The Tri-Lux is here.

**acerocket** · 12-11-2006, 09:27 AM

Hope Corbin doesn't mind me linking to this pic, but:

This is a CNC machined unit that uses three 3 watt (and eventually, three K2 or combination of K2 and 3 watt) emitters to provide RGB color capability or that extra intense single color. I will post some further info when I get a chance.

Ryma Mara · 12-11-2006, 09:34 AM

Looks nice, any idea about as to how hot the thing gets? average compared to a regular led setup?

how bigs the heat sink?

What kinda volts is required to run a RGB?

Looks like something that could be pritty pricy.

How well does it work with the available sound boards?

**xwingband** · 12-11-2006, 12:04 PM

God, your full of questions.

I've been talking with Acerocket and Corbin about the setup.

The whole setup as pictured there is 1.25" and I believe 2" long. Very small for what it is.

for the volts... ideally it needs like 14V, but he's been burning out Corbin's board with that much. He's thinking of 11.4V li-ions for it. Not at full power but still butt kicking. It's 3 Lux III's afterall... think about that. You can amp up like a 9W White out of it.

Price... yeah, not cheap. The non-corbin one he's been using was $100+ for just the drivers, but that one was more specialized for the RGB setup. He used some different PWM drivers and dimmers.

I'm not sure it will work well with sound at all. That's a lot of volts. Even with Erv making his handle it better I think he said 10V or so was the limit.

Trust me people, this will rock when it's available.

**Dregan** · 12-11-2006, 12:33 PM

Why couldn't you use three dimmable bucks with pots? This one I mean. $20 each, but you wouldn't ever burn it out...

You'd be dialing in color pretty much in analog tho...

**xwingband** · 12-11-2006, 12:59 PM

You could... he was trying to get even more brightness by using a PWM driver and dimmer.

You might burn out a Buckpuck if you tried running three 3W's... I don't know their max. You'd need 3 buckpucks though to make the RGB work seperately.

Again, this setup won't be cheap by any stretch.

**james3** · 12-11-2006, 01:31 PM

Yeah, like xwing I have been sitting on this planning sabers to do with this setup.

But for the penny pinchers, this probably is not for y'all.

**acerocket** · 12-11-2006, 01:48 PM

I won't bore you with all the minute details of this project, but as Corbin said, it's been over a year in planning, development, and machining. The RGB idea was born out of frustration over not being able to get a decent looking purple. The logical idea to put three of the same color leds came from the Great Hyperdyne Wars of 2006. The whole project would not have happened without the finding of the ultra small optics you can see in the pic (yes, the 3 hex shaped things are the lenses).

Some specs:
1.25" od x 2" long.

The unit is comprised of 13 seperate pieces:
machined heatsink (finned)
three emitters
three lenses
machined polycarbonate 'protection' disc
machined top flange
three M3 x 25mm screws

The heatsink and lense holder combine to add to the total surface area of the ubnit. There is roughly 27 square inches of surface area alone on these two pieces.

Currently, I only have an epoxy jig for 3 watt emitters, but I plan on machining one for K2 emitters and possibly even combinations (two K2 + one 3 watt, and two 3 watt + 1 K2) to allow customization.

RGB setup: The current design uses 3 watt red, green and blue emitters. I can do alternate setups if a person wants more color options in a particular range. Suppose you want a better variety of purples, then I can do a red, blue and royal blue, or red and a couple of blues. If you want a better yellow/orange selection, then a red, and two greens might be in order. Same with blues, I could do a green, blue and royal blue. There can be many different configurations to suit the individual user depending on what they want. It is possible to use Corbin's driver, but you would need three of them and dimming circuits. I am currently using very compact 1000 ma and 1400 ma pwm drivers (no effects) and pwm dimming circuits (sourced from Germany). Power wise, you can run the RGB setup with as little as 7.2V, but you need a lot of amps since the unit uses around 2.4 amps total when running pwm and all three LEDs maxed. I plan on using six 14500 1000 ma cells for a total of 7.2V 3000 ma - and it will fit inside a 1.25" diameter bore and be about 4 inches long.

3 same setup: The current setup is with three Bin 1 cyan emitters. These will run with Corbin's driver, but so far I have had some troubles burning out the driver when running with 14.4V. Corbin has talked to the driver maker and it looks like the power in to the driver needs to be around 12V. Ideally, you need 11-13V (for blues and greens) and 8-9V (for reds and amber) to run plus figure an extra volt for the driver. I have been running with 12V and so far it looks good, but I haven't gotten a decent number of hours on it to tell yet. The other issue with the 3 same setup is heat. YES - IT DOES GET HOT! Running at full power, you can heat the unit to 250 degrees F in about 15 minutes. A fan really helps and looks like it can keep the temperature to a manageable 150-160 degrees. For this setup, you could go with six 14500 1000 ma cells for a total of 10.8V 2000 ma, but the unit will not run at it brightest (but it would still whip a single LED anyday). I am still working out the best battery solution for this setup. I am leaning towards 20 AAA rechargeable cells giving 12V 2000 ma that would fit inside a 1.25" diameter bore and be about 5.25 inches long.

Right now, I have some blanks cut but with my regular job being so hectic, I am not sure when exactly I will get the first run completed. Likewise, I haven't fixed a price just yet.

A few questions have been asked so far so let's see.

No they will not fit inside a 1.25" sink pipe. The unit itself is 1.25" od and there is just no room to make it any smaller. This is due to the footprint the three optics needing to be 1.17 inches.

I don't know about all of the MHS stuff, but the two pieces I have will not accept the Tri-Lux unit. Perhaps down the road, there may be a section that can accomidate it, but you will have to discuss the matter with TCSS or Ultra.

For now, I will leave it at just discussing the unit. I have pics of the exploded unit but would rather nor post them at this time.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

(above as posted on theforce.net)

Now for questions here:

With three same color it gets very hot. Not so hot with the RGB since nott all three emitters are full blast all the time (unless you go white).

Heat sink is 1.25" od x 1" long, lense holder is 1.25" diameter by about .4" tall. Combined, the two have a surface area about 27 square inches.

RGB needs only about 7 volts.

No price yet, but I will have one soon.

Don't know about sound boards, I guess it would be the same if you can control the amount of power reaching the board from the battery pack.

You could use the Buck pucks if you want. But they don't make a 1400 ma unit for the red,red-orange, and amber LEDs yet. Three buck pucks with wiring and pot would still be in the range of 75 dollars though.

Penny pinchers definitely will be disappointed on this one.

Oh, and here is a link to a video showing the color changing capability: http://www.orbitalmachining.com/asse...dia/cblade.mpg

**Dregan** · 12-11-2006, 01:56 PM

Now the real question - Can ayou or Erv make it work with the Buttered Toast?

**JediMcD** · 12-11-2006, 02:06 PM

Ace and Corbin that looks great. Very nice design. You all keep coming up with more and more stuff for me to spend my money on. If you keep turning out products like this and I keep building sabers with them my wife is going to say the dreaded S word - - - sell. I am thinking 3 3watt greens. Forget the color change. I want the brightest saber on the block.

Keep up the great work. I think you have got a winner on your hands with this.