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Thread: First Saber Build - Or the continuous do-over

  1. #31

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    Small update.

    I finally got the crystal window installed. After fully curing the screened window covered in epoxy I super glued it in place. Then dripped some epoxy on top of the window and used a heat gun to lower viscosity and clear up bubbles. It was somewhat messy but I managed a decent pour this time and this is the result with my chassis just hanging out there with my crystal lit by some floral lights:

    Z8isaWN.jpg

    vCX0Iks.jpg

    Gn4BqMz.jpg

  2. #32

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    Quote Originally Posted by minorhero View Post
    Love the layered look. Nice work!

  3. #33

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    Some more progress! But all things considered, very little of it.

    I have officially completed the outside of the saber (and there was much rejoicing).

    There wasn't much left after my last post. I just used epoxy to attach the wood/metal items and JB Weld to attach the metal/metal items. I also bought an M5x.05 tap so I could screw in the button 21 from the store to use as an auxiliary button. And finally I drilled and tapped the hole for the covertec button. Here is what things looked like as of today:

    X5FoeNJ.jpg

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    When I first envisioned the saber I knew I would be using a covertec button from the store. I also knew after looking at the covertec clip that I was not going to be happy with it. I have never seen in person the covertec clip but it looks pretty plasticky and even though I really don't intend to wear my saber very often (or possibly at all) I knew I wanted a more substantial clip in case I do decide to wear the saber. At the time I first bought parts I figured that I can't be the only one that feels this way and just assumed someone would have solved this problem already. Once I got to the point of actually being in a place to install the covertec button I started looking around for alternative clips and found several. Unfortunately I was not really happy with any of them. They frankly all looked pretty bulky.

    While doing this research I ran across other types of belt clips. They tend to come in two varieties, plastic holster versions for personal cell phones, and steel models for use with police radio equipment or similar. I quickly decided the police style models were superior. Enter the Motorola D belt clip. Its specifically designed to allow equipment to spin and move freely on a belt, but it locks the attached equipment into the clip unless it is swiveled in the correct orientation, then it can be easily slid up and out of the clip one handed. Various models (and yes there are quite a few) are also pretty minimal and designed to be comfortable when worn (professionals use it all day long). So pretty much the perfect option as far as I am concerned so I went ahead and ordered it. I had hoped it would be a perfect fit right out of the box but unsurprisingly it required some modification to make work.

    For one thing the covertec button itself needed to be filed down along one edge. Orientation here was important so I chose a side to file down so that the saber would be removed from the clip when the tip of the saber is pointing up.

    The stem of the covertec button is also wider then the stem of the original D clip so that meant widening the belt clip a bit to accomidate the difference. I used my dremel and made quite a mess but I decided to consider it more weathering.... yea totally on purpose.

    Anyway the result works really well and I decided that I will post in the store wishlist about this. I really feel the D clip is so far superior to the covertec that it probably should be carried on a regular basis. It should be fairly easy to make as well since all that is needed is to shave down one side and make the stem a little skinnier and the top a little thicker. At that point it would directly match the d clip and it could be used with any d clip anywhere.

    Here is a picture of the modified covertec button and modified d clip:

    Eje3PJA.jpg

    Here is a picture that shows the underside the saber as well:

    RSxSD7o.jpg

    Here are pictures showing the modified covertec button next to the original d clip attachment which obviously I never used:

    NHhmZiC.jpg

    giAMCEv.jpg

    I have a big order coming in next week from the store with all the parts necessary to finish the internals of this saber plus all the parts needed to do the next saber. So next up will be soldering up electronics. I have never done this before and am really looking forward to it.
    Last edited by minorhero; 01-27-2017 at 12:18 PM.

  4. #34

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    Progress has occurred!!!

    Since I last updated this thread I created a wiring diagram found here:



    Unfortunately no one responded to my post about it. Fortunately it ended up working when I tried it. So folks if you have a crystal focus know that the wiring diagram above will work for a b/b/w tri rebel.

    At this point I thought I was done with my do-overs. But alas it was not to be. I wired everything up and stuck my CF to my "chassis" and then went to physically install it. Here is what that looked like before I attached the battery:





    Unfortunately when it came time to stick it into the saber body my cramfu was weak. Actually I think it might have just been a straight up physical impossibility.

    Long story short, I eventually gave up on the whole chassis thing and even the whole crystal thing AND even the whole speaker holder thing and just crammed everything into the saber as is including the 5mm led.

    The result was that everything fit, the downside is that the crystal window is now more of a internal wiring window lit by a 5mm light. There is likely no way around this without substantially re-doing the entire wiring of the saber which I just don't think I will do. The problem is that I have wires that run the entire length of the saber. Specifically 10 different wires. This is just too much stuff inside the body when the internals are crammed in as well. It probably would have worked if I was using MHS standard but with the reduced main body it just was not happening.

    My next saber will use a 3d printed chassis and have jst connectors that will load in from the emitter end. This will resolve the long wire problem.

    I still need to add gift wrap to the photon blade and adjust everything in RICE to get it the way I want it. But here is the effectively the finished saber.




  5. #35

  6. #36

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    Hmmm cram-fu practice it takes young padawan. Also using that peice of panaling takes up space the wires could go. All in all it looks real cool bro. /thumbs up

  7. #37

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    Thanks folks, it was a bit of a journey following my "vision" as it were. I learned an awful lot having never done any electronics work before or anything even remotely similar to this. I will be going into build number 2 with eyes wide open (I think).

    This saber while lacking a crystal chamber (can't call it that when its just a window that lights up with wires), is still pretty spiffy I am overall reasonably happy with the results. The photon blade with the gift wrap in looks pretty spiffy. Also the whole thing has a sturdiness to it which is quite satisfying to handle.

    The issue I am having right now is getting the sound card properly configured. I thought I would have complete access to the saber through RICE but it doesn't appear to be the case. I am not sure what I am doing wrong but everytime I make a change the and save it the saber turns off and when it turns back on everything is back to where it was before I changed anything.

  8. #38

  9. #39

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    I have not yet tackled a CF board. I guess I need to eventually do that. Saber looks great.

    Tom

    "Mistakes are our greatest teacher."

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