Hasbro "Build Your Own Lightsaber" kit sound

[Darth Reklar]

A few years ago, I bought one of these (http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=build+your+own+lightsaber&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&cid=12381389887193314986&sa=title#p). Now that I'm looking into building an MHS lightsaber, I'm considering using the sound out of it. I've even gotten my wife to agree to let me cannibalize hers for the sound card so that I can do twin sabers. I have a few questions about this though.

1) Will it fit? The board appears to be 1 1/8" (28mm) wide and 1 11/16" (43mm) long. I say it appears to be these dimensions because I have not removed it from the hilt and don't plan to do so until I'm ready to transplant it.

2) Attached to the board there is a switch of some sort for running the sound changing. It has two buttons and sits in the "crystal chamber". Depending upon which crystal, or lack thereof, you put in it depresses one of four button combinations (on/on, on/off, off/on, off/off). My question is what, if anything, could I replace this with? I'd like some sort of dial, if possible.

3) How to power it? Currently, this runs off of two "C" batteries. I would be running it with a white P4, and would like to have rechargeables (with a charge port) in my finished sabers.

[Kal El Rah]

I would suggest looking into the new $20 sabers from hasbro rather than taking a perfect collectors piece apart for a board that is not that great anyway, they have superior sound cards and sensitivity, run on 4.5 volts, many builders are looking into and starting to use them.

[cannibal869]

If you have them already, you can look at this thread to get some ideas about wiring.

http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/showthread.php?t=6571&highlight=ultimate+clone

There are a few things to note.
That particular box and model is a slightly older board and you probably won't be able to use 6V with it. If you're thinking of rechargeables, then you may be ok since the standard rechargeables have less voltage than normal alkaline AA or AAA batteries. It kinda depends though. Just try to stay close to 4.5V total and I think you should be ok with it, although the stock saber seems to take only 3V from what you posted...Just do some *gentle* trial and error.

That said, there are three sound fonts on there - 2 Jedi fonts and one sith font. On the newer board, I would usually disregard the crystal switch inputs and cut them off altogether. This would allow the board to just cycle through all three sound fonts on each successive "power on". The sith font in particular is quite nice. Alternatively, if you only want one font on all the time, you can do that too.

I agree with Kah El Rah though regarding the newer sabers - he's talking about the electronic lightsabers that come with the DVD. Their sound fonts are quite good and they have separate swing and clash sensors.

[Darth Reklar]

So the $20 ones sound like a good idea. I don't really like the idea of cycling through the sounds, though. I greatly prefer the idea of a selector switch of some kind. Recommendations? Do the $20 ones even have multiple sound fonts on them?

[cardcollector]

I most definetely would not reccomend using those boards!

I have used 2 and they both broke in a week.

The new ones don't have different fonts. but the one is pretty good.

[KuroChou]

if you're absolutely set on the sound changing board, just use two sliders, or a DIP in place of the crystal switches.

[Darth Reklar]

UPDATE:

I've now built 2 sabers (1 for me & 1 for my wife) using the $16 El Cheapo Obi-Wan sabers for sound and they work great. They're a little quieter than they were before upgrading everything surrounding them, but we're still really happy with them.

Thanks for the advice, everyone.