Newbie paging for a sanity check. Wall of questions!

[TheLardmonkey]

Is this the place for this kind of question? The hilt building forum had a sticky saying that it wasn't the kind of place for wiring questions, so I don't know where else. I've got a bunch of scattershot questions.

I think I went a little ambitious for my first saber design, but if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it right! I put this together in the saber builder...

First Try.jpg

It's shaped a bit odd, which had me worried about internals. So, I whipped up a rough little diagram.

First Try Insides.jpg

The blue gunk represents about where I want the speaker and its assembly to go. The black tube is where I plan to jam the battery, and the soundboard is where I plan to put the soundboard, mounted with some chassis parts. Those are all rough ideas. The switch and port are hovering, because I have no idea where to put them. I've never done this, so I need a sanity check from someone who knows what's up, someone who has had hands on. Is this possible?

I know the battery won't sit neatly inside the choke, so I've been thinking about rigging something up with the S9 chassis disks and some tape for padding. Is that crazy?

I'm probably going to end up using the Nano Biscotte instead of the Petit Crouton that you can see inside the Saber Builder, but I'm still worried about clearance between it and the LED. Come to think, are the sizes in the saber builder even accurate?

And the switch and recharge port...? I have no idea. Any advice on placement?

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

I think you need to rethink the design and make it a bit longer, so you can fit everything you want into it.

[PhoenixHawk]

Agreed with JFK....and having your sound board that close to the heat sink is not a good idea. Cool design tho....but its not long enough to install the switch an recharge port.

[TheCheeker]

Using the V4 Flat heatsink (http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/MH...tyle-P841.aspx) instead of the V3 will give you a little more space but I agree with everyone else. You'll need to either make the overall design longer or get rid of your choke. Possibly both.

My quick head math (which may be unreliable) says your overall length will be a little under 11" which isn't awful. I did a saber a handful of years ago under 11" and was fine but I didn't have that inconvenient choke to work around. I used the 4xAAA battery holder (I'm not even sure it's offered anymore) which is short and stubby and it saved me some space. I also didn't have a recharge port. There's probably not enough room to stack your board and battery end-to-end and still have room for the switch and recharge port.

It might be possible to get lucky and squeeze everything in without changing the design but I'd make these changes:

- Install the switch in the pommel and use the shortest switch you can find.
- Move the speaker back a bit and build a smaller speaker assembly or just leave the speaker loose. The sound quality won't be as good but should still be okay.
- Run the battery through the choke (same as in your design).
- Install the board as close to the choke side of the body as you can. If you can overlap it over the end of the battery, great.
- Use the V4 Flat Heatsink
- Pray there's enough room near the emitter for the recharge port.

Good luck!