Help with wiring, lots of questions

[Jon76]

Hey guys, I'm completely new with this lightsaber making stuff but I got hyped for the new movie and decided to finally make one.

I've been planning the lightsaber for the last month and have several questions regarding wiring because some of the info out there is either incomplete or contradicts other info.

First, here's an imgur link to the wiring diagram I have set up: http://i.imgur.com/NwvgVYV.png

Here are my questions:


I want to power this with a single cell 18650 in a battery holder, will this setup allow for that and give me good battery life or should I go with something else?
I want everything to be easily removable so I want to put a JST or push on terminal on everything, would that work?
To wire the battery holder with a JST/push on terminal, I just need to solder a wire to the negative and positive clips, correct?
My activation button is momentary, can I make the Crystal Focus treat it as latching or do I need to use a momentary to latching converter?
Does the wiring on the top and bottom terminals on the buttons matter? (The gray in the diagram)
The Crystal Focus manual says that the TXD and RXD on the RICE terminal should be disconnected when the saber is not in use. Can I keep them together, again with JST's and just remove the battery when I'm not using the saber?
How the hell am I supposed to wire the LED? The info and diagrams I found from other uses was confusing or again, contradictory.
Does the tri-rebel lens need the black lens holder from the shop holder or is it simply held by the cylindrical piece that holds the heatsink?
The crystal focus manual makes no distinction regarding speaker polarity, does that mean and wire can go to either of the points?
I realize that the accent LED's need resistors, is the 20ohm one I calculated correct or is it borked? Activation switch is a 3.3V white ring and Aux is a green dot 3.3V from the shop. Does the main LED need a resistor too? I've been seeing contradictory answers.


Finally, what I want is for the lightsaber to work like in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRUTRc_dIzYhttp://

Flash on clash, real time color changing, etc.

If this is the wrong section to post in please redirect me where I can post it.

If you stuck it out this far, thank you a million!

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

Welcome to the Forums.

See my comments below in yellow:


Hey guys, I'm completely new with this lightsaber making stuff but I got hyped for the new movie and decided to finally make one.

I've been planning the lightsaber for the last month and have several questions regarding wiring because some of the info out there is either incomplete or contradicts other info.

First, here's an imgur link to the wiring diagram I have set up.1231512315

Here are my questions:

I want to power this with a single cell 18650 in a battery holder, will this setup allow for that and give me good battery life or should I go with something else?
To do that, you would need to perform the 3.7V hack on the CF board. It's in the manual.
I want everything to be easily removable so I want to put a JST or push on terminal on everything, would that work?
JST connectors take up a lot of room. Almost everyone solders things together. Push on terminals don't sound overly reliable to me.
To wire the battery holder with a JST/push on terminal, I just need to solder a wire to the negative and positive clips, correct?
The premade packs weren't made/designed for use with battery holders. They were more for designs with recharge ports, or easy access to the JST connector for recharging purposes.
My activation button is momentary, can I make the Crystal Focus treat it as latching or do I need to use a momentary to latching converter?
That is fine. You just change a setting, which is explained in the manual.
Does the wiring on the top and bottom terminals on the buttons matter? (The gray in the diagram)
Yes.
The Crystal Focus manual says that the TXD and RXD on the RICE terminal should be disconnected when the saber is not in use. Can I keep them together, again with JST's and just remove the battery when I'm not using the saber?
Again, most people just use a recharge port and kill key setup in their sabers.
How the hell am I supposed to wire the LED? The info and diagrams I found from other uses was confusing or again, contradictory.

It is covered in the CF manual, plus I did create sections here on the forum with good complete diagrams..
Does the tri-rebel lens need the black lens holder from the shop holder or is it simply held by the cylindrical piece that holds the heatsink?
No. The Tri-Lens is all you need, the heatsink holds both in place.

[LIST]
The crystal focus manual makes no distinction regarding speaker polarity, does that mean and wire can go to either of the points? Correct.
I realize that the accent LED's need resistors, is the 20ohm one I calculated correct or is it borked? Sounds a bit high to me.
Activation switch is a 3.3V white ring and Aux is a green dot 3.3V from the shop. Does the main LED need a resistor too? I've been seeing contradictory answers. The one connected to the main channel does not. If you are using a color extender (it looks like you are) then no.


