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The One
10-28-2008, 10:25 AM
I am new here and kinda messed up my 1st post so here it goes. I have a 2002 EL Anakin Saber. It is my first EL saber. I have 5 Force FX sabers, and 1 Luxeon Maul saber. I can notice quite a difference in the 3 kinds (FX, EL, Luxeon) but did that model come w/ a plaque of some kind? Mine did. It says on it Anakin Lightsaber, "I will be the most powerful Jedi ever". At the bottom it says Anakin to Padame Attack of the Clones. And what is the difference between the different ways to light up the saber? FX have 64 lights, Luxeon have 1 super bright LED, but what is an EL? Is it 1 electro-eluminescent bulb (or 1st gen LED) like the Luxeon style just not as bright? Is it harder to convert this type of saber to a Luxeon, or any other? Thank you for all your help.:confused:

Donnovan Sunrider
10-28-2008, 10:34 AM
EL is a wire that runs up and down the length of the blade.
Here's a page the describes how they're made.

http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/showthread.php?t=2024

As far as modding it into a Lux or another type, that's doable, but not simple. Here is a thread where Jay-Gonn goes through the process of such a conversion.
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/showthread.php?t=3992

Jedi-Loreen
10-28-2008, 11:06 AM
That tutorial in the link posted above is based off of my original tutorial that I wrote back in 2003, making me sort of "famous" in the lightsaber community, before LED sabers were around. Tim has improved upon my tutorial a bit though. ;) And made a one-stop shop for everything you need.

I believe that the Anakin EL saber has a film or paper type of EL, instead of wire. As stated in the tutorial, it stands for ElectroLuminescent.

Here's a blurb of information that I have gleaned over the years about what EL actually is and how it works:


The substance in EL wire that gives off the light is phosphorus. When it is surrounded by a high frequency AC current, it glows, or, phosphoresces. It consists of a solid "core" wire, which is coated with the phosphorus, and 2 fine wires that spiral around the outside of the core wire. These are what surround the phosphorus with the current.

The color of the wire is determined by the colored sheathing around the wire. Since phosphorus naturally glows a greenish blue, the sheathing over the aqua wire is clear. The only exception to this is the white EL wire. The white color is achieved by sort of "doping" the phosphorus by adding chemicals to change the chemical properties and make it glow a different color. The coating on the wire looks pink, till the current is applied.

Phosphorus is a bit toxic, so make sure you wash your hands thoroughly after scraping the coating off the main wire when connecting EL wire.

As for EL wire deteriorating, I know that pure phosphorus reacts with oxygen, though I'm sure what's in the EL wire is mixed with other chemicals, especially the white EL wire, so it couldn't hurt to seal the cut end with a bit of glue or clear nail polish. This is also another good reason to put hot glue on the wires after you've soldered them inside the audio connector.

EL wire should glow for a few thousand hours before it starts to dim, it won't glow at the same brightness indefinitely. But unless you're using it as a night light, it should last longer than most people will be able to wear it out in a lightsaber blade, especially of you have more than one blade.



If you want to convert your MR EL saber to LED, the inverter board is different than the LED driver of the newer ones, so you can't use the board to drive your LED. I think someone asked about that here, check out this forum for that thread.

I believe you can still use the board for sound.

If you're thinking about converting it to Luxeon, you would probably just bypass the board to drive the LED with a buck puck or resistored, though I don't know how complicated that would be.

Hasid Lafre
10-28-2008, 11:15 AM
Ask ldm he did a lux conversion using guts from a 616 kit.

The One
10-28-2008, 11:45 AM
Wow (and again sorry) Blue 8 your knowledge on phosphorus is exquisite. My father taught chemistry at Ohio State, and even I never asked him to explain it that much. So basically what your saying is a new-b like me should pass this saber on to more skillful hands? It took me 4 days to get into my maul to see what was wrong,(and still don't know yet, but am trying to figure it out) and 2 days to get that stupid pin out of the ep 5 vader! I have studied the anakin saber, seems easily accessible, but should gain far greater knowledge before attempting any conversion. Thank you for your help. I will study the links for a while and see if I can grasp it. Anyone know about the plaque mine came with?:D

MoonDragn
10-28-2008, 11:59 AM
Was this saber custom made? I didn't think MR made EL sabers. The EL on it may not stand for ElectroLuminescence but something else entirely.

