Mr board moding

[DACOTA]

I dont know if this has been discussed but is it possible to mod an mr board so its current increases that way you can fully power a k2 through one?

Any help would be great. Thanks guys.

[Lord Maul]

You can use relays, or do 2 circuits. No one has modified the MR board that I know of.

[Dark Helmet]

one possible solution is to use the plecter power xtender ( about $6.50 i think), using a 4.5 v battery pack, the wire labeled vdd that goes to the clash sensor should give enough voltage (3.3 v) to trigger the xtender , and you can still use the clash sensor. next, send the battery voltage to your resistor from the xtender. this isn't really a mod, but it's cheap and easy to do. you may want use a higher volt battery, but i dont know how much the mr boards can handle. keep in mind this works on my mr 2007 luke anh, it's identical to the obi-wan ep III board.... i hope this is helpful! good luck

[Mi Gin Gonn]

Dark Helmet-
Nice handle. "So...I see your Schwartz is as big as mine."

[Dark Navel]

Dark Helmet,

You wouldn't happen to have a diagram of what you discussed do you? I would find it very useful and I think some other members may as well.

I looked through these forums as well as Erv's site but couldn't find anything on it besides the quick description. I may also be modding a 616 card for my next saber and need to find out what connects to where on the xtender board.

Right now I'm working on a design using a graflite flash...I may or may not use the 616 board(just for sound) and then resist the LUX III Red with the 1.2ohm 3W resistor. I have read that this board will only put out 300mAH per color, RGB, and Graaven stated that he has used the xtender to ramp up 2 colors to make a somewhat decent/bright saber.

[Novastar]

...you may want use a higher volt battery, but i dont know how much the mr boards can handle. ...

As far as I know, every single model of the MRs (including the Joe Jedi I THINK) can handle a topped out max of 6v.

This is not to say 7.2v won't run "for a while" or... "while slow-cooking it". At that point, it's just a question of when (not if) the board will die. Might be immediately, might be a week, might be hours, might be days or months.

[Dark Navel]

I concur with Nova. I have already fried a 616 with 7.2V. Go with 6.0V max or, yes, you will see the magic smoke appear from your MR card. Like Nova said it may not be immediate but it will cook eventually.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I seem to remeber Neophyll stating that he had done just what Dacota was asking about originally, but it was not something for a novice electronics person to try doing.

I also must agree with Nova, try to stay around 6 volts with any MR board. I have yet to fry one at that voltage, and have been using them in my custom sinktube/MHS sabers for over a year now.

[DACOTA]

Oh geese, so I guess I dont have to make the batt pack a 3-cell anymore then. Had I known you could have run it at 6v I would have just left it but I beleive some time ago Nova said I should run it at 5v. The only thing is that I am running a p4 and it has a max v. of 3.80, so I wouldnt want to go too much over that. I'll probably just leave it as is.

[Novastar]

Dacota, I think you're a bit confused... the fact that your P4 (or any other LED for that matter) has a particular voltage is fairly irrelevant when considering the MR board for driving.

Why.

The MR board is regulating the current in a similar fashion (although obviously not identical) to Corbin's, Ultra's, Erv's. The MR board "spits out" about 900ma (even the Joe Jedi). When you connect an LED to it--the forward voltage is in a pretty "safe" zone for most any LED. I can't be certain of the exact voltage, but it's going to be around 3v to 4v going to the LED. It may differ with each board. That--I have no idea on.

But what I *CAN* say is... you are unlikely to fry an LED just because your batteries on an MR are above 3v. Think about it. The "normal" battery pack for an MR carries 4.5v. If all 4.5v got to the LEDs without being controlled/regulated, then a Luxeon III Red or Red-O or Amber would DEFINITELY get its arse handed to itself. A Lux III Blue wouldn't fair too much better either... being about 1v over it's forward voltage.

Anyhow. The 4.5v 3AA pack actually screws around and sends SOME of the voltage/current to the speaker DIRECTLY... and the remainder off to the board. Hard to explain. It's weird.

So, the moral of the story is... you can give an MR a WIDE RANGE of voltages (just as you may do so with Corbin's, Ultra's, Erv's), but they must be somewhere between something like 3.6v to 6v. Any less would be under-driving horribly... any more would do the sizzle-o-meter on it like a Sith on Force Crack.