New Builder

[tncaveman]

Hello,

I am interested in building a lightsaber. As a guitar tech I have fixed many amplifiers and have no problem with wiring, boards, or soldering. My big question right now is will my saber design work?

Looking to do a PC 3.5 with color xtender and non-illuminated av switches. Also want to have a recharge port and RICE port. So here are my questions;

I would like to put all port/switches in the 4inch extension using switch box 14. Will there be enough room to put all 4 ports/switches up by the led?

Is a 5inch extension big enough to fit PC 3.5, xtender, speaker, and battery? Or does it need to be longer?

My plan is to build the chassis first and have it all working before adding in the body, so know I haven't ordered any body components just some of the chassis stuff.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully add some input.

[setelf3of5]

Welcome!

[solaren]

Welcome!

It looks like there should be plenty of room for your switches and ports, but the way the heat sink works between the blade holder and your extension the box will need to mounted closer to the center of your extension to avoid having the heat sink rubbing the AV switch at the top. Switch to internal view in the MHS builder and make sure your blade holder is selected so that it is the top layer to see the heat sink in relation to your extension.

I don't have personal experience with the PC and CEx, but from the specs they should fit in a 5 inch extension with a speaker. Depending on which size 7.4V battery pack you choose the 5 inch extension may not be big enough, though you will have a maybe another inch of room left in the upper extension.

[tncaveman]

Thanks for the welcome guys


It looks like there should be plenty of room for your switches and ports, but the way the heat sink works between the blade holder and your extension the box will need to mounted closer to the center of your extension to avoid having the heat sink rubbing the AV switch at the top.

Could I run the V4 heat sing that sits flat? or is it recommended to run the longer V3? And thanks for the battery info, I didn't even think of that.

[solaren]

Could I run the V4 heat sing that sits flat? or is it recommended to run the longer V3?

The longer one is always recommended if there is room. It is a trade off of better cooling vs saving 1/2 an inch of room and risking burning out the LEDs if the blade is running for extended periods of time. With color mixing it could be assumed that on average only 2/3 of the LEDs are generating heat unless doing shades close to white. So it should be okay, this it is ultimately more of a judgement call than a hard rule.

[Silver Serpent]

To be fair, the entire hilt will act as a heatsink if necessary. I've never had an issue with the flat heatsinks vs the larger ones.

[Thalan the Exiled]

Hell if you are using a tri reb you should be fine as the V3 heatsink screwes in alot further than with a single diode led. It isn't quite fluah aginst the bottom of the holder but it is close. Probably only sticks out about 1/8".