CF4 10W with the Works - Tons 'o Pics

[Mazarill Slay]

Saber of the year!!!

[ThreeQuadFive]

:drool:

[Eandori]

Fantasitic Work Mad Hatter. Much better then anything I have created so far. My hat's off to your lovely piece of work. Makes me want to go build something else new and innovative!

A few quick notes...

You can probably drop the Buckpuck and just use a high power FET or Darlington transistor for your clash flash. At 1 amp that's not a ton of current when it only powers up for short bursts with several seconds between each one. The buckpuck was really designed for maintained 1 amp continuously and it's a bit overkill for the clash-flash driver.

I love that you got a fuse in there... I've been searching for a very small fuse holder for my sabers. I'll probably just have to build something.

Your batteries at 7.4 rated voltage is a bit low for your saber setup. Like Erv already pointed out, you will get full power for a short time, then your saber will start getting dimmer like a resistor based setup. That REALLY defeats the ENTIRE purpose of having not 1, but 2 current regulation circuits in your saber. You will gain some hilt space back by switching from a buckpuck to a high power transistor with a small heatsink(maybe just attached to the saber hilt...). Use that regained space to add a higher voltage battery. In my proto 3A and 3B sabers I use a barrel roll of AAA's at 8.4v rated at 1000mAh. I get around an hour of runtime and for MOST of that time my luxeon V's are even running at full power.

If you need more hilt space, remember that not all wiring needs to be thick wires. Switches and devices doing logic information can use very thin wire, like wire-wrap gauges (isn't that like 30 gauge?). That can save you space.

[Darth_DevilGuy]

He posted a link to the connectors

oh did he? I was to busy staring at the pictures...

[Mad Hatter]

Your batteries at 7.4 rated voltage is a bit low for your saber setup. Like Erv already pointed out, you will get full power for a short time, then your saber will start getting dimmer like a resistor based setup. That REALLY defeats the ENTIRE purpose of having not 1, but 2 current regulation circuits in your saber.

Thanks Eandori

Actually, the batteries are fine for what I'm doing. I'm not running all four dies in series, I've got them 2S2P. Wired this way, the red LED doesn't need more than 6v (and that's at the full 1A, which only comes at the top of the pulse). So with a full charge of 8.4v and 7.4v average, the blade doesn't start to dim for a very long time.

The green takes a little more, but it clocks in around 7.5v. I get at least 15minutes on the green before it starts to lose brightness.

With the red (which is my main color) I don't start to lose brightness until the batteries are almost ready to shut off anyway.

[Jedi-Diah]

Hi Mad Hatter,

How is that speaker compared with others? Where did you find it?

[Mad Hatter]

The speaker is SIGNIFICANTLY better than the standard ones. When I first got it, I tested it next to the others to see how they compared, and there was no comparison. It has much more low end to it, which makes fonts like Blackstar sound REALLY good.

I got them here, but they are now out of production. You can check the site periodically for stock, and you may get lucky. I posted about them a few months back when they were still available, but I don't think anyone else ordered any.

[MoonDragn]

A few questions if you don't mind...

1. Where did you get that main power switch? That inlaid bezel look is really nice.

2. Looking at your circuit, it lights the LED red or blue depending on your switch settings. What if you wanted to use green? Can't you use a tri-colored LED? and another gate?

3. what is that black overlay on top made out of? It looks almost plastic.

4. You said you cast the pomel insert of a mace. Cast as in poured metal? or is that made out of plastic?

[Mad Hatter]

1. Where did you get that main power switch? That inlaid bezel look is really nice.

I had a special source for this one, but search for vandal switches and you'll find similar switches.

2. Looking at your circuit, it lights the LED red or blue depending on your switch settings. What if you wanted to use green? Can't you use a tri-colored LED? and another gate?

You could make a different logic circuit for 3 color, but they don't make 3mm RGB (that I know of). Even if they did, you couldn't fit it in the bezels. I had to trim the leads down to a nub to fit the bicolor. (BTW the color is determined by the leds.txt file in the CF, not the switches)

3. what is that black overlay on top made out of? It looks almost plastic.

Powder coated sink tube (last pic in OP).

4. You said you cast the pomel insert of a mace. Cast as in poured metal? or is that made out of plastic?

I made a rubber mold of the maul piece and cast it using powdered acryllic. (It's what I had on hand)

[MoonDragn]

Ahh thanks. Man, the lighted vandal switch itself is like $20 bucks.

I know the color is dependent on the Led.txt file I just meant the color of the accent LED, unless they switch between red and blue for different reason than to match the color of the emitter LED.

That pommel insert idea is great... I was looking for something like that to mount my electronics on.