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Thread: 03 MR Vader - Total conversion Done (Pic Heavy)

  1. #1

    Default 03 MR Vader - Total conversion Done (Pic Heavy)

    Ok guys first off I want to thank everyone who contributes to this forum. I learned so much from everyone here and without all of you this would not be possible. I wont go into detail on how to solder anything or wire anything because there are already a ton of tut's on that, ill put some links below to get you started though. What this will detail is all the things you must do to convert this saber which is rather difficult because TCSS does not make any parts that just fit without some modification. I want to thank JediRich for his post detailing his conversion of this saber, I tackled some of the problems that he ran into . Please feel free to message me if you have any questions on my build.

    Basics of thread tapping
    Alot of helpful videos from The custom saber shop

    Parts Used

    Nano Biscotte Sound Module V3
    3.7V Li-ion smart charger with 2.1mm plug
    MHS speaker mount V5 - For 28mm Speakers
    Momentary tactile switch - Bought from local Bulk Electronics parts shop
    Cree/Rebel Lens Holder
    Deep Red Cree XP-E CopperNova
    2W 28mm Bass Speaker
    Collimator Lens 8.7 deg viewing angle
    Switchcraft 2.1mm Power Jack
    Li-Ion 18650 3.7V 3400mAh PCB Protected Rechargeable Battery Module
    Electronics shield for 1.25" ID tubes
    MR or Hasbro FX Vader conversion kit
    2 8-32 x 1/8" Set screw
    2 8-32 x 1/4" Set screw
    1 4-40 Socket Head


    So first thing you need to do is unscrew the bottom of your saber and take out the battery pack then carefully remove these 2 flat head screws, they are in there pretty tight so be careful not to strip them. this is the only thing holding your blade inside.

    Once you have the screws out lift up the top black switch piece, you should be left with this

    After you remove the switch piece you should see this coming up through the long cutout of the saber hilt, just push it through the cutout and into the blade holder so you can pull out the blade without it getting caught on anything.


    Once the blade is out this is what you will have

    Now the 2 holes in the top of the saber are tapped for a version of a 4-40 screw that I could not find anywhere so I had to retap the bottom hole for 4-40 and the top hole I had to drill and tap for a 8-32 because the top hole in conversion kit is a 8-32. You could just drill it but i wanted everything to be nice and tight so i tapped it. I did not have a drill press so i used a hand drill just to create the holes. Use a manual hand tap when tapping.

    Once you are done drilling and taping the top hole, put your blade holder into the saber and put in the 8-32 screw to hold it in place because your going to have to drill a 4-40 hole into the holder and we are going to use the bottom 4-40 hole of the saber as a template. dont worry to much about messing up the bottom 4-40 threads because we are going to retap it anyway. Just take care to line the holder straight before you drill your hole.

    After your holes are drilled and tapped its time to make your channels for the switch wires to slide into. I would use a very fine tip marker and a ruler. mark a line on each side of the bottom hole down to the bottom of the holder, get as close as you can but dont touch the hole with the marker. after you mark the lines I used a dremel with a thin disc for cutting metal to cut the channels on the outside of the lines, be careful that the channels dont protrude into the bottom hole. As you can see on the left side of the pic the one channel is not very clean because i tried to use a thicker disc to make the channel thick enough. Make sure the channels are free of burs and the wires slide easily into them.


    So I opted to not mod my original sliding switch but use a monetary switch that I moded to look almost like it. I found this switch at a electrical parts store call skycraft , I dont have a link for it but you might be able to find something similar online. It looks similar to this but alittle taller, i think the actual button itself was like 6-7mm and the base was even bigger. I had to sand down the edges to look like the bottom of the black switch cover from above to make it fit nice and neat up inside.

    The switch button was originally grey so i used a permanent black marker on the base of it then used a dab of black paint on the top, once the paint dried a bit I sanded it slightly with very fine sandpaper and then put a dab of clear gloss on it to give it that rounded shape and shine. When you have the switch wired up and hot glued into the switch cover piece this is what the switch will look like after its all set up and ready to be installed. Please excuse my crudeness , i forgot to take a photo before i put everything together.

    Now if you look down the shaft of your saber you will see that there is a little wedge that helped guide your battery pack in only one way. Well i didnt want to get rid of that so I made a chassis that incorporated that little wedge in it. The chassis is made from 1 inch thin walled pvc. I made cut outs for the recharge port, access to the NBV3 sd card and wedge .


    I used a ruler to mark the width of the wedge on the pvc then used a hacksaw to cut out the channel, i used a dremel to make the other cutouts.

    I then cut off a small piece of 3/4 pvc and then cut that in half, drilled a hole slightly smaller then the recharge port and screwed that into the pvc. It feels tight but I wanted to be sure so I rubber cemented it to the 1 inch pvc chassis cutout i made and then hot glued that after it was dry.


    This is what the chassis will look like when everything is installed in it. Everything fit in there pretty well after it was all said and done. I cut out a small strip of that clear plastic tube that was just alittle wider then the wedge shape so i could just tuck in into each side to cover all the wires and parts.

    Now i believe that this saber should have wires that come out of the cutouts on the outside but i dont care for how that looks and wanted to give it a much cleaner look. So what i did was i used black vinyl to mask off on the blade holder so all you see from the cutouts is a thin silver strip, you can make the strips as thick or as thin as you want it works really well. I tried using a black permanent marker and i tried black paint but it scratched off and it looked like crap, i wouldnt advise it. I also used paint for my letters, the red S came out great because it was etched pretty deep, all you do is cover it really well with a thin coat of paint, let it dry them gently wipe over the top with a q tip or paper towel that has a very small amount alcohol or paint thinner if that doesnt work. I had to use a black marker for the other letters because they were to shallow for paint to work. you can use the same process for the maker but be very gentle it wipes away easily. I scored the holder cutouts when i had it installed so i knew where i need to mask off. I used a thin strip of painters tape to mark where the silver strip was and then i cut out strips of the black vinyl and put those on each side of the blue tape then i pulled all the blue tape off when i was done. I also drilled and tapped 2 holes in one part to emulate the holes on the real hilt but i used to big of a drill bit as you can see.


