Ezra inspired saber build for son...sound board advice?

[FenixFire]

My almost 10 yr old has expressed an interest in learning to build a saber. Expressing that dad you are a designer and we have the metal lathe and mill, as well as the makerbot. I have talked him down from the original supper elaborate plan and drawings he came to me with...removable crystal chamber, spring loaded lighted dart firing, vibrating, arcing blade, etc. Though he does still want it to be an a blaster/saber like Ezra's from SW Rebels. What soundboard or configuration of boards would best suit the needs to have a purple blade, with red FoC, as well as an auxiliary trigger to activate a blaster sound and LED. I have a couple of ideas but wanted to run it by some on here to see what came to the top.

[Kouri]

I'd recommend gutting an actual Ezra saber for the electronics. I'm in the middle of converting one, and I think you could pull off what you're asking with some creative wiring.

Tri-led with Red and Royal Blue will be useful. Third color might not matter, or go with another blue for a brighter blade. Usual economy board transistor tricks.

Blue LED wired to the board's LED negative. Red LED wired to audio negative. Blade will pulse purple. When the blue LED blinks off on clash, you'll have a red blade. Soundboard already has separate momentary switches for saber ignition and blaster firing. I forget the term, but a momentary with two sets of contacts can be used for blaster fire to also signal an Aux LED in the barrel when pressed.

[FenixFire]

Thanks for the information and good luck on you build. Where did you find the fx ezra? I have only found the non-electric one on clearance with all the new merch hitting the shelves...guess I'll be hitting amazon and eBay.

[Kouri]

Don't think they have an FX - I'm using the $35 electronic one that was on shelves before all the new Force Awakens merchandise hit stores. I removed the dart-launching mechanism and extra slide and trigger. Figure I can fashion a custom blade holder and hide switches within the hilt greebles. Once it's all painted, I won't be worried about it looking like a plastic toy anymore.

[FenixFire]

Just found one online. I will be just scavenging the electronics, the little man wants to learn to use the lathe and mill. Looks like I will be breaking out and dusting off the Unimat 3...just hope that after 3 moves I still have all the parts in the create and they all still work. I really don't want him using the full size lathe and mill yet!

Was the wiring on the card similar to the FX? Also since I had to order it, if you don't mind me asking what were the dimensions for the board and speaker. I want to make sure we will have room in the parts he will start turning over the weekend. Planning on having a 1.15" - 1.2" ID so we can maintain a minimal OD of about 1.4. AKA, I have several feet of 1" ID/1.4" OD Aluminum pipe laying around.

[Kouri]

Wires up like an Economy board, not an FX board. I can get dimensions later on, but electronics are split into a couple of boards. One is the main soundboard with LED, the other houses the main Power/Try/Off switch and blaster switch contacts. Each of the boards looked small enough to fit within 1" ID tubing. I'll check the speaker along with the boards, but memory puts it at standard economy saber size of about 1.25"

[FenixFire]

Just a thought, feel free to shot it down if it won't work. Watching show with my son I saw that the orange switch on the side switches between blaster and saber modes. If I add a rotary selector switch it could switch the -from the speaker from the blade red to the accent blue, so the red won't light when the blaster trigger is activated. What do you think?

[Silver Serpent]

That certainly sounds possible.

[FenixFire]

So here is the proposed wiring diagram I will be mocking up when I can get back over to the electronics shop and pick up the resisters. Let me know if you see any glaring issues I should address before breadboarding.
The shop did not have TIP42C but owner recommended the TIP32C, should I order the TIP42C?

Comparison:
TIP42C (TIP32C)
Collector Emitter Voltage V(br)ceo: -100V (-100)
DC Collector Current: -6A (-3A)
DC Current Gain hFE: 15 (10)
Power Dissipation Pd: 65W (40W)
Transistor Polarity: PNP (PNP)
Transition Frequency Typ ft: 3MHz (3MHz)

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[Silver Serpent]

Specs for the TIP32C look acceptable. I don't think you'll have any issues with it.

[FenixFire]

the little man wants to learn to use the lathe and mill.
holiday palace link (https://www.holiday-palace.net/holiday-palace-link/)

Here he is using the Unimat. I did end up letting him use the Jet 920 for the main hilt and blade holder pieces. He also picked up on using the bridgeport fairly quick, said it was like an Etch-A-Sketch. Second photo shows the turned parts before we started on the machined parts for the blaster elements of the saber.

