chosen a Graflex 2.0 for my first build. I got all the internal component and I am just waiting for the hilt sometime in April.
I'm bench testing everything but I am having difficulties with the resistors. I'm using an 18650 3.7v Li-ion battery. The LED module is a BBW Tri Cree from Saberbay.


Following the advice of the wizard (http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz) I got a 1 ohm 2 watt resistor for each of the blue die on the module (Vf 3.1 V, If 1000 mA).
The problem is that they make the LED way too dim. The multimeter reading gives me 1 ohm.


Since, this particular LED module seems to be very popular among Graflex 2.0 owners, I thought I could ask for your input regarding this.


I'm a complete noob, so please forgive me in advance if I missed something completely obvious.


Any help would be greatly appreciated!

\

For a Tri Cree B/B/W a 1 ohm 2 Watt resistor on each blue die is the recommended value. It's always tough to gauge brightness out of the saber. Even if you put the optic on it it's still misleading. I'm also guessing your battery isn't fully charged. My first build I got a 3.7 18650 from Solo's Hold (some of the best batteries out there) and when I tested the voltage I got 3.6v so I thought I was good. Put everything together, fired it up and was getting false swings like crazy. Turned out to be a low battery. My point is they don't come fully charged and that can affect a lot. Stick with the 1 ohm 2 watt and you will be fine

 

[Shoot2Thrill468]

i test wired eerything tonight outside of the chasis and im wondering what happens when you charge it? i wired the crystal led off the main led and switch and when i plug it in to charge the crystal led dims. What do you think the problem could be?

Cheers

EVERYTHING should turn off when you plug in the charger since it completely cuts power to the entire circuit board and sends the full 4.2v of the charger directly to the battery. I'm guessing you reversed the negative wires on the recharge port. On most (not sure if all) recharge ports there is a spring tab inside that is connected to one of the three leads on the back of the recharge port. The lead connected to the spring tab is the one you want to wire the negative wire from the battery to. On the Solo's Hold recharge port the lead on the back is 180 degrees from the actual "spring tab". The lead connected to the center pin should be your positive both from the battery AND to the board. The remaining lead is the negative to the sound board.

 

[Shoot2Thrill468]

i wired the crystal led off the main led and switch and when i plug it in to charge the crystal led dims. What do you think the problem could be?

Cheers

Also, from your description I think you also have your CC LED wired improperly. If you want the crystal LED to mimic the main blade you should be taking your power from the main positive pad on the board (+), and connecting the negative to the main LED pad (L). It should look something like this.

 

[webbsy]

thats the diagram i went off well one very similar but may have flipped the positive and negative on the led so ill try that tonight and will also have a look at the recharge port, i got it fro tccs.

cheers for the help.

 

[Shoot2Thrill468]

thats the diagram i went off well one very similar but may have flipped the positive and negative on the led so ill try that tonight and will also have a look at the recharge port, i got it fro tccs.

cheers for the help.

No problem man, happy to help. Let me know how it goes.

 

[webbsy]

will do

 

[jcroscigno]

Still having a hell of a time with the bass speaker and Spark C2. Before I relent and order the 28mm railmaster, I'm trying to carve away some of the twisty rods to give more clearance for the speaker to move. I've also got the speaker seated as far back in the outer chassis as I can get it to go.

Anyone building with a bass speaker seeing this?

 

[Shoot2Thrill468]

And for anyone interested, a bunch of us on one of the Lightsaber Facebook groups were talking about how we Graflex addicts need our own place to hangout, chat and share ideas. So I did it! Come join and share in all of the Graflexy goodness!!!!


https://www.facebook.com/groups/531694840343274/

 

[Shoot2Thrill468]

Still having a hell of a time with the bass speaker and Spark C2. Before I relent and order the 28mm railmaster, I'm trying to carve away some of the twisty rods to give more clearance for the speaker to move. I've also got the speaker seated as far back in the outer chassis as I can get it to go.

Anyone building with a bass speaker seeing this?

Can you give us some pics to go by?

