Hello all,

I've been working on "upgrading" one of my LED sabers to use a removable LED string blade. I'm using a PC 1.6 with 7.4V, and have ~90 LEDs set up in a series-parallel setup (~45 in parallel with each other, in series with another 45 in parallel). The listed drop on the LED's is 2.8-3.4V, with a 20mA draw, 2000-6000 millicandelas. I followed the setup from Slothfurnace, where the blog post showcasing his Luke ROTJ V2 showed exactly how to set it up. The difference between his string and mine is that he has 6 segments of 16 LEDs, where I think 8 LEDs are in parallel at a time, in series with the other 8 (I hope that makes sense to you all). My goal was to use only 2 wires, and use the 2.1mm power jack commonly used as a recharge port to power the blade, such that the blade orientation wasn't important.

My current problem is that the LED's just are not bright enough. I don't have the voltage to turn on more than 2 or 3 series LEDs. I have plenty current available. The 2 series lines I have, with the current I'm giving it (a setting of 50 in the old config file), the level of light is sad. Slothfurnace uses a CFLS.

What I need is more voltage to put into the blade, allowing for another series set or two. Then the current I have pumping through should be more than enough. In the TCSS store, is that what the Power Xtender is for? It doesn't seem to be discussed in the PC 3.0 manual. Or is it just the CFLS has that much more potential power for the main LED that he could power that many series sets?

This is not a Halloween deadline anymore. It was, but it is no longer possible for that to happen I think. Is it possible that it may just be my LED's are too power hungry or awful?

Please and thank you for any help

JGMJacobo