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Topic:
LED Blade Q and A's
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UltraSWG
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
8/8/05 8:29pm
Subject:
LED Blade Q and A's
- Date Edited:
8/8/05 8:50pm (2 edits total)
Edited By:
UltraSWG
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I really feel bad about derailing Jedi Loreen's thread, so I won't be posting there anymore. If you have any questions about LED blades, post them here and I'll try to answer. While there are people considerably more experienced than me (Corbin, Shannon, Ionsabers, etc), I have built several LED and EL sabers, and have converted some MRFX LED sabers to Luxeon and will answer whatever I can.
If there is anyone else out there with LED expertise, I'd love to swap some info with ya.
Here's some general info.
The LED's being used in most of the LED sabers being created now days are 1watt and 3watt Luxeons. The 1watt Luxeons come in Star/o form, which includes the LED emitter, optics, and an aluminum plate:
Star/o's are easy to work with and produce very little heat. Different colors have different brightnesses on the Star/o's. The brightest colors are red, red/orange, and green which are rated for over 50 lumens. You can see the different colors and their lumen rating on the manufacturer's website, you can order the LED's from there as well:
http://www.lumileds.com/products/family.cfm?familyId=2
The power setup I have been using for 1watt Luxeons has proven to be easy and reliable:
Four AAA batteries run in series through an 8ohm 1watt resistor directly to the LED
I use AAA's instead of AA's because I use a smaller 1.25"OD hilt instead of the larger 1.5"
As for the blade, I use 1" polycarb with the 1/16"OD from USplastics. It's inexpensive, and has proven to be very rigid with hardly any flex. For the diffuser, I have been using the custom blade film from Corbin Das http://www.youcanknow.org/corbin
The Star/o fits inside the blade up to the aluminum plate.
The technique I use is to secure the Star/o under the blade holder inside the hilt. Then the blade slides inside the blade holder, over the star/o, and is held in place with a thumb screw.
There is nothing inside the detachable blades of my sabers except the blade film. The hilt contains the LED inside and if you're walking around outside without the blade, the hilt makes a nice torch. It's nice not having to worry about frying an inverter by accidently hitting the power with no load.
Anyway, if you can think of anymore questions, post em.
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Strydur
Registered:
May '05
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Date Posted:
8/8/05 10:51pm
Subject:
RE: LED Blade Q and A's
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UltraSWG,
Thanks for starting a thread to share your info on LED's
I have some LED's on the way and am looking forward to trying them out. I found some 8.2OHM 1W resistors, I hope they will do the trick.
Corbin is on vacation for about 2 more weeks so cant get any film. Can you explain in more detail how the film works or what it is made of. Maybe I can find a alternative until he gets back. Got any pictures of it?
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Jedi-Magus
Registered:
Jul '05
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Date Posted:
8/8/05 10:57pm
Subject:
RE: LED Blade Q and A's
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Glad this was moved to another thread.
I was asking around, but no responce yet.
I have used Solid core, side light, fibre optic cable before. I know it comes in 3/4", cheap, and might be easier then a defuser film in the blade.
I was thinking it might make a good blade, by running the solid core in a Poly C tube like the EL blades, but with a good LED underneath. It would need a reflector of some kind im sure for the LED, And i know some LEDs have a angeled output patterns to the light.
The end LED/Optic cable holder might be a bit hard.
The cable i used was with a BIG projector box to run it, with Halogen lamps for use in a night club. I think the newer LEDs might be bright enough now a days.( the old install was about 3 years ago )
Has anyone Played with this idea?
Just wondering, because i cant afford to make one just to test it right now.
Im not sure about any of this, sites that sell LEDs are a bit confusing with all the info, but, just a thought I hadnt heard mentioned yet.
Im so confused by all the LED VS. EL VS. power VS. brightness, discussions going around, I just want a good and bright blade, but dont need to light up a room.
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UltraSWG
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
8/8/05 11:10pm
Subject:
RE: LED Blade Q and A's
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Well, it's a very thin translucent white plastic that has what looks like ridges in it. I can't really describe it much better than that. I might have a scrap piece of it lying around that I can take a pic of.
The stuff was pretty hard to use at first. You have to cut it to match the inside circumference of your blade so that there is only a tiny overlap. If you don't cut it close, you'll get a seam in your blade. Then I had to roll it around a small dowel and slip it into the blade. Like I said, difficult at first, but I have the hang of it now.
I have been experimenting with different diffuser techniques. Honestly, the best results I have gotten so far are on the MRFX conversions. The MR blades have a very thin white plastic tubing inside their 1" polyC blades. Corbin described it as a "dual tube" design. I'm trying to reproduce the effect with some thin wall polyE tube that I ordered from mcmaster. The MRFX blades light up very nicely with the single Luxeon, so if you happen to have one lying around, try it out.
I bought 5 nonfunctional MRFX sabers on ebay from ajcollecting, just do a search for "FX Bundle"
And I have some more questions for Corbin, but yeah, he's gone till the 22nd, damnit.
