2010 Electronic Lightsaber w/ DVD Tutorial

[cardcollector]

A few times I have used a relay and the effect was eliminated, but never with the transistor.

[Arkhan]

You would have to fashion some sort of capacitor to buffer the flicker. As it sits, the transistor is doing exactly what you are asking it to do, switch on/off based on status of LED+ from the board.

I have relay on that board, and the flicker/clash is present as well.

If you want to eliminate the flicker/clash, you would have to bypass normal clash as well, by wiring the transistor and mainLED to a DPDT switch, that also turns on the board.

Probably not what you want.

[Matt Thorn]

I just wired up the transistor and all is GREAT. I'm very satisfied with the results, the lux 3 green is very bright with the trans white blade and some blade film. However, I thought the Flash on start-up and clash is erased with the transistor. Is there a way to remove that effect?

The quick answer is "no." The long answer is, "Yes, but none of the solutions are very satisfying." You could, for example, use the board just for sound, add a momentary DPDT switch, and use Tim's LED driver and add-on board for the LED(s), but then you have the problem with the automatic time-out causing the the sound and light to get out of synch.

[Darth Cruciatus]

i seem to be having a problem seeing it it keeps opening up photoshop.com 's homepage

[cardcollector]

Dunno why they changed the url...

but it is now fixed.

[WickedWharf]

I have read through out this entire thread and it is so thorough but I just had a small question about the resistor that I need. The LED that I was looking to purchase is the Luxeon Rebel Star. I would buy the LUX III from the store but they don't have a blue color. Here is the link for the LED

http://www.luxeonstar.com/Blue-470nm...-b0030-20s.htm

Using a 4 AAA battery pack with normal batteries (So 6V).
Doing the calculations:

6V - 3.15V = 2.85V
2.85V / .7A = 4.07 Ohm resistor

3.15V * .7A = 2.21 Watts

Is the correct resistor I should purchase the 3.9 Ohm 5W Resistor from the TCSS. Or is there better resistor I should purchase from TCSS or Radio Shack.

Just to confirm I should connect the resistor after the PNP transistor but before the LED.

Thanks all for all of your help.

[Rhyen Skytracker]

It depends on what power supply you use, what LED you use and which transistor you use. I will usually wire everything up and measure how much voltage and current is going to the LED before I determine which resistor to use.

[WickedWharf]

Okay cool thanks for your help I'll go ahead and order the parts now and wire it up and then figure it all out. I really appreciate the quick response.

[RevengeoftheSeth]

Tim sells Blue Rebel Stars in the store, too. That's what I am using.

The thing is, if you use a 2010 Hasbro board, you are going to get a different reading off of the transistor that you would just straight from the batteries. Like Rhyen said, meter it first to be extra sure. I used a 1000mA buckpuck and it works great.

The reason you will get different readings is because you have other devices in the circuit to pull some of the energy off of the line.

[sharpblade81]

Thanks for your help reguarding the flash effect you guys. I think i'll just leave it be, it's just too much work for Matt's "yes" answer