LED blade tips

[xwingband]

Why not get hollow tips and form the top with a clear substance (glue, resin, etc...)? I imagine that would diffuse the light if you made a hole in the top too.

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[GeluKhanGharr]

Tetmatec, if you glue a hemisphere on the bottom of the tip it will scather the light, not reflect it back as it is a convex surface. The concavity idea is the way to go, and I believe only a very small one too as the surface that captures the light is small. You need to calculate the focus point at the place where otherwise you'd have the dimmest spot when using a flat reflective surface.
I use a chromy looking, adhesive backed, aluminium tape I bought at the local ABC Plumbing. I mostly cut it around a dime and poke a 1/64 diameter hole in the center of it. Some light escapes around it, some through the hole and it lights up the tip nicely. However, the more light you let escape to the tip, the less is reflected back into the blade. Hmmm, I think I'll cut my next reflective disk around a nickel and poke the hole. The last blade I made was nikel size and without the hole and you are right, it didn't look good. In the dark it ended abruptly and squarish looking.

Born of Sith, seduced by the light.

[scaarmor]

I just placed my new blade and diffuser order with Tim. I also ordered an extra tip to do some experiments with, and if I need more I can take them off my other blades. I "think" the best thing to try will be dishing the tip slightly just above the diffuser tube so that it better focuses the light back down instead of outward and only inside the diffuser so that it better evens the light distrobution. I dont poke holes in my foil tape, as in the movies the light abruptly stopped at an almost flat tip-if I remember correctly. However, if this experiment goes the way I think it will, I will have them with and without holes,etc. and take pics to post so everyone can see the benefits and downfalls of my trials.

Cain

***It is now that we battle.When you die, await my arrival in the afterlife where we will battle again.Perhaps there you may have the ability to defeat me,but not here,not now,not this day.So let us part with words and embrace the blade.***

[Usernames suck]

I am currently worling on an Anakin fx conversion and I was about to go and buy some 3/4" mirrors and I was wondering if poking a hole in the center was the way to go or is there another way to reflect the light back down the tube but still have the tip lit?


The opression of the Sith will never return, you have lost - mace windu

[scaarmor]

I would assume if you put a semi-reflective/ semi-traslucent material at the tip you would get both backlighting and light out the tip. However, I could be wrong as I havent tried it myself and others may have. Also if you did it that way it wouldnt reflect as much light back, it may not be enough light to make a difference.

Cain

***It is now that we battle.When you die, await my arrival in the afterlife where we will battle again.Perhaps there you may have the ability to defeat me,but not here,not now,not this day.So let us part with words and embrace the blade.***

[xwingband]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> You get tip bloom when you use a semi-tranparant reflective surface on the tip.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

A few posts up from Ultra.

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[scaarmor]

Xwing,
I know it would still bloom, but the question was "anything besides mirrors with a hole to let light out but still reflect back". I dont know if he cares about blooming or not (wasnt in the question), but if he does your absolutely right. So far, if I recall correctly, everything blooms at the tip when using reflection to send light back down the tube. Hopefully we will have a solution to that soon. I will be working on it and I know lots of others are already. An LED blade that reflects light back down the tube and evens the light throughout the entire blade would be undescribibly cool!!!

Cain

***It is now that we battle.When you die, await my arrival in the afterlife where we will battle again.Perhaps there you may have the ability to defeat me,but not here,not now,not this day.So let us part with words and embrace the blade.***

[xwingband]

True, I think the tip bloom is horrible. I don't see it as being a desirable outcome even if it lights up the tip. Do you mean an even blade like EL?

I also believe by tip bloom they mean when the tip looks like a sudden ball of light not when the reflection doesn't meet the taper from the LED. Gelu showed his blades with a flat refelctive tip not meeting. To get that reflected focus point farther down the blade I believe a slight outward curve is needed. I bet the exact curve needed is the opposite of the LEDs lens.

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[xwingband]

I CADed up the curve needed to get the focal points of a 5 degree optics to meet. I believe that picture is right on the money because it resembles so closely what I've seen on other blades and the new one Strydur put up for his assembled blade especially.

The curve needed is only around a 1/16 of an inch at it's peak![:0] Very small! It hardly even shows on the image.

I can try to explain how I arrived at that picture but I might get myself confused just trying.[]

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[Usernames suck]

I just finished my anakin fx conversion earlier tpday and i took the tip off and put a 3/4" mirror in the tip and put it back together and it took care of the dim spot in the blade.

The opression of the Sith will never return, you have lost - mace windu