Jay-gon Jinn's BS-2 gets a CF 2.63

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Well, I finally managed to get one of Erv's slices of buttered toast, as it has been warmly referred to since it was first introduced, and decided that the best place for it weas in BS-2, my personal favorite out of all of the brass sabers I've done this past year. This did have an Ultrasound v1.0 in it, but the board developed some problems, and will be returned to our very own Darth Morbius for repairs later. Then it'll go into something else!

I started by dismantling the saber:

I wanted this to be rechargeable, as it needs to have a way to kill power to the board, and the best way is with a kill key in a recharge port, so I began by modifying a 4-AA battery holder from TCSS. The only probalem with this is, the CF requires mounting in the bottom of the hilt, so the batteries need to go in the ribbed extension...only thing is, that pack doesn't fit with the batteries installed. Seeing as how TCSS was out of AA NiMH packs, and I'm inpatient, I decided to do what someone else at TCSS did, (I forget who) and modify the battery holder:



I drilled a couple of holes to allow me to insert the tungsten cutter in my rotary tool so I can remove some of the center divider of the battery holder.

I put the holder in the vise on my drill press and let the plastic fly:


That was easy! I cleaned it up a bit:

I put some batteries in it, and checked the fit:

Cool! I'll remember to do this again if need be.

I also had to make some kid of holder for the CF. That's the white plastic tube seen in the first pic. It is a piece of 1.25" pvc drain extension. this is the type used to replace the plumbing tubes we usually use under your sink, not the heavy sch. 30 or 40 stuff found at the hardware stores. I couldn't do much with it until the board arrived, except "whittle" it down to fit inside the tube. (No pics, sorry...wasn't thinking!) It slid in and out of the MHS extension just fine. I also drilled the holes for the switch wires to pass through.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Okay, the board arrived and I did a bit of test fitting:


You can see the cradle there in that shot. I had also begun to wire the board, by attaching the led leads and the speaker. The CF will sit inside the cradle like so:



After testing the assembly by adding the ribbed extension, and then the battery pack, I determined that the batery pack was too long to fit. Bummer! Well, I guess I'll have to skip out on a recharge port and kill key, and just go simple with it:

I'll use a set of Li-Ions instead. I'll just take the battery pack out when the saber's not in use. It might seem like a pain in the behind, but really, it's not that hard to just to remove the emiiter, the led, and unplug the battery pack. I had to modify that battery holder, too, so the batteries would fit in the ribbed extension. they'll connect to the CF with a 9-volt style snap connector.

Next up was to figure out the placement of the switches. I thought it best to just put them both in the circuit board in the clamp's box:


I think that'll work!


Yup, it sure will!

[Jay-gon Jinn]

With the battery solution done, I began to solder up the board:


I added the positive switch wires and the battery leads, leaving a splice for the switch negatives:


I slid the board into the cradle to double check the fit:


I soldered the negative wires to the switches:

I also did the positives to test it out:

And it worked:

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Before I put it together, I adjusted the sound volume on the board, using the pot that erv puts on them, and thought, I might want to change that later, and the side of the board that it's on will facing the wrong way....so to take care of that, I drilled and then enlarged a hole in the bottom of the cradle for it:


With that done, I glued the speaker in place, using hot glue, so if I ever need to replace it, it'll be removeable:


A couple tacks of glue on the board:


And it was ready to go into the double threaded female extension:

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I slid the extension into the brass tube:


I added the CT knob to secure the pieces together:


Next, I slid the clamp into place and installed the forward screw:


And pulled the switch wires through:


I soldered the switch wires:


I slid circuit board into place, and installed the second screw. The CB sits on top of the screws, and is sort of pressure fit between the tops of the screws and the top of the box:

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Next piece to go on is the ribbed extension, where the batteries will be housed:


The battery connector fits right through:


And the batteries fit right in:


The next couple steps were easy, of course...adding the led, lens and the blade holder....so how did it turn out?

I'll let you be the judge:

[Jay-gon Jinn]

BEAUTY SHOTS:

[Donnovan Sunrider]

Ooooooo, another Jay-Gon walkthrough!

Very nice work sir. I love seeing the thought that goes into the internal configuraion of a sabre as much as I like seeing the outside completed. I look forward to watching the video when I get home tonight.

Thanks for putting all the time into these threads that you do. They're invaluable for those of us working on designs for our own builds.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Yup, this is one of my favorites out the small collection I've got. Here' the youtube version of the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZIVGc_7EVw

Now, if I could just get a CF into this one:

I'd be all set!

[Pullo]

Always a pleasure to see a saber from your stable Jay-gon