Crystal chamber: parallel or series?

[Jonlo Garoc]

I've constructed my first saber with an illuminated crystal chamber, and am having issues with the crystal LEDs. The main LED is an amber luxeon rebel, and the crystal LEDs are from a 3 LED flashlight. After powering it up, the crystal stays illuminated for about a minute, then fades off. Currently, the crystal is wired in parallel. Could this be the cause?
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[darth_chasm]

What are the specs of the flashlight leds? Are they resistored properly? What's your power source? Are you using a sound board?

[CET]

Being wired in parallel is probably fine (that's how I do mine) but using a 3 LED flashlight sounds like a lot of lumens! I would guess that it's pulling a lot of juice. Is your blade dimmer when you light it up? Typically a single 5mm LED is used for a crystal chamber. Maybe 2 if you have one on each end. They still need to have resistors added to them to keep from burning up and/or creating funny sound card errors. The dyna-ohm (http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/20mA-DynaOhm-Variable-Resistor-P847.aspx) usually gets the job done nicely.

[Jonlo Garoc]

The LED cluster is pre-resistored. My power source is three aaa's, and the blade seems to be running at maximum brightness even after the crystal fades. No soundboard.

[darth_chasm]

Are they pre-resistored for the 4.5v you're giving them? Do you have a resistor on your main led?

[Jonlo Garoc]

Yes, but the main LED is running without a resistor.

[darth_chasm]

I start the trouble shooting by adding a resistor to the main led.

[Jonlo Garoc]

That seems worth a shot. Would a 700ma buckpuck be overkill?

[darth_chasm]

I'm not familiar with using them so I don't really know and have no idea how to integrate the flashlight leds with it.

[Silver Serpent]

Buckpucks need a minimum of 5v to operate properly.

If I had to take a guess, I'd say there's something funky going on with the LED board from your flashlight.