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Thread: RR's Sith Splicer- 'other guys' overhaul (usb recharge, stunt saber) pic heavy

  1. #1

    Default RR's Sith Splicer- 'other guys' overhaul (usb recharge, stunt saber) pic heavy

    Hi everyone .

    Been lurking here for a year or so lol, so figure it's time to start posting some build logs.

    Umm, let me just say up front, yeah I'm well aware of everyone's opinions of they who shall remain nameless lol, so no need to remind me . I've got many other builds ATM that I'll be logging here, but I decided to include this one too only because I know there are others out there who'd like to improve/ mod their other guys sabers with TCSS stuff and I think there'll be some useful info here should they need it.

    Concept:
    For most mod's/ builds, I map it all out design wise- but for this one I just wanted to shoot from the hip and let things come to me as I go so to speak- suits the nature of the project that way. Rebuilds are always kind of like that, you're better off checkig to see and then working with what you got so to speak- plus this project lends itself well to the erratic, wild, and random lol.

    The basic design asthetic is a sort of sith alchemy, mad science, splicer saber. Started with a mostly non mhs body from a manufacturer that's particularly unpopular around here- gutted it, started salvaging and scrounging up old parts and materials from just about everywhere lol, and OF COURSE put in a few TCSS orders .

    Some things I knew I'd be doing tho:
    - engraving the entire sith code on the hilt body somwehre
    - swapping the aaa battery pack for a usb portable power bank and either creating a usb recharge port in-hilt, or possibly opting for some type of quick disconnect set up for swapping precharged banks
    - fabricating a few add on's like an activation box etc., with wire running between them and then down into the hilt again a la kylo's crossguard
    - relocating the guarded latching switch out from where it was in the absolute most inconvenient spot it could have been, grip wise, to somewhere more sensible, and leaving an accent led and body detail in its place

    I've got some of this well under way, so ill catch you up:
    Started by sanding the black anadized body to achieve a more complex background/ slate to engrave over top of. Wanted to keep it nice and dark but get a nice grain, or ribboned type look:






    Next came planning out the aurebesh engraving (it's since been proofread lol- had spelling mistake)





    While I had the engraving going I decided to start on the activation box, using this hunk of stainless I found at work, about the size of a finger, as a base:




    Now right around this time I was walking home from work one day and got caught in a freakish downpour that caused my phone to explode in my pocket lol! (Lithium polymer musta been nicked/ torn a bit) I realized it was the force working its mysterious ways, so I made like Rey and started salvaging lol:



    Was originally gonna use pan machine screws to secure the box, but got a cool idea for some circuit card and decided it'd look best if I recessed some socketed screws:



    I ordered both style pins (which I love), but in the end decided to save those for other projects and go with some genuinely grimey/ worn ones- yanked some from old burnt out fluorescent tubes:


    Cut, sanded the edge connecter to shape, test fit all the pieces before securing everything permanently:





    Now, for mounting... What I DIDN'T want was this:

    Needed a nice tight fit, so... Dremel foo!



    That was terrifying lol. I needed to take the raised ridges of the grip section down without going any lower than the depth of the bottom of the grooves to preserve enough of the metal wall of the hilt body for good threads when I tapped. This is the only section of the body where the aluminum is actually pretty thin, so I don't think I took one breath the whole time lol.
    Very happy with the fit though .




    Marked and trimmed the screws to save space and avoid shorts- threaded a couple nuts on before trimming them, so after, when backed the nuts off they cleaned any damage on the threads. Great trick for trimming threads, works every time. Another trick, some call it cheating lol, I actually used the pieces for alignment when drilling:

    Did same thing for tapping- like I actually held the tap wrench right in the recessed holes and tapped down through them so was easy to see if was perfectly straight. Sounds stupid, but even the slightest angle to that tap and my screw heads wouldn't have seated properly, or maybe even fit at all, in the recesses.

