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I have my lightsaber design sketched out and I am in the process of designing the chassis that will maintain all of the electronics inside. I'm fairly mechanically and artistically inclined so the building part shouldn't give me much of an issue. I'm not a stranger to fabrication. My question though is in regards to selecting the right power supply. How do I know what type of battery to power with and in what quantity?
howdy and welcome.I also am pretty new to saber building myself but i can tell you without a doubt that anything you can ask is already in a thread here somewhere...It may not be the direct answer your looking for but its amazing the stuff you find on here when your looking for other stuff lol.As far as power goes it depends on a few different things: sound board or no soundboard, recharge or replacement batteries even the amount of accent leds and forward voltage of your main LED that you plan on using.Normally 4 AAA(6volts) will power anything just fine but you then need to look at the resistance chart which is on here somewhere to figure out your main LED forward voltage and then the resistor you will need(assuming your not using a soundboard) so as not to fry the LED...which I have done ..it gets REALLY bright then pop!.sSo do a little reading first and you will find the answers your looking for. Have fun
I am looking at powering 2 LEDs, an RC motor and a soundboard in my build. I am going to mount and off-balance the motor so the saber vibrates when it is switched on. I am going to have an open crystal chamber with an LED providing light there and a second LED in the emitter assembly to provide a light source there as well. I figured there might be something along that line here somewhere already. I've been looking at these forums for a few weeks now in prep for my first build. I have an ambitious project ahead of me but as the saying goes, "Go big or go home!"
Also, thanks for the welcome mate.
Do, you mean RC as in Radio Controlled car? If so, that's probably way too much motor for a saber. Typically sabersmiths use the very tiny vibration motors found in cell phones (if you have an old one lying around, crack it open and salvage the motor). If you look in the PC2.0 PDF Manual you will find a helpful guide on how to use these motors. These small vibration motors can also be had from Radio Shack for very cheap. Madmaxx is right too, almost every question you can think of has already been answered somewhere in the forum, read, read, read, and do a search for every question that pops in your head as you plan. Also use Google, since the forum search is limited to words four letters and longer, you may miss some stuff that Google can catch.
ok if it is a econo sound board then i dont know that much about them. but if you are using a petite crouton or an igniter or even a novasound then the accent leds should run straight off the boards power,the rumble motor you can buy from any hobby store(rc cars helicopters etc) and they are the size of a watch battery and usually 3volt max forward voltage, that you may need to run off the battery source which will require resistor but some of the above mentioned boards will accept them instead of or including the accent leds.thats about all i can think of for now but it may help you sort your thoughts out.
Welcome! We are glad to have another ambitious builder. We'd need to know what soundboard you plan on going with. If you are going to buy the Petit Crouton (PC 2.0) from the store, it needs 7.4v Li-Ions to run properly. Then, its just a matter of picking the pack size that will fit in your design. Keep in mind, 18650s are HUGE....18mm round, 65mm long....yeah. 14500s are good all around because they're the same size (roughly) as AA's, but they aren't the best for runtimes. If you can fit them, 14650's or 17500s/18500s are great. RC motor, if it's really from an RC car/plane/helicopter...and its not from one of those ultra mini ones....not going to work so good. Like was mentioned, a cellphone or old pager vibro would work better. Actually the older the cellphone the better as the motor and counter weight will be bigger.
You want something that has enough voltage and able to handle the drain of everything you wish to connect to it.
I would suggest staying away from AA's or AAA's as it really is a pain to replace them and you usually need a minimum of 4 for 6v (non-rechargable--rechargables would only give 4.8v), and they don't stay in their packs very well if you are dueling. But many people prefer them anyway, so it is really up to you and your preferences. The store has li-ion pre-wired packs 14500 (AA size cells 3.7v ea, a 2 cell pack gives you 7.4v) If you need a longer run time and have the space 18650's (the first two numbers are the diameter of the cell, the second two are the length in mm, so an 18650 is 18mm in diameter and 65mm long, 14500 is 14mm in diameter and 50mm long)are also available but by the sounds of it you won't have space for them. There are good tutorials here on how to make your own pack if you would rather do that, or if you wish to get batteries of different diameters and lengths elsewhere and make your own solution.
You should be able to do everything you wish to do with a 7.4v Li-ion pack, the more you add to it the shorter the run time, but it should handle what you have in mind easily.
Welcome mate, just wanted to wish you good luck with your build, as well as mentioning how great this forum is, just the above posts contain so much wealth of information. The people here have always helped out , often above and beyond. Look forward to updates on your build. Happy sabering!