Hello, Thank you, and a please forgive a blasphemous build

[Cleveland]

After unregistered reading for a few months and having mostly figured out what it is i'm going to be building, I wanted to stop in and say hello and thank you, for all of your insights and excellent advice.

What seemed like an extremely complicated endeavor has been broken down into very manageable chunks of information by many members of this forum.

Also Thank you to TCSS for making having such an awesome shop and forum avaliable.

That said... I am trying to make something that may be considered a little blasphemus... I don't know if anyone is a fan of TRON Legacy, (and after a good deal of searching i couldn't find anything in the forums to suggest so), but there is a certain light cane called "Castor's Cane" in the movie that I am trying to build.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfaxz9PvtV1qapfsv.jpg

These light saber builds are extremely helpful and i think is going to serve my purposes well. Basically short of the blade it will be a simple build.

Here is my tentative build list, submitted for your scrutiny:

Hilt electronics:
luxeon rebel cyan 700mA
8.7 deg lens
rebel lens holder
700mA Buck Puck 6 wire (may try and attach a potentiometer down the road)
star thermal tape
heat sink shim
4 AAA battery pack
Latching guarded switch

Hilt:
I am trying to keep the hilt as small as possible which is why I was thinking the 4 AAA pack and no sound etc. I was thinking of going with the MHS system, so that I can remove and change the batteries easily.
MHS blade holder style 7
3" double female extension
Pommel style 1 (to fit the latching guarded switch)

Some problems i have been thinking about:
1. length of Hilt extension, I saw the 4AAA pack is about 2" leaving about 1" for buck box and switch, not sure how far the LED and heatsink go into the blade holder or how far the switch sticks out of the back of the pommel, may have to go for a 4" extension.
2. Pommel mounted switch. The combination of twisting wires, and not much room for extra wires may make that a problem, but i would like the hilt to be as clean as possible. Hopefully the cane is coming to Burning Man this year, so I am expecting to be changing batteries a lot.

As far as the blade goes (and this is possible the most blasphemous So again i apologize) instead of going the route of a hollow blade I found some previous Light Canes made from 1" clear extruded acrylic rod. http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=37958&catid=440

I understand that this will most likely be detrimental to the optics, but i thought that it might be more sturdy as a cane which has different directional loads on it than a battling saber.

In addition the rod can be easily bent to form the shape of the cane, where I am not sure how well a blade would bend without deforming.
Here is a link of a really poorly made light cane but you get the idea for bending:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaQMt7qlg-U&feature=related

Once again, thank you very much for your insights that you all have already provided, I hope this isn't presumptuous not being a saber and all, and if this works out I will certainly post some pics if anyone would like to see them.

[Silver Serpent]

Nothing wrong with a Tron build. You'll find all manner of sci-fi/fantasy fans over here. :)

If space is at a premium, might I recommend using Li-Ion batteries? http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/TrustFire-Protected-36V-880mAh-16340-Lithium-Battery-2-pack-P518.aspx will be more than enough to run your LED for quite a while. They're pretty short, and take a lot less room than the 18650s (and a ton less room than alkalines). You could use two in parallel for extra run time, though I get over an hour on a single one with sound. I'd also consider using a resistor instead of the buckpuck for even more space savings.

With the Li-Ion, you'll definitely want to add a recharge port. It saves a bunch of wear and tear on the wires that you'd normally get from changing batteries.

Sounds like an interesting build. I wish you the best of luck with it.

[Cleveland]

Thanks Silver,

Lion batteries with a resistor are a great idea.

I have a few additional restrictions that i think might come into play here as well.

Because ill be using it out in a desert for a week constantly, re-charging (other than a small solar panel) will be difficult.
The other, is due to the space constraints, i couldn't find a body small enough to fit. With the addition of a charging port, i would also need another space for the switch. That might not be so bad, as i was looking to mount a potentiometer as well, but couldn't find the room. Perhaps an activation box http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/Activation-box-style-2-P355.aspx
mounted underneath? so the charge port could stick out the pommel, and the guarded switch and potentiometer could be on the box?
Not sure mow much space the box would save me, will that allow the switches to be mounted in the same area as the batteries? or will they stick down into the hilt to far?

Just moving the switch from the pommel might make it much easier to continually remove the batteries as well...

I need to google the dimensions of the buck puck. Trying to squeeze all the juice out of it i can. Also, sorry Noob question, will a potentiometer actually reduce power consumption? or will it just bleed it off like a resistor...

[Jedi-Loreen]

A potentiometer is just a variable resistor.