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  1. #1

    Cool >n00by catchy title goes here<

    Hello everyone. I was hoping to get some help what what will be become my first saber build. I'm wanting to make something like Jaina Solo's lightsaber from Genesis Custom Sabers but with a rotating crystal chamber unit from Ammnra. Posted below is the sixteenth iteration of my design and I'd like a few second opinions on it.

    SaberBuilder_render.jpgSaberBuilder_render1.jpg

    I think a battery should be able to fit inside the choke, I'm pretty sure there's enough room for a speaker next to the pommel, I added an extra double female behind the blade holder for the heatsink/LED, and I added a 2" double female between the choke and the crystal chamber unit to fit a ring switch.

    Is there enough room for all of the other parts? Such as sound modules and all the wiring? Is all the wiring even possible what with the battery being located in the choke?
    Do you guys see any way to shave the length down at all? Or is it not long enough? I'd like to get it under 12" and right now it's at 13.7".

    I know this is a pretty complex first build, but I'm confident that if I have all the right parts, I can assemble it correctly. It's only a few steps up from building those LEGO Super Star Destroyers from back in the day

  2. #2

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    First off, Welcome to the Forums.

    Quote Originally Posted by Darth Wumbo View Post
    Hello everyone. I was hoping to get some help what what will be become my first saber build. I'm wanting to make something like Jaina Solo's lightsaber from Genesis Custom Sabers but with a rotating crystal chamber unit from Ammnra. Posted below is the sixteenth iteration of my design and I'd like a few second opinions on it.

    SaberBuilder_render.jpgSaberBuilder_render1.jpg

    I think a battery should be able to fit inside the choke, I'm pretty sure there's enough room for a speaker next to the pommel, I added an extra double female behind the blade holder for the heatsink/LED, and I added a 2" double female between the choke and the crystal chamber unit to fit a ring switch.

    Is there enough room for all of the other parts? Such as sound modules and all the wiring? Is all the wiring even possible what with the battery being located in the choke?
    Do you guys see any way to shave the length down at all? Or is it not long enough? I'd like to get it under 12" and right now it's at 13.7".

    I know this is a pretty complex first build, but I'm confident that if I have all the right parts, I can assemble it correctly. It's only a few steps up from building those LEGO Super Star Destroyers from back in the day
    Now to answer your questions: Yes, it is a complex build. Depending on what else you want to stuff in there, I am going to go with no, there is not enough room. Putting the battery in the choke will make your life a little more difficult, depending on which type of LED you wanted to use.

    From your confidence level, I take it you have a fair amount of soldering experience?
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    "Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before... you want blindingly bright, super loud, running 1138 blinkies off of the cheapest sound card you can find AND you want all of it to run on a battery the size of a dime, and run for a very, VERY long time. That one cracks me up every time..."
    My email: fjk_tcss@yahoo.com

  3. #3

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    If youre wanting to shorten the saber (like I would) I would suggest getting a single 4-5" extension and request the milled slots from Tim. You would loose the chamfered edges on the larger cutout, but could easily still get the window on the piece for your chamber, it would be significantly cheaper, and would have less threaded parts to worry about.

    I would also suggest a small board, such as a nano or Prizm if youre planning on fitting that rotating crystal chamber in there (although there are other, better ways of doing a chamber that would take up less of a footprint, IMO) and if you're still needing to fit a battery, I would suggest a smaller 18500 cell over the 18650, just to give you breathing room for your wires.

    Aside from that, if you use 28-30 gauge wire and plan your routes carefully, it can be done, but it will test your patience. Just be prepared for the worst and hope for the best. I'm sure you'll do fine.

  4. #4
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    A bit of advice that I learned the hard way with my first build: If you think you have enough space, you probably don't. My first saber was built using the graflex blade holder, an MHS gear section, a 7" fluted double female, a box for the switches and ports, and a large-ish pommel. Thats about 10" of solid consistent diameter internal space (IIRC). The saber is 13" long. Even with all that space, fitting in a 2-cell 7.4v pack, a rice port, a recharge port, two anti vandals, a speaker, and a petit crouton, made my butt pucker. I also used chassis discs and carefully put it all together using all space as efficiently as possible. Still barely made it.

