ACEDIA - Custom saber safe costuming prop and 2.25W cutting laser
**************************** WARNING ******************************
CLASS 4 Lasers are not a toy or a joke. Not only are they capable of cutting through plastic and setting things on fire at short range but at just 0.5W they can cause flash blindness in seconds. Just the indirect reflection of a 2W focused class 4 laser can cause instant flash blindness at over 500 Feet. This laser in particular in the 445nm range has a visible range of around 6 Nautical miles?to put that in perspective. That?s 36,457? (11,112 m). The height of Mt Everest is only 29,029' (8,848 m). These things are no joke and should be treated like a loaded gun. You should use appropriate Eye protection at all times. Improper handling or use can not only hurt you or those around you but can land you in serious jail time. Your typical laser pointer. The type that you get from the store to play with pets or use at for a presentation range from 0.1-0.5W. Depending on the make and model. People have gone to jail and done months to years for pointing even these low powered lasers into traffic on a freeway and at airplanes in the sky?. If you decide to mess with any form of true laser diode do your research first.
I did lots of research before stepping up from the class 2 LEDs we use now like the tri rebels to the class 4 True laser diode I am currently using. I suggest anyone considering this do the same. Educate your self on just how damaging this can be to you and how much trouble it can land you in. Google is a wonderful resource.
Now, with that said and out of the way. They are still amazingly cool to see in action and with the proper handling they are relatively harmless. So I would like to introduce everyone here to my Custom Saber.
****************************** ACEDIA *******************************
The word Acedia in a very round about way translates into ?perpetual boredom.? This is an adequate explanation of how this saber came to be in the first place. When I get bored I build things, and if I am not messing with my MTG cards for modern tourney play I almost always I find my self tinkering away on this thing.
In its current configuration this is Acedia ?Mark 3? this thing was started over 3 years ago and has been upgraded time and time again as tech and money allowed to reach its current configuration.
Origin of this saber ? It started as a 03 Master replica Luke that I was given for X-mas by my mother in high school. The hilt was so thick it felt awkward in my hand and I was unlucky enough to get a blade with two LEDs mid way up that were broken OTB. I always loved two sabers from the movies in particular. Luke?s from original Ep 1 (now 4) the front cowl was my favorite part. And Qui-gon Jinn?s light saber from the new Ep 1. I always liked the black ribbed grip with the chrome look. So I decide to combine the two in mine.
Saber inspiration pics
Luke -
Qui Gon Jinn -
Mark 1 ? Used a single Blue Rebel driven by the gutted 03 MR Luke board on 4x AAA set up with a 3.7v Power level indicator, premium speaker and two latching switches. One switch to supply the Circuit with power and a second to activate the blade/sound. Although the brightness and sound was more than adequate and leaps and bounds over any toy I had seen off a shelf. I was never truly satisfied with it. In particular, with the swing action. It would trigger when I didn?t want it to or would not trigger all the time when it was supposed to.
I totally gutted the Mark 1 about a year ago and upgraded to Mark 2. Below is a picture of the components from Mark 1 mounted on the display board I now use when giving classes on custom saber building to a local collectors club called the ?Red Stick Rebellion? a collectors club of all things Star Wars. Books, Posters, New and old toys all the way up to rare collectables. But primarily they are a non-profit organization that does toy drives in the Baton Rouge area for kids of less fortunate families during the holidays. During the down season (Summer Months) they get together once a month at a local library to socialize and talk Star Wars and have guest speakers. I?m slated to do another lecture this year sometime on TCSS and MHS building with my good friend and coworker that I got into this hobby as well. Most of these people are also involved with either the local 501st or Rebel legion trooping groups as well.
(Pic of display Board ? PLI on) -
(pic of display Board ? Main LED on) -
Mark 2 ? Was supposed to be the end all be all for this saber, I upgraded to a PCv3, with a Blue/Blue/White Tri-Rebel a Rechargeable 7.4V LI-Ion battery set up with built in charging port and a new PLI for that voltage range. It ran great. I loved it! With the programmable board I was able to tailor the swing responsiveness to my satisfaction. I had the two Blue LEDs running in series and the white driven for flash on clash so it triggered during lockup, blaster blocking and clashes. It was impressive to behold. All my friends and family loved it as well.
