Battery question

[Waisulee]

Hey gang.
I'm going to build a tribute ESB (best episode ever) saber from a vintage graflex, using a mr Anakin sound board, blue rebel LED, with a charge port. I plan on using the 4AAA battery housing/speaker 2 in 1 unit sold here, to house rechargeable li ion batteries and for convenience.
Just looking for opinions on my battery setup choice. Any thoughts?
Thanks.

W

[Rafalema]

I don't think the speaker mount has the proper OD for a Graflex, it'll rattle arond with no mods..

Best battery for MR boards is a sinle, AA sized 3.7v Li-Ion cell IMO. Compact and easy.

[Waisulee]

I'd just assume I would have to mod it. But will your idea provide a nice run time on a single charge? Also refer to my question here:
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com...uy-here./page2
I think I'm putting a lot of thought into batteries lately lol.
Thanks

[Rafalema]

It'd have an OK runtime. But if you have room for an 18650 Li-Ion 3.7v cell (check The Store for dimensions) then that's definitely the way to go. Those things provide insane runtimes.
Luxeon IIIs and Seoul P4s are best for MR boards and work fine on this setup. (There was a batch of little "weaker" red P4s recently that got fried by some MR boards, but I think we're over that now)

Good luck! (If you have any good tips after this project, please share them.) (Waiting on a replica Graflex myself for the ANH version )

[Waisulee]

Ya, I was looking at the 18650's. So one of them would be better than multiple AAA's or AA's? I thought that I had read that the blue rebels were better than the blue luxeon III's and just as bright as the blue Seoul P4's :S In what way are they better on MR boards? Are there some good comparison pics out there? The ones I find are usually comparing MR's to conversions.
I'll definitely share my ideas. My imagination is totally going wild

[Azmaria Dei]

i have a saber with an 18650 and an MR board and a P4 LED and i get at least half an hour out of it.

the dimensions on an 18650 cell are 18mmx65mm round (0). ^_^

the blue LEDs between the makers are all fairly close in brightness as near as i can tell. especially hooked to the outputs of an MR board. they're all fed 1A.

[Waisulee]

Only a 1/2 hr?? Sorry, but that's not very long. I'm sure I can fit a good number of batteries in a graflex to get a better duration. Would 2 18650's double the run time or increase it exponentially? trying to figure out the best configuration :S
Re the led: I just found a couple of good comparison charts on the forums

[Darth Xusia]

i have a saber with an 18650 and an MR board and a P4 LED and i get at least half an hour out of it.

the dimensions on an 18650 cell are 18mmx65mm round (0). ^_^

the blue LEDs between the makers are all fairly close in brightness as near as i can tell. especially hooked to the outputs of an MR board. they're all fed 1A.

That is pretty low. You should be getting closer to 2 hours on a 18650, depending on which battery you're using. Sounds like bad batteries to me.

Only a 1/2 hr?? Sorry, but that's not very long. I'm sure I can fit a good number of batteries in a graflex to get a better duration. Would 2 18650's double the run time or increase it exponentially? trying to figure out the best configuration :S
Re the led: I just found a couple of good comparison charts on the forums

2 18650's in parallel would double the runtime. Series would fry the led and the MR board unless you use a 5V regulator.

[Waisulee]

That's a good point about running them parallel, Xusia But I think I'm gunna go with two 3.7v AA's running parallel. Will prob put a charge port if I don't wish to take the batteries out of the holder. Options are good

[Farmer42]

If you don't build a pack, don't run a recharge port on multiple batteries. Especially in parallel. And one 18650 will get you about the same run time as two AA sized Li-ions in less space.