MR Darth Vader 2003 board advice

[rrvancelette]

Hello All, I have a Mr Vader 2003 board i want to put in a custom saber. I want to use rechargeable Li-ion batteries with a recharge port. I will use 2 red 5w leds. One for the blade and one for a crystal chamber. And an AV switch. Can I use 7.4 Li-ion setup? I'm pretty good at building, wiring, soldering, I'm just not sure about the resister. The board runs at 6w, I use a buckpuck for the leds which requires a min of 5v. Can I do this this way with a resistor before the board? Thanks for any help..

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I have used several MR Force FX sound boards in saber builds over the last 10 years, and I can tell you that the 7.4v Li-Ion pack will fry that soundboard in a heartbeat. If you really need to use one, you will need to get a 5volt regulator, not a resistor which reduces current, but be warned that people have used those in the past and they get hot trying to dissipate the extra volts. You'd be better off using either a 4.8v NiMH or a single Li-Ion at 3.7v for this board.

A 5watt led is also going to be overkill for lighting up a crystal in a chamber, most people use 3 or 5mm high-brightness or ultrabright leds for that and they work just fine. As for a resistor with the blade led, you shouldn't need one, depending on it's specs. These boards usually have a maximum current output between 1A and 1.5A.

[rrvancelette]

Thanks for the info. I'm going to take your advice with the crystal chamber. I have also decided to skip the rechargeable batteries on this build. I got two MR boards to get my feet wet for wiring my new Nano Biscotte Sound Module V3. How about an AV switch. This board has four wires to the switch. I haven't found much info on this? Thanks again..