Then about 3-4 months ago got involved with the local Star Wars costume trooping club. The Rebel Legion ? Dagobah Base. At my first event I was not in costume and I got to be the ?Wrangler/Cape boy? for Darth Vader while we did a Star Wars read day at a local Barns and noble. The guy had invested over $3500 in his Vader costume it was so impressive I was instantly hooked and started working on my own costume for all the events coming up in October. I am trooping as just a generic Jedi my self. With an event almost every Weekend in OCT including a Star Wars read Day at B&N, an event at our local Zoo call ?Boo at the Zoo? and the city?s Halloween parade (here is to hoping it doesn?t get rained out again!)
(Pic or vader with book) -
For some reason I got the bug and decided to go from the Blue/Blue/White to a Green/Green/White Tri rebel and I had a catastrophic failure of the diode array when one of the green (+) soldering pads fell off as soon as heat was applied. I was using only a 5w iron and I was using solder with a resin core. The same iron and solder I have done all of my past projects with so it wasn?t me using to hot of an iron. I contacted Tim to let him know what happened, we were unable to determine why this happened. Also I contacted him not to complain but more in the event if he had other failures like this and had to track a bad batch of parts or something. This is the only part I have ever had fail that I have gotten from TCSS. So I am still a loyal customer and totally support the store, Thank you Tim for providing such high quality parts at the prices you do for us lesser beings that have to do all our work with a handheld rotary tool, like my self.
This failure led me to go looking for an alternative to the TCSS tri-rebel. I started by going back to the drawing board and looked at just what my driver/battery setup could support and I then went on the hunt. This led me to the Laser pointer forums and various YouTube videos of class 4s burning through stuff. I was hooked. With my enthusiasm I went to the G/F to show her just what I had in mind and the reaction was not quite what I expected.
Her response went something like this ?Out of everything you have ever built, guns included, this thing creeps me out the most.? I almost dropped the idea right there because I wanted to maintain the ability to use this saber as part of my costume but I also wanted to have it be ability to cut. Mainly because when people see my light saber I get asked three questions usually in this order.
Q1.) How long did it take to make? A.)Mark 1 took about 6 months from Photoshop to prototype.
Q2.) How much did that thing cost? A.) Between $800-$1000 with R&D screw ups and upgrades over the past 3 years.
This leads to one of two typical question?s/statements
Q3a.) Can it cut? A.) As a costuming prop no? that would be irresponsible and unsafe.
Q3b.) So you spent $1000 on a fancy flash light?.
I never have an answer to this last one as I am sure anyone taking the time to read this post can relate to the hours of work, blood, sweat and tears that goes into creating our custom works of art. It hurts when someone says that derogatory of a comment off the cuff like that. Now, I have an answer to both 3 a and 3 b lol. YES?YES it can cut?and NO I spent $1000 on a home defense Laser system? lol ?The headline in the paper would be great ?Man defends home with Light Saber?
I pondered over the comments made by my G/F and the issue of making a prop/true laser for a few days and actually got my current idea from the no longer cannon books. In which they talk about Jedi Master Koren Horn having an adjustable length light saber.
I started doing my research and finally settled on using a Class 4 M140 445nm 2W Blue laser diode that I got from DTR?s Amazon store for around $60. Just a few years ago the only way to obtain a class 4 was directly from a manufacture and they ran in the ball park of about $2000 and up. Nowadays they are ?harvested? from DLP projectors and resold for reasonable prices to the budget minded people like my self.
I got a completed module housed in a 12mm x 30mm copper tube/heat sink and purchased a separate G2 focusing lens for another $20 that would give a cleaner dot with less side splash and a 30% increase in optical power output. I also got a 12mm Hardened Stainless Steel drill bit from amazon for around $7. I took apart the Defective green tri-rebel and used the 12mm bit on my shops drill press to core out a hole in the V3 heat sink to house the Diode. It slid in perfectly and from there all I had to do was add an 8-32 set screw in one of the side channels of the heat sink to hold it in place. I then applied Artic Sliver 5 thermal compound to the area where the copper meets the aluminum housing and in the threading of the blade holder and the first ribbed extension to aid in the thermal dissipation. Much like you do with a CPU core and an aluminum heat sink in a PC.