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Strydur
Registered:
May '05
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Date Posted:
8/8/05 11:13pm
Subject:
RE: LED Blade Q and A's
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Cool, I have a MR blade lying around. So the thin piece inside those is pretty much the same thing?
So, if I was to get some custom made 1" OD polyc colored white I would be good to go eh?
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UltraSWG
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
8/8/05 11:24pm
Subject:
RE: LED Blade Q and A's
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Strydur posted:
Cool, I have a MR blade lying around. So the thin piece inside those is pretty much the same thing?
So, if I was to get some custom made 1" OD polyc colored white I would be good to go eh?
It's not the same as corbin's blade film. The blade film produces a coring effect down the center of the blade and gives the illusion of a taper. The white tube in the MRFX lights up with the color of the LED and it is more uniform. It's very EL'ish (just brighter), and my wife and kids seem to think it looks better.
I think if you got some white polyC it would work very well, can you really do that? How much do you think it would cost?
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UltraSWG
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
8/8/05 11:28pm
Subject:
RE: LED Blade Q and A's
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Jedi Magus, I have been thinking about side-emitting fiber for awhile and am just not sure how well it would work. I haven't found a supplier to even talk to about it. I have seen an LED powered lamp for the cable, but it did not look very portable.
http://www.fiberopticproducts.com/Novabright.htm
It looks promising, just not sure if the tech is here yet.
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Strydur
Registered:
May '05
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Date Posted:
8/8/05 11:55pm
Subject:
RE: LED Blade Q and A's
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I could get some made yes..will I is a different story. 
I will have to see how the testing goes.
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UltraSWG
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
8/8/05 11:59pm
Subject:
RE: LED Blade Q and A's
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I'd like to try some colored polyC tubes, I think those would work well, too. Do you have the hookups on any of those?
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Shavoc
Registered:
Aug '05
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Date Posted:
8/9/05 7:39am
Subject:
RE: LED Blade Q and A's
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Hello Ultra,
kinda new here, I have done a couple of searches and saw examples of the EL sabers do you have any examples of the LED with the configuration you mentioned above? Thanks
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Shavoc
Registered:
Aug '05
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Date Posted:
8/9/05 9:25am
Subject:
RE: LED Blade Q and A's
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Another quick question I was noticing the Star-O's have different distribution patterns, which is the norm in this case? do they all come with the same optics? Thanks
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Darth_Feral
Registered:
Jul '05
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Date Posted:
8/9/05 11:58am
Subject:
RE: LED Blade Q and A's
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Thanks for the info, I had been wondering on how to go about getting my hands on some higher rate materials since i heard that MR was using some kind of LED technology.
BTW (OT)
Your discussion in that other thread about that company was kick a$$.
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Dªr+h Ѫçh+1Ñ15 ƒ3rª|
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UltraSWG
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
8/9/05 7:05pm
Subject:
RE: LED Blade Q and A's
- Date Edited:
8/9/05 7:12pm (3 edits total)
Edited By:
Sister_Sola
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S_S edit: removed comments that are a flame war waiting to happen. People are entitled to their opinions, and you may disagree, but do not resort to casting aspersions on those opinions or people's intelligence.
LED's are used in traffic lights and are replacing normal bulbs in automobile lights. Hasn't anyone seen the LED array on the back of a Cadillac? You can easily see those LED's in daylight, and they aren't even considered 'powerful' like the Luxeons.
Anyway, to answer Shavoc's question, Batwing and Lambertian patterns both work well in LED sabers. All Star/o's use the same optics.
For those disappointed with red EL being too dim, a red Luxeon saber will definately please. Here's some pics of LED sabers made by Shannon using a dual-tube design:
I'll be taking some new pics of my latest MRFX luxeon conversions here soon.
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UltraSWG
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
8/9/05 7:30pm
Subject:
RE: LED Blade Q and A's
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Looks like the mod pwn'd my post, so I'll repost the context more tactfully. Someone posted in another thread that you can't see LED's in daylight, or rather, that they weren't easily seen in daylight. Just look around you and you can see LED's everywhere. Most traffic lights now days are LED arrays, and many cars use LED's in their tailights. You can easily see them in the day, so obviously, that statement is incorrect.
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Shavoc
Registered:
Aug '05
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Date Posted:
8/10/05 5:47am
Subject:
RE: LED Blade Q and A's
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Well, I have a green star-o on the way (you dont see too many green blades) ... should be here later this week once I have finished assembly I will post it here. Thanks for the feed back
How did you set up your heat sink? Thanks
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Maleficant
Registered:
Jun '02
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Date Posted:
8/10/05 6:03am
Subject:
RE: LED Blade Q and A's
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Ohhhh....
I am about to start work on a custom Sith saber and I was about to purchase an EL red blade but I know that LED red blades are brighter so if anyone can point me in the direction to purchase a finished Red LED blade, via pm, I would be so grateful.
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