Sterling - Vintage Styled MHS Lightsaber (1st Build)

[Lilac]

Dear Diary,

as being a Star Wars fan since my father took me out to see Episode 4 when I was a little boy and the movies were relaunched in the 90s,
a real, metal, solid and home built lightsaber is amongst the greatest wishes I have ever had since then.

Now working in a company that employs some real hardcore Star Wars fans (I consider myself one of them), we quickly found out about the whole Sabersmith community and the MHS system.
I am pretty convinced that the MHS system offers a good start for me - thanks to Tim for this great line of products!

-------------------

The old school and "vintage" looks of the 1st Trilogy series definitely seem to be the way to go for me - and design comes first when building your own Lightsaber which also reflects a lot about your personality... I think.

But it also has to work like a real lightsaber. A good soundfont, direct and realistic response while swinging, a really, really bright blade, Movie-Flicker and Flash on Clash - no spoken quotes needed. This is aimed to be straightforward, realistic and duelable. A Crystal Chamber would be thrilling but too much for the start... or isn't it?

I read an article about Sabercolours a while ago, which stated that green blades were rather those of the "negotiators" and blue ones those of the "soldiers". I liked this idea because it somehow fits the characters in the movies.
I wanted to go for a green blade for some time now but currently, I also like the idea of having a mix between green and blue. I read green one look the brightest to the human eye so this would be a point. We'll see...

Currently, a Crystal Focus v7 tri-cree seems to be the way to go but it also seems a little over the top. I want the most realistic sounding saber when it comes to swinging and also a bright blade.
Today I found that the Crystal Focus v7 soundboard seems to fit into the hilt of my design, which I first doubted.

Now I decided to call it "STERLING", referencing the british weaponry roots of Obi Wan's Lightsaber.

This is how I want it to look (Still have to pick one):

Unbenannt-1.jpg

I plan to add some "heavy duty" aging to it, I made some experiences with that while aging electric guitar hardware.

What do you think?
Would the Crystal Focus be right for me?
Can you determine if all the electronics will fit inside the 1.15" hilt?

I will continue to post the steps of my project in this post and hope it will help someone else on his way!

All the Best,
Lilac

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

First, Welcome to the Forums.

Well, I think that your design seems a bit "short" length wise. Usually hilts are in the 10-12" range, and you are missing the gear on the bottom just before the pommel. Right now, I think you should maybe start off with a smaller and easier sound board, like the NB.

[Ty_Bomber]

A few notes on the design:

The pommels don't attach to each other the way they're pictured there. The knurled section will need to be added to the end of the large pommel as with custom work with the appropriate fee, but the look should be doable. You will want to email Tim for a quote.

The design is extremely cramped. I personally would have a very difficult time getting anything to fit in that extension. I would recommend a prizm soundboard for this saber. It offers full color mixing like cf, multiple soundfonts like cf, great audio fidelity like the cf, and the sensors are extremely accurate if you properly tune it. Major plus side is it only runs off a single cell battery, preferably an 18650 or 18500 battery, which is going to save you a ton of room in the hilt.

I really like the bottom design, by the way.

[Lilac]

Thank you so much, this has already been some great advice for me and made me figure out what the next steps should be!

I did some research on the PRIZM, I am correct that the PRIZM basically is a RGB compatible PC? My understanding was that I don't really need to tune the colour with RGB LED's but use a blue and a green LED to mix the colours, am I wrong? I thought the third LED could then be used as the FoC LED.
Would you say the PRIZM/PC is as accurate when it comes to response to movement as the FC? Is it just that the FC has more of the bells and whistles ( like 16 swing sounds vs. 8 )?

I am pretty impressed by what the CF is capable of. The Saberfont demos for this system had the most accurate swing I have seen so far and I really like the spin.
@Ty_Bomber, you wrote that you would "have a hard time", getting everything in - do you think it's impossible? Could you recommend a battery for a CF tri-cree saber?
I have about 5.1" in length with a 1.15" diameter - this would have to fit the speaker, SB, battery and wiring. As long as it would somehow be possible, making the hilt longer is not really an option... I feel it just doesn't look right.

Oh and thanks for the info on the pommel cap!

Damn this is complex

Thanks guys!

