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Noyl Wendor
09-21-2006, 07:56 AM
What will the inverter do?
A) Up the amperage of my 9 volt, to 12?
B) Keep from blowing out my wiring rig?
C) Both?
I ask because I have resistors for such things. As far as I have learned with the EL, the more the volts the brighter the glow.
Am I correct or way off?
Cheers

xwingband
09-21-2006, 08:03 AM
The inverter changes it from DC to AC I believe or the other way around. Yes, voltage matters but the sweet spot without taking away life of the EL is 12V.

Noyl Wendor
09-21-2006, 08:16 AM
How would I increase it from 9 to 12 volt? More batteries?

xwingband
09-21-2006, 08:39 AM
Well yes, more batteries but that because you will have to use AA or AAA's.

Electronics 101... Serial wiring (+'s to -'s) will add the voltages. Each AA or AAA is 1.5V. If you want 18V it'd be easiest to serialize 2 9V's.

Noyl Wendor
09-21-2006, 08:45 AM
So I should maybe look at the AA or AAA battery holder. That works, I just ordered a ribbed extention and a ribbed pommel. A AAA holder should work in a 13.75 inch hilt.

xwingband
09-21-2006, 08:48 AM
Yeah, 13.75 is bloody long. Just be aware the 2x2 AA holders will not work in an MHS.

Noyl Wendor
09-21-2006, 08:59 AM
So your suggestion would be to use the AAA battery holder? Or could I stick with just a 9 volt and that would look okay?
Long hilt yes, if I don't like it I have extra parts for my next one :lol:

vadeblade
09-21-2006, 09:13 AM
Go with the voltage your inverter is rated for.
If you purchased a 9 volt inverter, use a 9v battery.
If you purchased a 12 volt inverter, use 8 AAA batteries.

In my opinion, the inverters are given a voltage rating for a reason, so why go against a manufaturer's recommendation?

-V

Noyl Wendor
09-21-2006, 09:22 AM
Yep, good call. I'll get into the other stuff when its time to make modifications. Besides I have a feeling that I will be doing this a lot, new addictions are fun that way :lol:
Cheers

vadeblade
09-21-2006, 09:28 AM
I have to make NOTE about my own post...

I just noticed TCSS inverters voltage rating is described as 9-12 volts.

I purchased a batch of inverters from another source before TCSS came into existance (and I have store loyalty since I know the owner but will not mention my source to respect TCSS). All the inverters I purchased had a defined voltage rating of 9v or 12v, not a voltage range.

Cheers,
-V

ryanlb
09-21-2006, 09:30 AM
The inverter changes it from DC to AC I believe or the other way around. Yes, voltage matters but the sweet spot without taking away life of the EL is 12V.

Since the input is a DC battery I'd bet that output is AC.

james3
09-21-2006, 10:41 AM
Yes! DC in AC out.

simplified anyway :wink:

Like we discussed a while back there is a nice safety with running the TCSS 4khz inverter at 12 volts with whatever battery set up you want.
I did a kids hilt that ran off of 4 Duracell 123 3 volt lithiums stacked in a pack.( now that was sweet, but the dude I did it for works at a supply house for electronics and can get batteries a haeck of a lot cheaper then me so let's not get in to the cost of powering that puppy :twisted: )

I pretty much stick with doing aqua, lime and pink blades so they don't need the 18volts the way some other colors do.

ryanlb
09-21-2006, 10:52 AM
So it's okay to run Tim's inverter on 18V? How much do the darker colors benefit from 18V?

james3
09-21-2006, 11:10 AM
I have my youngest daughter's purple setup at 18volts and it is VERY NICE!!! :shock: :D

Tim's inverter will do 18volts fine but he is not going to warrent it due to being overdriven. As I am sure you know, ALL electronics are rated below what they can do to keep the legal side of things happy. Driving the inverter at 18 volts is the same as turning the gain up on a Marshall head to make the tubes get frisky. It does not damage the tubes but one would argue that the life of the tubes is shortened and I am all for replacing the tubes a little more often to get that beautiful sound.(Mi Gin knows what I'm talkin' bout :wink: )

Let's be reallistic for a sec. The inverter will take it and barring any water damage or some kind of massive amount of current being thrown at it the thing will last longer then any of us will be interested in playing with it. Same for the wire, it will most likely get dead spots from bends or shorts from broken insulation before it actually loses its lifespan.
And they are both cheap and easy to replace.

Strydur
09-21-2006, 03:02 PM
Agree with James I do.

JedimasterJSA
09-22-2006, 09:18 PM
Agree with James I do.
The Master has spoken. :wink:

Noyl Wendor
09-26-2006, 01:44 PM
So my parts came in. Very cool btw. I like the MHS, easy to construct, good weight.
However I have a tendency to get my wires crossed.
On the inverter there are three pairs of wires. The battery part I get. The two white wires.
One goes to the switch and one goes to the mono jack? Correct?
Of the two black wires, one (with a white stripe) goes to the jack and the other goes to the switch? Correct?
Other than that if I wanted to make this a 12volt, all I would have to do is get a AAA x2 battery holder and one of those three way 9volt plugs to make that happen. Right?
Just want to make it right. Ya know. Any help would be much appreciated.

Do-Clo
09-26-2006, 02:13 PM
The two white wires go to the momo jack, the red wire goes tot he battery positive and on the three black wires look closely and you will see two black wires coming out of the inverter in the same place and one by itself. One of the two black wires goes to the battery negative and the remain black wires go to the switch one on each switch wire.

james3
09-26-2006, 02:29 PM
And life would be so much easier for you if you get Tim's 8 aaa holder and just clip that to the inverter.

