Questions about Sound&Light Boards...

[Slait]

Well, I've been poking around the boards, When I realized I never really picked out a sound board. So from there, I wandered around the shop, and came to yet another conclusion that I can't find any there. I found the Luxeon 3w driver V2, Which is very nice by the way, but it doesn't say anything about sound. So here's my questions.

1. Is there any sound&light boards in the shop? Or maybe just a sound board I could use in addition to the Luxeon Light one?
2. If not, Anyone know where I might acquire one?
3. I've been hearing some good things about this Crystal Focus Saber Core, and I really like the way it works, from what I can tell. Is Plector Labs the only place selling it...? Because I've never ordered anything from over seas, let alone France, and I'm not sure how hard it is to do so since I don't use Paypal or anything like that, and I live in the US. Any details on this setup would be kinda nice, I'm really interested in it. :)

[Darth Leximus]

No there are no soundboards available in the store......yet!

There is at least 1 in developement that will be sold exclusively through TCSS so keep an eye out it should be within a few months.

CFC or Crystal Focus Core is at this time the top of the line "all inclusive" saber sound/led driver board. Thusly it is in HUGE demand and therefore sold out! CFC's are made by one man, yes ONE MAN, all be it a very VERY intelligent man, you can only ask or expect so much from a one man business. So supplies are often limited and at the moment he is experiences a back order on a few crucial components of the board so it's lookin like september is the absolute soonest we might see anymore CFC's.

So currently as in RIGHT NOW your only options for sound are...

Gutting a Hasbro saber.....not recommended, but cheap and it is technically SOUND

Gutting a MR FX saber (if you can find one).......decent sound at best, and comes with the hefty price tag of an FX saber unless you find a broken one for sale on ebay or something similar

Scour Ebay for severly overpriced CFC's or Ultraboards....both have good sound and their own unique features but you run the risk of paying a ridiculous price for a possibly non functioning board.

Hope this helped

[Slait]

Aha! Alright. I don't really use sites like Amazon or Ebay either, So I'm sorta screwed out of it for the moment. But, I will definitely stick around and wait for the CSS one. I'll probably make my saber before it's out, but I'll just order one when it is and rewire the sucker. ;-)

Well, Thank you, you've been extremely helpful. Looking forward to it's release! :)

[savyas]

there's always the option of heading down to your local mega-lo mart (wal-mart, target, k-mart) and buying a hasbro light saber w/sound.. rip it apart and use the board with the LED driver you saw here. There are plenty o' wiring diagrams for hasbro boards available to guide you along.

Granted, Hasbro boards blow chunks when compared to MR or better yet a CF, but it sound, and they're cheap.

[Darth Leximus]

Glad I could help :p

Looking forward to seeing your saber!

[Chowser]

You could check your local Radio Shack, hopefully, they'll have some Joe Jedi FX sabers on closeout for $35 or less. That's not a bad price to get one to gut for a soundcard. Then you can choose MR sounds for jedi or sith since both are on the card. I haven't tried this yet since I've been using gutted MR jedi boards.

[Slait]

Well, The thing is, I wanna have sound. As true as that is, I'm not quite sure I really wanna go out and gut a $90-$100 saber for a not-so-grand sound board that might be worth around $20-$35 by itself. It'll be a bit of a pain, and in the long run, it'll cost me a bit more.

On the other hand, I could just skip the sound for a few monthes, or till whenever this new board comes in, and purchase one that will probably be a lot better. No gutting, no extra leftover stuff, no cash wasted. I would probably be buying it even if I did gut another saber, so it's really saving me that $100 to go without.

The Joe Jedi sabers... Sounds familiar, but I don't think I've ever seen one. The radio shacks in my area have some pretty snobby employees, so I don't really care for them much... But I just happened to stumble into one around a week ago to take a glance at possible mods for this saber, Didn't see a single thing like what your talking about. I'll keep an eye out though, $35 is a much more reasonable price. Thanks for mentioning that. :)

But don't get me wrong! These are good ideas, if your dead set on having sound. Thanks to everyone who posted them. I'm just the patient cash-pinching sort. ;)

[Darth Leximus]

patient and cash pinching can be a good thing, especially in saber building...maybe not the cash pinching part, but thats just me...anywho...

The Joe Jedi boards are decent, but really hard to find right now, I know the entire state of IL is sold out. They went on clearance from like 100 to 35 dollars so they went pretty fast.

Honestly since you said you are a patient person just wait and get something that like you said, won't come with extra parts that you don't really need and is made to do EXACTLY what you need it to do. It will be easier and more cost efficient in the long run.

Well I think I've given you at least a dimes worth of my $.02 so I'll take a rest now.

[Darth_DevilGuy]

yeah there were none to be had within 50 miles of my house two days after they went on clearance, I managed to get two but right now I'm wishing I had more.

[Kal El Rah]

Slait,
The Joe Jedi is actually the Master Replicas Saber Construction kit, most hard to find at this time. I have 7 of them (purchased to have the sound boards). They are very nice because you can make a lot of different sabers with it and as mentioned before, they have 2 different sound capabilities. The CFSC will be very hard to get a hold of even when Erv makes more(I was lucky to get a V4.0) Anyway, good luck with your Saber, and enjoy the True Jedi within you making your own saber.:)

p.s. If you are interested in getting 1 or more, just p.m. me.

[TimeRender]

Slait, before you settle on which board you want to go with, you might want to reconsider what all you want your saber to be able to do. Your saber design is tiny. That's not a bad thing in itself, but you might want to do some research concerning the dimensions of the components that will be going into it. You only just have enough room for batteries in this thing, let alone a sound card, speaker, and an inverter for EL wire. This is a great design for a first saber if you're willing to skip the special effects and just direct drive the LED, and that is exactly what I would advise until you have a slightly better idea of what you are doing. Learn what the different boards are capable of and what their limitations are, then decide which of those features interest you most. Once you know that, take the time to gather good dimensions and then plan your saber around those. This will save you time and money in the long run. You may also want to try contacting a few saber builders who have finished similar projects. I know Jedi Ranger made a few hilts with EL wire on the grip, perhaps he could assist you.