Wiring my saber

[Darth Cruor]

I just drew a diagram showing the wiring of my saber (no sound). I just wanted to post the diagram, to check everything was ok, and to ask a few questions. Make sure you read all of my diagram to make sure you know what I'm talking about.

590

My questions:

How exactly would I wire up a momentary switch to the accent LED?
How many resistors will I need, and where and how many ohms should they have?
Is it possible to add a momentary switch in series (probably not) without it affecting the main LED?

[Darth Cruor]

If I'm correct, and it is not practical to have another LED in parallel (I suppose series wouldn't be that bad, but a constant red light... meh), then with a 9V power source, I should need a 2.2 ohm 5 watt resistor at the most?

[Ade Kenobi]

It's possible to wire the accent led in parallel with the main one.It just needs a separate resistor to do so.

In the following circuit closing the top switch will turn on the main led and closing the bottom switch will turn on the accent led as long as the top switch is already on.

Resistor value for the accent led would depend on what led you intend to use so would need calculating using the same formula as for the main led.

http://img197.imagevenue.com/loc41/th_25282_accent_122_41lo.jpg (http://img197.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=25282_accent_122_41lo.jpg)

[Darth Cruor]

Thanks a ton mate :) I never really was good with circuits... anyhow, did I get the neg/pos wires right?

[Ade Kenobi]

The only parts in the circuit that need the correct polarity are the leds.The switches can go on either side as can the resistors.If you wire an led the wrong way round,it won't light.
Your K2 should be marked on the base as to positive and negative and the smaller leds will usually have a shorter leg on the negative connection.

[Novastar]

I would AVOID using a 9v cell to power an LED with the forward voltage of ~4v... especially if you are not using a driver board.

Firstly, it wastes energy to heat (you need to "shunt off" about 5v!!)
Secondly, the 9v cell is essentially 6AAAA (you read that right, 4 'a's.)

The runtime on this saber would be abyssmal.

Better solutions would be:

4.5v Alkaline (3AA) + a small resistor... maybe 1 or 2 ohm.
3.6v Li-Ion (1 cell) + maybe even NO resistor... or maybe 0.5 ohm.