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Thread: First saber, a little confused

  1. #1

    Default First saber, a little confused

    Well my friends, I must say I'm a little confused. I received my luxeon k2 kit in the mail today along with my MHS hilt. I've soldered before, so I know how to do it *relatively* well (I'm no expert). I soldered the connections between the battery holder and the resistor and the switch without a problem, but when I tried to solder the ends of these to the LED I did have some difficulty. It wasn't a pretty job, but it looked like the connections were solid. When I put in the batteries and tried to turn it all on, nothing. So my first step is to try to resolder the connections, and I am moderately successful, but still no light. Next, I came to the forum here and made a relatively extensive search for this situation. The only reason I can see for why it wasn't working is that I somehow killed the LED. What would you all suggest as the next step?

  2. #2
    Jedi Knight Malaki Skywalker's Avatar
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    Have you checked the polarity? Neg and Pos? Are you using any quick connectors? To me it sounds like you got your polarity mixed OR dead batteries, have you tried a fresh set?


    I don't know...

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  3. #3

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    Could you take a picture of how you have it set up? That would help us determine what might be wrong.

  4. #4

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    Wow, I feel stupid. You'd think that an astrophysicist and a fan of star trek could figure out to change the polarity. Thanks for the (now obvious) suggestion.

  5. #5
    Council Member Novastar's Avatar
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    Did it work?

    Also, to test an LED, you can briefly just "touch" the + and - leads from a "test" battery pack... just to be 100% certain the LED works. I always do this before installing an LED... gotta make sure it's WORTH wiring up, the little BAAAAAHSTURDS!

    What is nice is wiring up a simple alkaline AA 3.0v test pack (1.5v x 2 = 3.0v). I use the ones with the "9v snap connectors", lol. Then I snap on a connector with leads that go nowhere and touch them to the LED.

    This is safe for *ALL* Luxeon IIIs... and pretty darn safe (in general) for most any LED... even tiny ones. MOST of the time.

    Obviously this won't light up a Lux V, but... make yourself a 6v pack to do that if you like, and you should see SOME light. Or do 7.2v Li-Ion for a brief touch, and you'll see light alright.

    And obviously... this method trumps any silkscreens that may be reversed in error (P4s anyone??)... or even some LED that is unlabeled. Or... maybe you don't feel like checking the part # on the back to find out what stupid color it is. Maybe you're a goof-troop like me and you toss all your LEDs into one little section of a parts container and you have to be like "what's this, oh red, ok what's this oh cyan, what's this oh blue, what's this oh amber"...

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  6. #6

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    Yeah, it worked. Now I have to worry about soldering this little guy, which seems to be rather a lot harder than any soldering I've ever done before.

  7. #7
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    That's good advice, but if I may add a caveat - When you test LEDs, find a damper for the emitter... put something over the light source so you don't blind yourself. The method is safe for the LED, but it's can hurt your eyes, and potentially cause unhappiness.

  8. #8
    Sith Acolyte Drichar Deis's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by eastern57 View Post
    That's good advice, but if I may add a caveat - When you test LEDs, find a damper for the emitter... put something over the light source so you don't blind yourself. The method is safe for the LED, but it's can hurt your eyes, and potentially cause unhappiness.
    I can relate to that, I got red eye!


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  9. #9

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    If you're having trouble getting the wire to stick to the K2 solder pads (which is a common problem), an easy way of getting around it (also common ) is to wrap your wire around the wire coming off the LED itself and going to the solder pad on the star. Then solder the wire to itself, ignoring the damn near useless solder pads altogether.
    My MHS:

  10. #10

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    Lets Hear It For Solder Horns!
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