Mr board current

[erv]

Hey there !
glad to see that this MOSFET option was in the mind of someone else. I talked about this option in madcow thread about relay problem with a MR board.
MOSFET mod is a great idea, much better than using a bipolar transitor.
My initial idea was to use the 6 output of the MR to control a ramp to the mos fet to get a ramp up/down effect for the luxeon.
Minimum effort, max performance
but I haven't got the time to test that...
I'll be pleased to help in this field and comment / improve / exchange on a schematic from neophyl !!!!

[gundamaniac]

Murgh....Would wiring up a buckpuck to the MR board help it in any way? I currently have my saber's LuxIII green running on direct drive off the board...and the light dims after only half an hour of run time with four 1.2V 1000mAh NiMH batteries....ugh. That's so pathetic. My Hasbro soundboard was enough to keep me entertained for weeks...the MR dies after playing around with it for a day or two...

I'm using an Anakin RotS board, if it makes any difference at all. Does anyone have similar crappy runtimes, or is everyone else smart enough not to direct drive off an MR?

:edit: Um. I just took a battery tester to the four rechargeable batteries in there...and one is completely dead, one barely has any charge, and the other two are pretty high. whaaa??? :edit:

[erv]

well, if the pack is in bad shape, that's normal you have a reduced autonomy. I'll add also that 1000 mAh is very low for powering a luxeon at 1A.
I have to say that again, batteries are not linear stuff for Time is NOT equal to Capacity / Current used. You'll never get 1A for 1 hour with a 4AAA pack, especially with a green/blue/white/cyan.
To me, you'd better move to a 2600 mAh AA nimh pack.
Erv'

[Hasid Lafre]

My saber has a 2600mah pack, corbins driver, mr vader sound board, and an accent led with a 3w cyan at the end.

I have roughtly 2.5 hours of run time, maybe in teh range of 2.3hours.

That and if I wait 2 min for the auto shut off of the sound board I have better run times.

[gundamaniac]

Unfortunately, I hadn't designed the saber with sound in mind. The sound came in as an afterthought, so I really only have enough room in it for 4 AAAs

[Hasid Lafre]

Whats the total length you got to work with inside the saber?

[gundamaniac]

Hilt's overall length is 11 inches. MHS emtter, MHS ribbed grip, then an adapter down to a 1.25" tube, and then another adapter so I can screw on a pommel. I guess overall, the room I've got inside is about 7 inches long and about 1.25" in diameter...

[gundamaniac]

On another note, after running the saber continuously for about 8 minutes, it gets noticeably warm. Not like someone-just-held-the-lightsaber-warm, but more like an i-just-left-it-out-in-the-sun-for-an-hour-warm. ......that's bad isn't it?......or is it normal. My green luxIII is directly driven off of the MR. I'm assuming there shouldn't be problems with direct drive other than overdriving the LED a bit and shortening its overall life (which is so long anyway that the other electronics would give out before it would). I saw that Corbin had a red-orange LED, I believe it was a luxIII but I'm not sure, at Celebration IV that was directly driven off of an MR board, but I don't think it heated up that much...

So...is there something wrong with my saber or is that pretty normal?...

[Hasid Lafre]

Well with them getting warm its normal but if it becomes uncomfertably warm then somethings wrong.

When I had an mr driven saber I used a 4 AAA pack with a jumper wire in place of a battery and I used 1000mah rechargables and I got about an hours run time.

But My saber is all mhs so I prolly have better heat dispercal than a mhs sinktube.

My friends 1.25 saber with a r3w basick package his dosent get warm really but the bladeholder is anodized and that helps alot with heat disapation.

Oh just a thought.

You could have tim make you a 4AAA battery pack thats flat and not squaired, then set your mr board on top of it. tape it to the battery pack so it wont flop around then stick some of the bubbel wrap the led comes in and wrap it around the battery pack and board so it dosent all flop around.

It should all fit thou. I had an mr board and 4AAA battery pack(non rechargable) in a hilt that was style1, ribbed, 3" ext, pommel 5.

So you should be abel to stuff everything in there.

[gundamaniac]

My saber has an MR board an also a 4 AAA battery pack. I'm using 1000mAh batts just like you...but I don't have a jumper wire. I'm using 4 batteries, not 3. Do you recommend 3? What kind of LED are you using?