Mounting a speaker

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I have the same set-up in that pic in my other RLSA hilt that I put an Anakin board I got from Vortextwist into, and that saber has a hole where the old switch used to be. There is definitely sound coming from that hole, and it also makes the saber vibrate, or hum in your hand. It's actually pretty cool.

I get what you're saying Novastar, but unfortunatly, most of my sabers' designs and construction don't really allow for more speaker vent holes near their pommels, with them having screw-on pommels. I also don't use them in a stage enviornment like you do, so I don't really need thenm to be super loud....Although I am sort of "performing" for a live audience at the charity fundraisers I costume at with the Rebel Legion and the 501st.

I am planning to do what you did to your "Flange" saber on my brass one, though, since it borrows from Flange's construction a bit!

[Novastar]

I hear ya Jay... and glad you liked the "Flange" sabers, heheh.

As it is, it's funny... resonance chambers sort of (a little) go against everything most sabers designers want to avoid: WASTED SPACE! Granted, it's not really WASTED when you're using it to give a more "full" sound... but yeah... just giving up 2 to 4 inches of blank space in a saber will often feel like madness.

Personally, I try to create saber hilts that are 11" or less. This sucks giant eggs when you're trying to cram everything under the sun inside of it. But yeah... if people are making a 12" or larger hilt, everything should be just fine.

[erv]

I'll add that something like 1" in front of the speaker is fine in general. If think I have like only 2cm in the pommel of Telum Infensus.
Space in the back of the speaker... unless you're using a MR pack or a quad square pack, you have plenty of free air and space in the hilt that makes possible the back of the speaker to resonnate in the hilt. Timbre / spectrum can be tuned using a bit of foam or cotton balls / piece of fabric. I'm using a 2+2 AA flat pack in general, and it works very fine. For Telum Infensus, I used a li-ion 7.2V stick which leaves maybe more space for the air to bounce in the hilt.
The space in front of the speaker is not really wasted for my sabers : I generally put the recharge port at the back of the pommel, so the minimum space between the speaker and the end of the pommel is just the height of the recharge port + wires (1.5 cm more or less).

[Novastar]

I'll have to agree with you there on being creative with the resonance chamber, Erv...

As people might have seen and guessed from the Flange v3 photos, I "stacked" items as well--in other words, yes I also put the recharge port and secondary button (blaster, lockup, etc.) at the bottom of the hilt... where the soundwaves would have room to bounce all about, yet the space was still somewhat "used".

I'm not sure if I like the lockup button there at the bottom for the rear hand, or if I'd like to see one up at the choke point... I'll have to experiment.

As a matter of note, if you drill some holes in any MR saber (or "free up" some spots where grooves are underneath the T-grip sections)... you'll get a good increase in sound resonance and feel.

However... the speaker is still "scratchy" compared to the speakers I was able to hook TCSS, Plecter and Ultra up with...

[Er Dan Gill]

Having the Plecter board mounted in the base of the hilt, and the speaker in the pommel, will the magnet in the speaker cause any issues with the SD card or board if they are mounted too close together? As small of a magnet as it is, I was curious if it might cause some interference issues.

[Novastar]

Good question. I seriously doubt it, unless you are literally pressing the speaker *directly* against the SD card. Even then--that is why the SD card is shielded in plastic (think like old 3.5" floppy disks).

Back in the 5.25" days, those disks were fairly idiotic, as they were fairly easy to destroy with a magnet.

Anyhow--put about 0.25" or more of space between your speaker and the electronics and you should be good even if it WAS some awful issue.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Well if anyone is interested, here's how the saber I mentioned above sounds:

[djbordie]

so the whole film canister is a decent idea for space? or is it better to get something made frmo stronger material...

i want optimal results here, so i can pretty much make anything,
does sound resonate better in metal? or plastic? or whatever...im assuming metal because it does not absorb the sound as much as plastic...

also most optimal size? 1 inch in front and behind the speaker?

this is all going in my MHS wiht ultra sound and a 5w green

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I would say you'd want to use a metal resonance chamber. My saber uses a 1" x 1" space in front of the speaker (inside the pommel) and then the rest of the hilt space behind it, which amounts to about 4-6 inches. The sound behind the speaker exits through an old switch hole in the hilt.

[djbordie]

ahhh so you want sound output from the front and back of the speaker? not just the front out of the pommel?