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DarkMessiah
11-15-2014, 04:58 AM
I currently own an in hilt LED saber, I fight entirely one handed I prefer fighting with the lighter thin walled blades as opposed to the thick walled but I can work fine with either. My question being I would really like to purchase a Makoto saber but I'm wondering how heavy they feel compared to the in hilt LED sabers, also weather Makoto uses thick or thin walled blades and lastly, I know makoto recommends a v3 for dueling but im wondering if a v3 plus is still fine for dueling, or is it much more cumbersome? Any Information would help If I messed anything up on this post sorry, I'm new to this forum and forums in general. Thank you

Count Malik
11-15-2014, 06:58 AM
His sabers are pretty sweet man! very durable indeed! (the v3 at least) you should be even okay with the v3 plus even. His blades are poly-carbonate but they are thin walled, probably a bit thinner than what is supplied in the shop... BUT it's also much larger in diameter. Inside the actual blade is the foam that acts as a diffuser and protection for the LED strings, and trust me it does the job very well haha with that said... i have dueled pretty hard with my makoto and the blade has only cracked and broken once on the very end where the blade tip was... easy fix though and now it's been good as new for years now. They are great sabers with smaller diameter hilts, nice-simple designs, feels good in the hands. the balance is decent as well!

BUT... I personally feel that these days a tri cree/rebel saber powered correctly with a good blade can be just as evenly lit and still super bright, and even more durable. good luck man!

DarkMessiah
11-15-2014, 10:42 AM
So in your opinion a 10w tri cree will be as bright as a v3? Also any note on if the V3 plus is really much heavier than the v3?

Thank you by the way!

Count Malik
11-15-2014, 01:03 PM
Cant say for sure about the v3 plus- But it should be slightly heavier (if even noticeable at all)

In my opinion I think a 10w or something is plenty bright- when combined with a very well made blade (sanded+polyp+tcss film) or the tcss transwhite with about 6 ft of polyp. would make it certainly choice! :smile: What color were you thinking??
The v3 will always be even and probably the brightest choice of the two... although not by alot its hard to say!! haha if the makoto was a 100 in rated brightness the tri cree would probably be a 80 depending on your blade and color.

According to Makoto his sabers are brightest starting at RED >GREEN >Purple >White >Light Yellow >Blue> Lemon Yellow
While the cree can differ depending on how you wire it and what color(s) you have

DarkMessiah
11-15-2014, 01:38 PM
I was looking to make a white saber and I was just looking on the luxeon site I guess they have quad led's would that be terrible hard to wire myself?

DarkMessiah
11-15-2014, 01:53 PM
This is the ledhttp://www.luxeonstar.com/neutral-white-4100K-sinkpad-ii-23mm-round-quad-led-230lm

Forgetful Jedi Knight
11-15-2014, 02:15 PM
It depends on what you're wiring it to...

Count Malik
11-15-2014, 02:53 PM
okay cool yeah you can definitely do a quad set up. would you be running sound or anything?? If not you might have to have some fun with wiring in resistors.

Essentially to wire these bad boys up it would be the same as a Tri. Which isn't really terribly hard. You have the choice of either running your LED in parallel or in series. If in parallel your positives will all be connect up to each other just like the negatives... (+ to +, - to -, + to +, - to -, + to +, - to -) this will make it so you'll run a higher amperage but not as much forward voltage... (as you are treating the LED's more subjectively) its also helpful to run in parallel if you were color mixing... but the downside of this wiring is you'll probably get less run time depending on your battery situation.... Hence the need to know what you would like to hook everything up to (sound or no sound) etc.. For solid colors I would say go for wiring in series. This would make it so your wiring would "Feed" from once dice positive to the negative. (White dice 1 + to - to white dice 2 + to - and so on). This also means that although you'll run less amperage (as its like running one big LED at the same amperage) you'll have to supply the adequate amount of forward voltage to the LED's. Making things much more sustainable for single color blades imo. Madcow has a great tutorial for wiring up multidie LEDs :D probably can explain it also much better than I. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CWIKMi-63c&list=UU3wZvFoDBm8K8zVjaG7CaGQ But like FJK said it all depends on what you're hooking it up to. :)

DarkMessiah
11-15-2014, 03:57 PM
Ok that video was very helpful thank you. And yes I would like to add sound preferably the Nano Biscotte Sound Module V2, and a quad led luxeon rebel in nuetral white, and I dont plan on adding FOC

Forgetful Jedi Knight
11-15-2014, 04:02 PM
Yeah, that's not going to work. An 18650 doesn't have that much juice to run 4 dice, and the NB's only put out 2 Amps. You MAY be able to pull enough to run the third die using a PEX, and some creative wiring, but 4 dice isn't going to happen.

DarkMessiah
11-15-2014, 06:50 PM
Ok So any suggestion to getting this general setup to work? A certain power supply? Different sound card? Or is running all four together as one big led not going to work? Again any information is appreciated

Forgetful Jedi Knight
11-15-2014, 06:59 PM
Running all four together will only work if you can fit a small nuclear power plant in there. Seriously though, you could use a PC with a 7.4V supply, but the run time will be iffy, depending on what battery pack you use. Of course the bigger the battery pack the bigger the hilt, and all that fun stuff.

Besides, "the more the better" isn't always the best - and that's true with saber building. A Tri-Rebel all white would work nicely with a NB, if you wire it right. Three tends to work better than 4 in saber hilts, and it has the added advantage of being able to be run by a less expensive sound card.

DarkMessiah
11-15-2014, 09:13 PM
Ok so If I wanted to run the neutral white Rebel tri-star wired in series, with no FOC, with a NB sound card, I would then need a power extendor, a 1000MA buckpuck, a momentary switch and an appropriate power supply?

