First Saber Build: New EPOCH

**Ty_Bomber** · 10-23-2011, 05:59 PM

So after much lurking, reading, studying, posting, and commenting, I am finally putting together my first build. This is a saberforge Epoch that a friend of mine bought after I opened him up to the wonderful world of custom lightsabers. He spent 360 USD on this thing, and it was a big boo-boo. The moment he took it out of the box, the "ultra-bright led" barely lit up the thick-walled white ploycarb blade, and the sound he spent an extra $60 on was completely drowned out over the MR Luke ANH my wife got me. Needless to say, it was very disappointing. Now I've done my reading, and practiced soldering once or twice with my father in law, but I'm still really green in the electronics department. That being said, my friend let me gut his saber and take a look at what was inside. I've been given free reign to experiment with any electronics I put in this. It's all coming out of my pocket, but I figure it will make a nice x-mas or birthday present in the near future. In the meantime, I'll give you a tour of it's anatomy and talk about what's going to be done.

mine5.jpg
It has a windowed hilt. Not my thing but not my saber. I noticed that there's lots of sharp little corners to cut your hands on when you're dueling. I'm gonna take the dremel to those to make it a little bit more comfortable to hold.

mms_picture (3).jpg
Here's the Led. It was an Amber, but I couldn't identify the manufacturer. I am replacing this with a Fire Orange LED Module from Ultrasabers. I heard that that color was notoriously dim, and I know that they use reflectors and not lenses, etc. BUT, in my defense, the module was the only thing I could find with a heat sink that would fit the ID of the neck without some kind of modification. Unfortunately, I don't know what the forward voltage of the "Fire Orange" Led is, so I can't really calculate the kind of resistor I need to use. I suspect its one of these, but I can't be entirely sure. I'm gonna assume it is for now and if not, well, I'll just buy a luxeon amber from Tim and fit it to the LED module.

mine4.jpg
Here's the speaker. You could power this thing on in a library without so much as a shush from the faculty. I bought a TCSS premium as a replacement.

mine6.jpg
This is the original switch. Took quite a licking getting it out of the hilt. I'm gonna have to bore out the switch hole to fit the DPDT orange dot momentary switch, and eventually add a secondary hole for an aux switch once I get ahold of a PC-U.

mms_picture (2).jpg
Here's all the original parts laid out together. The Battery pack is 4 NimH AAA's running 4.8V with a recharge port. I'm gonna follow the sage advice here and keep it simple stunt for now. I'll replace the recharge port and upgrade her to a PC-U and LI-Ions once I feel comfortable and/or have my brother in law (an electrician's apprentice) to babysit me during the process. If anyone has any constructive criticism, feel free to shout out along the way. I'm just happy for the experience. Updates to to follow. Cheers.

**Ronan** · 10-23-2011, 07:46 PM

He spent over $300, got a P.O.S out of the box... and didn't return it or open a Paypal claim?

And now you have carte blanche on tinkering with it... wow

Have fun

**Ty_Bomber** · 10-23-2011, 09:46 PM

Originally Posted by Ronan

He spent over $300, got a P.O.S out of the box... and didn't return it or open a Paypal claim?

And now you have carte blanche on tinkering with it... wow

Have fun

Unfortunately, he paid with a credit card, and the website stated when he purchased it that they do not accept returns. I am happy I get to experiment on it though. Just gonna start with the basics and work my way up from there. Baby steps, you know? Thanks for the words of encouragement, Ronan!

**Zzan** · 10-24-2011, 06:01 AM

Originally Posted by Ty_Bomber

mms_picture (3).jpg
Here's the Led. It was an Amber, but I couldn't identify the manufacturer. I am replacing this with a Fire Orange LED Module from Ultrasabers. I heard that that color was notoriously dim, and I know that they use reflectors and not lenses, etc. BUT, in my defense, the module was the only thing I could find with a heat sink that would fit the ID of the neck without some kind of modification. Unfortunately, I don't know what the forward voltage of the "Fire Orange" Led is, so I can't really calculate the kind of resistor I need to use. I suspect its one of these, but I can't be entirely sure. I'm gonna assume it is for now and if not, well, I'll just buy a luxeon amber from Tim and fit it to the LED module.

