How to get rid of the economy board flash on clash.

[airsoftmode]

I am pretty sure you don't need a multi die led with the set up I listed.

There are mutliple contacts on any star board, and you can even wire the direct drive and board drive to the same contacts, that would be the idea.

The flicker will not be a flash, it will loose a bout 20% brightness when it flickers, but would never shut off.

I will use his layout and do a test this coming week, just to be sure, with a video so you see what I mean.

[equinox13]

you do that then. good luck.

[Jedi-Elf]

I always thought that FOC should mean that the saber should flash brighter for a second when there is a clash. Would it be possible to wire a clash sensor so that it would cause the LED to be overdriven slightly for a second on contact? To me that seems more like what I see in the movies when two sabers meet.

[Rhyen Skytracker]

Skottsaber was working on a board that used a 555 timer chip and a clash sensor. If you just use the sensor then it would flash so fast that you wouldn't hardly see it. The 555 timer will act as a delay on break circuit and you can set it up to be on as long as you would like. I think Skottsaber has his set up for 1/2 a second which looks great.

The down side to using a DP3T switch is that you are VERY limited to which switches you can use. But you can use the FoC circuit that Skott is using as a Flash on Clash to keep the LED on during power on/off and clash on the economy boards. Just have another input to the circuit and when the econo board powers on/off that input could trigger the delay on break circuit.

[equinox13]

Skott's Flash Driver 1.0 is being set up for a hair under a fifth of a second at the recommendation of Novastar, if i remember correctly. it's a bit more 'flashy' that way. ^_^ and yes, dim on clash is NOT flash on clash...

[Rhyen Skytracker]

I had planned on making a FoC circuit a while back (even purchased all the components) but I have never gotten around to it, too busy making sabers. But, you can use a trimmer resistor or a pot and adjust the delay on time for what ever you want it to be.

[dgdve]

lol for a second I thought this thread would deteriorate into an "Fx" forums thing, good job guys(and ladies).. I come here to avoid the fx forums finger pointing and he said this, she said that stuff.. Thanks for your suggestion SF, keep us posted (I'm interested to see if this flicker effect can be created on a single die led)

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

I think this is a useful thread...not everyone wants the same thing, some might like an economy board with flicker-on-clash, others might like the stunt-with-optional-sound approach...I can see both aplications having merits in different ways, so Thank You to everyone for giving us options in how to wire them up for different kinds of saber use.

[Macemachine]

ok, so I played around this last week with options presented by this thread and I gotta tell you I am super disappointed.

First off I love the 2010 econo board hasbro. I like it better than the MR sounds. Not a big fan of the on and off flashes, but come on ... 15-20 bucks is kinda nice when the last CF on ebay went for around 500 and the US 2.5 around 200. Someday there will be an affordable board out there that will do the basics - nice sound, flicker, clash, swing, maybe even a lockup. Until then I have been trying to get a nice flicker - reading posts on the led driver on tcss and drawing out possibilities of combining it with sound without things timingout or having so may buttons that my hilt is a piccolo.

So back to the trials.

1. a single die multiple battery pack did work. I direct drove a white P4 with 2AAA on a latch. Then hooked up my econoboard (no transistor set up) to the other 2 solder points. 2AAA. The direct drive was so bright that although i got sound the boards output was so small comparatively that you saw no flash or clash. I then put 4AAA through the board, but that didn't help much... (duh on my part). Of note the light did flash on clash and flash on startup but the timing was the same. The whole problem is that wretched blinking of the light on the startup and shut down

2. I then ran the usual econo board with transistor set up run on my usual 4AAA and then did the same direct drive of 2AAA on the other solder points. (ya ya, it handled it for the short time i did it) - this actually worked. the direct drive made it stay lit and the econo board blinked and flashed over the top of this. But it did not change the timing of the blinking and I don't make huge sabers that fit 5-6 AAA.
Still no constant flickering (which i didn't think there would be - can't beat physics with my mind yet)

I did not use a dp3t switch (not here yet), but i dont see how that would change what i did for this little trial with the 2 switches.

I hope that helps someone. I did buy 2 GG swords for the soundboards last week so I hope they get here soon so I can play with them.


More info and general stuff


So I decided to try this with the dealxtreme rgb LEDs. If you remember the setup from other posts they have a backward labeled rgb positives and then a singular negative (that is actually your positive). The singular 'negative' is what makes it not as elegant as a ledengin with each die having a + and -.
Anyway I hooked it all up with the 2010 board with transistor and 3AAA. Because of the common 'negative' the board switch is basically just sound as the led gets power routed through all the multiple splits that are done with the transistor and you would have to have another switch on that led die to control it.
I then hooked up a two battery pack system. Interestingly when I turned on the direct drive first then the board there was no flicker on clash or startup flash. Board only they were there but add in the direct drive and gone, basically you can overpower the flicker and flash - as when I heavily resistored the direct drive they came through.
The GG boards came and it is a bit easier as I don't need a transistor because the direct led output on the board is much higher than the 2010.
So I am now setting up a GG board with a little rgb (dealxtreme) with a blue and green to see how it works out. I got a ITW 16mm metal AV latching switch (non illum) as a sample (trying to see if it is a possability for Tim to carry) that I am going to put in as soon as my new counterbore comes in. (yaaaaayyyyy)