Has anyone taken the Guts of a MR and put them in

[Grouch]

A custom hilt? All of the guts, LED string, battery back, sound ect. The reason I ask is because I really do like the whole LED string with it’s up and down motion for display purposes. I would like to make a one off "prototype" yoda saber that still retained ALL the MR features, while keeping close to a "real life" size. So we are looking at a hilt length of 8" max and a blade length of about 26". If I were to attempt such I thing I figured I would start with a Green Luke saber and gut that for the sound and blade.

Since I would have to shorten the blade I would have to shorten the LED string. I’m sure that would change its resistance, but to what extent and how it would effect it being powered I have no clue. I would also build it with sink pipe and one of Tim’s emitter tips and end caps.

Does anyone have any experience, thoughts, or suggestions?

[JediMcD]

Grouch that will be a very big undertaking. I know that individuals around here have used most of the guts of an MR before, but I don't know about the led string. Cutting the string down may pose a problem as well. It is rather sensitive, and cutting on it may cause a series of problems in the board the leds are mounted to. Others may know alot more about it than me.

One question is why not use corbin's driver board sold here at the store. It will give you a ignition and retraction effect if that is what you are wanting to preserve. It will also give you added features like the clash and lockup effect. Then you could just use it and a normal luxeon led. You could also use the sound board you would have as well. This may be a much easier way to build a saber.

[Pirate King]

best way to shorten it though, would probably just build past the emmitter; keeping the actual blade the same length, it would just be covered up by the hilt. doesn't leave much room for electronics, but it's workable.

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[xwingband]

Check out this: http://www.fx-sabers.com/forum/index.php?topic=1473.0

I believe Tim did the conversion on that.[?] Meridian changed the Anakin hilt to look sort of like a Yoda hilt. All of it can be done basically.

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[Lord Maul]

to shorten the led strip just cut from the top of the strip inbeetween the two leds, i tried that just for fun on my ani when it was gutted and it worked

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[Do-Clo]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Lord Maul

to shorten the led strip just cut from the top of the strip inbeetween the two leds, i tried that just for fun on my ani when it was gutted and it worked
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reckless you are[V][V][V]



Extreme care must be used when cuting the MR led strip, you can end up with the circuit board traces shorted out and the strip is ruined. It has to be a clean cut and then you need to remove an entire sction so that it doesn't look funny when powering up. I would opt for a luxeon led much simpler.

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[Lord Maul]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">reckless you are<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

the led strip was garbage already cause i coverted the saber

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[james3]

Prvt. Pyle must be lucky is all I can say. If there was ANY intellegent thought in there caution would have been used while taking on a project of this type.

Grouch, even though I can't stand the MR strips I see where you are going with this. You will want to use a resistor across the wire that would supply current to the bank that would be missing. That way it would maintain the same current across all leads instead of boosting up the ones you have left. It could be posible that they could take it but with out playing with one I would not guarantee that.

I agree that a Lux with a short blade would be the preferred deal. Keep in mind that when you shorten the groups of LEDs they will appear less of an extend/retract effect.

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[Grouch]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by JediMcD



One question is why not use corbin's driver board sold here at the store. It will give you a ignition and retraction effect if that is what you are wanting to preserve. It will also give you added features like the clash and lockup effect. Then you could just use it and a normal luxeon led. You could also use the sound board you would have as well. This may be a much easier way to build a saber.
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I'm not fimilar with Corbin's driver. Thought it sounds like if it gives all the audio + more than the MR. The key visual feature though that I am looking to keep is the actual extention and retraction of the lit blade. And as for as I know the MR LED string is the only way to do that. If I could use Corbins driver and still some how use part of an MR led string then it could very well be a better alternative than just gutting out a Luke MR.

[Grouch]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Pirate King

best way to shorten it though, would probably just build past the emmitter; keeping the actual blade the same length, it would just be covered up by the hilt. doesn't leave much room for electronics, but it's workable.
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That would be a good idea but the hilt needs to be short too. only 8" I need to shorten the blade by almost that much.