Moonglow - My Second MHS Saber
So a little over 3 years after my first MHS saber, my daughter now has her own personal saber as well!
In the years since my first MHS saber for my son, "Sunfire", I've made around 30 Stunt PVC Sabers, with basic exteriors, but with gradually increasing complexity of the internals in the later models. Like anything at life, the more you practice, the better you get.
As my daughter is now the same age as when my son got his saber, I had to "make it even" and build hers.
While I learned a lot and tried a new layout for the internals on this saber (which I am mostly happy with), my cram-fu has NOT yet achieved master rank. There is STILL precious little space inside hilts for wires and connectors!!
Thanks to all in the forums, as being part of this community is both inspiring and motivating to try new and better things within this hobby.
And once again, thanks to Tim and company, for the high quality, impeccable work on the Saber Parts, Millwork & Powder Coating!
I present to you:
Moonglow
My daughter most definitely has a "Pink and Purple Girly" side to her. (where she gets it from, I don't know, as that is NOT the wife!) So, naturally when I asked what color, she said "Pink". I originally started off testing a RRW Tri-Rebel, with Red and White together as the main color (I was thinking a darker color for FOC would be neat, with the 2nd Red), but while it looked "ok", I was not happy with it, especially in a well lit room, or worse, daylight. So we went with a RGrB Tri-Cree, mixed to a "pink-magenta-ish" color instead.
I decided that as this is the younger sibling's saber, it should have similar elements to the older sibling's saber (a Family design if you will). So you will see a lot of similar external features between the two, if you haven't already guesses with the similar themed names.
The majority of the parts were ordered late November 2017, with powder coating, and milling services requested. While I probably COULD have rushed the build (and lost a LOT of sleep) to get it done before Christmas, I felt it was more important to do it RIGHT than QUICK. I've slowly been working on the wiring diagram, developing a new way (for me) to reduce the connectors (and still have the ability to disassemble the saber with very little desoldering), testing component, testing design layouts, testing my soldering skills, and mostly testing my patience! All in all, I'd estimate about 30 hours of "work" to get this completed, with more pencil & paper design time than previously (and I think that shows in the internals).
Specs:
All MHS Parts with Milling Services & Powder Coating done by Tim (I just LOVE the Black Chrome over the Knurled extension. It looks awesome, and feels great! Though the Translucent Brass was a bit lighter than I was hoping for. The Wet Black is as slick as ever.)
RGrB Tri-Cree, with Red & Royal Blue in parallel as the Main LED, and Green as "on-top FOC" to get a White FOC.
Black Short Momentary Purple Ring AV Switch & Recharge Port in Activation Box Style 9 (Brass).
Other Brass accents include the Kill Key, Pommel Insert and Blade Plug.
Nano Biscotte v2.0 (with Stock Light Meat & Dark Meat fonts) I still had one laying around from a few years ago, when NB stock was more limited when Erv was doing all the production, and I grabbed a few.
TCSS Li-Ion 18650 3.7V 2600mAh PCB Protected Rechargeable Battery Module
TCSS 2W 28mm Bass Speaker
The Chassis was built with the v4 Speaker mount, and a modified Chassis Disc Style 5, so I can have a 1/2 hilt reveal to get to the sound card easily, without any connections needing to be un-done. (I learned my lesson with the previous saber, where the WHOLE saber, and EVERY single connection needed to be undone to get to the SD Card. WTF was I thinking on THAT build?!?) This also includes a custom "PCB/M-F Pin Header" setup to allow the chassis to be removed from the front 1/2 of the saber if needed.
A PLI from TCSS in the Fluted Section opposite the Switch Box
A 5mm Pink Accent LED in the Pommel (between the speaker and insert).
The Glams:
In the end, the blade is a bit more "blue" as it gets towards the tip than I wanted, and I could go in and add additional resistance to the circuit, but that will be for a later date. (the Daughter is happy, so I'm happy.... For now.) One disadvantage of working with the NBv2, it doesn't have "color mixing" with 3 channels like you can do with the NBv4, when you can just change the drive setting of the dedicated Blue channel. The Red & Royal Blue are in parallel in this setup.
Select Build/Internals Pics:
I am SO MUCH MORE HAPPY with this chassis design!! I love being able to just taking off the rear extension and pommel to get to the SC card...
Though I really got creative with the custom "PCB/M-F Pin Header" setup, I still needed a bit of slack to be able to unscrew the MHS Parts to be able to disconnect the headers, and that meant leaving slack in the fluted section, with the wires folding back into the hilt (a Madcow trick from one of his tutorials). The Fluted Section was specifically for that purpose, and I STILL had a bit of work to do to get it all right.
Thanks again for checking this out!
