Buckpucks and batteries and wiring oh my!

[the_black_smudge]

Greetings all! Yet another noob with questions. I haven'the built a saber since the stone age of lux 3's and resistors so kinda starting from scratch.

I'm building a double bladed hilt with a tonfa handle. No sound, single switch in the tonfa. Ideally want to run without rechargeable batteries as access to power is an issue at times. But could if needed.
My questions are thus:
1. With two rebel stars, can I run them off a single buck puck or do I need two?
2. Batteries, do I need a separate pack for each Blade? I assume I would if I went with AAA vs li-ion's. If I went with a single rechargeable pack, what would I be sacrificing in terms of brightness and run time?
My biggest concern overall is having enough room in the hilt for all of this.

My apologies if this is addressed elsewhere or is in the wrong section.

[jbkuma]

I don't think room will be an issue, how long will this hilt be? I honestly can't say I recommend anything but the best lithium battery that fits. In the long run it will be cheaper and the cost difference is pretty insignificant. You can still put in a battery holder and use swappable batteries.

[Silver Serpent]

If you're using a Buckpuck, you'll need a minimum of 5v to run it properly. You're looking at a minimum of 4 alkaline cells, 5 NiMH, or 2 Li-ion.

You can run both LEDs off a single Buckpuck, but the LEDs will need to be wired in series.

If you must use alkaline batteries, please bump up to AA sized cells. Using AAA batteries will have you swapping them out every 15-30 minutes or so. A pack of 18650 sized li-ion cells will give you over an hour of runtime.

[the_black_smudge]

Thanks for the replies! So wiring both LED's in series with a single switch, single buck puck and a double AA battery holder with the 14500 li ions. Can this all be done with the MWS setup?

I can tailor hilt length a little as needed, to make everything fit, and just for the record, my reluctance to use rechargeable on this stems from the eventop I am more or less creating this for. It's a week long camping event, and access to power is difficult at best. Though most likely I will go with a pair of 14500's and bring plenty of spares.

[Silver Serpent]

That setup can be done with MWS. Be sure you select a latching switch.

[the_black_smudge]

Ok, back again with more dumb questions. And finally have items in hand so I can actually tinker/stare incoherently at them. I've got it where I can run one blade LED no problem. Still trying to figure out the second. (quick refresh: double blade saber, 1000ma buckpuck, double 14500 Li ions. single latching switch, all MWS) I am not clear on what is meant by wiring the LED's in series. Any help would be appreciated. I have a friend who can solder if necessary, just need to be halfway coherent on what I need done.
Thanks!
EDIT: would the 2X JST female connectors with shared ground work for this? If so, where on the buckpuck do I connect the ground?

[Jay-gon Jinn]

In a series connection for your led's, you would wire the positive lead from the buckpuck's output to the first led's positive pad. The negative from the first led goes to the positive pad on the second led, then the second led's negative goes back to the negative output of your buckpuck, essentially turning two led's into one. The advantage to this is that you will draw the same current as one led by itself, but you need double the forward voltage, which you'll have with the 7.4 li-ion battery and the buckpuck.

The shared grounds on that mws harness will not work for a series connection, that would be a parallel set up, where both led's share the positive and negative source, in this case the buckpuck.

[the_black_smudge]

So that MWS double harness would not work at all? or do I just run it without the ground?
In either case, thank you for the info!

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I wouldn't use that 2x connector, all you need is a single connector wired to both leds and a wire soldered between the two leds. You can't run it without the ground, that's necessary for the led to light up.