Lightsabers & Blasters Jedi-Loreen's EL Lightsaber Blade Tutorial

Well, that's not my fault, I put my zip code in there, so it should say my city of Anaheim. I don't know why it doesn't. And I don't know how to make it display anymore information about that.

(And yes, I do go to Disneyland a lot. I'm just one freeway exit away! I've had an annual Pass for the last 3 years.)

 

That's ok, I was just messing with you J-loreen. (It's that serious thing that I keep having problems with. People tell me I can't be serious, so I try very hard to prove them right.) I did that also. Mine now reads country - Alabama I typed it in the box beside the box with USA in it. (I just guessed at that) I'll bet Disneyland is lots of fun.

 

That thing's retarded. Now mine says: Country "Anaheim, CA"

 

You know, i think there should be a thread that is just for talking about hilts in general......Maybie I'll start one.

I found my profile, but I have absolutly no idea how to edit it.....

 

Click on "Options" at the top of the page, then click on "Change Your User Details" to modify your profile.

 

ic thanks!

 

No Problemo

 

If you check out the Your Lightsaber section, I just posted the directions to remove the blade from the Luke Skywalker MR Force FX Lightsaber, but in short, it just pushes out the bottom of the saber - breaking the on/off switch wires during the process - unless you do that yourself with the directions I point out...

Mainly I am eating up all the data on EL Blades you all have so wonderfully posted here!

Thanks and best wishes,

Ray Hayden

 

Forgive me for putting up this question here, but since it is vaguely related and I can find no other thread for this....

Does anyone know, is this the famous Jeff Parks? Just curious.
[image=http://jedigear.com/images/Table1.jpg]

 

I am pretty sure his name is Chris and he works for Jeff.

 

That is most definitely not Jeff. I have met him several times and have even hung out with him after some cons before.

 

Thanks Tim and Loreen! Dummy me, I should have done a Google search. Duh! I think I found him:
[image=http://www.parksabers.com/images2004/c3.jpg]

Anyway, did anyone ever figured out why he uses stereo plugs on his blades? And are his hilts equipped with stereo jacks or just mono?

 

Someone theorized a ground, but I don't see that as necessary.

Maybe he built some sort of protection circuit into his sabers. I don't know, I've never taken one apart.

I guess someone will have to ask him, some day.

 

Loreen, make an LED saber, you know you want to.

 

LOL. I do. Some day.

I need to read through your whole thread though, to see everything it's going to take. I've just been skimming.

And looking at the pics of everyone else's sabers they have been creating with the help of you, Strydur and Corbin.

I'm not sure what color I want. Probably blue or green. But since I'm used to having so many different colors of EL blades, I may have to try one of those nifty color changing blades like what jtsteph did with a white LED.

 

Hey Jedi-Loreen,

Go with a RED LED. They are powerful and make for a much nicer blade than what, I at least have been able to accomplish with EL. That's my next project. Green Lux turned out great for me, but I still see it as a toss-up between EL and LED. The one thing I like about LED better is the thicker blade, but the constant intensity throughout the length of the blade scrores a lot of points for EL. Many have said EL is dead. I don't think so

 

Thanks Jedi-Loreen! A bit OT here but my green is a bit washed out. Blue,red and purple are movie accurate. Very nice looking with a great "core" effect.

Good luck JL!

 

I have a question about the the types of leds. There are several different volt types for the same looking leds out there. I bought this one: Yellow 5mm 3VDC 20mA 55mcd

Will this type work in this layout?

[image=http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/sabers/scripts/hiltwiring.jpg]

Also, if i wanted to just add a second one can i just put another one next to the current with a second 220 Ohm resister??? So the second led would connect to the red wire on one connector and then to another resistor which would connect to the black wire?

I am a newbie when it comes to electronics. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

I know this is up to 53 pages and is a long read..but do yourself a favor and read them all..almost every question you will have has been answered including the 2 you just asked.

 

Strydur,

Thanks for the reply, I have read through this thread 2 times and did not remember seeing this info. The thread is so long that i must have missed it somewhere. Especially if it is in one of the long posting about electronics ohms and resistors...some of those are so confusing I cant make heads or tails of what they're really saying.

I even went to your site to try to get some answers my questions (that's where i got the picture from) hehe.

Don't get me wrong...I really appreciate all the input ppl have written about and I have already purchased all the stuff from mcmasters and coolneon...but because of the many great posting it takes awhile to re-read them all, and i did read them.

Darth-Roadkill wrote "Just wire them in sequence, the long side of the LED is the positive side, wire the short leg of LED 1 to the long leg of the second LED and then put the 200Ohm Resistor after LED #2....... Heres a picture"
[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/usnlynn/wiremap2.gif]
and then further down at Date Posted: 6/9 11:11am hphoenix wrote alot about ohms but I can not decipher it. I can not figure out how the voltage on the led 5mm 3VDC 20mA 55mcd that i bought fits into this...or if i am using the right 220 Ohm resistor for 2 of these.

 

Try this and see if it explains it enough.
http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

 

Ok...almost there, thanks for the link. I'm getting close.

With a 9v source, 3 diode forward voltage, 20 diode forward current and 2 leds in my array I am suppose to use a 150 ohms resister according to the wizard. I can understand that, but - does anything else change when I place my inverter and 1ohms resister and el blade on?

Thank you for all your help with this!

 

Nope..just use what the calculator came up with

 

Need some help with the soldering of the male mono plug. I have the two thin wires soldered to a speaker wire and the thicker inner wire soldered onto a speaker wire. Now, where do you solder these two speaker wires? Can anyone show a picture of what it looks like. I've tried to find some copper tape to solder the small wires onto but I can't find any of the stuff. Does it have to be copper? Can any metal tape work? Help me, you are my only hope.

 

If you already have the EL wire soldered to some speaker wire, then you don't need the copper tape, that's just if you aren't using the speaker wire.

You just need to solder the two ends of the speaker wire directly to the terminals of the male mono plug. There is no polarity, since the voltage coming from the inverter is A/C so it doesn't matter which part of the EL wire you solder to which plug terminal.

Make sure to insulate when you are finished soldering, with heat shrink tubing, or some silcone.