Sticking the soundboard inside of the Resonance chamber???

[Tekka]

I just finished building my hilt when i noticed i had no room for a resonance chamber and was looking for a way to fit it in. I was ready to switch over to 4 AAA instead to save space but 1 hour runtime is unacceptable. I was looking around for ideas when i remembered that one of my powered sub in my car had a small amp built inside of the sub box and was thinking of doing the same thing with my resonance chamber. oh and the only reason i chose to use the copper tube was because it fits inside my hilt perfectly.

Here is what i am thinking. Just wondering if this idea willl work and will it damage the board in anyway?

[pipster79]

as long as the board is firm in place and wont jump around it should be fine, and also put some kind of protection on it so you dont get a short. mayb put some electrical tape on the edges of the board and hot glue it in place
myself i preffer to use pvc pipe holds a board nice and tight and fits inside my graflex perfect, theres different sizes and its very easy to cut and work with

[LAN-ED-TUL]

pvc works better, since no chance of shortin out on metal that way.

i make my board cradles from trophy colums, hollowed out larger, and slots grooved inside, so the board slides in like on rails, so to speak, a drop of hotglue on the ends, and that suckers not goin anyplace, and a screw strategically placed, will secure the cradle inside and it wont move around.

ive done 4 sabers like that, and none have failed me yet.

[Obi-Dar Ke-Gnomie]

Could you post some pictures of that setup?

[pipster79]

pics of mine, or pics of jan ed tuls?

[Obi-Dar Ke-Gnomie]

His or yours would be cool to see.

[Novastar]

Essentially, ALL pockets of "blank space" or air... can act as resonance chambers. Only question is... whether someone provides too much or too little given the sort of... "style" or timbre of sound you want to hear.

What I've found is that the MORE blank space the sound can travel through... the better. This is one of the reasons why Eandori is trying that "centralized" dual-speaker setup.

Anyhow... whatever you set up, just try not to completely "block off" the speaker on BOTH ends... give at least an inch or so... and--you probably want more holes all over the bottom of any given saber (if that is where the speaker is) so that the sound is multi-directional.

I believe most MR sabers (although they had nice speakers) were not sounding as well as they could have, due to inadequate resonance, and the fact that they were likely trying to stick to "canon" drawings and what not--thus... no "side holes" for the most part.

The Luke ROTJ MR seems to be the "best" for sound... due only to its resonance cavity. The board, driving and speaker are essentially identical to a Mace or Anakin or whatever.

[pipster79]

ive noticed that as well novastar. I just got my luke ROTJ today, much louder then my anakin ROTS, and maybe a bit louder then my obi wan.
with the mr battery packs i noticed too that they could have had a little bit better resonance when i replaced the speaker in my anakin and it seemed way to quiet. i opened up the area behind the speaker (basically hollowed out the bottom of the battery pack). Still it seemed not loud enough, so the side with the long v groove that runs along it, i opened the little space in there as well, made a large difference

[LAN-ED-TUL]

on all the sabers i run the sound in, i usually run round 3/4 to 1 inch space from speaker to end cap, and i also leave the other side opened.

doing that, makes the whole hilt act as a resonance chamber, and all mine are really very dang loud. they all drown out every MR FX saber i ever heard or have, and just drowns out a stock hasbro saber as well.

you can hear mine from several feet away easily, and at the con last month, my real heiland converted to vader, with a US sound board, was so loud, every time i fired it off, it made folks jump, cuz they didnt expect the loudness.

so i agree wholeheartedly, resonance chambering is essential.

[Novastar]

Exactly. Resonance is $0, and easily will increase the perceived value of any saber with sound...

I've mentioned to folks on here (and on TF.n) that:

* Cruddy speaker + MAJOR resonance = pretty good volume!
* Great speaker + LOUSY resonance = fairly poor volume

Additionally... what good is an "UBER" sound card--if one gives it a garbage POS speaker? What good is the ultimate speaker... if you give it 4-bit or 8-bit sound?

...so... it's all in how you put together ALL of the parts you have in order to make the best machine possible. True, budget gets in the way at times, but everyone should consider these few lessons:

1. If you spend >=$50 on a sound/LED driver... you can spend $5 or $10 on a decent speaker.
2. Resonance space costs... uh... nothing. (Ok, fine it might make your saber a BIT longer. Boo. Hyphen. Hoo.
3. ALWAYS carefully weigh relevant costs for your items... why pay $500 for a hilt... when it will house a resistor, a "run-of-the-mill" Luxeon or LED and gte powered by simple alkalines? Lame.

For what it is worth, the dynamic range of the speakers that I helped Tim, Alex and Erv find... well... they are among the best I've ever seen. For 29mm. But NO... it may NOT compare to a 36mm or a 45mm speaker when running "correct" resonance cavities for each.

Anyhow... hope it helps.