Overwhelmed by Lightsaber DIY. Need some help with the internal components.

WulfSpyder

New Member
So here is my black series saber all taken apart.


And here is the final saber design:



The "Brylark Wood" saber will have yellow blade and the Katana inspired one will have a purple blade but right now they're both red. Problem is that the Hasbro sabers have a 64 bulb LED strip. Should I replace each bulb to maintain the extending effect? Or should I convert them to a single unit at the base?

If I keep the strip, can I replace them with higher power LEDs without adding any additional resistors?

If I replace them with a single LED at the base, do I need to add any additional components or can I wire the LED to where the strip is currently wired?

Also, If I replace the set up to a single LED at the base, I should probably replace the blade with clear one filled with a diffusing material instead of these white ones, right?
 

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YouTube is your best friend in these types of projects... Try the "Awe Me" channel. I think Odin did two or three vids on different light and sound modules on there.

Good luck :$

Sent from my XT1097 using Tapatalk
 
Do you mean with or without electronics?

I'm more of a movie prop (static) hilt person. Tan Djarka was my hero when it came to scratch-building. You'll either want a threaded rod as your spine or parts that fit together one by one.
 
Do you mean with or without electronics?

I'm more of a movie prop (static) hilt person. Tan Djarka was my hero when it came to scratch-building. You'll either want a threaded rod as your spine or parts that fit together one by one.

Well these are for costumes so I at least needs lights but if I'm including electronics I might as well go all out, ya know?
 
Well these are for costumes so I at least needs lights but if I'm including electronics I might as well go all out, ya know?

absolutely!

You can always use PVC pipe and retro-reflective tape to get the lightsaber effect with a camera with the flash turned on. See my profile picture to the left of this comment! thats just pvc pipe and red colored tape.
 
Whenever I've made lightsabers from aluminium tubing I just make sure that the internal diameter of the emitter end is 1". This will fit a blade and a 1" diameter LED heatsink/led&lens holder). The most basic electronics would be a star mounted LED (or triple LED such as a Cree XPE2 for decent brightness), a resistor, a latching switch and a power source (18650 battery is very popular for saber builds. Use an online resistor calculator to work out what resistor value you need based on the battery voltage and LED forward voltage and max current.
If you want sounds then there is also a multitude of options which may dictate your power source and required internal dimensions (and costs involved).

 
Hey @WulfSpyder ! You have some homework to do!

1. Decide on which soundcard you want to use. PlecterLabs.com has several from basic (Pico Crumble) to SUPREME (Crystal Focus v8.0). Naigon has several as well like the Igniter 2, and the Spark 2. You need to pick your soundcard first because they're all different dimension-wise.

2. You have to decide on your batteries. 7.4V via 2 batteries (14500+14500, 16340+16340, or 18500+18500), or 3.7V via 1 battery (14500, 16340, or 18500). You also have to decide if you want them stored side by side within the hilt, or end to end. This arrangement, along with the soundcard dimensions, will determine how large a cavity you will need within your hilt.

3. You have to decide what color blade you want. RGB (Red, Green, Blue) as a Tri-CREE (3 SMD XP-E2 LEDs on a SinkPadII star) will give you a limitless color spectrum that can produce whatever color blade you want. Or chose a dedicated color which will ultimately be brighter in that one color than the same color being created by a RGB. Let's say you want a blue blade, you'd chose a BBW (Blue, Blue, White) White would be your FOC (Flash On Clash) color, or you could go BBB (Blue,Blue,Blue = no FOC), BrBW (Blue, royal Blue,White), GrBW (Green, royal Blue, White), etc., etc.. Those two blue LEDs will produce a much brighter blade than the single blue from a RGB. Now, if you went with a cyan colored blade, RGrB (using Green and royal Blue to create the cyan) you'd be in at the same brightness as you would have had had you made cyan with a GrBW. Your FOC color could vary with the RGrB or you could have White FOC with the GrBW. You didn't think it'd be all this complicated did you? Wait till you get to resistors, weeks doing the math and picking those lil monsters out! Just finished doing so myself lastnight/this morning at 1:15AM having spent 2 solid days crunching numbers, comparing stats, comparing prices between DigiKey and Mouser, it's quite exhausting!!!

4. Choose a speaker. 2W 8Ohm. There are bass speakers and premium speakers, bass are thicker ~3/4", premium are 1/4". Both are typically 27-28mm wide. More numbers to factor into how large your cavity will need to be.

5. You're going to have to figure out how to keep all of these items, and more, in place. Custom 3D printed chassis (know how to use 3D programs yet? or someone that does?), MHS Chassis from The Custom Saber Shop, expanding foam, duct tape, silly putty, O.K. I kid, I kid. Seriously though, you have to figure out how to keep all these expensive little parts from smashing around inside your hilt!!!

6. Stop reading this and watch every tutorial video Rob Petkau aka Madcow at Genesis Custom Sabers has put up on Youtube. Watch all of his tutorial videos on The Custom Saber Shop's Youtube page. Watch every tutorial video Irvin Plecter aka erv has up on his Youtube channel...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGToxjzpaR-gX4q_MXo8Igw
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheCustomSaberShop
https://www.youtube.com/user/irvinplecter

This will get you started.

Now, as for your designs, the broken staff hilt looks like you would get a fair amount of space within it if you made it 11" or longer. The Japanese dagger handle hilt looks too short. It would become gigantically fat if you scaled it up to 11" long or so. If you want a Yoda length saber, fantastic! it will just limit your battery and sound card options to the smallest of them both. That will limit both your feature set, and your run time. I really like this design, but I think you'd be better off redrawing it where it ended up being about 11" long and 1-1/4" up to 1-1/2" thick. An inner dimension of 1-1/4" gives you plenty of room to do 14500's side by side, and lots of space for a CFv8, and a HM-13 Bluetooth module from Fasttech, and a Color Extender, and a Crystal Chamber, and, and, and...... whatever else you can fit in there depending on the overall length of the cavity you have.

If you need more inspiration check out the galleries at the http://www.fx-sabers.com/forum and at http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/forum.php

Good Luck on your Lightsaber Building Journey!
 
@Ridire Firean and @StewYZF750 Thank you guys so much for your long and thoughtful responses!

But the game has changed. I was able to get two Hasbro Vader Black Series Force FX sabers for a GREAT price and I'll be modifying those and then upgrading them as the time comes

So here is my black series saber all taken apart.
MrjGtWK.jpgugiVBpI.jpgyveV5Op.jpg

And here is the final saber design:

nRZ8lOQ.jpg

The "Brylark Wood" saber will have yellow blade and the Katana inspired one will have a purple blade but right now they're both red. Problem is that the Hasbro sabers have a 64 bulb LED strip. Should I replace each bulb to maintain the extending effect? Or should I convert them to a single unit at the base?

If I keep the strip, can I replace them with higher power LEDs without adding any additional resistors?

If I replace them with a single LED at the base, do I need to add any additional components or can I wire the LED to where the strip is currently wired?

Also, If I replace the set up to a single LED at the base, I should probably replace the blade with clear one filled with a diffusing material instead of these white ones, right?
 
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