Lord Dottore Matto
10-28-2008, 12:31 PM
Ask ldm he did a lux conversion using guts from a 616 kit.

Here you go bro!

http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/showthread.php?t=6272

I have converted 3 of these, all a little differently, but this tutorial is the most simple method that I have used. You will be much happier with it as a lux III saber. PM me if you have questions or feel as though you are not ready to do this conversion and I can help you.:)

The One
10-28-2008, 12:52 PM
yes I was surprised to see that it was an EL saber, thought they were extinct. Here is a picture of the box and saber.

749

750

751

MoonDragn
10-28-2008, 12:59 PM
Wow, an antique! heh heh. heck it might be worth something now.

Hasid Lafre
10-28-2008, 01:03 PM
N ot really

Jedi-Loreen
10-28-2008, 01:35 PM
Wow, how young are you, MoonDrgn?

The very first light up MR saber was EL. The Luke RoTJ EL saber came before the Anakin.

A friend destroyed his original blade to his EL Luke and I made an EL wire blade that he sort of partially destroyed to jury rig it to fit into his saber.


EL has always stood for ElectroLuminescent. :rolleyes:

MoonDragn
10-28-2008, 01:39 PM
Wow, how young are you, MoonDrgn?

The very first light up MR saber was EL. The Luke RoTJ EL saber came before the Anakin.

A friend destroyed his original blade to his EL Luke and I made an EL wire blade that he sort of partially destroyed to jury rig it to fit into his saber.


EL has always stood for ElectroLuminescent. :rolleyes:

Im only 41 years old.

I did not pay attention to lightsabers back when the first came out because I thought they were toys for little kids. So I missed the EL saber wave. But technically it is an antique because those sabers came out in the late 80s early 90s if I remember correctly.

This would be the first MR EL that I've seen.

btw, I have a lightsaber with a plasma blade. Too bad it is damaged and the board looked like it was used for spare parts.

PS> I just realized it said 2002 MR EL saber. Now I thought by then MR had started making the LED sabers?

I wonder what sabers I was thinking about that was late 80s and early 90s if it wasn't MR FXs...

Jedi-Loreen
10-28-2008, 02:16 PM
I don't know of any light up sabers that early, in the '80s or '90s, other than the toy Hasbros.

I don't know how long Parks has been around, or when Lightech started.

I didn't pay much attention to lightsabers myself, till around 2001, though I did have a few of the older Hasbro sabers.

I remember seeing kits for plasma sabers. I saw one in person, back in 2002, a green one, and damn! was it bright! It blew away the Parks EL sabers at the same Con where I saw it.

I believe the first MR LED saber came out in 2003 or 2004.

I'm sure someone around here can recite the intire lineage, in order. ;)

The One
10-28-2008, 02:42 PM
actually Blue 8 i remember having the very first hasbro lightsaber when I was about 7-8. It had a green blade the size of a large wiffle-ball(sp) bat (circumference wise), non retractable, and the handle reminded you of a charter house(college) spanking paddle for pledges. It was the cheesiest thing I had ever seen, but when your 7, anything that has to do w/ SW was awesome.

Lord Dottore Matto
10-28-2008, 03:15 PM
yes I was surprised to see that it was an EL saber, thought they were extinct. Here is a picture of the box and saber.

749

750

751

No, not extinct! WTH do you think I have been converting? These! :lol:

BTW, I posted the link to the tut below for you.:mrgreen:

The One
10-28-2008, 03:39 PM
Do you think you could convert mine....for a price? I almost have it apart (anakin EL) pretty easy. Is the 616 the model # for the build your own crappy plastic saber? I have one and hate it. Actually now that I have my 1st Double Maul Luxeon, everything else seems uncivilized. Also, a few months ago I happened to see that someone had taken apart a Yoda FX saber, is there mods for that yet? Also, I did a little soldering in the Navy, but I'm like James Bond, destruction is more my thing rather than construction. I have watched your video's 10 times today and could not make out the name of the guy who had the soldering tutorial, although I am not great at it yet.... I have taken apart my ep 5 vader, and the maul(battle damaged one the other side is perfect, now I see why he sold it)that has soldering screw-ups from the guy I bought it from.