    Permanently assembled/ secured the box:


    Not done with the port where the wire comes out (headphone jack from old phone)- need to make that match the look of the box more- also this isn't where the wire will actually run, but so you can get idea of the general look.



    Also, any engraving you see has only been roughed in with an electric engraver- I'm going over everything with a hand scribe to really style and clean it up.

    Creating a sort of bezel from a brass finishing washer, some pcb, and other things to mount one of the red accents in place of the old switch- trying to decide which to go with ATM:



    Obviously those will look better when they're actually mounted, I just dropped them on top to get sense of look.

    From this point on, things are kind of up in the air.

    Ideally, I'll move the switch to the pommel, and run a usb recharge port to eliminate the need to ever remove the power bank. I'm curious to see how this plays out. It'll be tight- if I had to I could bore out the inside of the choke section to allow the bank to slide up in further, but no matter what I'd be stuck trying to fit it between the connections of the switch sticking up from the pommel, and the connections of the accent sticking down from the old switch location.

    If it can't be made to fit I'll just pick a diff location for the switch, and in that case the recharge port wouldn't be such a big deal since the bank would be easily removable/ accessed with a set up like that- tho id probably still put one in:

    Sorry for the 2-second diagrams lol.

    The saber was running on a aaa 4pack, about 6V- so I scooped a power bank with specs and dimensions that made sense. This one outputs about 0.8A (800mA) at 5V.



    It just came in the other day. I wasn't paying attention to the pics much when I ordered, was more worried about specs and size, was surprised to see it has these status led's- sky blue when discharging power to device (saber) and deep red when charging. Impressively bright for accents. Originally the bank was just gonna be burried in the hilt. But now the plan is to cut a small window into the hilt where that light is, to gain a freebie accent led of sorts (a two die accent at that!!). The mini cut away/ cross section view to the real working power source fits the whole alchemy, splicer asthetic too, it's gonna look sweet! I've gently sanded the corners of the bank to get a perfect fit. So now I'm working on tapping some black set screws to hold the bank exactly, permanently in that place, as well as creating some spacers/ mini chassis segments.

    Testing some of the wiring and the bank itself- trying to get a better idea of the type of protection it has so I know what my options are. This will be important, because will determine how I can design the internals. For ex. It has basic protection the same as say a lithium ion cell (which it could very well be, either that or polymer) where it will shut off at full charge etc. or from current thresh holds etc.- I had to figure that out to know if was even viable power solution first. But I'd like to determine specifically how it's protected to know about things like if it can charge while current being drawn, or does it cut off output while there's input, etc? Why? Let's say I wanted to wire the red accent like a true stand by light, always on when power source with charge present, and connect it straight to power source. Easy enough to do, and the DynaOhm's I've got laugh at the 5V output from the bank, but that would mean that when I went to charge the bank, that accent would still be drawing... I need to know how this plays out etc. Worst comes to worst I'll just insert a recharge port into that accent's wiring, not to charge, but so I can insert a kill key and block that draw when I want to charge the bank. But that might not even be necessary, the accents only drawing 20mA from the 5000mA bank, and the charging input is around 800mA so as long as capabilities check out, this is gonna work out sweet.



    Initial testing of bank itself and resistor, and also playing with wiring options for accent.

    Still to do:
    - finish engraving and go back over it with scribe
    - mount the accent led and bezel
    - install switch (probably get new one, all I've got are momentary ATM)
    - run the faux wire on outside of hilt
    - cut the window for power bank
    - ETC. Lol actually I see there's still a ton left to do now that I lay it all out like this

    Keep you posted

  2. #2

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    Epic job! And that switch looks real cool. I love to see new/different ideas and this is a great build log

  3. #3

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    Thanks so much, Greenie! Appreciate .

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    Got a start on the power bank install. Best way to make nicely shaped elongated windows or grooves I know of without milling station- drill holes for your ends, cut out the area between with dremel n cutting disk, touch up with grinding stones etc. I lost concentration n made two little scratches but thankfully they're really shallow, so will be able to hide with aluminum blackener .




