Adding exposed crystal chamber to MR FX saber? Advice? Thoughts?

[ghost_a*]

I would DEFINITELY not go with a P4 on a crystal chamber, yes, it'd be VERY bright, but it's kinda overkill, just get a bright 5mm LED, maybe 3 of 5mm LEDs if you really want it bright?

To do this you'd just splice the wires going to the main blade, connect all the negatives together, add a resistor between the board and the LEDs.

there we go, that's exactly what i needed to know.
now to simply get it all to fit into the hilt, lol.

And to do with the sound, without a pretty decent workaround and a new battery pack you will have trouble fitting it in.
And you can't use the original pack because it is not designed to be soldered to.

ah ok. so worst case scenario, sound goes away.

[Skottsaber]

I'm not saying don't TRY to add sound, just that it will require a bit of internal reworking.

[ghost_a*]

I'm not saying don't TRY to add sound, just that it will require a bit of internal reworking.

yeah, i'm still going to give it a whirl.
but i was just saying that the worst case scenario is that i lose the sound FX.

it's weird because on fx-sabers.com, they were all VERY apprehensive about me trying this. saying that it's NOT very straight forward and simple at all.
yet looking at that tutorial i initially linked to and according to you guys, it's not brain surgery...?

[Skottsaber]

Well if you believe you can do it then go for it.
The FX guys aren't as hardcore as us, they fear the challenge

[ghost_a*]

Well if you believe you can do it then go for it.
The FX guys aren't as hardcore as us, they fear the challenge

good to hear thx for all your guys' help.

[ghost_a*]

well thanks to your guys' comments and advice giving me confidence, I'M ON MY WAY!

so just an update.
i'm taking it one step at a time.

as i might've mentioned, i'm a 100% noob at 'saber smithing' as well as LED work.
i've never once used a soldering iron.

so i checked out a bunch of tutorials on instructables as well as FX-sabers and TCSS and here's what i've done so far.

1. went to radio shack.
got a 25 watt noob beginner soldering iron for like $8
got a blue 5mm 3.7v 20mA LED
the soldering iron came with solder, so i didn't need that
5-pack of 150 Ohm transistors for about $.99 or something?

i also got a 2 AA battery holder.

2. i went to walmart and got me a 6 pack of flickering LED votive candles for like $2.50



3. gutted the LED candle, removed the chip that the LED was mounted to



4. plugged in soldering iron and started my first ever soldering attempts.

5. at first i just soldered a straight up series circuit with my battery pack, the transistor, the LED



6. then i added the flickering chip from the candle
i just held the blue LED to the chip board at this point. i'll end up soldering it to the chip board eventually.




so the electronics are done save for a switch, but that should be cake.

next step is to get some hardware together to start building me a crystal chamber.
i already have a quartz crystal but i want a 2nd one and make a 2 crystal chamber where one meets the other. maybe have a white LED for the top focusing crystal and the blue LED for the power crystal.

i'm going to go the standard route
get some brass pins for structure pillars around the edge
maybe some washers as a base for the crystal to mount on.
this won't be anything fancy at all as it's my first time doing ALLL of this.
i've literally only used a dremel maybe 2-3 times in my life for small household things.

i'm REALLY enjoying this so far. i had no idea how easy it was to work with LEDs and a soldering iron. granted the technique and skill as far as how the soldered joint looks and holds up will get better with more exp but i was surprised at how well it came out for my first time.

i'll continue to update with pics when i start on the actual chamber. probably next weekend.

[Sunrider]

Uh oh.... you said it was easy...... Keep an eye out for the magic smoke monster.

[ghost_a*]

HAHAHAHA

i did do some basic calculations though.

the 150ohm resistor should keep the 3.7v 20mA LED from overdoing it, right?
with a 3V (2AA battery) power source?

and i wired it:

2AA pos -> transistor -> pos lead of chip
2AA neg -> neg lead of chip

then i'll simply solder LED to chip exactly how the stock LED was soldered.
neg -> neg, pos -> pos.

[Sunrider]

Normally a 20ma led blue or green has a vf of 3.2v So with a 2aa 3v supply you only need a small 1 ohm res.

[cardcollector]

Well if you believe you can do it then go for it.
The FX guys aren't as hardcore as us, they fear the challenge

QFT! Thanks for the laugh skott!

Seriously, it is possible to have sound... Just don't plan on dueling with it or you will have a brand new "battle damaged" hilt very quickly