Erv, our french connection

[erv]

thanks for your kind answers ! I'll be posting soon a vador ANH + wireless sound board. I still have to make a video out of it, but I'm surrounded by work, just right now. News soons !

Saber supplies in France
http://www.plecterlabs.com

[erv]

Hi ! I'm posting here since this is current but not finished work
Conversion of 3 MR Fx to luxeon : luke ep VI and 2 anakin.
The Luke is a basic conversion, just a custom machined blade mount with an extension, like JSS did, luxeon is in direct driver, hence not at nominal current, not regulated, but well, this is just a practice / spare saber.
I'll add some copped stickers from fx sabers soon, to hide the minor scratch on this ugly paint (the MR fx is a recent edition, impossible to unscrew the emitter, got to go the hard way).



Anakin's are total retrofit with my new board, hidden recharge port (inside), easy access to the SD carte, and blade lockup / blaster blocking button on the activator plate. I still have to machine the blademouts (good for completing my training )




Erv'

[Firebird21]

Erv'

OOoooooo..........



Buttered Toast.....



It's so beautiful.....

[xwingband]

I like the Hero Luke... I may have to talk to you about that some time if Tim doesn't offer it. JSS hasn't always been the most reliable.

I can see the board is down pretty tight there. Do you always out of habit put the board at the bottom for the gesture recognition? I always liked the ability to be like: "Nana boo, you can't tell I changed anything!" AND/OR "Look mom, no wires!"

[erv]

yep, since the board is 27 mm wide (just like the previous one), it just fits, especially because I use a craddle that reduces a bit the ID. But it's so pratical ! The craddle acts as a spring that naturally stop the whole electronics + batteries to move, then it's just secured by the covertec knob.
I like you sense of humor ! yep, I can imagine myself putting this last saber on the table and say "look what I've created, so nice, almost no mods". héhéhé... ok, to get it right, I just need to slide the craddle inside and screw the pommel.
More seriously, about sensitivity, it's true that it's better to have the sensor at the bottom, but it could to be at the top as well, as soon as it's not on the center of rotation of the saber. But at the top would be more difficult with the blade mount, and it would make an access to the SD pretty difficult.
The blade mount of the luke was not difficult to make, except that since I couldn't unscrew the emitter, it was a real pain to take the measurements. So I used the flexible plastic of the original blade mount to get it raw, then I spent some time getting it at the right dimension. It has to pass thru 3 differents diameters. I did not successfully get the exact measurements, accuracy is about 1/10 mm, so I thought that it will be floating a bit, but once the Fx board/holder was in place, plus the thumb screw it was impossible to move even half a mm. 2 additionnal set screw might be added to secure it even harder.

[Ryma Mara]

Question...will your board run a 5 watter?

[erv]

Yep, the board handles 5W luxeon, but be aware that a 5W requires a high power supply voltage to get to the proper operating current (and therefore really be used as a 5W). My last experiment show that 7.2 V will only make the lux V run at .6 A, which makes about 4.3W. And therefore, at 7.2V there is no current regulation. Powering the board at 9 or 10V (the limit) will make possible to light the Lux V at the real current, with a bit of current regulation, but except a 9V battery (that won't last for very long), I don't see another solution. Maybe a 11V li-ion pack with a diode in serie.
Erv'

[Firebird21]

Does that metal holder thingy come with Buttered Toast or did you make that specifically for that application?

[erv]

mmm no, the metal thing (what I call the craddle, right ?) is just made out of vacuum cleaner chromed tube (you guys in the US use sink stuff, our source is much around this cause plumbing is now using ONLY PVC tube).
When I make a saber, I save the extra tube, make ring with them, and cut it over its length to have something that "springs" and adapt itself to various diameter. I glued one ring at the end of the batt pack, the other a the other end, partially covering the board. To maintain access to the board for soldering wires etc, I cut a window on the ring (I cut it before I glue it to the batt pack of course). Using a dremmel is too slow for me now, I'm using that kind of tool

and it's done in 1 min.
Then with just one set screw (as I said before : the covertec know screw for instance) it secures the whole thing inside to avoid having the batt pack/module moving up or down, since the sensor must be fixed to a mechanical reference to work properly, and it's no good to have a batt pack floating anyway.

[erv]

Couldn't resist to put together the 2 anakins ep III MR Fx I've converted. One being color changeable (not in 10 sec, but quite easy), I put one in red-orange, the other in blue, both at 1A.
Enjoy !