    I meant to take a pic of the dressed up bank outside of the hilt so you could see, I'll put one up soon, still have a ton to do for this part I just stuffed it in quick for photos. It's pretty cool- won't translate in pics but I put a bunch of copper wire and details around the edges of the bank so in person when you look down into window at odd angles there's realistic depth to look/ details etc if know what I mean.
    I just epoxied the circuit card in place on the front face of the plastic casing of bank, which gave me the perfect base to solder the rest of the components onto the card/ plating.







    Still a lot of messing with this planned- gonna solder a couple more greeblies to the edge connecter n whatnot. Keep you posted.

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    Thanks CET . I'm sure there'll be a few more twists and turns before its wrapped up lol!

    I should take opportunity to mention, as some people were wondering, this is just on the opposite side of the grip section as the act box- I didn't get rid of that or anything. I really like how it's completing the look of the grip area- the window is about the same size and shape of the act box on the other side, located roughly in same area of grip, and they both share a similar circuit pattern, so it gives the area a nice balanced look.

    Keep you posted.

  7. #7

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    I like the work. Nice use of parts, found parts at that. I like the use of the circuit card and wiring that gives that fringe look. Very cool build/rebuild. Definitely an improvement from the original look

  8. #8

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    love your activation box! very inspiring!

  9. #9

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    Thanks a million guys! Excluding all my lurking lol, I'm brand new here- was excited, and to be honest a bit nervous, to finally post. So I really appreciate the warm welcome . The kind words and encouragement mean a lot to me coming from such a talented community!

    Look forward to getting some other logs up soon- just waiting till I've got a bit more accomplished on those first so not too long/ drawn out before the finish. Also I'll have some more significant progress on this one very soon- all I had time for yesterday was to pick away a bit at the engraving with the scribe and add another little solder pad and wire on the bank's card:

    Keep you posted- MTFBWY.

  10. #10

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    Hey everyone .

    I had to make a couple decisions about the switch location, and in the proceeds I kinda figured out the internal design of the stunt. Going with an illuminated latching AV mounted in the pommel- putting the switch accent and stand alone accent in parallel with the main led in typical fashion- but wiring the red accent led direct to power source that it's always on. This way the freebie blue accent will always be on as well, activated by the draw. It's a 5000mA bank and the accents are 20mA, 20mA, and I bet about 10mA for the blue one in bank, so it's not like I'd have to sweat it too much . But I figured it would at lesst be cool to have the option shut them off at times, like charging, or say on the way to a con etc. So i had the idea to use a recharge port as a switch of sorts- I'll be able to pick up a knurled kill key, and then I'll have his cool greebly I can stick wherever; within reason, and will be functioning switch for direct wired accents.

    Apologies, I don't actually know how to do proper diagrams lol- the squiggly's with R are apropriate resistors, the big thing is my attempt at illustrating the latching switch and its posts.




    YIKES! For some reason, when I originally cooked this up, I had the negative from the accent led going to the positive switch post, but that was going nowhere fast lol! It was pretty hilarious- I checked everything so many times, and always looked past that obvious mistake- I even re did all the joints and everything before I saw what had happened lol. I just ran that negative back to the neg on recharge port, then out the spring loaded post that disconnects when kill key in.

    Didn't think it'll translate in pics, so here's just a quick and dirty vid of that bit of wiring strewn out on the table so you can see. I'll have some more proper progress soon- keep you posted.

    O, really sorry guys, I had to use the same you tube vid to show you this as I used on another forum, I did a separate one for this forum specifically but I seem to have accidentally replaced that vid when I made this one . No worries, I'll be doing an actual decent vid soon to give you guys a better look at how it's coming together- this was just cause pics wouldn't have worked all that well anyway:

    https://youtu.be/qFNi_TbSrB8

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