A couple of ideas to improve our Lightsabers!

[neophyl]

Not really Do-Clo. I routinely use mosfet transistors that are the same size as the ones already on the board and can handle 4-500ma constant and several amps in a pulse/surge situation. Thats without heatsinking as they have very low on resistance values and dont produce as much heat as a normal transistor.

As it would only be driving during the clash this wouldnt be a problem. As I said its all well within the realms of possibility. What lets its down is the physical engineering aspects. That and I wouldnt like to have to replace all those surface mount resistors, that would be a right royal pain in the backside.

[pockets]

yeah, I'd rather just build a luxeon saber and buy a nice driver unit

[Eandori]

Thanks for all the great replies guys,

My thoughts on the clash-flash for MR was very similar to what Neophyl said. It should not be too much current because it's very short duration. I was definitely thinking of using a FET due to the high resistance at the Gate. The biggest problem I was seeing electrically was getting the impact sensor to stay activated long enough for the LED's to ramp up in current and make the flash visable.

About the mechanics of it... Truth is, I challenge you to find many people with MR sabers that don't duel at least some with them. I have 4 of them and I duel with them all the time. You just have to slow down and play more of a contact game then really going at it. I did have some LED's shut off on a few of my sabers. I opened them up, debugged the problem, and found that the white PCB which runs traces to the LED's had breaks. I bridged the gaps with some small gauge wire (keeping in the 6 power on sections) and they work fine again.

So agreed... you cannot duel with the MR's as hard as others. BUT it's not like you cannot duel at all. They are breakable, but not delicate.

I REALLY like the power on, and power down effects of LED-in-Blade. I also really like the evenly dispersed light. I'll try to look around these boards to find the best way of dispersing the single driven LED method. If you guys can quickly point me to a thread, please do!

As for the parts to upgrade my MR blade for clash-flash, I really don't think it will be THAT expensive. It's probably going to be buying 64 surface mount resistors, 1 high power FET, and a few biasing resistors for the FET. Should not be too bad. I'm very excited to see how the flash clash effect comes out!

[Barmic Rin]

Erv's buttered toast + Corbin blade is the best way of getting the clash apparently.
Can't vouch for it myself as my Corbin blade is currently on my order being processed, though I already giggle like a school girl when I duel with mine with Tims stock blade.

I can't say i'm as technically minded as Don, Phil, JJ etc. but I can see how your method could work. All it comes down to for me is effect, & I find MR blades clash isn't as good as Erv's or Ultras & I always worry about knackering LEDs when duelling with my MR.

Basically: WHAT THE HELL IS THE POINT OF HAVING A LIGHTSABER IF IT BREAKS BEFORE YOUR OPPONENT DOES?

[Novastar]

Barmic... please be careful on language, as young kids CAN see this thread. Although I respect that particular thought on dueling, lol.

By the way, you do not need to use Corbin's diffuser film to get the "clash" effect. You can use any diffuser film you most prefer. There are any number of ways to diffuse a blade--some of which have yet to be tried. I like a variety, myself.

Also--wow, I didn't think Eandoric would have needed SIXTY-FOUR resistors per conversion! That seems like a much grander pain than I expected. That is cost in labor time, and again--for very little result.

I would highly recommend NOT doing this sort of thing for the value... but merely for the experience.

[Do-Clo]

True a transiter can handle a lot of current if it is pulsed but consider a dueling situation, every time the clash sensor fires the transiter is going to fire and given enough consective hits it would generate repeated heat pulses that might not have enough time to bleed off before the next pulse hits. I always lean towards over-building to prevent a possible componet burn out problem.

[neophyl]

Trust me it wont be a problem Do-Clo. One system that did something along these lines I designed was for an outdoor lasertag system. The leds are pulsed at 1.5-2amps for each 'shot'. Even programming them for 12-15 shots a second on a 100 shot clip you could still fire off 1000+ shots in a row without an appreciable heat problem.

Id like to see anyone do more than 15 strikes in a second with a sabre.

[Hasid Lafre]

15 sps(strikes per second) they must be quick. I wander about the one on the deffencive side. if there slower by just a bit there in the drink after the first 6 strikes.

[Do-Clo]

The amount of on time for the clash effect would be greater for the saber, if you were to match it to the length of the clash sound. You would need to do that to make the effect look realistic because if the bright blade flash has already occured and the sound is still playing then it would seem strange.

(Keep in mind I am used to meeting miltary specs for everything I build, its a hard habit to break)

[Eandori]

Do Clo is correct on that point, the length of double current time must be long enough for the "flash" to be visible. I'm thinking 100-250 milliseconds. The power rails are not perfect, and have no stored capacitance, so it will have a ramp up time. Hopefully that ramp up time will be short enough to where the flash effect will look good.

Having said that, I'm still thinking over current will not be an issue. The clashes will not be that successive, and those LED's are not driven THAT hard.

As for the soldering, I work at Intel as an Engineer. I bring my MR-lightsabers to work and my co-workers and I clash with them all the time. We have several soldering stations and tools so resoldering 64 surface mount resistors will take me all of 25 min probably. I know it will be more difficult for others, but it's not impossible.

Having options is better then having none or one.