2010 Electronic Lightsaber w/ DVD Tutorial

[Gin Malinko]

Thats the reason. The boards can survive up to 5v, after that they fry. 4 NiMH cells is 1.2 x 4, which is 4.8v, whereas 4 Alkalines are 4x1.5, which is 6v.

I respectfully disagree. i have built three sabers using the 2010 eco boards. both vadar and obi-wan. and i have them wired to a 4aaa bat pack with a tip42 transistor without any resistor and all three sabers have been working great for almost a year.

[Azmaria Dei]

I respectfully disagree. i have built three sabers using the 2010 eco boards. both vadar and obi-wan. and i have them wired to a 4aaa bat pack with a tip42 transistor without any resistor and all three sabers have been working great for almost a year.

are they the older forceFX econo boards or the newer ones. the old ones could take 6V easy, but i have yet to see a new board that can take more than 5.4V. if you DO have the newer ones, congrats on finding the three that don't blow up with 6V.

[jin starkiller]

Az I myself have used 6v in all 10 that have the econo 2010 builds that I have and not have had a problem ....they are the obi wan and the vader boards that I have used
not sure why some boards can take the 6v and others can not

[Gin Malinko]

Curious, what does happen when they do blow? I made one the other day with a lux 3 red-orange and the sound didnt work all that well, yet the led works great. I had an extra tcss speaker i was gonna put in but during soldering i accidently ulled off the connection pads to the speaker, so i have the speaker from the eco saber in it and it sounds terrible.

But they might be the older 2010s cuz this walmart doesnt get "new" sabers in until the old ones completely run out. And not many people are rushing to buy sabers here. Idk maybe maybe not.

[Azmaria Dei]

when the one i tested blew, the traces rippled in a few spots and the black ceramic chip coating part made a pop. i did this with a desktop DC power supply slowly going up from 3V to 5.4V

[Skottsaber]

Yeah I have a picture of a processor I blew up on an older force action board. It's mainly the processor that can't take the extra voltage.
Even CF & PC are susceptible to more than about 6v, but they obviously have extra voltage protection on the board.

[Azmaria Dei]

yeah, there's a micro SMD voltage regulator on board for all that. 3.3V if i have my numbers right.

[Gin Malinko]

Even CF & PC are susceptible to more than about 6v, but they obviously have extra voltage protection on the board.

Well from what ive read over at the fx-saber forums, CF v5+ can now handle over 14v according to erv.

[Skottsaber]

It's actually 11v. What I meant was that most of the components on the board are susceptible to extra voltage (most notably the main processor and accelerometer), but the board has an onboard voltage regulator. We have to use 5v regulators in our sabers for the same reason, the main chip will blow up with the extra power. I was using the CF as an example that the same rule applies for most microprocessors across the entire range of them.

[J-Saber33]

Hey guys, I don't think I've ever posted a question before but I'm finally working on a second saber. I've wired up an obi econo board as per this thread (thx btw) with a 3.7v li-ion 18650 and lighted AV switch. The main led is a blue P4 and I've included a recharge port. The set-up works great, and I have the switch wired so that it comes on when the kill key is removed. Now then, my question is this: can I get away with adding a red blinky led in addition to the lighted AV switch that will come on when the kill key is out? The max forward current of the blinky is 80mA and the max supply voltage is 5V. I don't think I've come across any econo builds with more than one accessory led, so I was hoping to pick the brains of the experienced econo saber builders.