Resistor Questoin/Statement

I'm not sure if this has been covered already but after looking through the tutorial (I'm a veteran at EL just to clarify) I noticed that there was some referance to installing a resistor between the inverter and the female connector.... I believe this was suppose to prevent "blowing out the inverter or something like that. Well this is not the case, resisting anytime after the voltage has already passed through the inverter will do nothing to the inverter, it may reduce the brightness of the blade however. Now if we were operating under the assumption that the inverter with out the blade in was working very hard and not doing anything causing it to hurt it's self, this is not true either as the inverter is "louder" or working harder when the blade is in. I've been working with EL for a few years now and this is the first I've heard of it, as well to my knowlege Lightech (I don't have one of their sabre's but I started years ago with one of their kits) doesn't resist their sabre's after the inverter either. Not that lightech is gospel or anything like that, and I don't know how everyone views them, but I'm not giving an opinion, just saying that if they have been in the business as long as they have you'd think they would be doing that if it made a differance. I am not slaming anyone, just trying to save people time, money and conveiance.
-Master Rod-Wan Déattrod

Interesting. I agree. The only result I ever got from trying to install a "load protection" resistor, was a barely functioning blade. Yes, I followed the directions EXACTLY.

But I do look forward to other's thoughts and experiences, also.

*****************************
http://www.members.shaw.ca/Dahak/

When I started in this business allot of peoples concerns where that if they accidentally turned on their saber without the blade in the inverter would blow. This may be the case with some inverters but has never happened to the inverters that I stock. I posted that diagram because that was the general consensus on the forum that the topic was being discussed on. I personally have never made a single saber with one installed.

Tim
The Custom Saber Shop

Tim, you know I've been cheapo and used some copy inverters, not your originals. I have burned out one after about 10 minutes of on time without a load. After that I used a 1 MOhm resistor in paralel to the blade circuit and have not seen a drop on brightness at all and have not burned out another inverter since - even when running the 12 volt inverters at 18 volts.

Born of Sith, seduced by the light.
http://www.saloncatalina.com/images/signature.jpg

Have you tried one of my 4k inverters? you could probably get the same bightness and only use 1 9v and save money on batteries and space.

Tim
The Custom Saber Shop

I put the resistor in my saber and it works fine. I think I used a 1/4 watt instead of the 1/2 watt that it says in the diagram. I just got what the guy at radio shack said. Side note he was an electronics professor, just working there to make extra money. Anyway...never had a problem with it heating up. I had 12 volts first but had to swith to a 9 volt for space reasons. I forgot..it is a 2khz inverter.

<font size="3"><font color="purple">I've accidently left several various sabers on, all using different types of inverters and have never blown an inverter that way, with no load it on. Now I usually just take out the batteries when I'm not using a blade in them and don't have to worry about it. [;)]

The only way I've burnt one out is when the elwirecheap.com guys gave me a few of their new (at the time, a few years ago) 5V inverters to play with and I hooked one up to a 9V battery. The blade was very bright, for a minute, then the inverter started to scream louder and higher pitched and it got very hot, then the blade dimmed and went out.

Once it cooled down it sort of worked again, but dimmed and faded quickly and finally smelled like it was burning, so I stopped playing with it and it never lit up again.</font id="purple"></font id="size3">

In order to see the Light, you must sometimes risk the Dark.