4 khz inverter heating up

I just assembled my new blade today and tested it out with just the electronics I ordered which I'll put into a custom hilt soon. I have the 4 khz inverter and dual 9v adapter both bought from here. The blade is clean and bright but the inverter heats up hot, even when the blade is off. Is that normal? Are dual 9v a problem? I'd like to get my blade as bright as possible, bright as an MR FX if possible. I'm just a little concerned about things overheating. Would 8 AAA's be better? Thanks for any info.

Its up to you and at your own risk to run it at 18v. I have never even tested the 4k at 18v myself. I know the 2k at 18v would get pretty hot but it ran just fine.

Tim
The Custom Saber Shop

was it as bright as a MR blade when you had it running at 18v? I read you can increase the brightness on the blades by increasing Voltage, or frequency, now i have no idea how to increase frequency, but maybe if it gets too hot run it at 12volts, 1, 9v and 2aa batts. just an idea. Also, let us know how it runs off the 18.

It's not as bright as an MR blade unfortunately. I was hoping it would be because I heard the 4khz inverter was brighter and so was 18v. It's still brighter than any other EL blade I've seen though. Tim, what are your thoughts on this and do you think it is best to run a saber off of 9v or a different battery or combo?

What I know:
Parks uses 1 9v except for their EL Graflex which is 2 9v which makes it noticably brighter. I don't know what kind of inverter they use though.

MR uses 8 AA and they don't run out of power as fast as Parks. But they use LED blades and I don't know how much power they need.

I guess I should have asked these questions before I bought the parts. Oh well. What do you think?

Not all MR use 8 aa. My Vader uses 3 aa. I have a lime blade running 8 aaa and a 2khz inverter from tim and it is darn close in brightness to the mr blade. [img] http://myspace-990.vo.llnwd.net/0029...97792990_l.jpg [/img]
The mr blade is just bigger so I think is seems brighter. Maybe it's just me.

How many volts is 8 AAA?

12

Tim
The Custom Saber Shop

Strange Wings... is that a copper pipe I see in the top picture?

I thought of making a copper saber hilt when I was browsing Lowes...

Ray Hayden

Yea it is..but I had to order it. It's 1 1/2" and Lowes/Home Depot do not carry anything that large. I'm trying to figure out a way to not have it get tarnshed to quickly. Oh..it's really heavy too. The hilt by itself weighs more than my MR Vader does.