 

[jcroscigno]

after much trimming, this is the depth where I'm basically bottomed out in the chassis. Did a test fit and sound check and seems to be ok, so now the glue is drying. The bass speaker is impressively loud, but there's a ton of movement in the diaphragm.

 

[Fett 4 Real]

View attachment 605313
after much trimming, this is the depth where I'm basically bottomed out in the chassis. Did a test fit and sound check and seems to be ok, so now the glue is drying. The bass speaker is impressively loud, but there's a ton of movement in the diaphragm.

Speakers need to be in an enclosure...so once it's sealed up it should do much better...I kinda want to fire mine up this weekend without the hilt too lol haven't had time to get to messing with it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jcroscigno]

Speakers need to be in an enclosure...so once it's sealed up it should do much better...I kinda want to fire mine up this weekend without the hilt too lol haven't had time to get to messing with it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

In this case it wasn't so much the enclosure (which makes a HUGE difference, I agree) it was that the diaphragm was moving so far toward the crystal chamber it actually was touching the plastic. I just got that chassis closed up and it sounds good, on to finishing the rest of this build!

 

[Michel]

Thanks for your answers! It seems that my battery had a problem and was only giving out 3.2 volts without a resistor, hence the dimness of the LEDs.
I still have a bit of time to get a new one before my Graflex shows up. I'm sure I'll have more questions then.

Right now, I'm a bit curious regarding the drilling and taping process. Did you start drilling with a dremel and finish taping by hand?

 

[Sandtracker]

Thanks for your answers! It seems that my battery had a problem and was only giving out 3.2 volts without a resistor, hence the dimness of the LEDs.
I still have a bit of time to get a new one before my Graflex shows up. I'm sure I'll have more questions then.

Right now, I'm a bit curious regarding the drilling and taping process. Did you start drilling with a dremel and finish taping by hand?

This video will help with drilling and taping:
https://youtu.be/nGqiw4dorDs

 

[jcroscigno]

Thanks for your answers! It seems that my battery had a problem and was only giving out 3.2 volts without a resistor, hence the dimness of the LEDs.
I still have a bit of time to get a new one before my Graflex shows up. I'm sure I'll have more questions then.

Right now, I'm a bit curious regarding the drilling and taping process. Did you start drilling with a dremel and finish taping by hand?

My buddy has a drill press, so I used that. Hand tapped the threads with a t-wrench. Drilled bigger holes for the wire channels instead of dremeling, works the same either way as far as I can tell.

 

[lroehm]

Question about accent LED for the NBv3. I picked up a 5mm blue accent LED from Radio Shack (3.7v, 20mA). I picked it up before seeing many are using 3.3v accent LEDs instead. Can I wire this 3.7v accent LED up to either of the 3.3v pads on the NBv3? If so, would a resistor be required for this particular accent LED? I would be using it for a Graflex 2.0 build. Thanks in advance.

 

[jcroscigno]

Full Album of photos & some videos - https://goo.gl/photos/BeQrEmB5CRkDxVca7
Parts List:
Graflex 2.0 kit - Korbanth
B/rB/W Cree XPE-2 - Saberbay
7/8" heatsink - Saberbay
Spark Color 2 - Naigon
2W bass speaker - TCSS
G.O.T.H. Knight Chassis - Darth Ryo
2400mAh Trustfire battery - TCSS
7/8" Blade plug - KR Sabers

Coming Soon:
34" blade - Vader's Vault
TFA Clamp Card - Wannawanga
Replica Kobold - Wannawanga
Replica Glass Eye - The Graflex Shop
(I'll probably pick up a stand at some point too)

 

[jcroscigno]

I also want to say thank you all for making notes on this thread, and the advice/support I got from many sources, including Naigon and Darth Ryo, and forum members here.

 

[H0llyw00d]

...(I'll probably pick up a stand at some point too)

Good work, man! That Spark 2 chassis looks sweet! I didn't realize they were different based on the size of the sound board but that makes sense. Are you going to try to do a shine-through mod on the Graflex Shop glass eye? Can't wait for them to restock to give it a shot...