Noyl Wendor
09-27-2006, 12:28 AM
Okay, thanks for the help.
I was going to serialize a 2x AAA holder into the rig. 12 volts is better than 9.
This inverter already has the connector to put the 9volt on. So really all I would have to do is take the AAA holder I have and connect it to the 9 volt via a three way connector like Tim has at the shop.
Sound like I'm on the right track?

Noyl Wendor
09-27-2006, 01:00 AM
One more thing. If I use resistors on the wires like in the diagram in the tutorial. That won't take away the power, and will keep anything from blowing out. Right?

james3
09-27-2006, 05:33 AM
2aaa is only 3 volts how are you expecting that to work?

If you are trying to run a 9 volt battery and 2 aaa's then your screwed from the go as we have gone over that issue a few times.

The resistor/led prtection deal is really up to you. You will not really notice a difference with it in there, but it could help if you turn it on and there is no blade in the hilt.

Noyl Wendor
09-27-2006, 06:49 AM
I get it now. Best to go with the AAA battery hold that takes 8. That I can handle. After looking at the schematic (again) and a little more research, I found that would be easiest (as you had said before). My brain only works well when I have had a decent amount of sleep.
I think that someone said that the one that is at the shop won't work in an MHS. I could rig my own together.
Thanks again. You guys have been a big help.

james3
09-27-2006, 07:19 AM
I understand the sleep thing totally!

The 8aaa that Tim has fits the MHS fine. The section that he heat shrinks in the middle is a bit too big for the ribbed section but that is it.
The 4 and 8 AA packs are the ones that work in sink tubes but not MHS, that may have been what someone mentioned.

I only use the 8aaa and 4aaa for my MHS hilts. Keeps it clean, simple, and compact. There are the side by side aa packs that fit the MHS but they are more for a LED setup the EL. I have the 6aa side by side that I am driving a 5w LED with and my only complaint is that you HAVE to have an extension for the pack to fit.

Noyl Wendor
09-27-2006, 07:59 AM
I found that I can use the side by side AAA holder. 4 are required, and serializing them can be a pain, I tried it. So I went and grabbed two of the 4 AAA holders. Works perfect. I had to switch up my design but it still looks good.
I plan on adding a sound board later. Haven't decided which one. But like I said, that will be later. I just want to leave myself some room for making modifications.
Thanks again for your help.

Noyl Wendor
09-27-2006, 09:46 AM
If I connect the two red wires and the two black wires on both my 4x AAA battery holders, then connect those to a nine volt connector, will I still get the 12 volts I need for the inverter?
Or should I try something fancy and solder them at the terminals and blow up the whole rig? :lol:

james3
09-27-2006, 10:02 AM
Nope that woukld give you 6 volts with twice the amperage.

What you want to do is tie one red to one black one the two holders. that will leave you with a red and black to supply 12 volts power to the inverter. I also like to use the wired clips so that I can just snap the pack in and out.


battpack------------------------------------------------ to inverter
________________________
battpack---------------------------}splice
_____________________________________to inverter

Noyl Wendor
09-27-2006, 10:14 AM
Cool. That's easy.
One thing I notice about the diagram in the EL tutorial is the inverter set up is not quite the same as I have.
The two white wires go to the mono jack, and there is a 1mo resistor spliced in, the wires for the switch are set. As are the battery wires. Where would I put the 470 ohm resistor? Spliced in on the line to the batteries? Or spliced in on the line to the switch?
Did I say thanks for your help earlier? :oops:

vadeblade
09-27-2006, 10:51 AM
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong...

The 1 MOhm resistor is spliced in to bridge the two White wires before they connect to the mono, jack. The resistor is there to provide a load on the inverter in case you accidentally turn on the lightsaber with no blade attached. It's supposed to keep it from burning out.

The 470 ohm resistor is only used if you plan to put an LED between the Battery pack and the Inverter. I think it is used to reduce your 12 v down to the 3.2 volts that the LED can handle.

again, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Noyl Wendor
09-27-2006, 11:22 AM
A 470 ohm resistor was suggested on one of the diagrams in the tutorial, that or a 270 ohm.
I guess the big question would be witch one to use? It looked to me like either one would do.

Strydur
09-27-2006, 01:00 PM
what vadeblade said is correct.

The resistor on the mono jack leads was for load protection..but I have never used this setup..and never heard of someone blowing one of the inverters that I sell from not using one.

The resistor for adding a led depends on what your input voltage is and what the led is rated at.

Noyl Wendor
09-28-2006, 05:44 AM
So the one resistor near the mono jack would be fine. Well I have a tendency to go over board, so I might put both in. On the other hand not putting them in would make the work easier.
Naaa. The easy path is the way of the Sith. :lol:
I'll go with the one resistor. At least this way I'm getting the experience.

james3
09-28-2006, 06:28 AM
......psssstt, I am gonna let ya in on a little secret...

You don't need any of the resistors if ya bought Tim's 4khz inverter. I didn't use any in my kid's sabers for the simple fact that there seems to be a cut-out circuit already in there. If you have your blade in and pop it out you know longer get any signs of the inverter being powered.(whine, heat, etc.) The kids pull there blades out and trade them back and forth plenty without killing power and there have been times where I have picked up after them, slapped a blade in the hilt after who knows how long it has been "on" and wham! I have a lit blade.

That whole setup was designed for older tech and while it may not be a bad thing to have in there, I really don't think it's necessary.

Now if your doing a LED in there for bling you will still want to use that portion of the setup.

Noyl Wendor
09-28-2006, 06:32 AM
Cool. That saves time. I'll get more experience later. I have become hopelessly addicted. :lol:

james3
09-28-2006, 06:43 AM
Welcome to the addiction.

That's why I build them and then try to sell them off. I love builing them up.

Noyl Wendor
09-28-2006, 07:15 AM
:D