New Ultimate FX vs standard Hasbro sound comparison...

[dexios]

Hey everyone... Here's a link to my sound comparison:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26sdPRyqFc8

The short version is: The Ultimate FX has an econo board in it... I'm not spending $35 to tear it apart and be sure, but between the momentary switch and the identical hum/swing/clash sounds, I'm pretty sure its the same... Also, the handles are slightly different in proportions, but not much, and the switch is in a different spot. There's also no easy way to take it apart. I'm going to return it, so please no requests for further tests...

Oh, and the other thing I found out is that my voice sounds really nasal when recorded... :P

Let me know what you think...

[Jay-gon Jinn]

So it sounds the same, but it looks like it supports an led ladder that scrolls....it may still be useful for some to use in a custom saber. Thanks for taking the time to make and post the video, now the rest of us can decide if we want to use them or not.

[Skottsaber]

Yeah they got rid of the blade effects and replaced them with better ones (hoping we can get some current and voltage measurements when somebody else gets one).
I wonder if it will not just be worth it to fork out another $10-15 for an FX board.

[KuroChou]

I wouldn't mind picking one up for the sake of budget scrolling.

[Knighthammer]

well the no flash on boot up is nice.

[Noyl Wendor]

I'm hunting for one of those. I think the sound is the same, but...I wonder what one of those Ultimates would sound like with a better chamber and speaker. I can imagine they would use the same SB, but make the saber and packaging different.
Dexios how many batteries does it take?

[dexios]

It takes 3 AAA's, just like the standard Hasbro...

The blade is much nicer and brighter, but as it was a sound comparison, I didn't initially comment on it; The LED's do ladder up the blade, but they are very separated... There is still a flash-on-clash with the blade, as well... It was also quieter than the standard Hasbro, because the opening for the speaker sound to come out is not as wide. Everything else, sound-wise, was identical.

[cardcollector]

Good review man!

[J-Saber33]

So Ive already opened up the anakin ultimate fx. I dont have a multimeter however and even if I did... I'm not nearly competent enough to make sense of it without teaching myself! However what I will say is that the board looks like a mini force fx board. the forward section of the board has a harness's worth of wires for the blade, only there isnt a harness- ALL of the wires are soldered at the bottom of the board and only hot glued on the top side. I haven't torn it apart completely though, only powered it on with a 3.7 18650 and added a tcss speaker to hear more accurate sound. Btw, the reason the toy speaker isnt as loud is because the magnet is half as big as the 2010 hasbro! Guess that is one way they saved cost...anyway, the tcss speaker was a big help. I have some days off so maybe post some pics if I have time to experiment! Oh, the other interesting thing is the on/off/tryme switch wired to the board...it's tempting to approach this as a board controlled killswitch, but I'd be curious to know if it really power draw or simply shuts off the momentary. We'll probably have to figure out how to bridge/bypass this any use a conventional hard killswitch setup.

[Rhyen Skytracker]

OK, who wants details? It is like a cross between the 2010 econo board and the Hasbro FX board. It has the sounds of the 2010 econo board but has the ramp up/down of the FX board. There are still a couple of issues with it. It still blinks on clash (though not as bad) and with all 5 LED circuits tied together you only get around 400 mA at 3.3 Volts with the standard batteries that come with it. I would not push this board too much over 5 volts or you may fry it. The good news is that you can use the transistor set up to boost the power to the LED and you will have a saber that will have a nice blade, not blink on power up/down, (but wil on clash) and you can change the clash and motion sensor out to have pretty decent detection. Another change is that they have incerased the time out of the saber to 1 minute instead of 30 seconds. The HUGE PLUS side is that you can take it apart and put it back together gutted and have a decent plastic belt hanger.

Well, that is the 10 minutes I spent taking it apart and testing it. I can post pics and more details if anyone is interested.