Jay-gon Jinn's Chrome Saber 33 Build (MHS-MR FX-illuminated AV switch-AAA Alkalines)

This saber was built purely because I had the extra electronics already to go that came out of CS-X after I upgraded it to a Petit Crouton. The parts arrived from TCSS Thursday afternoon (Dec. 9, 2010), and I got started on it right after I got home from work. There's not much in the way of build pictures for this one, since most of the work had already been covered before, and it went together very quickly....it was finished in under 4 hours. :o

Here's the parts:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9246.jpg
The speaker mount seen on the battery pack in this shot is a simple piece of 1" electrical conduit pcb, cut to the same thickness as the TCSS speaker mounts, and had to be used due to limited space in the hilt. The V2 speaker mount was too deep to fit in this one, because I used a 4" double female threaded connector as the lower half of the hilt.
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9247.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9248.jpg
The Seoul P4 green led that was already assembled, and the illuminated anti-vandal switch with the green ring....this one has a 3.3v led in it, so it should light up nicely. The other part there is a Lighthound keychain flashlight....I'll use that to convert the momentary av switch to latching action.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9249.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9250.jpg
The electronics as removed from CS-X and the chrome sleeve, which also happened to already have a basic cut on it....this was one that I had mis-measured from another saber...I forget which one....it'll work for this one just fine though. ;)

Black anodized custom Acerocket Obi-wan TPM pommel:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9251.jpg

Black Matte Tuscan powder coated v-grooved ribbed extension, in RGR2 style:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9252.jpg

Blade holder style 16 custom powder coated in Black Matte Tuscan:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9253.jpg
This isn't a style TCSS offers on the site, but if you email Tim and request it in this style, he may just do it for you. ;)

I started by removing the heat shrink from the sound board...it would be impossible to wire up the switch like I do with it on:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9254.jpg

Besides, I plan on mounting the soundboard in this saber to one of my sound board mounts:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9255.jpg
This will get modified with extra holes to allow sound to vent into the ribbed extension.

I cut the chrome sleeve to the required length and de-burred it, then fit it on the hilt and taped it in place so I could drill for the switch hole:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9256.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9257.jpg

I set it up in the drill press, drilled the hole, de-burred the hole, and then test fit the switch:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9258.jpg
Yup, it fits.

I removed all the tape, and then measured and marked off the hilt so I could add scoring lines with my tubing cutter:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9259.jpg

I then test assembled the hilt to see how it looked:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9260.jpg

This chrome band near the emitter is going to be attached using two-part epoxy:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9261.jpg

Here's the finished scoring marks:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9262.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9263.jpg
I put some in front of the switch to give the illusion that it has a separate switch section in the middle of the hilt.

I drilled and tapped it for the CT button:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9264.jpg

Here it is next to it's brother, sister or cousin or the inspiration (CS-X), I guess:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9266.jpg

Now for the good stuff....I know there have been people wanting to see pictures of how to use the lighthound pcb with an MR FX board, so I shot some while I did it:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9267.jpg
In the above shot, the gray wire is the pcb negative...this will go to the board negative later. The blue wire is the MR board's negative switch lead. This usually doesn't matter, but I figured it was the best way to do it.

I flipped it over and soldered the positive switch lead to the positive connection where the led was soldered:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9268.jpg
I also pre-tinned the pads on the pcb where the switch leads will go. I'll add those later, after as I assemble the hilt.

I added wires to the switch and fed them through the hole in the hilt:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9269.jpg

I slipped the switch nut on the wires:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9270.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9271.jpg
I then tightened the nut as tight as I could get it using a flat bladed screwdriver by pressing it on the corners of the nut. That was impossible to pictures of, sorry.

I fed the wires through the hole in the sound board mount:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9272.jpg
Then made the connections to the soundboard:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9273.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9274.jpg

At this point, I soldered the gray negative wire for the lighthound pcb to the board negative:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9275.jpg

Then added the wires from the av switch:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9276.jpg
I added batteries, and the saber immediately came on...it went right off with a single tap of the switch button.

After that, I added the wires for the switch led:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9278.jpg
Orange is the positive, green is the negative. I used a 220 ohm, 1/4 watt resistor as this saber will likely be powered by alkaline batteries which provide 6 volts. it can also use NiMH AAA's, too, and the switch is still just as bright with those.

Tapped the button and tested:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9279.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9280.jpg
Yup, it's plenty bright and works fine, even with the main led attached, unlike some of the other switches I've used that had 12v led's in them.

Now to assemble the saber! I added some heat shrink to the Lighthound pcb, and a strip of heat shrink to secure the MR board to the mount:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9281.jpg

Once that was shrunk, it was a simple matter to screw on the v-grooved extension, install the led and lens assembly, then the blade holder:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9282.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9283.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9284.jpg
All I had left to at this point was drill and tap for the 10-32 blade set screw, and make up the blade.

Oh, and take the finished pictures....those will be in the gallery later.

That's awesome! Thanks for the walkthrough. It's inspiring me to come up with some other designs.

incredible! i didn't think you could use those tiny lights like that. i'll have to remember that in the future. ^_^ thanks for such a great walkthrough!

Nice tut Jay! I like this one better. Subtle but notable improvements.

Looks awesome - You are the master of Sink tube sleaves I swear!
Nice tut too.

I like you soundboard mount. Is that a pommel insert?

Nope...they are something I had made up for me by a friend with machining equipment. The closest thing to them in the store would be the copper MHS heatsinks.

How do you build your battery speaker combo. Just glue?

You mean like the one in the lower left corner of this picture?
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/100_9249.jpg

Yup, it's just glued to the battery pack along the sides using high-temp hot glue. There is also a dollop of glue between the center of the speaker and the battery pack itself. This wouldn't have been necessary had I used a 5" double threaded female connector as the lower half of the hilt instead of the 4".

i love the way the powder coating looked and with it being matte all the better. I wanna build something kinda like this sometime.
keep up the good work jay :D