CF4 10W with the Works - Tons 'o Pics

[Mad Hatter]

Finally finished! After several months, about 250 hours of work, and more money that I care to think about.... here it is...

Here is the video that shows the accent leds and shimmering clash effect...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55JxxiYVmSE

Main features:
CF4
10W LED (currently red, but can swap 10W blue or green)
1A shimmering clash flash
Bi-color red/blue accent leds and illuminated switches
Custom logic circuit to cycle switch and accent led's based on the leds.txt config file settings in the CF
Custom Aux switch - the bi-color LED and bezel IS the switch
Tri color crystal chamber to match the blade color.
Force feedback motor
Custom machined MHS emitter (Thanks Tim!)
3W 30mm titanium cone speaker
Custom 7.4 2600mAh 18650 li-ion battery pack with fuse
Recharge/kill port
All in an 11 inch hilt! It's the most densly packed saber in the galaxy!!

The main blade uses two LED dies in series overdriven at 1A from the main CF output. The other two dies are in series driven by a 1A buckpuck and controlled by the CF shimmer/clash outputs and two power extender boards. The result is a 1A clash flash that shimmers along with the main blade. The red and green blades are very bright. (The red is rated at 388 lumens with the flash on. Half that for the normal blade. Green is rated at around 500-600 lumens with the flash!) The blue is only on par with the MR blue, though the clash flash bumps it up quite a bit. I'll pick up another 10W blue once LedEngin makes a brighter one. (Diagram of the flash circuit below... Big thanks to Erv for helping me figure that out!!)

I decided to use bicolor LEDs for the accents and the switches are bicolor as well. All red/blue. I made a custom logic circuit to control the lights and the colors using the 4 LED outputs on the CF - which lets me set/cycle the lights using the leds.txt config on the CF. (Diagram below)

An unexpected surprise was the way the leds worked with the iSaber mode. I didn't realize that the CF outputs would vary like a bargraph with the level of the music. The lights go nuts!

Here is the finished hilt








Close up of the switches. The LED on the right is the custom Aux switch. Details below...


As close up as I could get to the crystal chamber


Here it is in a dimly lit room


Next to an MR Maul


Here is my best shot at capturing the brightness of the clash flash



Here are pics of the building process...

Saber parts spread out to plan the size of the hilt. The finished saber came in at just over 11 inches.


Close up of the crystal chamber. The chamber walls were cast from the pommel insert of an MR Maul saber. Feedback motor at the top. On the rear view, you can see the three led's used to light the crystal bonded to the wall using clear powdered acryllic. RGB leds were just too dim, so I went with 3 individual (and very bright) leds. The color of the crystal is set using a very tiny SP3T switch behind the speaker chamber. Both the crystal and the motor tap the shimmer voltage on the CF, so they fade in and out with the blade.



Custom Aux switch. I took a long panel mount led and gutted it. I inserted a SPST plunger switch with a reinforced spring (from a ballpoint pen) and put a 5mm bicolor red/blue led with the leads trimmed short on the top. You press the led itself to actuate the switch. Two micro connectors are used to connect to the saber. One connector has the power leads for red/blue. The other is connected to the switch.


The 10W LED emitter wired with two separate circuits. Two dies in series (overdriven at 1A) for the main, and the other two in series for the clash flash (driven by a 1A buckpuck, and controlled the the CF shimmer and clash outputs).


Here's the guts of the saber. Battery pack with the CF4 on one side, and the custom logic circuit and two power extenders on the other. The buckpuck, crystal switch and trimmers for the clash shimmer and feedback motor are on the end. I wrapped a piece of poster board around the battery pack so I could hot glue the electronics on without melting the shrink wrap.



Crystal chamber installed in the v-groove section. (The piece on the right is part of an MHS 3" female.) The walls of the crystal chamber are glued in place, and the wires are routed through with connectors in the grooved section. (The saber goes together like a puzzle. First the guts in the MHS piece, then the shroud, then the lights and switches through the shroud.)


The connectors in the v-groove section, and the wires coming out of the back to go to the electronics module.



The wires connected to the logic circuit. The little bits of green visible on the bottom are the power extender boards that control the clash/shimmer effect on the buckpuck.


Here is the logic diagram that uses the four CF outputs to control the switch and accent leds. The finished circuit also incorporated the low battery signal on led #3 (blue by default, red from low bat signal).


Here is the ciruit diagram of the shimmer clash effect. The shimmer output voltage regulates the buckpuck output using the REF and CTL leads. The clash flash output turns the whole circuit off and on. The potentiometer on the shimmer output is used to fine tune the shimmer to the voltage of the main LED.


The buckpuck and trimmers on the back of the battery pack. The CF memory card is accessible on the top. The white spot on the lower right edge of the buckpuck is the SP3T switch used to choose the color of the crystal.


Electronics wired to the main hilt with all the accent leds and switches installed.


The speaker module with recharge port and bicolor low battery led. The body is the other piece of the MHS 3" female. The end cap was made from two sink tube caps, a rubber fender washer, and some heavy screen mesh. The finished module has a tapped hole in the body, and is held in the saber using the covertec knob screw.




The finished shroud. The piece on top is the powder coated sink tube that the black face plate was cut from.

[Count Malik]

sweet! wish I could do something like that... But I'm afraid that if I did I would ruin something. So I would have to send it to somebody to work on it... Unless I had some directions! Bravo!!!! BTW where did you get those LEDs? And are those buck pucks for your small "hilt" LEDS or to something else?

[Sairon]

may I ask how you got a ten watt led in a cf. isn't that way over the top for power for the cf board can handle? And where did you get that led I want it! (send me a link via pm thanks)
btw that saber is AWSOME!

[Mazarill Slay]

That is beautiful!!

[sekrogue1985]

Truly the most insane thing i've seen in terms of electronics for a saber and for the saber itself WOW!

[eastern57]

Hey, I like that industrial cyber-punk theme with the mesh and pc'd shroud. It's very non-traditional, very not-outer galaxy, very earthy - and very cool! You incorporated literally everything anyone could want in a lightsaber - including the kitchen sink[tube]... :P You certainly broke some boundaries with this one, it's very imaginative! Very elegant!

I just picked up a few similar 10w RGGBs, you might see them later.... sshhh

[Anavrin]

You, sir, are a GOD.

[LeMoel]

Hey very nice, i just have one question because i was looking hard at that led to make a very bright purple ...what did you use for optics?

[Lord Maul]

Damn that is purdy. You're the first to use a 10W to my knowledge. MAD props man. The crystal chamber is sweet.

In your comparison picture it reminds me of all the 3W LED Vs. EL pictures. It doesn't look like the vader is even on really

[X]

Beautiful saber Hatter! Where did you get the quick disconnects?