LEDengin 5w and 10W info and wiring guide....for noobs

[patolcott]

So I read the whole thread and i think i am getting the hang of it i jsut have a couple questions,

1) in the awesome diagram the resistor was in between the FOC extender and the LED not on the footpads of the FOC exteder, I thought it was supposed to go on the extender?
2) i am going to do a amber blade using what is the best LED engin to use? RGBA? is there any others with amber?
3) if i did use the RGBA, i would wire just the amber for the blade, and GB for the flash but that is ok right? because it is just a flash? earlier in the post people seemed to be against wiring just one color for the blade and doing two for FOC, if you wire in parralel or seriallel when it flashes does it shut one color set off? or do they all shine?
4) lastly the PC and CF are LED drivers meaning they need no resistors to run the main Led right? they only need the resistor to the FOC? and why is that?

[Takanis]

So I read the whole thread and i think i am getting the hang of it i jsut have a couple questions,

1) in the awesome diagram the resistor was in between the FOC extender and the LED not on the footpads of the FOC exteder, I thought it was supposed to go on the extender?
2) i am going to do a amber blade using what is the best LED engin to use? RGBA? is there any others with amber?
3) if i did use the RGBA, i would wire just the amber for the blade, and GB for the flash but that is ok right? because it is just a flash? earlier in the post people seemed to be against wiring just one color for the blade and doing two for FOC, if you wire in parralel or seriallel when it flashes does it shut one color set off? or do they all shine?
4) lastly the PC and CF are LED drivers meaning they need no resistors to run the main Led right? they only need the resistor to the FOC? and why is that?

Lets see if I can help out:

1) The diagram with the resistor between the PeX and the LED is for a direct-drive setup. It doesn't sound like you will be doing that for your situation so I wouldn't focus on that diagram right now. Yes, normally, the resistor will go on the PeX between the 2 pads on the (+) side of the PeX.

2) For an amber blade, you could either use the single die on the RGBA or you could mix your own amber color using a Tri-Rebel and mixing the Red and Green. A LEDengin could also be used to mix an amber but sometimes they tend to have color seperation; especially if your mixing with the red die.

3) Some people are "against" using the single die since it's somewhat of a waste to just use a single die for the main blade when you have 4 available. There isn't technically any problem with only using a single die, it's just that you could be using more. You could try mixing your own amber by using some kind of multi-die LED (LEDengin or Tri-Rebel) and mix the Red and Green together. You will need to do some testing with some 1W resistors with various ohm ratings on either the red or green to see if you can get your desired color. Try searching around here for "color-mixing". Using a PC of CFv5 with FoC™ will not shut off any of the colors. They would all be on for a split second (FoC™ AND Main LED dice).

4) Correct. The PC and CF have LED drivers built into them and are current regulated. The FoC™ needs a resistor because it is essentially just getting it's power straight from your battery pack which is generally 7.4V.

Hope that helped!

[patolcott]

Takanis, that was flippin amazing! thank you so much you answered everything i needed to know . It does raise another question however... LOL... what do you mean by color separation? how bad is it? is it worth using the led engine or is like the tri rebel a better choice?

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

Takanis, that was flippin amazing! thank you so much you answered everything i needed to know . It does raise another question however... LOL... what do you mean by color separation? how bad is it? is it worth using the led engine or is like the tri rebel a better choice?

The color separation Takanis speaks of generally happens when you first activate the saber or de-activate the saber. Different colors react differently (some come on quicker than others - hence the momentary color separation) generally based on their voltage requirements. As for your question "How bad is it?", it all depends on you. If I showed the same saber with the issue to 10 people, some would barely notice it, some would be annoyed and it would drive others completely insane. It only lasts a second or two generally, and is more prevalent in parallel setups from what I remember.

[patolcott]

Hmmm i most likely would not be bothered by that at all. sounds great. so I will most likely use the RGGB and do RG for my amber and mess with the resistors to get a good shade and use the gb for a FOC- AWESOME, glad i got that figured out now i just have to figure out how to wire everything together. LOL it will be fun to mess with the resistors though. should i have it hooked up to the CF before i start with the resistors or would it work to do it while not hooked up to the CF

[Takanis]

Hmmm i most likely would not be bothered by that at all. sounds great. so I will most likely use the RGGB and do RG for my amber and mess with the resistors to get a good shade and use the gb for a FOC- AWESOME, glad i got that figured out now i just have to figure out how to wire everything together. LOL it will be fun to mess with the resistors though. should i have it hooked up to the CF before i start with the resistors or would it work to do it while not hooked up to the CF

You should test it with the CF. Just be sure to kill the power to the board whenever you are switching around resistors/colors. This doesn't mean make sure the board is off, I mean: make sure there is no power connected to the board at all. The best way would be to use a kill-key setup.

[patolcott]

thanks!

[patolcott]

so i have wired up my LED and i get serious color separation, and not just on startup. i can distinctly see the difference between the red and green LED's Is that because i dont have a blade on it? or am i doing something seriously messed up? like when i shine it on the wall i see a red square and a green square how do i fix this

[Silver Serpent]

You kinda need the blade. The lens as well, if you don't already have that in place.

[patolcott]

I do have a lense but no blade but it good to know it matters