    My advice is this, and I am currently practicing this, even tonight, so I say it with experience. Study the size of your parts, draw them on a piece of graph paper using the dimensions you can find in the store. Cut the drawings out and place them on top of each other. Carefully plan and pay attention to the size of your parts. I cannot stress this enough.
    Last edited by Zahc Zi Phan; 05-07-2015 at 10:06 PM.

  5. #5

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    Thanks for all the replies. Sorry for not responding sooner, but I forgot to subscribe to my own thread. That gets me every time I join a new forum

    Quote Originally Posted by Forgetful Jedi Knight View Post
    First off, Welcome to the Forums.

    Now to answer your questions: Yes, it is a complex build. Depending on what else you want to stuff in there, I am going to go with no, there is not enough room. Putting the battery in the choke will make your life a little more difficult, depending on which type of LED you wanted to use.

    From your confidence level, I take it you have a fair amount of soldering experience?
    I actually have zero soldering experience but know a friend who is an expert. I'm sure you've heard this before but, how hard can it be? I just hope I don't end up ruining a $100+ board.

    As far as actual features, this is going to be a pretty basic saber. I'll only have one switch to turn it on/off and I'm fine with unscrewing it to recharge or change the sound font.

    I think the Prizm is the sound module I want. I'd much prefer the smaller Nano Biscotte, but it doesn't have FoC. I think there's enough room to squeeze it in the 2" female between the rotating crystal chamber and the choke, but I'll have to find a way to mount it to something to keep it from rattling around. Any ideas? Hot glue is my first thought. My next is some sort of scaffolding made of toothpicks

    Quote Originally Posted by Ty_Bomber View Post
    If youre wanting to shorten the saber (like I would) I would suggest getting a single 4-5" extension and request the milled slots from Tim. You would loose the chamfered edges on the larger cutout, but could easily still get the window on the piece for your chamber, it would be significantly cheaper, and would have less threaded parts to worry about.
    That sounds like a good idea. I'll look into it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ty_Bomber View Post
    I would also suggest a small board, such as a nano or Prizm if youre planning on fitting that rotating crystal chamber in there (although there are other, better ways of doing a chamber that would take up less of a footprint, IMO) and if you're still needing to fit a battery, I would suggest a smaller 18500 cell over the 18650, just to give you breathing room for your wires.
    Better ways to do a rotating crystal chamber unit? I've seen plenty of static ones that, while they look awesome, they just simply aren't as alive as this moving one. Honestly, this chamber unit is the entire reason I became interested in making a saber. I saw it on etsy and just thought "I have to have that."

    Also, I think I might be able to remove the 1.2" double female between the choke and the blade holder.
    SaberBuilder_render2.jpg
    There's enough room for the heatsink inside the choke, and I could always choose a shorter battery or shave the heatsink if I need to. Now I'm down to 12.5". I'd like to go shorter but I could also add an extra inch before or after the crystal chamber unit if need be.
    Last edited by Darth Wumbo; 05-08-2015 at 02:27 PM.

  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Darth Wumbo View Post
    I actually have zero soldering experience but know a friend who is an expert. I'm sure you've heard this before but, how hard can it be? I just hope I don't end up ruining a $100+ board.
    Yeah, you might not like the real answer to that question. Fortunately, I know people who fix boards once they've been "borked".


    Quote Originally Posted by Darth Wumbo View Post
    As far as actual features, this is going to be a pretty basic saber. I'll only have one switch to turn it on/off and I'm fine with unscrewing it to recharge or change the sound font.

    I think the Prizm is the sound module I want. I'd much prefer the smaller Nano Biscotte, but it doesn't have FoC. I think there's enough room to squeeze it in the 2" female between the rotating crystal chamber and the choke, but I'll have to find a way to mount it to something to keep it from rattling around. Any ideas? Hot glue is my first thought. My next is some sort of scaffolding made of toothpicks
    NB's (V2's) do have FoC. You still won't fit it into a 2" piece, as only 1" of it is really "usable". You could use the chassis parts sold int he store, assuming you can come up with the right design, and then get it all to fit. You'll find that the space is a whole lot smaller than you think it is.
    TCSS MODERATOR
    All n00bs READ these first (PLEASE)!!!:
    1. Forum Guidelines
    2. FJK’s “Down and Dirty” guide to Ohm’s Law

    "Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before... you want blindingly bright, super loud, running 1138 blinkies off of the cheapest sound card you can find AND you want all of it to run on a battery the size of a dime, and run for a very, VERY long time. That one cracks me up every time..."
    My email: fjk_tcss@yahoo.com

  7. #7

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    If you want a single switch, I suggest the nano. You can easily add FoC to it with a power extender:

    https://youtu.be/ZldjWimMAvE

    The prizm uses a 2nd switch to trigger extra fx like lockups and blaster deflections. So Nano would definitely suit you, and help save much needed real estate.

