driving a lux III red

[Darth_DevilGuy]

hey all, with the LED's now in stock I'm just about ready to order the parts for my first saber, I'm having a little trouble with how to power it though, being a Darth by nature I'm building one with a red blade, but from the chart the red III draws a lot more MA than the other lux III's so how do I drive this bad boy?

I'm inclined to think two 700 buckpucks, giving it the 1400 MA it wants, but am I cutting it a little close? and if two buckpucks is what I should use what would that circuit look like? my knowledge of eletronics is limited, but putting them in line on the circuit one after the other would just result in 700ma to the LED right?

edit: I've looked around a bit, I haven't found anything on the net or in the circuit diagrams section that would tell me how to wire an LED with two buckpucks, any help would be appreciated.

[DarthFender]

I might be wrong, but I don't think using two buck pucks will work the way you think it will. I would either go direct driver with the 2.2 ohm resistor or wait til the LuxIII Drivers are back in stock. Heck, the resistors are cheap, you could get one to wire in until the driver boards a re back in stock.

[Darth_DevilGuy]

ok good advice, any idea if the standard AA or AAA battery packs will work with that?

[xwingband]

I might be wrong, but I don't think using two buck pucks will work the way you think it will. I would either go direct driver with the 2.2 ohm resistor or wait til the LuxIII Drivers are back in stock. Heck, the resistors are cheap, you could get one to wire in until the driver boards a re back in stock.

Ummm... sure it will. You take both bundle all the like wires, positive battery,neg battery, pos LED, etc with each other. The only difference is there is one battery source, one switch and one LED.

[Hasid Lafre]

So in order to get 1400mah out of 2 700's you just put all the like wires togeather, then a wire comming off them to th eplace they need to like like batt P/N, led P/N, ect ect.

So couldent i theroretically do the same with my corbin/mr setup for a red's or a k2's?

[Darth_DevilGuy]

another question, if I wanted to wire a hasbro board to this for sound would branching off another set of leads from the switch to form a parallel circuit?

essentially if I ran three positive and negative leads from the switch, two of each to the buckpucks, and the remaining set to the hasbro board, would it work, or would I fry something?

[xwingband]

So in order to get 1400mah out of 2 700's you just put all the like wires togeather, then a wire comming off them to th eplace they need to like like batt P/N, led P/N, ect ect.

So couldent i theroretically do the same with my corbin/mr setup for a red's or a k2's?

Not sure what you mean? Pair the MR and Corbin's? I'm not sure... I don't think I'd bother. One is regulated and the other is for all purposes just like a resistor.

Darth_Devilguy, Not sure what you are going for either. Hasbro's (momentary) usually don't mix with the buckpucks too well. If you built a circuit that uses the momentary and the control leads I can see something... I'm not sure anyone has gone to those lengths though.

[Darth_DevilGuy]

basically I want to use the hasbro board for sound but not for the LED itself because it's output would be pitiful, so I'm wondering how to wire that, and run it off the same battery's and the same switch if at all possible.

essentially what I was thinking, was run two buckpucks with the wire's bundled like you said, then have the hasbro board attached the same way, with it's own set of positive and negative wires running strait from the switch, would it draw the power it needs or would it just fry?

[Hasid Lafre]

Yeah I was thinking of paring up the led p/n on both the mr and corbin boards to get effectivly 1900mah.

But thinking about it Iam not sure if that will work, not something I want to try and end up frying a board.

[DarthFender]

ok good advice, any idea if the standard AA or AAA battery packs will work with that?

Yes wither of them will.

[DarthFender]

Ummm... sure it will. You take both bundle all the like wires, positive battery,neg battery, pos LED, etc with each other. The only difference is there is one battery source, one switch and one LED.

I must admit when I am wrong. At lease I said that I was not sure. :|

[DarthFender]

ok good advice, any idea if the standard AA or AAA battery packs will work with that?

http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/showthread.php?t=372

Strydur put this post up long time back. It works pretty good for me. You could sub out the Puck for the driver board.

Yes it will all work.

[Darth_DevilGuy]

ok then looks like I'm ready to start putting my order together! I think I'll document the build and make my own newbie guide if I have the time, there's alot of info to go over.

[Hasid Lafre]

Fender the corbin board only puts out 1000 mah, when it flashes it puts out 1100 mah. I was talkign to corbin in chat about it.

[DarthFender]

Fender the corbin board only puts out 1000 mah, when it flashes it puts out 1100 mah. I was talkign to corbin in chat about it.

Really? It lights up the red LuxIII I got just fine. Seems just as bright as direct drive. I'll have to go back and look at that. Driven with CF3.0 VS the LUXIII Corbin Driver. My eye didn't see the difference. All I have to measure with is my naked eye.... I will defer to Corbin's experience. But to my eye the difference is negligible.

[Darth_DevilGuy]

if you look at the chart the red III takes considerably more power and is alot brighter than the others, it's in the range of the other colors K2 counterparts.

[Darth_DevilGuy]

quick additional question, I see that Corbin's board is back in stock, will that adequately power a red III? in other words would I notice a major difference in brightness? it's output is 400MA short, but if the brightness is close it's extra features might be worth it as it would only add $8 over two Buck Puck 700's.

[xwingband]

quick additional question, I see that Corbin's board is back in stock, will that adequately power a red III? in other words would I notice a major difference in brightness? it's output is 400MA short, but if the brightness is close it's extra features might be worth it as it would only add $8 over two Buck Puck 700's.

You'd only notice it next to a Red being run at the 1400mA. It's still bright. It's not like anyone will be able to pick it out as an underdriven Red.

[DarthFender]

That's probably why I can't see the diff. I can't do a side by side comparison. I only got the one red LuxIII.

[Novastar]

Exactly right, Fender... hard to see the difference.

However, I will say that my:

Red-O Lux III driven by CF @ 1500ma
vs.
Red-O Lux III driven by "direct drive" (resistor)

...is definitely brighter when you try to make an apples to apples comparison. Same blade length, same blade type, same mirror, same diffuser, same depth of blade in the hilt, same/similar blade wear, same LED bin (or very close!), same optics.

But an apples to apples comparison... is (clearly) VERY tough to do unless you have two identical sabers to test! :)