Back to rebels IN the blade...

For anyone who thought there'd be too much heat by filling a PolyC tube with Rebels...

http://luxeonstar.com/sub_category.p...&link_str=1429

If they can do it, so can we.

The only problem is that all of the LEDs in this tube are facing one direction. They mention that lo light is wasted on a reflector, and that is because one side of the tube is completely dark. We would have to fill each foot of tube with at least twice as many LEDs to get light shining in all 360 degrees. It is still interesting though...

no-one wants to comment on the fact that we actually duel with our sabers? what happens to your rebel when you apply the blunt force of a concentrated sharp impact

Hahaha another good point. The rebels would need to be tested for durability as well.

Not to mention having AC as a power source makes it easier.

I'm looking at this as a proof-of-concept of the heat dissipation issues. There'd never be a way to power these with current battery tech.

Well as I said before, it fails as proof of concept because they only have LEDs facing out in one direction. To get an even 360 degrees of light you would need either to change the orientation of the LEDs so that they shine up the length of the tube rather than perpendicular to it, or you would need to have two LEDs back to back so they can light both halfs of the tube. Either way, you're looking at having to double the number of LEDs in the blade to maintain brightness. If you double the LEDs per foot of length, you double the heat.

Has anyone ever taken a real good look at one of the Luxeon LEDs? If you have a sharp eye (or a magnifying glass) you will see extremely thin wires connecting the die to the base unit. I am suprised that they don't break more often - even when they are in the hilt mounted. Putting them in a blade I doubt they would have that long a life. Assuming you wanted to do it, they sell pre-made circuits that will mount 8 Luxeon LEDs (I, III, V, and K2). The circuit is 1 cm wide by 24 cm long (about .4" x 9.5") and is single sided. You could easily have a long aluminum strip down the center of the blade (to act as a heatsink) and mount these on both sides. For a 36" blade, you would need 8 boards at about 12.50 each. You will also need 64 leds at about 4 bucks each. So now you've got about 350 dollars in your blade. In terms of running them and the heat produced - ask yourself why they would need to run at max power. With 64 LEDs you won't need to run them at super max power. Use the Luxeon I emitter run at 350 mA. It should still be fairly bright and will not produce as much heat as a III, V, or K2. Or you could run the III, V, or K2 at less than their rated optimum. 8 Lux I in series will need about 24V and .35A, and 8 boards in parallel will need 24V and 2.8A total. This is not an impossible power solution. Say to chose to use a Li-ion 18500 cell (3.7V 1500 mAh) at .73" diameter and 2" long. With 14 of these, you could have a 26V 3A power supply. But then again, thats another 150 dollars for batteries. In terms of hilt, you're also going to be needing some room. if using an MHS setup, figure you will need at least 28" just for the batteries. Make the hilt have a 1.5" ID bore and you can cut that length in half. It looks like you can figure over 500 bucks to make the blade and power it, and you will need one big a$$ hilt to stuff it in.


Edit: I fogot to mention optics. Forget about them as you won't find any that will work. You will have to find some real good diffusion materials to line your blade with the help even out the light.


So, who's going to be the first to do this.

Ooh! Ooh! I'm not!

Seriously, I was only looking at these for the heat dissipation. These do prove that it's possible.

Not to be a rain on thine parade dude... ('cause Nova's all for improvement)...

But I say there is NO reason to go BACK to MR design, when the entire concept of LED-Luxeon sabers are to put it all in the hilt, aka... flashlight mafia style or whatever.

Then again, I'm biased from the staged combat standpoint. The few, the proud... the "let's not destroy the saber" crew. ;)