2004 "Feel the Force" Obi-Wan Kenobi Electronic Lightsaber

[Matt Thorn]

Once again, a ridiculously specific thread title. Just got this today. This is one of the nicest Hasbro lightsaber toys I've seen. The hilt is surprisingly close in appearance to the "real thing," the blade is made of a nice-looking, solid material. The light (three LEDs) is pretty decent. And, to top it off, it comes in a pretty cool-looking package, with a fierce Obi-Wan on the front.



Since it looked so nice, I wanted to gut it without harming the exterior, but no such luck. I had to dremel it into several pieces in order to open it and remove the clash-sensor/LED unit from the emitter.



Pretty simple wiring, as you can see. It has a motor, for those who are into that sort of thing. (I'm not.) Pros: nice idle hum, adequate clash sound. Cons: flashes on clash. (I didn't notice if it also does so on fire-up/fire-down, so I'll have to hook it up to a battery pack and check that.) EDIT: It does flash on fire-up/fire-down.

Since I have no use for the motor, and since the motor only gets power during clash, I'm wondering if I can override the "flash-on-clash" effect by hooking the motor leads to the LED, thereby providing constant power to the LED even during clash. Any veteran electricians have any thoughts on that? EDIT: This does not work. Do not try it, or you'll kill the board!

Close-up of the clash-sensor/LED unit:


Close-up of the board:

[Matt Thorn]

I killed it. I confess. I killed within 12 hours of delivering it from its package.

First, it does flash on fire-up/fire-down. Too bad.

Second, my idea of attaching the leads that were meant for the motor to the LED contacts did in fact fix the problem of "flash on clash." It worked like a dream.

I should have left it at that. Then I thought, "Hey, I've got these pretty blue LEDs in a perfect triangle. Why not keep them as accent lights?" So I soldered the leads from my (amber) Luxeon III directly to the LED contacts. And it worked perfectly. For about two seconds. Then, silence and darkness.

No smoke, no obvious burns or anything on the board. But the board does not react to anything. (Thankfully, the Luxeon III seems to be unharmed.)

But...doesn't this look like a fuse?

It's labeled "F1". If this is a fuse, I wonder if I can simply replace it and bring the board back from the dead?

Either way, even when the board was doing the best I could get it to do, it still wasn't as good as this Hasbro board. The clash sound on the other is better, and actually has variation. The clash sound on this one is pretty lame. So, after resolving the "flash-on-clash" problem, I ended up with a board that was identical in function to the other Hasbro board, but with an inferior clash sound. So, whats the point? Other than justifying the money I paid for the saber, of course.

Anyway, if anyone can tell me if the part in the photograph is a fuse, I'd appreciate it. If it is, I'll try to track down one like it.

[Donnovan Sunrider]

Try just running a wire to bypass the thing that might be a fuse. It will either continue to not work or it will. Then you'll know it's a fuse and not to repeat the step that blew it.

[Matt Thorn]

Try just running a wire to bypass the thing that might be a fuse. It will either continue to not work or it will. Then you'll know it's a fuse and not to repeat the step that blew it.

Now why didn't I think of that? Thanks!

[Donnovan Sunrider]

Sometimes the simple solutions are the ones that elude us the longest.

[Novastar]

Did it work? If so... interesting--because I *believe* that would have been the shock and/or motion sensor.

[Rb-wan Organus]

Did it work? If so... interesting--because I *believe* that would have been the shock and/or motion sensor.

Novastar, I had the exact same idea last night, I think I fried my hasbro Board, however no smoke no smell?? Could I replace the fuse?? Or is it pointless?

[Matt Thorn]

Did it work? If so... interesting--because I *believe* that would have been the shock and/or motion sensor.

It worked! Thanks, Donnovan Sunrider!

Novastar, the clash sensor (unfortunately, there's no motion sensor) is attached to the back of the LED unit.

[Rb-wan Organus]

Matt, do you have a diagram of how you wired it ?? I have this same saber.

[Matt Thorn]

Matt, do you have a diagram of how you wired it ?? I have this same saber.

I haven't got a diagram per se, but it's pretty easy to explain what I did with the aid of the photo I uploaded.

I cut off the motor, and soldered the red wire for the motor to the orange wire for the LED, and soldered the black wire for the motor to the yellow wire for the LED. That worked great. Now, I have removed the orange and yellow wires from the LED unit and attached them to a Luxeon III (amber). So far, so good. But I would like to replace the fuse. The fuse reads "1A125V". I'm guessing that means one ampere and 125 volts. 125 volts? Isn't that wildly high? I dunno. But I'm searching for something similar now. Maybe I'll take it into my local electronic parts shop and ask them.