Luke ROTJ Lightsaber Hero - Norank Eng, Elstree, innards, etc.

[Anakin Starkiller]

Yep, they made more than a few knock offs and tried to pass them off as genuine.

 

[thd9791]

I don't think that there's any evidence that Norank Engineering made this prop. It doesn't seem to appear in any of the UK shoots. I think that the Norank Engineering idea just came from "Elstee Props" who have been hawking phonies for years and wanted to give their replicas some degree of legitimacy.

From what I've seen, this prop looks like it was made in the USA for the Yuma shoots, then modified by ILM for pickup shots, which may have well been done stateside.

Thank you - I feel better with someone else doubting that. I'm a little young, at 27, was tech tiny enough to program the blinky thing and cram it and watch batteries in that 2 by.5" box in 1983? I feel like just 5 years prior they had batteries outside props, so I pictured a couple AAs being in the body

Cool diodes, sure look like right as thd9791 says can be seen in his pic, right below the switch Mark H can be seen disguisedly using in the clip - next to the red dot.

View attachment 1009938

Nice one! Yea, if its the same board, that would be where Mark clicked and it turned on

 

[thd9791]

Those Elstree fakes might help our argument, they can't seem to get it close enough to fake it!

 

[Ridire Firean]

I don't know if you're being serious about this?

Hey Mouse Vader ! Don't call me Shirley. And yes, they are very difficult to find. Panasonic has made some: Red, Green, and Yellow. I have one that I bought from Digikey, or was it Mouser, this headache I have won't let me think straight, hold on...

Digikey... LNG312GKG Panasonic Electronic Components | Optoelectronics | DigiKey

Mouser has this one... https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetai...=sGAEpiMZZMuCm2JlHBGefn/LkibD1bsSjQOIoJUuY9s=

I didn't get the Lumex one because the datasheet specs showed it to be the wrong shape and too small in size to be corrected.

The Panasonic one is closer to being an isosceles triangle but still needs a bit of sanding to be true. The color is also off, it's more yellow-green than grass green when lit, and looks like Coke-Glass.

The ones in James Kenobi 1138 's photos look like the ones from KR. They're isosceles, but slightly too big.

Hey James Kenobi 1138 ! Do you have any photos you could share of yours lit up?

Where was I... brains, brains, BRAINS! Oh yeah, so they're difficult to find, if that's what they actually were. I've scoured through a couple of A/V sites that have hundreds of photos of tapedecks, answering machines, etc. trying to find 'em, but no luck yet.

I'm more willing to bet that the prop was made using a found part, rather than a part made specifically for this piece. It's probably some wildly obscure part like the UP/DOWN indicator on an airliner dumbwaiter.

It could also be that someone made a sketch in the art department that had arrows on the activation box and someone in the prop department simply filed down 5mm LEDs to match the artist's sketch.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a lightsaber-mystery-part-pop? The world may never know.

 

[Ridire Firean]

was tech tiny enough to program the blinky thing and cram it and watch batteries in that 2 by.5" box in 1983?

Hey thd9791 ! Yes young padawan, tech was tiny enough to hide behind your ear as early as 1956. Think hearing aids and their batteries.

This "Thanks for the feel old yet? moment" is sponsored in part by Eveready, makers of the first miniature batteries for hearing aids.

 

[Mouse Vader]

I'd presume the circuit used the ubiquitous (wow spelt that right 1st time) 555 ic timer chip - invented 1971 with a watch battery, little slidy switch & small momentary push button to swap the output from green to red & back on release. All kicking about in 1980's. I know man I was there! (all be it somewhat younger).

I'm willing to go with you for an 'on hand' part for Triangle LED - the obscurity matches so much else with these things. Thanks for the info, I'll keep my eyes open round the charity shops.