So isn't that piece of metal that the current LED is attached to a heatsink? Why not just re-use that and the lens and just get an LED, thermal tape and lens holder from the store here instead.

Also that speaker looks the same as the premium speaker. My guess is the issue is the sound driver or resonance and not actually the speaker.

**KuroChou** · 10-24-2011, 08:49 AM

It would be a big mistake to assume by appearances that the speaker in the pic is the same quality as the premiums in the store.
You can't tell from that image what the voice coil looks like, what kind of magnet was used, what kind of impedance it has, or grade the diaphragm stiffness/movement. If he says it's a POS, it's probably a POS.
Most people around here prefer to replace stock speakers with Tim's premiums anyway. Just a quality control thing.

**Zzan** · 10-24-2011, 10:19 AM

Good point.

**Darth Odious** · 10-24-2011, 01:39 PM

Well... At least he actually got a product, many people have not.

Is that an econo vader board? I wish someone would poop in a box and send it to the return address after all these years.

**Ty_Bomber** · 10-24-2011, 05:30 PM

Originally Posted by Zzan

So isn't that piece of metal that the current LED is attached to a heatsink? Why not just re-use that and the lens and just get an LED, thermal tape and lens holder from the store here instead.

Also that speaker looks the same as the premium speaker. My guess is the issue is the sound driver or resonance and not actually the speaker.

The heatsink was superglued, then hot glued to the LED and lens holder. I couldn't get the wires from the stock LED, and the original heatsink rattled a lot inside the hilt as it is. I'm not crazy about using a reflector instead of a lens as it is, seeing how deep the blade sits in the neck, but it will regardless be better than what it came with.

As for the speaker, they weren't the same. It's not apparent in the photo, but in person the TCSS speaker is slightly slimmer. The sound came from a cheap econo board, so I figure that was a contributing factor, but like KuroChou said, it is a quality control issue. I know that Tim sells good stuff, so I'm not gonna gamble with whatever I have on hand just to save a couple bucks. It is my first foray into this territory, so I expect to pay a premium on the experience.

More to follow. Stay tuned.

**Ty_Bomber** · 04-24-2012, 02:32 PM

A couple updates:

Since the owner really didn't have the funds for a PC-U install, I started looking at MR boards as an option. Good sound at a great price. Right around that time LDM started experimenting with pre-wired light and sound modules made to help beginners (like myself) get into the hobby without feeling terrified. It turned out to be exactly what I needed. I contacted him and got it within a couple days, and he even made some leads for an illuminated AV switch I planned on installing. Here's a little peek:

And with a blade. A little underwhelming in person, but a far cry better than how it originally looked. The blade is an ultra edge (I bought before I realized it was no longer justifiable to do so) but I don't think it has a reflective tip. I will probably add some more gift wrap and get one of the reflective bullet tips from Tim, to help even out the blade. Might have to look into options besides the reflector/heatsink combo I originally got from Ultrasabers too.

The LED is a nice Golden yellow, as requested (the original was very orange) and it's paired with a MR vader board for a nice sithy feel. I still need to install the new latching AV switch (made sure I had the diagram right, but I am unsure whether to wire the resistor along the positive or negative) and bore out the switch hole so it will fit. I would like to use a drill press, but since I don't have access to one in my small apartment, I may just mask the hilt with painters tape, stencil the size I need, and have at it with the dremel. After that it's installing a replacement recharge port, which will likely be the most challenging part of the build, since I have to thread it back into the pommel where it was before, or make a new hole near the switch. Neither option looks to be a lot of fun.

Anyway, hope you enjoy. Cheers.