    I found the best way to connect everything was to feed the wires down from the top and make my connections to the chassis down at the bottom so you need to make sure you make your wires are long enough and leave about 1 1/2 to 2 inches coming out of the bottom. I chose to use HXT 2mm Gold Connectors for all my connections just in case i needed to swap anything out. 1st feed your switch wires in then feed your blade holder wires down. When your sliding the holder down into place make sure the switch wires slide into each of the channels you made on the holder so nothing gets pinched.


    So now that you everything wired you need to connect the speaker, i dont have mine connected to the chassis and it is also connected with those 2mm gold connectors. The speaker holder is to small for the saber opening so it kind of just floats around. I found a perfect solution for that and it lines it up perfectly with the hole in the bottom of your saber pommel. Just use 3 pieces of sticky velcro, i used the fuzzy side. I call it the Mr T. I also used 2 screws to secure a piece of wire that comes out the side to give me something to pull on should i have to take the speaker out.


    So now everything is put together and looks great, but now you want a blade plug! The ones from the custom saber shop fit perfect, no modding required!
    I also received one from Darkside Engineering, if you get the 1 inch version it will fit great in the blade holder but you most do a tiny bit of modding to get it past the top of the saber. First you will have to unscrew the top thumb screw and pull out the fake spring. Then sand or dremel out the plastic hole to make it alittle wider then the blade holder hole. then place in the blade plug and then put the fake spring piece back into place over it. its the only way because the hole of the fake spring just isnt big enough to fit that blade plug and rather then ruin it by sanding it you will have to pull it out again to take out the blade plug.
    Custom saber shop plug

    Razor blade plug

    Video of them lit up

    So thats the completed saber guys. I hope it helps everyone and even gives you ideas to improve on your builds. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

  2. #2

  3. #3

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    Hello, thanks for posting this. I looking to convert my 2003 MR Vader as well. I am thinking of going with the NBv4 or Pico Dark with a single Trust Fire/Speaker combo. A couple of questions for you:

    Is the wedge inside removable? I know you kept it for securing your parts.
    How do you like the deep red Cree? Have you had a regular red Cree for comparison? I am also thinking of doing a Tri-Cree RRW or RdRW or dRdRW config so I can have FOC.

    Thanks,

    Ris Liam

  4. #4

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    Congrats on your conversion! Might get more volume if you can sink that speaker deeper into the hilt to make a good resonance chamber.
    Awesome job, including the home built chassis!


    Comparison video: Deep Red to Red Cree LED's While it looks pinkish/fuscia on video, in person, its a blood red, true red. I love it in person, but it doesn't photo or video well. It can look slightly better with enhanced red blades.




    Tom
    Last edited by Tom Tilmon; 06-12-2017 at 08:17 AM.

    "Mistakes are our greatest teacher."

  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ris Liam View Post
    Hello, thanks for posting this. I looking to convert my 2003 MR Vader as well. I am thinking of going with the NBv4 or Pico Dark with a single Trust Fire/Speaker combo. A couple of questions for you:

    Is the wedge inside removable? I know you kept it for securing your parts.
    How do you like the deep red Cree? Have you had a regular red Cree for comparison? I am also thinking of doing a Tri-Cree RRW or RdRW or dRdRW config so I can have FOC.

    Thanks,

    Ris Liam
    Enhanced Red Blades with more comparison between the Deep Red/ Red:


    "Mistakes are our greatest teacher."

  6. #6

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    Very nice!

    Where is that blade plug from? It looks amazing.

    You must have been very carefull with that hilt. It looks in perfect condition.

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Whosle View Post
    Very nice!

    Where is that blade plug from? It looks amazing.

    You must have been very carefull with that hilt. It looks in perfect condition.
    That looks like an ARKM or Darkside Engineering Blade Plug from TRA.

    Tom

    "Mistakes are our greatest teacher."

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    Thanks for the comparison video! Hard to tell without clapping my own eyes on them. Which is more movie accurate?

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    For the Vader conversion kit, is this threaded for the heat sink or does one need to buy a separate section to thread the heat sink?

  10. #10

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    I'm going to attempt this myself. I ordered most of the parts from your list except for the battery, sound, and switch. I'm going to attempt to do this with the original board/battery holder and the stock switch. I will post the results here, since this is a great thread for anyone who wants to try this on their 03' Vader. Had I known how easy it was to get the blade off, I would have just fixed the few broken LEDs years ago (I still might for fun). I'm glad I waited, and I'm thankful for what you have done, great work!

    EDIT: As far as I am in trying to do this conversion, it simply cannot be done using the stock battery pack/speaker. There isn't enough room. You either have to cut about 1/4" off of the blade holder at the top, or you would need a sound board that is about 1/4" smaller and even then you would need the new power setup. Also, having the stock switch in the stock location is basically impossible. I decided to try and route it inside the collar like the newer versions have done, fine and all, but you need to cut the switch wires to put the switchboard through and more modifications are needed. I should have known that the experts here probably did think of this, but decided it couldn't work.

    For anyone thinking of trying this, the only way to reliable do it is the way the OP laid out, otherwise you are looking at a lot of problems.
    Last edited by Pressed; 11-18-2017 at 04:52 PM.

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