Side Note for the white tri-star it says max 1000ma but it recommends 700MA do most use the recommended or the max?

Forgetful Jedi Knight
11-15-2014, 09:35 PM
You would need to wire two of them in parallel. and run the third as a direct drive (think the wiring like a PEX). Each of the die would need an appropriate resistor attached to them.

You can NOT run all three in series. The combined voltage is 9+ volts and you will only have 3.7V. Also the NB does not use buckpucks.

DarkMessiah
11-16-2014, 01:32 AM
Single lithium Ion Cell 18650, with a NB 2.0, a momentary switch, a white rebel tri-star LED two diodes running parallel a third running as a direct drive each having their own resistor, a speaker. Am i missing anything?

A couple of question,
Rough battery life estimate? 1/2hr-1hr?
Does the sound board take over the job of the buck puck? or would the blade now dim as the batteries die?
Considering the set-up, If i decided to go with a petite crouton v3 instead would the main benefit be access to a second li-ion battery giving me longer battery life?

Forgetful Jedi Knight
11-16-2014, 10:42 AM
Single lithium Ion Cell 18650, with a NB 2.0, a momentary switch, a white rebel tri-star LED two diodes running parallel a third running as a direct drive each having their own resistor, a speaker. Am i missing anything?

A couple of question,
Rough battery life estimate? 1/2hr-1hr?
Does the sound board take over the job of the buck puck? or would the blade now dim as the batteries die?
Considering the set-up, If i decided to go with a petite crouton v3 instead would the main benefit be access to a second li-ion battery giving me longer battery life?

To answer your questions:
1. It depends on the cell. I would guess it would be about an hour if you use the 3400 mAh cell.
2. It doesn't quite work that way, but it's close enough for this conversation.
3. Again, it depends on your battery solution. I don't think you would see a dramatic improvement over the setup I recommended with a NB. Normally running two dice is "plenty bright" to quote others, BUT you want to run 3 at "full power" so, you sacrifice runtime for that. Plus trying to fit 2 18650's will eat up tons of room in your hilt, IF you can fit it all into a hilt to begin with.

DarkMessiah
11-16-2014, 12:52 PM
For Clarification a buck puck acts as a resistor with the added ability of regulating the current put out ie. 700ma or 1000ma. So When using the NB with resistors on the LEDs will I have blade dimming?

Forgetful Jedi Knight
11-16-2014, 12:53 PM
I know what a buckpuck does. No there shouldn't be any significant dimming, it will likely just shut off.

DarkMessiah
11-16-2014, 01:05 PM
Ok sorry wasn't trying to imply you didn't just making sure my own concepts are correct, thank you.

Count Malik
11-17-2014, 11:21 PM
using li-on packs will completely shut off the saber once it reaches a certain level of power (or lack thereof). I've never known li-on packs to use a slow discharge method like Ni-Mh packs which cause dimming with use. This is because there is a PCB board wired in such a way to protect the cells for improper charging and discharging. Personally i find it a extra pro when using li-on packs. Just make sure they are protected of course! :)

DarkMessiah
11-18-2014, 03:06 AM
so then when using li-ion packs, would using an appropriate resistor essentially work just as well as a buckpuck?

Forgetful Jedi Knight
11-18-2014, 02:56 PM
To review, if you are using sound cards, using a buckpucks are a no-no. The resistors will help you to not blow out your LEDs.

DarkMessiah
11-18-2014, 03:19 PM
I am thinking of using this wiring skematic in my saber http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=10454&d=1411406136 the alterations being a tri rebel and adding FOC. The question I have is concerning the light up AV switch which they power by splicing into the main led power (http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=10451&d=1411319073) with the main led and the switch sharing current like this does it affect which resistor each led will need? or do I still calculate them normally? Thank you for all the information you guys I'm sure it can be tedious but it's appreciated

Forgetful Jedi Knight
11-18-2014, 03:32 PM
In that particular diagram, they wanted to have the switch LED coming on when they turn the saber on. There is a 3.3V pad you can attach the switch LED to if you want it to light up BEFORE turning the saber on.

IF you use the diagram above, you would calculate the resistors "normally".

DarkMessiah
11-18-2014, 04:03 PM
If I did want it to light up with the blade though would the shared current affect resistor calculation?

Forgetful Jedi Knight
11-18-2014, 04:06 PM
If I did want it to light up with the blade though would the shared current affect resistor calculation?

No, it wouldn't.

DarkMessiah
11-18-2014, 04:13 PM
Thank you (:

Obi1
11-19-2014, 03:16 AM
Sorry for returning to the original topic (I hope I do not violate forum rules by doing so), maybe it's only me too naive, but I always though Makoto Sabers are the ones done by Makoto (a real artist, BTW), with Special LED's to make them the most bright in the known Universe, etc.
So now I see v3...? What is that? Does it refer to a LED type he uses? Actually, does anybody know where he gets his LEDs from? Since I have a strong liking to LED string blades, I would be interested to hear more about this topic.

DarkMessiah
11-19-2014, 06:58 AM
The v3 is Makotos current standard blade or "real duel saber" it has one string of LEDs in the blade as opposed to the v3 plus which has two or the v4 which has four strings. Makoto recommends the V3 for dueling

DarkMessiah
11-19-2014, 07:09 AM
And no I don't know where he gets his LEDs though I will say he changes which LED he uses when ever he finds better/stronger LEDs

Obi1
11-23-2014, 02:07 PM
Thanks for the explanation! I have a good source of LEDs myself, the challange of finding good, bright ones I can take (and anyway, I guess Mr. Makoto is not going to share this trade secret). What I would be very much interested about is wether he "postprocesses" his LEDs, like cutting the dome etc. ?