I just remembered EDC Armory screwed me over on some thrust bearings years ago! I was going to update the Larbel Ep ! Mace saber I had! I forgot about that for years until this post! 
Request for reference, discussion. Prequel and clan sabers.
- Thread starter thd9791
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Check out updates on the Lens Hood here:
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Also I believe I have the right kind of LED... going to do some more research, there are other colors but not only does this have the right bezel, but it changes color depending on how you look at it.
2 or 3 new PT Lightsaber Parts IDENTIFIED!
Hey everybody, I'm super excited to get to write that a couple Prequel Lightsaber parts have been newly identified! The first is the silver button on the Maul saber, which also appears on a number of Prequel Trilogy sabers, sometimes in black, sometimes in silver, and always paired with the...
www.therpf.com
Also I believe I have the right kind of LED... going to do some more research, there are other colors but not only does this have the right bezel, but it changes color depending on how you look at it.
I want to thank lonepigeon for help on this one! Those little LEDs have been bothering me for some time. The bezel is REALLY thin and the bulb pokes waaayyyy out on some sabers. Almost an unnecessary amount, see here from the Lightsaber PDF guidebook and other images gracefully provided in this thread
The greeblies are made by Bulgin LTD. Well, they're not technically ordinary LEDs, they are considered sealed displays, and are a very well made piece of equipment. They are still sold today, through multiple industrial parts suppliers and they were even sold through RS Components. They are rather expensive, but not rare by any means. They are composed of a plastic contact section, and a long glass LED, sealed inside an aluminum casing with (probably) specifically graded O rings.
On the props you can see Green, Yellow, etc. but if it's not color added in photo editing, then what you are seeing is the plastic color-coded contact at the rear of the unit. The LED itself acts as a magnifying glass, bending and refracting light from inside the unit, so depending on how you look at the display, it changes color. I think this is kind of neat.
There is no outward color to the LED itself, which is confusing to me for a few reasons. If there is any color visible, that means the full length (or most) of the unit is intact. That would prevent the glass from protruding at all! The items are installed from the back and the LED has a flange at the bottom trapping an O -ing against a ridge in the case.
Since the spec sheets out there don't include cross diagrams, I sacrificed a display to see what the prop makers would have experienced. I did not just slice the thing open like they probably did, I wanted to see all the components in there. Instead, I sacrificed the plastic insert at the back, drilling it out because it was such soft plastic I couldn't twist it out. (no threading)
You'll notice the LED is missing its flange. I drilled blindly and ended up drilling off the bottom of the LED, and found the O-ring underneath. I suppose you could whack the whole unit out from the front, which would leave everything intact, but I'd be worried about cracking the glass.
These are rough measurements, including eyeball comparisons instead of just calculating (in case the axis isn't parallel to the camera)
the longest greeblie seems to have 3.5mm of around 8.5mm long glass sticking out. (so, roughly 8.5-3.5 is 4mm deep, including the bezel height. This is also between threads 3 and 4 on the bezel body....) basically the O ring ridge is 5mm down, so it probably fell out when they sliced the aluminum casing, leaving the LED to slide around loose, so they maybe drilled a general hole to set the LED in with glue, leaving it a little proud, now that the O ring couldn't hold it in place anymore. This would result in the different heights we see.
If they sliced the threading of the bezel and implanted a section of it, the LED would just sit in the saber at whatever depth they made for it. If they only cut the bezel ring, then they drilled a shallow hole to bury the ring and drilled for the LED at a random depth. Anything cut shorter than 5mm has no O ring to hold it in place anymore!
Anyway, I believe these are stuck around the Obi Wan TPM saber as well. They had plenty of glass to grind flat, and probably used some of the threading to implant those into the emitter.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
The greeblies are made by Bulgin LTD. Well, they're not technically ordinary LEDs, they are considered sealed displays, and are a very well made piece of equipment. They are still sold today, through multiple industrial parts suppliers and they were even sold through RS Components. They are rather expensive, but not rare by any means. They are composed of a plastic contact section, and a long glass LED, sealed inside an aluminum casing with (probably) specifically graded O rings.
On the props you can see Green, Yellow, etc. but if it's not color added in photo editing, then what you are seeing is the plastic color-coded contact at the rear of the unit. The LED itself acts as a magnifying glass, bending and refracting light from inside the unit, so depending on how you look at the display, it changes color. I think this is kind of neat.
There is no outward color to the LED itself, which is confusing to me for a few reasons. If there is any color visible, that means the full length (or most) of the unit is intact. That would prevent the glass from protruding at all! The items are installed from the back and the LED has a flange at the bottom trapping an O -ing against a ridge in the case.
Since the spec sheets out there don't include cross diagrams, I sacrificed a display to see what the prop makers would have experienced. I did not just slice the thing open like they probably did, I wanted to see all the components in there. Instead, I sacrificed the plastic insert at the back, drilling it out because it was such soft plastic I couldn't twist it out. (no threading)
You'll notice the LED is missing its flange. I drilled blindly and ended up drilling off the bottom of the LED, and found the O-ring underneath. I suppose you could whack the whole unit out from the front, which would leave everything intact, but I'd be worried about cracking the glass.
These are rough measurements, including eyeball comparisons instead of just calculating (in case the axis isn't parallel to the camera)
the longest greeblie seems to have 3.5mm of around 8.5mm long glass sticking out. (so, roughly 8.5-3.5 is 4mm deep, including the bezel height. This is also between threads 3 and 4 on the bezel body....) basically the O ring ridge is 5mm down, so it probably fell out when they sliced the aluminum casing, leaving the LED to slide around loose, so they maybe drilled a general hole to set the LED in with glue, leaving it a little proud, now that the O ring couldn't hold it in place anymore. This would result in the different heights we see.
If they sliced the threading of the bezel and implanted a section of it, the LED would just sit in the saber at whatever depth they made for it. If they only cut the bezel ring, then they drilled a shallow hole to bury the ring and drilled for the LED at a random depth. Anything cut shorter than 5mm has no O ring to hold it in place anymore!
Anyway, I believe these are stuck around the Obi Wan TPM saber as well. They had plenty of glass to grind flat, and probably used some of the threading to implant those into the emitter.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
Absolutely! Again, I think what we're looking at is an accident. If you cut them shorter, and lose the O-ring, you can't control how much the glass pokes out, and would have to guestimate and put them back in, leaving them protruding different amounts. There's no way I know to make them stick out without disassembling them, they're sealed!
Mara Jade's Father
Master Member
The only color you see is refracted from the plastic connector at the back of the display. All the bulbs are clear glass, and when modified for a saber, you won't see any color. Technically when the display lights up, the LED is of a colored variety
The glass does act like a magnifier, so you can see in some of my photos a red tint to the red LED if you look at them at an angle. After gutting them, I found the glass to be clear
So these are the very same LEDs that I alluded to in my Obi TPM saber post, however after doing some perspective matching between my 3D model (which included these LEDs) and some high resolution photos of the hero saber, I have concluded that the bezels on these are a little too short. They are still the closest option available today that I’ve been able to find.
Do you have any comparisons or shots to show the difference? Id love to know if we have more to hunt. I've seen 1 or 2 saber bodies with slightly different bezels, maybe a little taller, but they also tilt towards the camera.
It's an interesting thing finding these parts, I have half a mind that the more complicated things get, the less plausible it is. I was thrilled to find the LED just fall out when I broke it open, finally explained the tall bulbs
I the early-mid 2000s I bought a Parks Obi-Wan TPM saber, I think it was 2006 or 2007. His version originally had dome-head allen bolts where the LEDs were supposed to be. Someone on the RPF was selling almost-accurate LEDs and I bought 3 to upgrade my saber.
I removed the allen bolts and added the LEDs.
I removed the allen bolts and added the LEDs.
I have a set of these! They are still sold through ebay UK and are very close. The bezels are not a match for the weird conical thin ones on these Ep. 1 props
Albeit, they look great lol
I got this from Bulgin today. (about the units being sealed displays)
" Our DX1093 series indicators are however, splash resistant to IP66. The LED itself is bare and protrudes through an opening in the body but there is a rubber seal around the base of the LED and around the base of the bezel. The ‘IP’ refers to ‘Ingress Protection’ and the numbers designate the level of that protection. The first digit is the amount of dust protection and the second is for liquids. In this case these indicators are splash resistant for direct jet sprays of water. Attached is a chart that details what those ratings mean. I hope this helps."
" Our DX1093 series indicators are however, splash resistant to IP66. The LED itself is bare and protrudes through an opening in the body but there is a rubber seal around the base of the LED and around the base of the bezel. The ‘IP’ refers to ‘Ingress Protection’ and the numbers designate the level of that protection. The first digit is the amount of dust protection and the second is for liquids. In this case these indicators are splash resistant for direct jet sprays of water. Attached is a chart that details what those ratings mean. I hope this helps."
I'm still waiting on more items, but I did want to say I definitely recognize the taller LEDs on some sabers. These ones we found match the Maul, Obi Wan, stacked-washer saber, and one other one. I have never seen anything steeper in 5mm, or this thin, so maybe there's another variant out there!
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