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Saturday evening I wired everything outside the hilt and all good!
Sound, brightness (oh, my God! undifussed, out of the pc tube, even thise cheap chinese neopixel strips are incredible bright).
Then I start building the blade and the result was quite dissapointing.
First I follow the instructions posted by experienced sabersmiths.
So, 6 inches of packing foam, then 6 feet of cellophane.
It was not enough, not even close.
Then I used approx.15 inches of packing foam (0,019 inches thick), then a lot of cellophane, then a TCSS diffuser tube.
The blade tube is 1 inch, transparent.
I lost a lot of brightness.
If I use less foam or cellophane, the strips start rattling inside the tube.
I am missing something?
Of course, being my first blade construction, I did expect some troubles, but for my eyes is too much lost of brightness. You can stare at it with no eye strain...'cause it looks like and old, dusted neon tube.
And no, I dont want a sunbrightness blade.
I will rebuild the blade, forget about diffuser tube an add more cellophane.
Or less packing foam and even more cellophane.
After all information, tutorial and videos on the forums, I'm pretty sure this is not a case of unrealistic expectation.
Thank you.
L.E.:
I'm using a 8 pins GX-16 connectors.
I bridged pins 1, 2 and 3, then I soldered one 20 gauge wire for positive power.
I bridged pins 4, 5 and 6, then I soldered one 20 gauge wire for negative power.
I also bridged all three negative pads on the soundboard, accordingly to user manual.
Pin 7 is the data and has 24 or 26 gauge wire.
Because I was literally shocked by how bright were the strips before diffusion, I suppose the power wiring is ok.
L.L.E.
I pull out the plastic diffuser and the result was a lot of corncobbing.
So, the diffuser is doing a very good job.
Next days I'll pull outsome foam and I'll use a bit more cellophane.
Last edited by Doru; 04-03-2022 at 11:25 AM.
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Finally, it is done!
https://youtu.be/n7_VAWPmIj0
https://youtube.com/shorts/PLjLBnMSc04?feature=share
The purpose of the first video is to show the final product and how it works.
It's not about my poor, beginner skills of spining the saber (LOL!) .
Also please ignore the surroundings (the mess around in the room).
The bad: there are more shadows and blemishes than I expected
The good: the shadows are no near as disturbing as I was affraid.
In fact, cosplaying with saber, shadows and even the blemishes are barely visible.
Still, I would like to rebuild the blade or at least to clean out the policarbonate tube and the diffuser.
Things to improve:
As I said, some day I will try to rebuild the blade.
And try some white PCB neopixel LED strips.20220402_170311~3_copy_807x768.jpg20220402_174942_copy_1024x768.jpg20220402_190729_copy_768x1024.jpg20220402_195058_copy_768x1024.jpg20220402_195918_copy_768x1024.jpg20220402_200120_copy_1024x768.jpg20220402_212220_copy_768x1024.jpg20220402_213340_copy_768x1024.jpg20220402_214022_copy_768x1024.jpg20220402_230739_copy_768x1024.jpg
Also I should replace the blade holder, for two reasons: first, aesthetical reasons. Now the hilt is too simple looking. Of course, I could use paint, learn weathering techniques, leather, 2 or 3 rings of aluminum or plastic at the blade end of emitter, whatever it takes to personalize the hilt, but the second reason still remain: the outer diameter of the hilt.
Don't get me wrong, I like it very much, it feels perfect for my hands and it looks...I dont know, it looks authentic.
The only problem with the diameter of the hilt is spinning.
That's why I would try another blade holder, with different section diameters, something like a choke.
I learned to spin using a broom, weeks before building the saber.
Still, I dropped the saber one or two times.
I know, it's unavoidable and I'm sure it will happened again from time to time, still I want to do the best I can to avoid dropping the saber.
(one major problem is shipping costs: 27 uk pounds shipping only. So if I broke, lets say, the policarbonate tube, I have to pay 10 uk pounds for the tube and 27 pounds for shipping. Not good!
I dont want to build more sabers, so buing many items at once and pay the shipping once is not a solution.