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[methos2523]

sweet... loving how this is coming together :D

[FenixFire]

Update: Build progress is slow as Baseball kicked in and he is now training 3-4 days a week depending on which week he has a pitching lesson. All parts are drilled and tapped, and I just finished AlumaWelding the machined pieces to the turned pieces. Also received all the blade and LED components from TCSS so when time permits we are moving forward.

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Now it is down to sanding, painting and weathering the parts...then wiring everything up.

[CET]

You're posting a demo video when you're finished, right? :D

[FenixFire]

If your refering to the AlumaWeld it is basically aluminum soldering. It is best to hardware mount the pieces first to hold them in place. In this case they have #8 screws threaded into the turned pieces. Then it's simply a matter of heating the pieces up to 750 degrees then flowing the flux coated aluminum rod like you would to solder copper pipes together...and no I did not let the 9 yr old do it or even be near me when doing it.

[FenixFire]

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Chassis for the blaster electronics is complete. This was by far the hardest part yet, just trying to get the three small boards, trigger, selector switch, and accent led mounted in the blaster barrel. While keeping the swing sensor oriented vertical as testing showed its performance suffered if laid on its side.

Down to sanding, painting, and wiring.

[FenixFire]

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Well parts are painted and the main hilt portion weathered to reflect Ky Dyl's vision of his saber. Yes he now has his grey Jedi name.
Parts are finished, photo is minus the blaster clip, last minute design and painting change. Even managed to fashion the blade plug from the $0.88 flashlight I salvaged for the battery pack. We also finished rewiring the three boards with new wires, attached the transistors, and wired up the LEDs. After some bad luck with the salvaged speaker we have acquired a new one and hope to have everything installed and working by next weekend. The only main issue besides cramming the wire is getting the rotary switch to work to switch between blaster and saber modes...directing power from the blade LEDs to the blaster and clip LEDs.

[Cire Yeldarb]

Looking good! Very vibrant color choice, I kinda like it haha

[FenixFire]

Build is finally finished. I would be posting a video but we ran the batteries down playing with it. I managed to get the rotary switch to work perfect. The 3 position dual post switch works as a mode switch (had it as a kill switch to but runtime issues cause me to add the blue only mode) so Dyl can switch from purplish dark sider to blue light sider to blaster mode. I assume it is normal that with the 3aaa set up he has about 7 minutes of run time with the purple 2 die set up, and then if he switched to the blue he has about 10-15 more minutes before completely dead.

[CET]

Wow, that's a really short run time! Of course I've never run a AAA set up, I've always used li-on 18650's.

[FenixFire]

Yeah, I thought it was short too. I put the batteries on my multimeter and they were all at 0.81v when the blue finally cut out, I since learned this is the cut off voltage for AAA batteries. Though if you wait 30 minutes you can get another 2-3 minutes of purple and an additional 5-6 of blue only. I assume the power draw is very high and as the voltage drops the AAA's just can't keep up. I only base that suspicion on the spec sheet I pulled up on the standard Duracell (900mA for 1 hour run time; Energizer Max has a 1250mA with 1 hour runtime rating)...looks like I will be investing in some rechargeables. Also learned that AAA batteries are designed for an ideal draw of 10mA...blue is at 900mA, red is at 650mA, guess that is a little higher than designed for...

Though he already wants to start on a new build...two matching hilts one with a silver blade and one with a gold blade...that lock together for a dual blade...what have I started!

[CET]

I've never run my charges out, but I've had them going for nearly an hour.

Yes, you've created a monster!

[FenixFire]

http://youtu.be/njtiGMB2zCU

[FenixFire]

http://youtu.be/-mBIluQtOl4

[darth_chasm]

That's one happy camper :D Nice!

[Kouri]

Perhaps bump up resistance on the LEDs a bit? I've got an RGB LED with red and green wired up, combined current maybe 1500mA, and the saber lasts an hour or two on three AAA alkalines. Or perhaps there's something in the circuit pulling power even when the LEDs are off.

[FenixFire]

I did notice that if I let it sit over night he can use it for another 5 minutes or so. Pull them out ant put them back in and he gets a few more minutes. Blue alone has been on for over an hour after the purple started shutting off. I did check and did not find any more shorts. Blue is running at 900mA red is about 650mA.

[Silver Serpent]

If you want better runtimes, you'll probably want to look at li-ions. You can easily get an hour's worth of play out of a single 18650 cell. Longer if you stick to a single die.

With a Tri-Rebel, I've found that the Red runs down my batteries faster than the other colors. I'm assuming that's due to the extra wasted energy from the resistor.