[Obi1]

Guten Abend!
Well, those look really great, as close as anyone got to an Obi-Wan using TCSS parts. Thanks for sharing them, I got some Inspiration looking at them already.
As to cram-fu challange, Ty_Bomber is fully right, looking at the design - while it Looks great - it does not lend itself to a CF Setup, you migth want to really look at a Prism. One reason is: Prism has everything a superb saber needs, that extra which differentiates a CF from a Prism you are not going to cram in into that cramped space anyway.
I can't wait to see the completed saber, Keep posting as you go on with your build.

[Ty_Bomber]

Part of the reason I suggested the Prizm (which is a PC optimized for color mixing on the fly). The PC and the Crystal Focus 7 also support color mixing with the addition of the satellite color extender. Since the Prizm has native color mixing, it doesn’t require the add on board, and since it only requires one battery to operate, you save significant space in your hilt, which will absolutely be required with this design.



Would a Crystal Focus7/two-cell battery pack and color extender install be impossible? No, but it would be beyond my skill, and probably yours. Not to sell you short, but it is extremely easy to over-estimate the space inside a hilt, and your ability to wire everything in soundly, trust me.



I would not argue that the sensitivity on the CF7 is without compare, and spins, stabs and combos are fun. But the Prizm’s sensors are the same as used on the CF6, which was also without equal just one year ago. I have never heard anyone express disappointment by responsiveness of the board, especially after fine tuning it with RICE.



In the end, I think that it would be too frustrating to attempt to install a fully featured Crystal Focus into this particular hilt design. You could potentially damage your board or the saber during the install trying in vain to get it to fit. I recommend a PC 3.5/Prizm install for now with the Panasonic 3.7V 3400mah 18650 pre-wired battery pack. You should be able to fit everything in that hilt, but it will still be challenging. If things come easily, you could always build another saber, or upgrade your current one to a CF once your skills are up to the task.



Hope this helps.

[Lilac]

Thanks so much to all of you helping me out with my beginner questions, this is absolutely great!

So I have been thinking about the design and worked on a way to add an extra 2" to the hilt. I assume it doesn't change much about the fact that CF will be hard to realize as a first build on this saber. I once trained japanese and chinese sword focused martial arts and believe that I will miss the spin sound effect a lot with the way I handle these things. But I see the point. Thanks for making that so clear!

I think I have decided for the top design from the picture in the 1st post and made an alternative 2" longer design... which I also like because it takes it just a little away from the compactness of the previous idea but it also adds an interesting bit of elegance to it. I today read that placing the speaker just some inch away from the pommel cap enhances the sound of the overall saber - would you agree?
Tomorrow I will try to figure out how to calculate how far the battery "Ty-Bomber" recommended will take me in a triple LED setup.

@Obi1, which extras of the CF (which I wouldn't need) exactly are you thinking of? I am still trying to fully understand the differences between all the Soundboards.

This is the new design in comparison to the original, bot regular & internal view.

sterling_redesign.jpg

sterling_redesign_internal.jpg

[snilam]

I would say you are still on the small side. What kind of switches are you using? If av switches you are going to have issues as they take up alot of space aswell. Also are using this as a single handed, hand and ahalf, or twohanded saber? What you have is definately a single handed saber? Obi uses more of a hand and half two handed style (im not super literate on saber forms). This is just my opinion but you still need to be a little bigger, especially with that box on the side can make it feel awkward in the hand being that short.

[Ty_Bomber]

Here is a comparison chart of plecter boards.

http://plecterlabs.com/Media/Doc/Com...ter_boards.php

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

I'll save you a little work, depending on which 18650 you get and which color(s) you use, you should get a little over an hour of run time. Even though you did add 2" (which is not much at all), you should be able to fit a Prizm, battery and speaker in there.

The CF more sound banks, and some gesture detection based sounds (like stab) that the other boards don't, and slightly better motion detection. I will agree with Ty_Bomber that an install like that with a CEX is impossible. Even without the CEX, you would more or less need to have an advanced skill level. Ane even then you would only be able to get 14650 pack in there (if you're real lucky). I think the Prizm and a single 18650 would be a bit easier for you to do. Though switches will still be a bit of an issue for you to do.