Phoenix Props Imperial Knight Neopixel TeensySaber

[Tom Tilmon]

This will be a placeholder for my eventual WIP thread for this one. These Imperial Knights are very plain hilts, but the Star Wars fanatics love them, especially the 501st folks. I think I may be the first person in the world to install one with neopixel and TeensySaber V3! That's exciting. Because of the excitement, this chassis also sports: OLED Display, Blue Tooth Control, and accent strips currently in the reveal on the Padawan Chassis by Darth Ryô. I may have to re-think that, because my solution is creating issues with the micro-switches and plugers on the chassis.

Build: Phoenix Props Imperial Knight custom lightsaber
TCSS 18650 10A high drain Li-Ion battery
TCSS JST connectors for replaceable battery
TCSS 1" Hilt Adapter for TCSS Pixel Adapters
TCSS neopixel adapters
TCSS 1" thin-walled blade w/strip diffuser tube and round tip (hollowed)
TCSS Foam for 1" blades
TCSS Saber Essentials Bass Speaker 24mm by Adrian Tan
TCSS 1" Thin walled blade
TCSS 1" round blade tip (hollowed out)
TCSS JST connectors for battery....I would have preferred to hard wire it in...but this is what was requested.
micro tactile switches w/ 1.5mm rise. Switches are 4.5mm by 4.5 mm. (they've been killing me) good thing I got 30 of them!
ws2813 (dual data line) strips w/ 5050 neopixels
TeensySaberV3 Teensy 3.2
1.3 mm RC Port (high amp)
high amp switch
Goth3d Padawan Chassis (included the button plungers)
SkyWampa 18650 sticker to dress up the battery a bit, I like them.
Various wire/connectors.
OLED Display
Red Bear BLE Blue tooth unit
Copper mesh

On this build I used Goth3D Padawan Chassis for Imperial Knight by PP, TCSS 1" Delrin Hilt Adapter w/ TCSS Plecter Pixel adapters. I attached the Delrin module to the chassis, and then had to mill out switch slots so I could sneak it by the switch plungers in the hilt. That has been the tough part of this build: adjusting the switches and plungers. I'll get it, I'm getting closer with each mod. There is a lot more under the hood than this video reveals! More to come! I need to finish this, so I can get back to work on Nihilus II!

I'll try and get some build pics up tomorrow night or later this week. Had to break the silence around here!



Tom

[Seth Skywalker]

Thanks Tom, I needed a break of this silence. And that thing is a beaut! Wow, Bluetooth, eh? Fancy!

[Tom Tilmon]

I want to make this hilt out of MHS stuff. I need to get a hilt piece machined to see if I can get it to work. If so, I think I could do more with the space in the hilt. that hilt piece really needs to be powder coated too, before I cut the shroud. The shroud on the IK is very similar to the saber you just made! So, I took a keen interest watching your build because of its vague resemblance.

Tom

[Seth Skywalker]

MHS system is just awesome. Do you know who made it? I am a big fan of that shroud design, no matter how nice and fancy of a saber I'll ever make, my first one will always be my favorite hilt, I just love it so much!

Edit: by the way, if there is any similarities between my saber and one of yours, that means that my saber must look good.

[Tom Tilmon]

MHS system is just awesome. Do you know who made it? I am a big fan of that shroud design, no matter how nice and fancy of a saber I'll ever make, my first one will always be my favorite hilt, I just love it so much!

Edit: by the way, if there is any similarities between my saber and one of yours, that means that my saber must look good.

Phoenix Props made this hilt. I think you could definitely do it in MHS V1 or V2. The ID of the entire hilt is 1", so its a very slim saber. I appreciate the compliments, but the big guns are the guys that have a machine shop and make their own hilts. We can all only aspire to their skill and artistry. Someone buy me at lathe, mill, and 3D Printer

Building the blade, this particular saber guy wanted WS2813 strips with redundant data lines, you can't trim them because the positive and negative leads are outboard to make room for the dual data lines in the middle. The design of the WS2813s are such that if a pixel fails, the redundant data line will continue the signal to the rest of the string. Great in theory, but if you have a bad pixel, you'll see it in your blade anyway, so, I'm not so sure this solution is the best. I'm still partial to the WS2812 5050 strips. But, here you go:





Goth3D Padawan Chassis in this one, so here is the initial build:







There are tiny holes in the inner hilt, and switch plungers that fit into the hilt and depress micro switches installed in the switch slots. The switches are 4.5 mm x 4.5 mm and have a actuator height of 1.5mm. So, they weren't much fun to solder, worse than SMD LEDs or SMD Resistors, very tiny. But, to even push this one piece chassis into the saber and past the switch hats in the hilt, you had to also mill out the slots for the switches in the attached LED adapter from TCSS. I was worried about pushing too deep, and then into the neopixel adapter PCB, but fortunately, the slots weren't as deep as the pcb in the 1" TCSS adapter. Flying by the seat of my pants there. Again, I wish I had a machine shop, it was nothing but dremel butchery to cut the slots. That is inaccurate, and messy, but I made it work! More to come.

Tom

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

MHS system is just awesome. Do you know who made it? I am a big fan of that shroud design, no matter how nice and fancy of a saber I'll ever make, my first one will always be my favorite hilt, I just love it so much!

Edit: by the way, if there is any similarities between my saber and one of yours, that means that my saber must look good.

Who made what, the MHS system? I’ll take a wild guess (not really) and say that Tim was very, VERY heavily involved.

[Seth Skywalker]

Ok thanks, was just wondering.