Rogue9607's Satele Inspired Saber - First Saber

[rogue9607]

Getting close!

Everything is wired up and working... including the custom sound delay! All I have left are a few tweaks so that everything slides together.

[rogue9607]

Woo Hoo! While not completely "done" (still a few code tweaks and one wire is acting up), Holly is operational!

On initial power application she plays "Moon River", as well as when the NB/Arduino come out of sleep mode. Power on plays the Indiana Jones intro before the ignition sound. Power off leads with a few measures of Toto's Africa followed by the retraction sound.

I apologize for the poor video quality, but it shows the first press that wakes the NB/Arduino up, then another press for ignition, and a long press for power down. I didn't show the double click for color change, but that still works. I'll take a better video once I get everything buttoned up.

[VicSkimmr]

Uh, holy **** that's awesome!

[Jedi_Knight_Zekk]

Uh, holy **** that's awesome!

I 2nd and 3rd and 4th that motion. Ive been following this thread for some time, and I've been impressed every step of the way. A truly great build!

[madmaxx]

that is absolutely and truly amazing!! this is in my humble opinion is the best saber i have ever seen...and in saying that i would like to see it on MY wall! very well done

[rogue9607]

We took Holly to MegaCon this past weekend and everything worked incredibly well! On Friday I realized one slight code issue that allowed the LED and NB to get out of sync. Friday night I was able to correct that code as well as rework the controls. The final version would take a single press when off to turn on LED only (realized that this was the most frequent use in a noisy hall where we didn't want to wait for extended boot/ignition sounds to take a quick picture), long press to turn the saber on with sound (waking up the NB if needed), and a double press to cycle the NB (just included as a fall back, but it wasn't needed). When on, a single press would cycle the color profiles (I added an extra set of profiles with the crystal LED off for power saving), a double press flashes the blade, and a long press turn the saber off (with or without sound as appropriate).

The constant current drivers (CAT4101) worked really well set at 700 mA with the DX RGB LED, though I should note that each driver ran one color for both LEDs in parallel, so each die had a max current of 350mA. I never did check the current draw for the entire setup, since I didn't have everything fully working together until it was assembled on the chassis, and at that point it was rather difficult to get a MM inline.

There are a few things that I'd keep working on in a perfect world with infinite time, but with new projects calling to me, I think it's time that I consider Holly finished!

[koko kama]

Rogue if there is one word i could use to describe this it would be inspirational...

I know that it certainly contains blood sweat tears, much elbow grease, a generous helping of love and dedication,
they used to say about a warrior sword - that it contained part of the weilders spirit - This saber is proof for sure.

I am still Gobsmacked that this is your first saber build and surely there will be many to follow.

Simply Superb!

[Starwinder]

I am way late to this party, but ... wow, just ... WOW!
Holly is beautiful! That is one serious first build to be proud of!

[Kevin Starwaster]

I LOVE the etching on this saber. You really went the extra mile and it shows.

[Banaticus]

Holy cow, this is an amazing lightsaber. I'm just in awe.

About this time I saw the email that the Nano Biscotti was finally being sold and I quickly picked one up. My plan is to use it purely as a sound board and use a revised version of the Arduino setup for the LED driver. I have three CAT4101 constant-current drivers for the LEDs. My crystal LED will still be resistor based. The Arduino will control the color mixing and send button input to the NB for sound. I'm keeping my single press for power on, double click for color change, and long press for power off.

So far I've been testing on a breadboard, but just finished my first cut at the two PCBs and hope to etch them later this week. Here are the designs as they currently stand. The first will go in one half of the hilt with the Arduino and the constant-current drivers. The second is little more than a breakout board to mount the NB to as well as the LED/switch connections in that side of the hilt so I can try to keep the number of wires running through the crystal/sound chamber to a minimum.

Do you happen to have a schematic version of those images which shows noobs like me what's going on?