Stunt Saber Staff

Ok, I got a few more things figured out.
Here is my shopping list so far:
5" Double female threaded connector (2)
Double ended male threaded connector (1)
Screw on LED blade holder style 1 (2)
Luxeon K2 star Blue (2)
Lens 5 degree (2)
K2 Lens holder (2)
LED "TCSS style" Battle blade 1" (2)
4.8V AA 2600mAh NIMH Rechargeable battery pack (2)
Male battery connector (2)
DPDT Slide Switch (2)
BuckPuck 1000mA (2)
Overall length of the hilt will have to be 14” and Blade length will be 29”
Should look something like this. I know I have the wrong blade holders in the picture.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/j...ber_staff1.jpg

It looks very simply and plain but that’s all I am going for. I am thinking about putting some designs on there to help with the grip. I’ll do a special order to have Tim make some holes for the switch. I am considering requesting a black powder coating too. What do ya think?

You'll want a wide, flat rubberband (look on the broccoli at the grocery store) if you ever want to get the double-male piece off.

Looking at your picture, it looks like the switch is too close to the edge of the hilt - there's about 1/2" at each end that is threaded. So you have about 4" for your switch, batteries, puck, and wires. Also, the heatsink for the LED pokes down a quarter inch or so into the hilt.

Soooo..... you might be able to squeeze all that in there, but it'll be very tight. With 7" hilt pieces and the 4xAA battery holders, I don't have any space to spare - the battery holder comes right up against the double-male piece. And the ID of the double male is too small for 2xAA side-by-side to fit in, so that's 1-1/4" (the double-male piece is 1-1/4" long) of hilt length that can't be used for holding the batteries.

If you don't plan on heavy dueling, you'll get a brighter blade with the non-battle blades (1" OD, 7/8" ID, 1/16" wall). They're also lighter.

I don't have experience with the slide switches, but unless you have some sort of guard over it, you might find a push-button switch is less likely to be accidentally hit while you are spinning.

Don't forget a charger for the battery pack if you don't already have one. Some screws for the switch and blade screws.

Thanks for the reply Bhuj, you’re a huge help! So it looks like there is no way to get that minimum hand space of 10” unless I go with two 7” middle sections. Here is how I see it playing out, and PLEASE correct me if I make a mistake.

Changed the 5" middle pieces to 6".

With two 6” middle MHS pieces and one male connector that’s a total length of 12 1/4". But really I am just building two 8” hilts (6” middle and 2” blade holder) with only 6” to fit all wires, puckbuck , switch and battery with the heatsink only coming in ¼” of the ½” threaded space. So the math here says; I will take up 4” for the battery leaving me 2” for everything else. The male thread connector at the end will take up ¼” because it is only ¾” thick in ID. That takes up 4 ¼” out of my 6 which leave me 1 ¾” to fit the switch and buckpuck at the top. Again the heatsink drops down ¼” so the real space I have for the switch and puckbuck is 1 1/2 “. Is that enough space???

I don’t think it is but I hope I am wrong. If it isn’t enough space I will have to go with the two 7” middle pieces with the male connector. Making the overall length of the hilt 18 ¼”. Then my blades would have to be 26 – 27” on each side to make the saber 6’ in all. And I’m not found of that length because the whole point is to show as much of the glow as possible.

Do you think I could move the puckbuck to the back and have it fit in the male connector or the bottom of the battery back?
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/j...on3/wiring.jpg
/edit Heh, almost forgot, I could always change the batteries I use to have more space but less run time. Thoughts?

Unfortunately, I don't have extensive hands-on experience with TCSS parts - just my own dual/staff saber. And lots of forum reading. So - you may be able to do what you are proposing, but I'm a little skeptical and I'll share what I know from the parts I have.

I would guess the double female connectors are threaded the same as the 7" hilts, which means 1/2" threaded at each end. So you pretty much lose 1" of usable space - at one end, the blade holder screws in and at the other end you have a double male connector (ID is just over 1 1/16") or a MPS pommel piece (same ID).

The bottom of the heatsink doesn't extend 1/4" into the threaded space, it extends about 1/4" past the threaded space, deeper into the hilt. The whole 1/2" of threaded space is filled up with the threaded portion of the blade holder.

You are right to be concerned about total length - with the extra weight of the metal pieces and batteries, a saber staff is harder to handle than a bamboo staff of equal length. My saber staff is a bit over 6' and I need a lot more practice and strength to be nearly as deft with it as I am with a lightweight 6' bamboo staff.

One option for exposing more illuminated blade is to get the Stye 4 blade holders.
http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/As...Images/699.jpg

If you are able to do the work, I believe you could wire up 8xAAA batteries with each pair of 4 batteries in parallel so you have 2000 mAh @ 4.8V instead of 1000 mAh @ 9.6V. And 4xAAA fit fine inside the double-male adapter. Two AA will actually fit inside it, but only if you really push them. If they are enclosed in the plastic wrap of a battery pack, I think you'd end up scraping the wrap off to get them in.

You might be able to put your pucks in the double-male section, but keep in mind that the BuckPuck datasheet recommends you keep your leads as short as possible - I don't how long is "too long" but they do say at 18" or more you need to add a capacitor across the inputs.

If you want to stick with cheap & simple, you should probably just get the 4xAA battery holders and bring spare batteries. Or use the battery packs, but buy spares and keep them charged and on-hand. You might be even happier switching to 4xAAA batteries - a bit lighter weight and you'll probably be able to use 5" hilt pieces.

Even increasing your hilt pieces from 5" to 6" I'm still a little concerned your calculations might be too optimistic - I kept my joints small (unlike the rest of the wires, soldered joints aren't very flexible, so they tend to thwart you a bit while you're trying to squeeze everything into the hilt). I also kept my connections short, and since I'm using battery holders instead of battery packs, I have thinner, more flexible wires and I don't have the big, solid plastic battery pack connectors. It looks like the push-button switches have a slightly bigger base than the slide switches, and I countersunk mine so they take up even more space in the hilt, but with my pretty minimal setup everything just barely fits in the 7" hilt pieces.