Complex Accent LEDs & Controller Pigybacking

[girot]

I am looking to get stupid complicated with a custom bad guy saber. After disassembling my Sith Claymore I discovered that there was no way to actually upgrade what I had and I'm forced to throw almost all of it away. Rather than get upset I am pushing forward and redesigning this badboy. I aim to create something nobody has ever seen before. I definitely wouldn't say I'm after a "game-changer" but I definitely aim to cause truckloads of nerd boners. :P

Part of this design is not just an accent LED but a full-on LED assembly. In addition to a crystal chamber I want to do an "industrial strength" revealed radiator/generator. At the base of the radiator I plan on putting a ring of red, orange, and white LEDs that "pulse while rotating" in a kind of wave form. When FoC goes off the ring goes solid (and bring) while the white LED's flash like their big brother. I'm thinking I might be able to use whatever folks are using for batter indicator displays for this bit. Hell, I might as well turn it into a battery indicator while I'm at it. I am going to try to use an independent LED controller for the red/orange effect on one circuit, the white on another, and tie each into the corresponding main LED circuits. As for the power concern this accent effect will be powered by a separate battery and have it's own switch(s).

If I can work out the lighting effects I might also put a rumble motor in as well. It would just coast during idle, "jump" with clash and blaster deflection, and really rev up on a lock-up. Naturally this will involve a reinforced chassis but that part I've got nailed, lol.

The crystal chamber on this thing will be old republic era (clean & simple) compared to my rebellion era (homemade out of junk) graflex build. The only major detail here is that I plan in using between one and three quartz crystal skulls instead of normal points.

Thoughts, questions, etc are welcome.

Thanks,
Girot

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

What do you plan to run all of this off of?

[girot]

I'm still shopping around for the controller for the generator effects. The rest is pretty standard lightsaber guts. Fortunately LEDs are easy to find. Soundboards on the other hand are rather scarce at the moment, lol.

[sgcdialler]

What do you plan to run all of this off of?

A battery the size of a dime, perhaps? ;)

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

A battery the size of a dime, perhaps? ;)

Cute.

[girot]

Cute.

LOL. If you were asking about power? I haven't figured that out yet. I need the windowed section for the radiator first so I can figure out how many LEDs I can fit around it. Then I can do the math for the battery. :D

I've been thinking about how the "battery level" effect and it looks like I should be able to use that (or something similar) to get the effect I want. Basically I want to distribute power sequentially to each LED in the primary sequence. LED R1 fades up from 0 to max output then back down. LED R2 starts fading up once LED R1 hits XmA and does the same thing. Then LED R3 starts when LED R2 hits XmA. You get the idea, lol.

FoC
@Blade: I'm going for a Tri-Rebel (R,RB,W). Aesthetically I can't stand the cartoony look of anything else on a clash effect so I'm going to use my white LED for FoC.

@Generator/Radiator: I am probably going to skip the other colors and just do really bright red with some interlaced FoC white. I don't expect I'll need more than three or four of these and they don't have to be stupid bright. I'll make this call later once I have my math done but for now the plan is to wire the the white blade LED to the white G/R LEDs so they all clash/lockup together. If power becomes an issue I'll either put all aux effects onto a dedicated power source or split up the blade electronics from the accent electronics.

@Rumble: I'm still researching this one but the goal is to tie it into the LED effects. Since the different light levels (Pulses/fades/etc) are achieved by variable power output through the drivers/soundboards then it shouldn't be too difficult to piggyback on that signal and achieve the same effect (through variable analog output) with a rumble motor.

Crystal Chamber/AV Switch:
I want that idle pulsing effect I've seen around so the current plan is to wire the AV LED and CC LED(s) into the same circuit.

[girot]

Want to pass on the nifty idea I can up with for running an accent led off of a NBv2. I wanted to put an accent led in the pommel of my saber to light up when powered on. I was having issues getting the wiring run from the LED terminals on the NB due to space in my ribbed extension. I remembered the trick to get blade flicker when using a cheapo sound board. I went ahead and spliced wires into those connecting my speaker and ran them to the accent LED in the pommel. I didn't use a resistor since the output to the speaker isn't very high. Now i get this cool flicker effect out of the pommel as well as light flashes when the boot sound plays. It is a great way to add some cool effects to your saber with little effort. This would work from any sound board i would assume. If ibget the time i will upload some pics and maybe a video. Juatnwanted to share this with others.

Just found this gem and think it might just be the trick I need to get the most out of the G/R effects!!