    As for the chamber, I would have had a recommendation, but it appears it is no longer for sale, so you’ll just have to hope yours fits.

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by Forgetful Jedi Knight View Post
    Yeah, you might not like the real answer to that question. Fortunately, I know people who fix boards once they've been "borked".
    Don't worry, I'll take it slow and cautious, even if it means only soldiering at a rate of one wire a day.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ty_Bomber View Post
    If you want a single switch, I suggest the nano. You can easily add FoC to it with a power extender:

    https://youtu.be/ZldjWimMAvE

    The prizm uses a 2nd switch to trigger extra fx like lockups and blaster deflections. So Nano would definitely suit you, and help save much needed real estate.

    As for the chamber, I would have had a recommendation, but it appears it is no longer for sale, so you’ll just have to hope yours fits.
    Thanks, I was actually just watching that video

    I'm not sure if the Prism + PEx would be a benefit or not since the extra wires could cram up too much space. Then again, splitting up the board has it's own cramming advantages. I think I'll go this route.

    I've redesigned my saber a few more times. In the diagram below, the first seven are configurations tested by Ammnra (the creator of the rotating crystal chamber unit). The final three are mine.
    http://i.imgur.com/9eTpbCC.png

    It looks like at the absolute minimum, I can shave my saber down to 11.7". This is my goal.

    To do this, I'll need to trim down both the speaker mount and the heatsink. I'm not going to be attaching any batteries or boards to the speaker mount, so a lot of it is excess that should be fine to shave, correct? I may be tricker to squeeze it into the threaded part of the pommel. As for the heat sink, I'm not sure if that's going to be a problem. I know from building computers that messing with the heatsink can lead to catastrophe, but this is much different. If I trim it down, I'm not loosing much surface area and I shouldn't need to worry about the LED overheating and melting things, should I?

    I'm also going to need to wire up a LOT of cards. The longer latching AV switch simply takes up too much space. The shorter momentary AV switch seems better, but now I'll have to squeeze in a Momentary to Latching converter. I think it can be done, but it'll be a major hassle working with the MLc, Nano Biscotte, and Power Extendor.

    So does it seem possible, or am I crazy? When it comes time, I'll probably end up ordering some extra extenders just in case the shorter ones are too short.

  9. #9

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    A NB won't work with a latching switch. The space behind the speaker holder helps with the sound.

    As I said earlier, I highly doubt you have enough room as you have it currently configured. I don't think you quite appreciate how little room you're going to have, and adding a bunch of extensions will look weird after a while. The 14" one looks like it might be doable.

    If you want a "short" saber, and the chamber you want, I would lose the long choke section (or ditch the idea of a Jania Solo type layout) altogether.
    TCSS MODERATOR
    All n00bs READ these first (PLEASE)!!!:
    1. Forum Guidelines
    2. FJK’s “Down and Dirty” guide to Ohm’s Law

    "Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before... you want blindingly bright, super loud, running 1138 blinkies off of the cheapest sound card you can find AND you want all of it to run on a battery the size of a dime, and run for a very, VERY long time. That one cracks me up every time..."
    My email: fjk_tcss@yahoo.com

  10. #10

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    So I don't even need the converter for me to use the shorter momentary switch? Awesome.

    I can respect good sound, but I think I'll still try shaving the holder. It's cheap enough that I'll just order two and try it out.

    Nah, the long choke is it's second most defining feature. I really think it'll feel good in my hands and make it easier to twirl between my fingers.

    You're right. I won't be able to appreciate how much room I've got until I've got the pieces to work with. If it's way too crammed, I'll order the longer 2" or 3" extension. Ouch, I just realized I'll also have to order hole machining for those extensions as well. Oh well, maybe I can work them into another build in the future.

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