Finally, what I want is for the lightsaber to work like in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRUTRc_dIzYhttp://

Flash on clash, real time color changing, etc.

If this is the wrong section to post in please redirect me where I can post it.

If you stuck it out this far, thank you a million!

[darth_chasm]

Welcome aboard Jon!

I'm curious about the RICE part. Are you referring to this statement that is highlighted red in the manual?

Note: When not using the
saber, especially when the kill
key is inserted in the recharge
port, disconnect the R.I.C.E.
cable from the data port.

[Jon76]

Thank you both for the reply! darth_chasm, yes, I am referring to that part in the manual.

Forgetful Jedi, I understand that the recharge port and battery w/JST is the more popular approach but I'd prefer to go the battery holder style. I vape as a hobby and already have a few batteries and a charger. I took a look at your posts with wiring diagrams and I honestly still do not get it. It doesn't help that the LED shown in your posts is different to the Luxeon in the shop.

I really just want to make sure the LED works as the saber in the linked video.

Again, thank you both.

[darth_chasm]

FJK will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the statement for disconnecting RICE refers to the external cable that you use to interface with your computer. Not the internal wires.

Check out page 40 of the manual. That is how you will want to wire the LED. Yes, the one pictured is a quad, but it only uses three die. The positive and negative pad of each die sandwich the diode like this...

+ LED - + LED - + LED -

Hope this helps.

[Jon76]

Thanks, that definitely helped me out. Here's a "final" diagram of the board for your critique. http://i.imgur.com/gJIyHpg.png

And more questions because this is starting to get really real and the cost is going up so I don't want to screw anything up. I also gave in and added a recharge port. I know that according to Forgetful Jedi Knight, I don't need any more resistors than the two for the accents and I've recalculated and they came out to 15 ohms.

For the color extender wire that goes to the positive, should I make it so both wires are independently soldered to the board or should I solder both wires together and then connect one end to the board?

Any general advice or critiques you have of the circuit are more than welcome. Thank you again for your help!

[Jon76]

One more question: It doesn't matter what channel I wire the die's to correct?

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

One more question: It doesn't matter what channel I wire the die's to correct?

No, as long as you keep track of them.

[Jon76]

Thank you! You say to keep track of them so that you don't end up overloading one of the die when using RICE, correct?

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

Thank you! You say to keep track of them so that you don't end up overloading one of the die when using RICE, correct?

That too. It would be hard to mix colors, if you don't know which colors are where. ;)

[Jon76]

Fair enough haha, I guess I could wire it up and individually turn them on in RICE.

[darth_chasm]

Thanks, that definitely helped me out. Here's a "final" diagram of the board for your critique. http://i.imgur.com/gJIyHpg.png

And more questions because this is starting to get really real and the cost is going up so I don't want to screw anything up. I also gave in and added a recharge port. I know that according to Forgetful Jedi Knight, I don't need any more resistors than the two for the accents and I've recalculated and they came out to 15 ohms.

For the color extender wire that goes to the positive, should I make it so both wires are independently soldered to the board or should I solder both wires together and then connect one end to the board?

Any general advice or critiques you have of the circuit are more than welcome. Thank you again for your help!


Glad too help. I'll be honest, your diagram is pretty tough for me to read and being fairly new I don't want to say its ok. And...take what I say below with a grain of salt. :)

If the Vf of your accents is 3.3v then I don't think you need a resistor because the accent pads deliver 3.3v. You may choose to do a minimal one but thats up to you.

RE the wires: You can just twist the wires together at the exposed ends and solder them to the pad.

And one last thought. You have quite a few connectors, two ports, and two larger sized switches. Its easy to overestimate how much space you think is available in a hilt, but it does run out very quick.

[Jon76]

I have been thinking of getting rid of some of the connectors but I'm going to wait once I have everything to see where I can sacrifice them.

Thanks for your help again!