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Thread: 1999 Hasbro Electronic Qui-Gon Jinn Lightsaber board

  1. #1

    Default 1999 Hasbro Electronic Qui-Gon Jinn Lightsaber board

    Sorry for the awkward thread title, but I wanted to be as precise as possible. I just got hold of this, and am rather impressed. The sounds are pretty good, particularly when using a decent speaker. The fire-up/fire-down sound is more like a lock-up sound, but the idle hum is quite good. The clash randomly varies between a simple clash and a clash followed by a motion sound. There is no motion sensor, and therefore no motion sound. This sounds a lot better to me than the generic Jedi Force Action Lightsaber I inquired about here. (In that one, the idle hum sounds more like the rumbling of a massive dynamo than a lightsaber, and the motion sound is abrupt and annoying.)

    Anyway, there are several varieties of Hasbro boards, but apart from this thread (which talks about combining it with a Corbin board), this particular variation hasn't been discussed much, so I thought I would add a basic wiring schematic and labeled photo of the board.



    In one of the threads about Hasbro boards, someone said running a pre-LED Hasbro board with 4AAA batteries would fry it, but this one (which came with a generic flashlight bulb) seems to be working fine with the 4.8 volts coming from my battery pack.

    On fire-up and fire-down, the light blinks three times, which some people might find annoying. I'm sure there's a way to bypass the board and hook the light up directly to the battery pack, but that's beyond my electronics knowledge (which is kindergarten level). Maybe someone could post a schematic for that kind of setup here.

    BTW, the hilt on this product is surprisingly nice, and fairly true to real thing. If you want a lightweight hilt to hang from your belt for a costume, this is perfect. Earlier, I had bought a Rubies' Qui-Gon saber toy for precisely that purpose, but it looked awful. I now have a beautiful Qui-Gon saber custom made for me by DoClo, but I'm going to hang on to this hilt for possible costuming purposes.

    Now I'd like to come up with a schematic for this that includes a charge port. If someone beats me to it, by all means please post it here.

    P.S.: I thought I had overpaid for this (I got it for 1800 yen, or $18.90 U.S., on Yahoo! Auctions Japan), but I see one going for $34.98 U.S. on Amazon.com, and another on eBay U.K. with a Buy It Now price of £14.99 ($23.08 U.S.), so I guess I did pretty well.
    Last edited by Matt Thorn; 11-27-2008 at 09:33 PM.

  2. #2

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    Here's the schematic with a charger port. (Note that this is a Canon 2.1mm-type port, with 3 posts.)

    And here's a close-up of how the port should be wired, since this often seems to be the most confusing.

    And here's a photo of an actual set-up (minus the LED, which I eagerly await from TCSS).

    I'm really happy with this board. It's simple, and the sound is quite good. I can do without the "flashing" on fire-up and fire-down, but considering it only cost me about $18, I'm not complaining.

  3. #3

    Question Questions about variations

    Questions:

    1) I'd like to use this same board for my next saber, but I'd like to bypass the board and directly connect the LED to the battery pack, so that I won't have the annoying blinking on fire-up and fire-down. How would I wire it?

    2) I'd like to add an accent light. I'm assuming it would need the appropriate resistor. How would I wire the accent light in?

    After searching the message boards here and over at fx-sabers.com, I have a vague idea how these things might be done, but I'm not certain.

    Thanks in advance for any help!

  4. #4

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    Does this look right?


    EDIT: With this wiring, the light stays on as long as the kill plug is not inserted into the recharge port, or the batteries are removed. I tried moving the LED's negative lead to the negative (white) wire of the switch, but the results were identical. I'm thinking I need a switch that can handle two separate connections simultaneously. Once again, I'm out of my depths. Any suggestions?
    Last edited by Matt Thorn; 12-12-2008 at 11:56 PM.

  5. #5

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    Still talking to myself here.

    I'm wondering how I could fit a Corbin board into this wiring setup. I've seen plenty of diagrams for the Corbin with an MR board, and with the "Force Action"-type Hasbro board, but not with this kind of board, which is (to my eyes) very different from the Force Action version.

    I know it would be easier to simply get a UltraSound 2.0, but I have one, and frankly I find it a bit buggy. I don't know if it's because I'm using a mechanical plunger switch, but once in a while it just shuts off completely when I tap the switch for the lock-up sound. (Yes, I have read all the threads about the US 2.0 quirks, and the kill switch on my recharge port has solved most of them.) So I'm thinking about combining this Hasbro board (I like it so much I now have four) with a Corbin board (which I don't have yet).

    I'll try to think up my own solution, but I'm posting this anyway, on the off chance that an experienced sabersmith actually reads this post and can give me a quick answer. Thanks in advance for any advice.

  6. #6
    Council Member Novastar's Avatar
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    Sorry Matt! I'd love to help (and normally people are pretty quick to respond), but I've very little to no experience with Hasbro boards.

    Also--people are probably busy with the holiDAZE... so... be patient!
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  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Novastar View Post
    Sorry Matt! I'd love to help (and normally people are pretty quick to respond), but I've very little to no experience with Hasbro boards.

    Also--people are probably busy with the holiDAZE... so... be patient!
    Thanks, Novastar. I'll see what I can glean from the other Hasbro/Corbin threads (I know there's at least one).

  8. #8

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    Sorry to bring this very old thread back from the dead, but in lew of there being any soundboards available for quite a while, I dissected an old 1999 Qui-Gon toy saber. And knowing the wealth of knowledge that flows through these boards I figured this would be the place to look for answers.

    I will be getting all the parts for my first saber construction at the end of the week which include a SPST momentary switch for a US board (whenever those come back - planning ahead here) and a Seoul P4 Electronics Kit.

    My question is one that was asked in this thread that was never answered nor is it answered in the related thread about combining this Hasbro board with a Corbin driver (linked a few posts up) and that is:

    1) I'd like to use this board in this saber, but I'd like to bypass the board and directly connect the LED to the battery pack, so that I won't have the annoying blinking on fire-up and fire-down. How would I wire it?


    Any input would be greatly appreciated.

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by grimzaar View Post
    I'd like to use this board in this saber, but I'd like to bypass the board and directly connect the LED to the battery pack, so that I won't have the annoying blinking on fire-up and fire-down. How would I wire it?
    I haven't tested this, but I think it should work. Hopefully someone with a better knowledge of electrical issues will check it for problems. This requires a momentary DPDT, which are not terribly common. The one problem I know will occur is that when the board's automatic shut-off kicks in, the LED will stay on, and next time you press the DPDT switch, the sound will come on and the LED will turn off. The simplest way to prevent this is to whack the thing periodically to reset the shut-off timer, but if it does shut off, just press the DPDT and wait for the automatic shut-off to trigger again. Then the board and the LED should be back in synch. Again, I haven't tested this, I just thought of it when I read your question, so no guarantees.
    There's always a bigger fish.

  10. #10

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    Hi!
    strangely I've got the SAME problem like you had with the board. I bought an old qui-gon saber,too. But I can't find a way to avoid the blinking!
    Does your method work?
    Hope we can help eachother!

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