How to test a EL saber to see if it works?

Hi guys

I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this, as I’ve never been on this part of the forums before, I’ve not really been interested in EL sabers before!

Anyway, at the beginning of April I purchased a lightsabers off eBay and it just arrived last week, there was a hold up at customs and I had to pay an import tax before they would deliver it! It was described as ‘STAR WARS LIGHTSABER CUSTOM MADE IN DISPLAY CASE NEW’ here’s the pics from the auction

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3...2107jpgvm6.jpg

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/8...1071jpgmy4.jpg

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/2...1072jpgmd9.jpg

I recognised it straight away as being a parks M2 (http://www.parksabers.com/malestrom.html) but it was missing the el wire from the top bit of the hilt and it didn’t have the blade with it, so I just assumed it was just the shell, plus the claws weren’t the normal aluminium finish they look to be almost rusty, they are in fact red as is the blade holder! I always liked the M2 (it was the inspiration for my own clawed luxeon saber.) but I would never have bought a new one, not at $300 anyway. So I bidded on it and won it.

I planned on converting it to a luxeon saber, I was going to re-use most of the saber but replace the 3/4" blade holder with a 1" blade holder from here and then attach the claws to it somehow. But when I eventually received it I noticed the switch was still wired up so I removed the bottom cap and looked inside, there was still a 9v battery in it. I replaced the dead battery with a new one and the switch light up. I took it apart to have a better look at it and all the wires are still connected. But there are no cut wires so I assume that this hilt didn’t have the EL wire on the outside. (does anyone know if they made ones without the el wire?)

My (main) question is, is there anyway to test to see if it works without having a blade. I don’t want to purchase a blade and have it shipped out here to the UK to find out that it doesn’t work. I thought about connected headphones to it using the right sized plug to see if it made any sound but I wasn’t sure if:
a) it would work and
b) if it would damage either the headphones or the saber electronics

If someone can let me know that would be great. If it does work I’ll be buying the blade from here rather than from parks, their cheaper from here and I don’t like the sound of the paper el sheets in the parks blades.

Cheers

I wouldn't hook headphones to it. You'd likely blow the drivers out of the speaker elements.

You could hook a bare 1/4" mono plug into the saber and measure with a multimeter to see if you get current flow. Red lead in the plug, black to a ground. It should register AC current.

Parks was notorious for poor drivers. I think they were 2k. Tim's 4k drivers are sweet.

try a volt meater.

yeah its an m2 but the non ignited version.

persionally I would replace the inverters with 2 of tims and 2 9volts with tims blade.

I liked the hilt mostly I dident like the claw setup they use but the hilt - the switch box that would look pritty sweet.

Well I finally got round to checking if the inverter works in this saber and it does, so I purchased the supplies (from Tim of course) to make a blade. I went with the lime EL wire. The stuff arrived yesterday and I got it wired up today. I plugged it into the saber and it works fine. Excellent.

I ordered extra EL wire to add to the hilt so that it would have the light up section, just under the switch, like the other M2’s on the Parks site. But I’ve got a bit of a problem; for some reason the inverter has three wires going to the jack, instead of just two like Tims.

Does anyone know which wires I should use?

Here’s some pics of the set up, if it will help.

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/7830/pic1cd0.jpg
As you can see from this pic the inverter has 8 wires coming out if it, two at the back for the battery, three at the top go to the switch and the three at the bottom go to the jack.

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/9646/pic2lp4.jpg
Here’s a close up of the jack, the wires are white, blue and black.

Any help would be great.

This answers the question about why parks uses a stereo jack instead of mono. He has a kill switch setup so the inverter will not run with the blade out.

So to answer your question...

Blue and black would need to be hooked together. Atleast this was the case on a parks I took apart today.

Thanks Tim

After hooking the blue and black wires together I just soldered the el wires to the blue and white wires and it works.

The kill switch thing explains why the saber makes a whining noise with the blade in and is silent without the blade.

Well heres some pic of it done:

Saber off:
http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/8753/pic1jg3.jpg
Saber on:
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5624/pic2bs3.jpg
Saber off, close up:
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/9913/pic3oo7.jpg
Saber on, close up:
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/5770/pic4mm5.jpg
Saber on with lights off in room:
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/8559/pic5nq9.jpg

Thanks everyone for the help, I now have a fully working Parks M2 that cost me less than $140! (£70!) and is slightly different for the one you can buy on the parks site as it has red claws and lime EL wire! I just wish there was room to put a 12v battery in it, as is there is just enough room to put a 9v battery in!

Glad you got it working. Looks nice. 8)

I have a Parks M2, but I've never taken apart a Parks, so I couldn't help you with what wires you needed to use off the inverter. Glad Tim could.