Sound Card Cradle/Sled Idea

**Darsha Sinis** · 11-28-2011, 01:36 PM

Sound Card Cradle

A few month's back, while at my local hardware store perusing the aisles looking for the supplies I needed for my saber build, I picked up one of those egg-sized headlamp flashlights, which i used for the basis of my belt-mounted plasma grenade. I also got a couple of these:

It's a 9-LED flashlight by Garrity. I got them because the outer housing is a very good fit for the inner diameter of MHS parts,

while the inner dimension of the midsection is small enough to accomodate the Petite Crouton (and also the master replicas cards Obi-Wan and Asaaj Ventress. Haven't tried with others in that line, the Crystal Focus, Ultrasound, or the economy boards). This means that no assembly or fabrication is needed, just some modification to the flashlight housing. Here we go!

Disassemble the flashlight, removing all mechanicals.. Discard everything but the front cap, rear cap, and midsection. If you put those back together, you have this:

(In that photo, I have already cut the very ends off of each cap. I forgot to take a pic at this stage, sorry! What you're doing is just shortening the cradle by cutting the very ends off, up to the first 'grip tile')
To give good contact along the entirety of the Petite Crouton board, keep the two end caps and glue them onto the midsection with epoxy or CA. Allow to dry.
Next, cut the end caps in half in between the two sections of grip tiles.

(same pic)

This is the body of the cradle.

For the next step, use a hacksaw or dremel cutting disc and cut the cradle housing in half just above the midline. I did it in two steps, first sawing one side, then flipping it over and doing the other side. Make sure your cut is straight and parallel to the invisible axial line. Take the remaining sled and flip it upside down onto a piece of medium grit sandpaper on a flat surface (I have a flat steel bar for that) and sand it even.

The reason we cut it above the midline, is so that the upard curve of the housing north of the midline prevents the cradle from lifting upwards in the hilt. This provides positive location in both the X and Y Axis.

Next, take a hacksaw and carefully saw a channel into the wall of the cradle, just below the lip of each wall. If your sectioning cut was straight, you can use it for a reference line.

Then using a jeweler's flat file, widen the channel to accomodate the thickness of the sound card's PCB. Repeat on the opposite side.

Now, carefully seat one side of the card in one side of the cradle, in the channel you cut. Next, while holding the card by its short edges, pry the opposite wall outward until the sound card can pop into its groove.

Ta-Dah!!! We now have a cradle for our sound card, which can keep the card snugly in place and away from the walls of the saber,

allows heat to flow across and beneath the card
and which has a tunnel beneath the card through which we can route wires. In my saber, there are two accent LEDs and a charging port directly above the sound card, and the card never comes in contact with them.

What little slack there is between the outer diameter of the sled caps and the inner diameter of the wall of the saber does not affect the stability of the sled, as there is tension placed upon the card in a couple of places from the wiring pushing against anything above, in front of, or in back of the sled. If you haven't hard-mounted your card, you may find that once it is positively located and secured, you can decrease the sensitivity settings in your config file, as the sound card should be more responsive.

For those who haven't invented a more elaborate mounting solution for your sound cards, and can afford the $8.00 for the flashlight and its ensuing destruction :b, this is an easy to do, effective sound card cradle. If I can do it, you can do it

I hope one or more of you fine people find this helpful or useful in the construction of your saber's innards!

~Alison
Darsha Sinis