RGB hilt wiring

[pthomas625]

hi everyone, i'm looking forward to building a RGB LED lightsaber. with quite a few extras. i guess the "fully-loaded" saber. lol. would this be how i wire everything up? i know i don't have numbers in yet, but would this be the order? thanks for all your pro help!



p.s. thanks to whoever's the rgb setup image is.

[Lord Maul]

i think the PLI must go on both the positive and negative lines of the power.

one lead to positive, one to negative. otherwise, the leds on it wouldn't ever turn on

[Novastar]

I'm pretty sure Lord Maul is right regarding sending something like a PLI through both leads. Although--I can't quite tell from the wiring if that truly WOULD be the case.

Also, the recharge port....? Ditto. Your battery charger needs to be able to "see" both + and -. I also recommend using the recharge port as a general power "kill" switch for battery conservation purposes.

Finally, I wouldn't mind opening up the can of worms about grounding. Does anyone know if there should be a general "grounding" lead?

[neophyl]

Same with e accent led. It will never light up wired like that. Also the recharge port wont work lke that either as it would need to be switched on to be in circuit and iif you tried to charge like that your charge current is going through the led and all the other bits too.

Break it down into logical sections and make sure each section works before hooking it into another.

[xwingband]

Yeah, might as well scrap the diagram. There is so much wrong with it.

As noted the LED and PLI need to be connected to both the positive and negative. Id give a good thought to if you want a momentary for the PLI too. Otherwise your batteries would constantly draining.

What will "drive" the LED? I don't see a resistor or board... I'd think about micropucks or those flashlight regulators we found recently.

[pthomas625]

ok, here's a revised diagram. does this look like it'd work? the reason i haven't 'put' a resistor for the RGB led is because i thought the potentiometers acted as resistors?



thanks again! multiple and forever thanks!

[Hasid Lafre]

They do but they dont.

[pthomas625]

hmm, ok, so do i need 3 resistors (before each pot?)? or only one (where?)?

and concerning the rgb led, i think i read that someone used a special lense for it (being it had 3 leds). where would i get one if it's needed?

[xwingband]

It uses the same lenses as normal. You were probably confusing it with the Tri-lux.

As for resistors. Yes, you need them or something else to control the LEDs. The pots are over resisting the LED to dim them. So for it to work correctly it must have at least the normal resistance already applied.

[pthomas625]

hmm, so as for the resistors, would they go before or after the pots?

p.s. thanks xwing for helping with my account issues!