Lightsabers lit by inert gas

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

I made one! double-sided red lightsaber. each blade was 24 inches long. Hilt was 24 inches long. It was very fragile but I was able to go out with it a few times that I dared. The blades where 24 inch cold cathodes in red and the CC tubes where inside polyc blades.. When the battery got weak the tips stopped lighting up. When the battery was fully charged, it was awesome, but lasted 5 minutes before the blades started shrinking. This was a long time ago (to give you an idea, the hilt was made by ralsasaber). I was not smart enough to take pictures. sold it on ebay. Now they dont even sell cold cathode tubes that length anymore

Those are some of the reasons why sabers like that only lasted for a tiny short time at the beginnings of this hobby.

[psab keel]

Back in the late nineties there were plasma sabers which were essentially neon tubes with a glass blade, sheathed inside a polycarbonate tube. While the ignition and retraction effects were really cool, plus the blade was evenly lit, the drawbacks were that they could only be used for display. They were very expensive, and because there were gasses inside the tube, they would eventually dissipate, making your saber not last very long in terms of overall life. They used a lot of power, and the driver circuitry wasn't as impact resistant as the kind of tech we have now.

Then EL tech gained traction. Electroluminescent technology (any one remember Indiglo Watches?). The blades were also polycarbonate tubes. The drivers were much smaller, and the blade colors were interchangeable, plus they could be dueled with. While some of the blades were strips of EL flat tape (which caused unsightly gaps where the edges met) there was also EL wire, which when diffused properly looked pretty good. The light was uniform, but it wasn't very bright compared to the plasma blades. The drivers (while smaller than the drivers for plasma) did use a lot of power and made a high pitched ringing when operated. Plus the other downside was that the EL was a phosphor coating on an electrode, which also a has a relatively short life time at high voltages.

In about 2002-2003 High powered LED's hit the market. At the time, polycarbonate was starting to become more readily available to the public for individual sale and as such was relatively expensive. While I can go on and on about the history of Luxeon Lightsaber Tech, I will say that the hobby has come a LONG way in the last decade and I'm blown away with what has been accomplished in such a relatively short time.

LED's are not only the future of Saber tech. They are the future of lighting in general!

[Weaver]

There are many advantages to LEDs over all other lighting technologies, not the least of which are brightness, energy efficiency, and the option for string lighting. They are also cheaper to make, which makes them cheaper to buy. Their lifespan is ridiculous, and they have a wide selection of configurable color options. Color mixing is possible, giving one the ability to create any shade desired on a whim, rather than keeping extra blades on hand.

However, the single greatest advantage that I can think of is that the technology is constantly moving forward. I can't remember the last large leap in plasma-based lighting technology (besides CFLs). There are always new LED devices on the market. In fact, I can think of one off to top of my head, which is being sold on another forum. That's all I will say about it, given that this forum is linked to TCSS and I don't want to disrespect the owner. Suffice it to say the potential for miniaturization and power output is, to all appearances, limitless.

I read an article just the other day about a new generation of LEDs which were so compact that the new system threatens to take over the entire market. They're still in development, of course, but the numbers I saw were mind-boggling. If I can find that article again I will post it here.

I just don't think you're ever going to find a better option than LEDs. It would be nice to have something more like the plasma sabers, but our grasp of science and physics just isn't sufficient to make it comparable to LED brightness and power concerns. That, and you'll never lose an LED to depressurization.