First saber build stage1 complete! Check it out

[Formula]

Well I'm happy to say I've completed my first basic saber. I have just the lights working for now, and I have a lot of other things in place for the PC board, when I can get one. I stumbled onto the tcss website about 7 weeks ago, and after a lot of homework, and a little background in dc circuits, I am happy with my creation. I have put more money into it than I thought I originally would need to, and I've bought extra parts just in case. I am really happy with the powder coating, and the overall modular system. I have the activation box 14, and had tcss dill the holes in the hilt, as well as the blade holder. I was really pleased to find that the activation box was threaded and did not rely on a rear nut, which would have been really hard to do in such a cramped hilt. The biggest problem that i face is space and organization, I just dont' see the space i need for a full chassis that I planned for. The excess wire bunches up and causes all sorts of problems. I bought the LED module with the luxeon rebel star, and went with jedi green, I really like the way the module fits in the blade holder, and how it seats inside the choke, there was a little friction when screwing the blade holder down onto the choke/hilt, but I made sure not to twist the wires. I used JST connectors for everything, and created a fully remove-able wire harness, which could be shortened, but I did enough soldering for one night. AV switches were intimidating at first, but really really simple after I found this thread: http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com...=switch+wiring
Another helpful thread is this one about recharge port wiring:
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com...ge+port+wiring
and this one on the RICE port wiring:
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com...ce+port+wiring

I don't have the recharge port hooked up yet, or obviously the rice port. I just charged the battery with the smart charger, and JST adapter, took about an hour, I haven't tested the battery life yet, so far so good but I've only ran it maybe 15 minutes. . I will have to open the pommel and pull out the battery to recharge for now. I did some original circuits with a 9v battery, just to test the led and accent switch lights, and to brush up on my soldering skills until the Lithium battery arrived.

Here are some build pictures:
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Here is a video:


This is the complete list of parts:

1 of: 7" Fluted with standard style switch hole
1 of: Screw on LED blade holder style 12
1 of: Main Body Powder Coating (Wet Black) (DFS2)
1 of: Blade Holder Powder Coating (Wet Black) (B123)
1 of: Drill & Tap Hole (8-32)
1 of: MPS Pommel style 8
1 of: MHS choke style 1 short
1 of: Choke Powder Coating (C1S3)
1 of: MPS Clip
1 of: MPS Insert style 6
1 of: 3.5mm R.I.C.E.™ Port Style 1
1 of: 2.1mm Power Jack
1 of: 16mm Anti Vandal Latching Green Ring Switch
1 of: 16mm Anti Vandal Momentary Green Ring Switch
1 of: 8-32 x .3" black thumb screw
1 of: Rebel Star LED & MHS Heatsink Module
1 of: LED "TCSS style" Show blade 1" OD (38 inches)
3 of: Dual 22 gauge wire (sold by the foot)
8 of: 2 Wire quick connector
2 of: 1/8" Heatshrink tubing (I recommend a lot more, had to buy some at radioshack, and it was way overpriced)
1 of: Box 14 Mounting holes service
1 of: Activation box style 14
1 of: Tamiya to JST charger adapter
6 of: JST connectors
1 of: 4-40 Button Head
1 of: 7.4v Li-ion 800mAh 14500 Battery Pack
1 of: 4.7ohm 5w resistor
1 of: 3.7V-14.8V Li-Ion Smart charger

I ordered more parts, but all of these were used partially or completely in this saber, not to mention the new soldering iron i had to buy because the old one fell of the table and broke the tip off, leaving the threaded end inside the tip.


...to be continued with more pictures

[Formula]

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I also want to thank the following members for their help with my questions:
DarkarNights
Silver Serpent
Machinimax
mrknify

[Yoshi-Taka]

I absolutely love the simplicity of the design, so many points from me for that. The powder coating looks really good. Very happy to hear the phrase "used all JST connectors".

[Formula]

Thanks for the props guys, i appreciate it. one more note on the jst connectors, I used nail polish to mark the connections so when it's taken apart it can be reassembled really quickly. My wife has a million different colors so that helped And btw, she wants a saber now

[Silver Serpent]

Heh, you're not the only one who has used the nail polish trick.

Congrats on your build. It's a really great feeling the first time you turn it on and you say, "I just built a LIGHTSABER!"

[DarkarNights]

I used different colors of heat shrink around my JST connectors to color code them. It's a life saver idea when you can't see where your wires are coming from after inserting the chassis.

[Jedi Mynock]

AWESOME!
it reminds me a lot of my first MHS. but yours has more of the "modern" available options 6 years later heh.

off to a really good start. that thing is going to ROCK when you put sound in it. for chassis help just reasearch like you did the rest of your build and you should be fine, since its really great so far. i built sabers before all the cool chassis discs were available. and if you get stuck, you can always jump on here and ask.

i'll be looking for updates on this saber. great work!
(im also a little jealous your wife wants one! mine could care less and does not understand why i blow money on them lol)

[Machinimax]

20120731_230812.jpg20120731_231345.jpg20120730_204946.jpg20120731_234443.jpg20120731_234456.jpg

I also want to thank the following members for their help with my questions:
DarkarNights
Silver Serpent
Machinimax
mrknify

You're very welcome. Glad to see this has come to life. I'll be looking forward to seeing that PC in there!

[Formula]

So I have finally added a sound board to my lightsaber. I went with the Nano Biscotte board, I had originally planned for the Petite Crouton, but I am very happy with the NB. I would have gone with a more basic switch box, not needing two switches or a rice port, had I planned on the NB. I went with the Li-Ion 18650 3.7V 2600mAh battery, and did some dremeling to the acrylic disks to accommodate the speaker wires. I also had to sand down the speaker mount (V4), because installing the speaker had slightly expanded the mount to be too tight inside of the pommel. This would have caused a problem when screwing the pommel into the hilt.
I did order the MWS NB, but I soldered in the accent light for the switch. It is a good addition to the look, and indicates power before starting up the saber. Recharge port is now functional and looking forward to quick and easy charging from here on out. I used the MPS insert style 12 with the D ring, and had to cut off the ends of the mounting screws to keep from interfering with the speaker. I wrapped a little electrical tape on the D ring to avoid excessive rattling noise.

I was requested by a friend to design and build a lightsaber, and I duplicated all of the electronics described above. I am really happy with this new design, and I used what I learned from my first saber to think out the layout thoroughly. The pommel style 10 leaves no gap between the MPS insert and the speaker, so I again had to cut the screws down, and inserted an acrylic disk (for pc 2.0) that just acted as a spacer so that the speaker would not touch the MPS style 12 insert screws. I really like the added counterweight of the pommel style 10, compared to the lightweight pommel style 8 I have on my saber.

I used a 1 ohm, 2w resistor for the main LED, and an 18 ohm, 1/4w resistor for the accent LED.

When i assembled the new saber, I was having a blinking/inconsistent recharge light on the battery charger, indicating a bad connection somewhere. I took a very small screwdriver and spread the center pin on the recharge port, and it cleared the problem right up, nice snug fit and no connection problems.

[Formula]