Wanting to upgrade, not sure which parts to get...

[Darth Animus]

Hi everybody!

My girlfriend's sabers are a bit out of date, built several years before we got together (they even have triple-claws that aren't made anymore), and I've been thinking of upgrading them for brightness, guarded switches, and recharge. Currently, I've put in some Seoul P4 whites, and she's running 4xAAA, non-rechargable packs. They dim pretty quickly, and to make it worse, one of them has a purple LEE Filter (other is plain white.)

I've been recommended to get RGB led's and lithium batteries, but what parts from TCSS would I need to get the brightest white and purple possible? I've seen the warnings about lithium batteries being special, but the linked site is a bit overwhelming. My own saber has a deep red led and buckpuck, and I'm handy with a soldering iron, but to be honest, I needed help picking out the parts for that one, too.

Any help you guys can offer is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

PS: Sound isn't required, as we perform on stage where they can't be heard.

[Silver Serpent]

Alkalines just don't hold their charge very long, and voltage drops rapidly under load. AAA batteries are really bad about this. 9v are even worse.

Lithium ion battery packs are generally safe for use in sabers, assuming they're built properly, have appropriate PCBs, and don't get banged around too much inside the saber.

P4 whites are great for a white bladed saber. Give it a single li-ion and this http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/1o...istor-P21.aspx resistor, and it'll be just fine. Or use a 7.4v li-ion pack and a 1000mA buckpuck. Either option is fine.

For the purple, grab a Tri-Rebel RGB, and then you get to experience the joy of color mixing! You want to use the red and blue dice of the RGB. You can wire them in parallel, and put a resistor on the red to get the perfect shade of purple (exact resistor value will vary). OR you can wire them in series and you'll get a longer runtime at the expense of being able to tweak the color as easily. You can do the parallel Tri-Rebel setup on a single li-ion if you choose, but the series setup will demand 2x li-ions.

If that sounds like more effort than you want to put in right now (or too much expense), then you could just upgrade both P4 whites to li-ion and use the filter. It's not ideal, but it is still an option. You won't have the dimming issue with li-ions like you do with the alkalines. If you use a buckpuck with a 7.4v pack (it won't work properly with a single li-ion), then you shouldn't have ANY dimming issues until it's time to recharge.

[Darth Animus]

It's that getting banged around that worries me. We do stage combat, and our sabers take a beating. Would the chassis parts help to keep things intact?

[Silver Serpent]

They would indeed. That's why they were developed You can either build your own chassis from scratch or use the premade parts from TCSS.

[Darth Animus]

Thank you so much for the help so far. I took electronics in high school and I swear I used to know this stuff...

Ok, I don't mean to pester, but I have another round of questions. (It's how we learn, right?) These might fall away from a parts list forum, but the conversation started here and I don't want to break it up.

1.You said to use a 7.4V Li-Ion pack, but there are several to choose from. If I've done my research right, mAh (milliamp hours) refer only to run time potential (bigger batteries run longer), where as the mA (milliamps) refers to how much the LED uses. So, If I haven't confused myself, as long as the voltage is high enough a 1000mA LED can run off of a 800mAh battery, but for 0.8 hours. A 1400mAh battery could run it for 1.4 hours give or take. Or have I missed the point entirely?

2.That said, which li-ion pack would you use for the white p4, and which for the rgb? I assume running two LED's combined to 1700mA would require larger batteries, but I'm also trying to keep weight down and brightness up.

3.Are there dimensions on the battery packs and whatnot? I'm trying to get this to all fit into a basic hilt main body, and I'm not seeing sizes on some things. Are there plans on adding more components to the MHS builder?

4.For buckpucks, I know they even out the flow of electricity by basically acting like a self adjusting resistor, but do they change the actual lumen output at all?

I know, I'm a pest, but I'm eager to learn And thank you again.

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

Thank you so much for the help so far. I took electronics in high school and I swear I used to know this stuff...

Ok, I don't mean to pester, but I have another round of questions. (It's how we learn, right?) These might fall away from a parts list forum, but the conversation started here and I don't want to break it up.

1.You said to use a 7.4V Li-Ion pack, but there are several to choose from. If I've done my research right, mAh (milliamp hours) refer only to run time potential (bigger batteries run longer), where as the mA (milliamps) refers to how much the LED uses. So, If I haven't confused myself, as long as the voltage is high enough a 1000mA LED can run off of a 800mAh battery, but for 0.8 hours. A 1400mAh battery could run it for 1.4 hours give or take. Or have I missed the point entirely?

2.That said, which li-ion pack would you use for the white p4, and which for the rgb? I assume running two LED's combined to 1700mA would require larger batteries, but I'm also trying to keep weight down and brightness up.

3.Are there dimensions on the battery packs and whatnot? I'm trying to get this to all fit into a basic hilt main body, and I'm not seeing sizes on some things. Are there plans on adding more components to the MHS builder?

4.For buckpucks, I know they even out the flow of electricity by basically acting like a self adjusting resistor, but do they change the actual lumen output at all?

I know, I'm a pest, but I'm eager to learn And thank you again.

1. You have it right.

2. It all depend on HOW you run multiple LEDs. running them in series doubles the voltage, running them in parallel doubles the current needed.

3. Battery dimensions: the first 2 numbers are the diameter in mm's and the next 2 numbers are the length in mm's. For packs, you either double the first or the last 2 numbers depending on the configuration.

4. There may be a nominal effect on the lumens.

Yeah, yeah, I know EVERYONE wants insanely bright, it to weigh next to nothing and it should run forever. I've heard it all before.

[Jordandau]

Yeah, yeah, I know EVERYONE wants insanely bright, it to weigh next to nothing and it should run forever. I've heard it all before.

Don't forget be cheap too.

[Silver Serpent]

FJK has the right answers.

Just as a bit of information regarding li-ion sizes: 14500 batteries are AA sized. Two 14500s side-by-side will fit inside unmodified MHS parts, but two 18650s will not. That's why you don't see any side-by-side packs of 18650s in the store.

[Darth Animus]

Okay, I think I'm starting to get a hang of this...

Using everything else from TCSS, If I were to get a rB-rB-R tri rebel http://www.luxeonstar.com/Predefined...-03-000122.htm (I'm thinking this will give a nice, not-too-pinkish purple and good brightness) the royal blues being 3.25V, red being 2.1v, all 700mAh, would this be a suitable wiring? Adding in a switch, of course.



I used the single LED resistor calculator linked in Silver's signature for the values. So, if I have this right, all three LEDs should be at 2100mA, run for just over an hour, and each voltage is addressed individually by the resistors, yes?

Is there a better way you guys can think of? I had the idea that maybe one 700mA buckpuck could do this, if out of the puck you run Blues in their own series and paralleled with the Red. Am I nuts or just tired?

[Silver Serpent]

Your diagram will work just fine. To save on space, you could wire any two of your LEDs in series and use a single resistor for the pair of them. For instance, Rb+R = 5.35v OR Rb+Rb = 6.5v. You'd only need to use two resistors in this case, and you'd save some space in the hilt. You can't wire all three in series, or you'll exceed the voltage of your battery pack.

If you go the buckpuck route, you'll need at least two pucks. If you have the blues run in parallel with the red, then each set will only get 350mA of current.

On paper, you are correct and should get just over an hour of runtime. In practice, it doesn't usually work that well. It should be close though.