Clash-Flash w/Crystal Focus WORKING!

[Novastar]

I hear ya, Edwin. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with this thing too!

[DACOTA]

Great, your going to improve your clash flash. I cant wait to see it finished, I know most of us will probably copy your idea for our sabers, that is if you dont mind.

[Eandori]

Mind? I would be honored

[DACOTA]

Great, cause I'd be honored to copy a geniuses idea.

Oh and I just read about how the flash leds are wired, I wonder if erv would make another board to work with the clash flash. How exactly is it wired, I know you said it is wired from the extra contacts on the board that are used for blinking leds, but i dont know a whole lot about additional circuits. Could you maybe show a diagram when you have time? Please?

[Eandori]

For the first version of clash flash I used a 3904 NPN Bi Polar transistor for each of the white luxeon LED's. The base of those two transistors were tied together then to a single "Blink LED" lead on the CF board. I had a base resistor, and a collector resistor on each of them.

Erv' made a special version of CF board for me where LED-4 was a "digital clash flash output" It was at 0v normally and went to 3.3v for around 200mSeconds when a clash was detected. When that logic output went high, that turned on the two bi-polar transistors which sent around 500mA of current through each of the white LED's. Basically I used a simple pair of transistors to amplify the logic output of Erv's board for a clash flash.

Erv' did some cool work, making the duration of the clash flash adjustable even.

This is all history though, because I believe he built that ability into the 3.0 boards by default. All that's left is wiring up an "amplifier" circuit to get the 500+ mA needed to power those white LED's. I think Erv' has also created a small satellite amplifier board for just that purpose, but I have not tested one yet. Until I get one of those, I'll just use small transistors for that purpose.

The HARD PART is still the optic though... My first version did not do a very good job of getting the light up the blade. It was brighter at the hilt, and nearly nothing past like 10 inches. If I had the blade current very low you could see it better. So for the next attempt I need a better optic. I'll probably go from solid clear lenses to larger reflectors where I can jam the white LED's in the side. That will make the main blade LED dimmer... but I might get much more flash LED up the blade as a tradeoff.

I need to work out some new online file storage, then when I get that going I'll post some pictures online of the circuit needed for clash flash. Then others can jump into this too and start making their own versions. Two minds are better then one

[DACOTA]

Yeah, your talking about his power extender right? That would probably work. And the reflector sounds like it will work out well. Just like the ones in a small maglite.

Thank you for the enlightenment.