A few random questions from a n00b..

[Proximal]

I'm new to the saber building world and I have been researching the build techniques/guides (the ones that were free anyway) and, thanks to jedi loreen, have made my way to, what seems like, the best forum for saber building. I have scoured these forums looking for the answers to some of the questions I have had in the whole custom saber making and have not seen alot of the questions asked.

1) Anybody have a basic wiring schematic for the RGB LED?

2) When people refer to the hasbro sound board they refer to the price of the saber basically, the $8 blade and the $20. I went to wally world and couldn't find the 8 with sound, the $8 one they had was some crap that just extended with no electronics and the 20 was the new one that ejects the blade. Which one is the most bang for your buck? can you provide a direct link to the one you would choose? (someone said generic sith blade but that didn't really help much)

3a) When wiring the rechargeable batteries into the saber, the ones sold here don't look like they have the female recepticle. Does it have it and if not where should I look to get it and the wall charger to go with it?

3b) When installing it into the hilt, the female end seems to look attached and very professional with a nice chrome outer ring around it. How do you guys go about installing this and making it look so damn good?

I'm sure more questions will come to me later at some very inconvenient time. Sorry if some of these quetions were addressed, I am a newb 8) . If any of you pros wanna PM me and try and help me with some of the construction I'd appreciate it (mainly to spare me the public embarassment of asking stupid quetions and having to decipher everyones openions). I'm much better with directions with a one-on-one atmosphere. Thanks in advance.

[xwingband]

Okies...

1) look in the original topic of the gallery that we asked about Gelu's RGB saber. It's not all that difficult though. You can look up the terminal layout of the LED on the manufacturers site.

2) They no longer make what a lot referred to as the "generic sabers". They looked qui-gon-ish in different color schemes. Now you are stuck with what is there in the stores unless you want to ebay it or find a costume shop with old stock. Gelu posted a very good list of most of the sabers made in the sound threads (the first few pages of the hasbro thread should have it).

3a) The rechargable pack in the store has nothing but the wires. You will need to get the jack yourself. Until Tim stocks that stuff go to Radioshack. In their bins in the back you should be able to find the sets to make them. The wall charger is a different subject. Radioshack has some, but I prefer universal smart chargers. I'll create a nice topic on this tomorrow since I have the time. :wink:

3b) This is kind of related to the above. It's what comes with what you buy... we usually don't do anything else although you can probably stack other rings. Also if you custom order jacks from a large electronics distrobuter like mouser or digi-key (you can google them) there is a multitude of special nuts for each jack.

[james3]

Welcome to TCSS boards.

Some of these we can bang out real quick.

1- do you want just rgb or do you want it to "shift" colors to get purple, orange etc? I don't think anyone has done a "standard" rgb since we all do it different. I set them up with just rgb myself.

2- Same sabers. Last year at Christmas, Wal-Mart had a deal with Hasbro to do Obi-Wan, Jedi(green redo of Qui-Gon),sith(red redo of Qui-Gon).
These were still the 20 buck deals but just the older models that were not as cool anymore so they popped em out at 8 bucks. AWESOME deal for a sound board:)

3- a) yes you have to make your male and female ends to go with whatever charger you want.
b) Drill as small as you can and still get it through, then tap it or run the nut back over depending on your setup.

Actually, you got some fresh ones or at least not common enough to remember ;)
The thread index and FAQ is awesome. The search is crap now since we switched services but that's alright cause nimrods like myself are on here all the time trying to memorize where everthing is on here :P


edit-DAMN! I worked hard for that to get beatin by the xwing again!
Dude he's good, ya got to watch him ;)

edit2- I think I got em all JLo but if I missed somethin let me know.

[xwingband]

I typed faster. :P We both answered very different though.

I'll do the recharge port stuff tomorrow. It's kind of common and very needed.

[james3]

Well ya know I was typing as fast as I could bud, The spelling SUCKS!! :P

JLo would be all over my arse.

[Proximal]

I figured I had missed a thing or 2 in the index, so thanks for clearing that up for me. I'll be looking around for the proper soundboard for my first saber.

The saber I have in mind would be an RGB but I figure since I'm new to this I'll go with something simple to start. I ordered the basic electronics package to get things rolling. Ill probably try to add in the sound for as cheap as possible at first (then move on to the MR boards). All in all I'll ty to get all of the basic saber parts here to get a good feel for the sabermaking process. Then I'll try for something more advanced like the RGB and the rechargeable port. Now it is narrowing down what I'll need for the hilt.

[james3]

There is nothing as cool as the MHS for starting out.

And if cost is an issue, you can get emitter01 and pommel 01 now, and build it up and later on you can get a new emitter or pommel and rebuild your hilt as you like.

[Proximal]

Probably a good idea for getting started. Hopefully as I progress you guys will be able to help me out with advancing in making sabers.

[james3]

That's why we are all here. :D

Ok, well most of us.

There may be a few guys that you find are a little http://www.gaownersclub.com/forum/images/smilies/icon_3stooges.gif

I know, we should be polite and all but we try to be very serious on this forum.














http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e370/Dadof3/bs.gif

[Proximal]

lol, seems like it.

question about the basic mhs1 hilt. If I wanted to add another hole to the hilt I would end up having to get it machined professionally correct? I couldn't just pull out the powertools right?

[xwingband]

It's only a $10 fee for Tim to machine an identical one wherever you want it. The power tools are an option though. I did that for my recharge port... but I also didn't know how big of a port I'd have. If you plan better you could find one to match the hole.

If it's a random hole for whatever, say a decrative LED, then it probably would be easier to just go at it with a drill. You'd have to go at it safely though.

[Proximal]

I'm all about some safety now. I just got to go back to work after breaking my leg being hit by my 10k lbs forklift.

I'll try not to kill myself with this new hobby.

[xwingband]

Really it's more of a safety for the tube. Bracing it in something like a simple v-shaped contraption would help tons.

Also when drilling not holding it in your hand helps... :roll: I know that and have a nasty scar on my hand to show for my stupidity. In all fairness that wasn't a saber related incident. :wink:

It'd be very hard to kill yourself unless you were doing some wild stuff... like licking the leads of a high voltage bench power supply or something. :lol:

[Proximal]

prolly use my vice and just wrap a towel around the hilt where the viceis soI dont ruin the finish. I'll also have to be careful not to go too tightwith it. I also need to go and pick up a dremmel at some point for cutting some sinkpipe.

[james3]

I like to use my vise. I wrap the hilt in tape, then add extra tape lines where the contact point is, and tighten just enough so that I can not move the hilt up or down.

I keep saying I am going to get a set of those rubber pads but ya know how that is. :roll: