Please help! EL decoration in my saber hilt.

[SquallLeonheart]

Hi,
I have been having trouble how to work out how to add EL wire to decorate my hilt. Unfortunatly the actual saber blade is LED. Could anyone help me with this? I've never worked with EL. Thanks!

[Darth Quin]

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[Jedi-Loreen]

That's going to take up a lot more room in the hilt. EL wire works with high frequency AC, as opposed to your LED, which is DC.

You will need an EL inverter, plus a separate power supply for that, because it needs 9-12V. So, you're going to need a minimum of 3 more inches inside your hilt for this.

If you've never worked with EL wire before, it can be difficult. There's a core wire that's coated with phosphorous, then 2 fine wires that wrap around that. These 2 wires can break very easily at any time, when you're stripping off the sheathing, soldering the connection to your inverter, bending the wire to position it. If either of the 2 fine wires breaks, the EL wire will not light up and you have to re-strip it and start all over again.

If you don't want to use more than a few inches, then I'd say that it's not worth it, just go with some accent LEDs and make it easier on yourself.

If you're looking to wrap it around your hilt, then it might be worth it if you have the room inside your hilt, and the fortitude to deal with the EL wire. It can be a frustrating and even shocking experience (you really need to test your EL wire connection(s) through the process of wiring it and running it, and those inverters can give you a nasty bite).

Am I trying to discourage you? Not necessarily, just giving you the reality if how difficult EL wire can be to work with. Making EL blades is probably a bit easier than trying to use it as accent lighting on a hilt.

Something like this is doable, but I would say it's not for the faint of heart.

If you have questions about how it's been done, you might try looking for Jedi Ranger's work, he did this a few years ago.

[SquallLeonheart]

Thanks very much guys for your help. I think I'll use LED's then :D

[Eco]

That's going to take up a lot more room in the hilt. EL wire works with high frequency AC, as opposed to your LED, which is DC.

You will need an EL inverter, plus a separate power supply for that, because it needs 9-12V. So, you're going to need a minimum of 3 more inches inside your hilt for this.

If you've never worked with EL wire before, it can be difficult. There's a core wire that's coated with phosphorous, then 2 fine wires that wrap around that. These 2 wires can break very easily at any time, when you're stripping off the sheathing, soldering the connection to your inverter, bending the wire to position it. If either of the 2 fine wires breaks, the EL wire will not light up and you have to re-strip it and start all over again.

If you don't want to use more than a few inches, then I'd say that it's not worth it, just go with some accent LEDs and make it easier on yourself.

If you're looking to wrap it around your hilt, then it might be worth it if you have the room inside your hilt, and the fortitude to deal with the EL wire. It can be a frustrating and even shocking experience (you really need to test your EL wire connection(s) through the process of wiring it and running it, and those inverters can give you a nasty bite).

Am I trying to discourage you? Not necessarily, just giving you the reality if how difficult EL wire can be to work with. Making EL blades is probably a bit easier than trying to use it as accent lighting on a hilt.

Something like this is doable, but I would say it's not for the faint of heart.

If you have questions about how it's been done, you might try looking for Jedi Ranger's work, he did this a few years ago.

I think I'll sway away from inlaying it on a shirt, then. :D

[Luke-SkyMarcher]

You know, that reminds me of some "fun" I had with EL this summer. (non-lightsaber related).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q16tzeSo7So&feature=player_profilepage

Note the percussion.

That took A LOT of soldering... fortunately I had the help of some friends, some of whom had never soldered before :shock: . I really admire someone who can learn to solder using EL wire!

[Jedi-Loreen]

Cool. I saw the EL wire on the banner and the drums.


Good thing that wasn't a competition though. A lot of those kids were out of step, or out of phase. :rolleyes:



Yes, I'm a former high school band geek.

[Luke-SkyMarcher]

A lot of those kids were out of step, or out of phase.

That's true. You may have also noticed that we were moving unusually fast for a marching band. That's because the other marching band stopped to perform, leaving a very large gap. Once they finished the parade, the rest of the units (vehicles) tried closing the gap - leaving it in front of us. The gap caused was so large, that people thought the parade was over and started leaving by the thousands. (The Gatlinburg 4th of July parade is very well attended) We were expected to close the gap - hence the people almost running at some points, the people falling behind, etc.

Other than that, and almost pulling my hair out with technical problems with the lighting literally up to the last minute (I was trying to find a place to plug in my soldering iron at 11:30, the parade started at 12), it was a great experience!:D