(pic of completed laser diode) -
I configured the PCv3 with the same sound files in banks 1-3 with the exception of the ?boot? sound so I could tell what power level I was currently on. I used ?Greymeat? in banks 1-3 as it had the best resonance with the premium base speaker but kept the ?boot? sounds from light and dark meat while moving those to banks 1 and 2 respectively. I then went on the hunt for a custom boot sound for bank 3. I scored a home run when I found a collection of sound files from iron man two. One of which is Jarvis saying ?Sir, the reactor has accepted the modified core. I will begin running diagnostics.? I was a giddy as a school girl, lol. I downloaded a separate free program called ?Audacity? and formatted it to work with the PCv3.
I proceeded to configure banks one through three in progressive power levels and adjusted the different configurations.
Bank 1 ? set at 300mA runs just under 0.25W of optical power. I left the blade flickering and flash on clash affects set to defaults.
Bank 2 ? set at 600mA runs at around 0.05W of optical power. I played around with the Ficker and Flash on clash settings so that it dug deeper into the blue color but pulsed at a slightly slower and more random rate. Level one is for trooping events indoors, and level two is for events out side where I need the extra brightness.
Bank 3 ? set to 1800mA and runs at almost 2.5W of optical power with the G2 lens. This thing is totally sick. It projects a beam visible to the naked eye when the lens is focused to its optimal setting. I edited the config file and disabled the Flash on clash, lock up and flicker affects. This is the ?Burn? setting. It just drives the LED at a constant current.
Saber with blade @ 300mA ?
Saber with blade @ 600mA ?
Saber with blade @ 1800mA ?
Oddly enough on settings for banks 1 and 2 I have more battery life than I did using the Tri-rebel, and the M140 diode in the copper heat sink it came with stays cool enough that you can hold it in your hand. It gets about as hot as a warm piece of toast. So heat is less than with the tri-rebel as well. It just gets warm to the touch on these lower settings.
Now by this point some of you are asking how in the world did you manage to get it to be both a laser able to cut and something safe to use around kids. I did this by making two modifications to my original design. The first of which is to the ring that screws onto the focusing lens. I counter sunk two holes into the outer edge and then used push pins with flat backs like you would use in sowing and a mountain of solder to secure them to the ring upside down. After using my rotary tool to sculpt the solder and trim the push pins down to about a half inch in height it allows me to stick my finger into the blade holder and simply twist the lens with the 3 points of contact to defocus/refocus the beam into a nickel sized dot or pin point. This diffusion on the two lower power settings works great. Not only does it project a solid wide beam up to the very tip of the blade but it utilizes the full white internal diffuser tube without having to add inner layers of cellophane to carry the light up it.
(Pic of unmodified ring side by side to modified ring) -
With the low power setting there is virtually no heat and the defocused beam while still dangerous to the naked eye is completely contained in the acrylic blade while doing no harm to it.
On a side note. I got a taste of just how painful an eye injury can be. Even using safety glasses I managed to get a piece of the solder from trimming down the ring in my eye and scratched the underside of my lid?you NEVER want to feel this kind of pain. Trust me. It ruined my whole weekend. Lucky minor abrasions like this heal in 24-72 hours and I started to feel better after about 48.
In addition to this I added a second kill plug in a 2.1mm power jack in front of the PLI. When the plug is inserted this totally kills the power going to the Laser diode rendering it totally harmless. So power can be running to the board and the PLI lit up so the hilt can swing from my belt while trooping with out the fear of it activating and hurting some one. Also this acts as a second safety while adjusting the focusing ring to and from the alignment dots I set in it to show the optimal focusing point to use with the burn setting.
Safety -
Saftey w/kill key -
So now I have a saber I can safely use as a cosplay prop or a true laser sword that has a blade length that can reach the cursing altitude of a commercial jet liner.
So like I told my G/F. If you hear Jarvis.. you know **** just got real.
Now for the part all of you have been waiting for, The GLAM!
Pic of saber before weathering ?
Pic of saber after weathering ?
Close up on switch box weathering ?
Pic of holes burned through back of 4mm thick cow hide pouch -
YouTube Burning vids
Beta test burn 1500mA ? www.youtube.com/embed/-bWDle3qJuo
First test burn 1800mA ? www.youtube.com/embed/xu1MGrP6LEA
Second burn 1800mA different angle ? www.youtube.com/embed/XPuuLdC9_EE
Cow hide burn ? www.youtube.com/embed/go2iW-yq88w
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Originally Posted by Sevinzol
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