The pc tube was just an example, I know, being practically indestructible this is the least problem. Excepting the scratches, of course...)
So, in the end, even I feel it's "just" an expensive toy, I feel so good fooling around, cosplaying.
Thanks again for your help!
Last edited by Doru; 05-08-2022 at 12:10 PM.
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Now the last pictures:
And I would add few things on to do list: to find a proper pc glue for the blade tip.
Now the blade tip stays in place by friction and it's ok even after spinning the saber, but I suppose I would have to glue it someday.
I enjoy building the internal chassic using old times methods and materials. But some day I will probably print (or buy a ready-made) 3D printed internal chassis.
Attachment 18069Attachment 18070Attachment 18071
And, last, some technical details:
Hilt parts: MHS
Sound: Golden Harvest and one KR 28 mm., 3w., 4 ohmms speaker.
Battery: Keeppower 18650, 3500 mAh, 10 A max.discharge rate. Unfortunatelly I didn't find a 15 A max.discharge rate battery.
I don't have installed (yet) a recharge port.
So, I unscrew the flutted part of the hilt, take out the battery, put it in the charger (Xtar X2, if it's ok to mention it here), then back in the saber.
The parts of the first internal chassis were glued together using some plastic glue (seen in the pictures attached. Then I rebuild it and I used only hot glue gun, but I forget to take pictures. Anyway, they are identical, the only difference being the glue used.
Also, the battery holder and all the wires are fixed on the chassis using dabs of hot glue gun.
I used a hand held drill and I dont have even a vice. Still I was lucky enough to drill surprinsingly good holes for buttons, still they are obviously far from perfect.
The sound is good enough even is less than 1 inch from the bottom of the hilt (if I remember correct, the speaker is at approx.0,7 inch from the end of the hilt). Surprisingly, it sounds low enough, but of course I will try to extend the distance, for testing purposes.
One of my favourite blade color is arctic blue.
First I set it to 0, 1023, 1023 (RGB, 1023 being the maximum value).
Very soon I found it too bright for my eyes, so I go down to 0, 700, 900.
I'm not so sure now if the green value is 700 or maybe 800, but for sure is a bit lower than blue and I like it more that way.
Another blade colors are green (0, 1023, 0), blue (0, 0, 1023), crimson red one (1023, 600, 0) and a much appealing crimson red, but again I dont remember the exact values (but it is for sure 1023 red and arround 60 green).
It's 10:58 P.M. here and I'm preparing to going to sleep, so it's a bit late to pull out the card from the saber now, put it in my computer and read the blade color values.
But if someone is interested in exactly RGB values I'm using, just let me know so I'll post it here tomorrow.
Once again, thank you for your help and patience.
Last edited by Doru; 05-08-2022 at 01:09 PM.
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Yesterday I installed a recharge socket.
Also I made an adapter from charger slot to hilt recharge socket.
Neither the inside of the hilt (internal chassis), nor the adapter for charging the saber are aesthetical looking good, I know.
But so far it works well.
Charging adapter:
A wooden broom handle, 2 coins, 20 awg gauge wires, hot glue, soldering iron.
I cut a piece of 6 cm.long (about 2.3 inches) from an wooden broom handle.
I soldered the wires to the coins then I glued the coins to the broom handle piece.
I wrapped everything with black electrical tape, to keep the wires together and for some aesthetical reason.
20220512_140026_copy_800x600.jpg20220512_140101_copy_800x600.jpg20220512_140151_copy_800x600.jpg
Oh, and crimson R=1023, G=0, B=60 with Darth Vader OT soundfont has become my favourite blade.
Last edited by Doru; 05-12-2022 at 04:32 AM.
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Nice job! Its a great feeling to have it finally done and to light it up! Also very clever with the charging adapter.
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Thank you.
Indeed it's a great feeling.
Partly because I was able to built it myself.
And partly because sometimes I feel like I have a real saber in my hand.
Maybe that sounds childish, but isn't it mostly about the child within?
Last edited by Doru; 05-12-2022 at 01:56 PM.
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