I thought I should share this experience even though I'm not finished or ready to show my work in progress till done.
I'm working on my first saber with a mid hilt choke and the area with full MHS ID is only 5.5" from choke connection to the grill in the pommel. I really wanted to have long run time so I can duel and show it off nice and bright with out recharge so I opted for 4AA thinking I had room. I planned for battery pack with US 2.5 on the back of it and a reverse sound speaker in front of the choke. No big right?
Well...I got it wired and working and fit but the hilt wasn't finished as it still had some rough edges so I was sliding it in and out for testing..bad idea! After one too many times I damaged a speaker, then another. Then I damaged a solder pad and had some careful work to restore the connection. Thankfully it worked and I'm sooooo greatful for every ones help in advising me how to fix it. I learned a lot.
Now the thing I failed to mention and thought I could still squeeze in was a recharge port which would save the in and out damage to my wiring overall..poor US 2.5. I is too hard on it. I got that working great. Cut off and charged perfect.
After reworking some of the exterior parts of my hilt I realise I was dropping my clunky thumb screw and LED holder to keep it clean and lean. Now I had an extra accent LED to place and thought...lol you guessed it lit pommel. What a bad idea. I mean it will be great but now I need to switch to a 4AAA pack and I did a number on my quick connects already. So now it appears I'm going with little or no quick connects.
Now the revised cram-fu Kata..lol ....will be...recharge port/accent LED and light diffusion/4AAA battery pack/reverse position speaker, and a US 2.5 in the choke. This should give me a few inches play for wiring and will be well worth the run time sacrifice. My next mid-hilt choke saber will be running lithium-ions I think.
The overall lesson learned is design the hilt with space for extra wires, around a wiring plan that works for the design concept, and don't install in hilt until hilt is FULLY finished.
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