Help me modify my FX saber to AC power

I want to convert my Master Replica FX Darth Vader Light saber from battery power to AC power using a simple AC Power adaptor.

Anyone done this?

I am doing this primarily to use the saber with my full size Vader display. He has working lights and breathing when plugged in with 9 Volt Adaptors, so I want to integrate the saber to do the same and have all of his systems including the saber connected to a Motion Sensor Wall Outlet. When entering the room your movement will activate his lights, breathing and saber.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Darren

 

Darren, I can't imagine why you'd want to convert to AC power, but I'm certain there are solutions to this issue. I don't know that the saber will actually RUN on AC, but I'm fairly certain it wouldn't be too difficult to hack in a voltage regulator and adapter into your system.

 

Yeah, I think he just wants to rig up some sort of AC to DC power converter so he can plug in his saber for his display and not run it on batteries, not actually convert the saber to run on AC itself.

Besides, LEDs won't run on AC, anyway.

Maybe someone that knows MR sabers will have some suggestions as to how he can rig this up.

 

It sounds like you need a transformer. Electronics are very sensitive and the wrong voltage can fry them. So first verify the voltage and the current requirements of the lightsaber. Perhaps someone here on the boards can tell you what those are exactly.

I can see you may need to do a fewthings:

1. Bypass the on/off switch so that the presence of the correct electrical current will ignite the saber.

2. Bypass the internal battery pack (assuming this is a MR Force Effects saber) and solder a female receiving port for the male end of the power adapter. You'd need enough wire to allow this port to be external to the lightsaber hilt.

3. You may have to figure out some custom electronics where the motion-sensed condition triggers an "ON" state which then activates power to the saber which ignites it because you've bypassed the regular on/off switch.

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can help.

 

The MR need 4.5V.

I WOULD NOT BYPASS anything! keeping the existing electronics is ideal. It powers up correctly if the switch is on and then apply power.

Assuming the wall outlet is motion sensing and you don't need to power about that. Once you have the DC adapter on a relay to trigger it would be fine. It'd go: Wall outlet tirggered by motion, applies power, relay triggered by power and turns it on.

When you get to the point of opening it to do this me and tons of others can help.

 

Keep in mind, MR's shut themselves down automatically if left idle for 90 seconds, so you won't need a way to power it down, it will do it for you.

Just use a 4.5-6 volt power supply, (yes, an MR will handle 6 volts and it will be brighter, too), solder the leads to the battery posts in the stock battery pack (you may need to make notches in the battery pack to allow room for the wire to leave the bottom of the saber). Leave the switch in the "on" position. Plug it in. Pretty simple.

When someone walks into the room, the saber will get power and will power up. A minute and a half later, it will power down. When the wall outlet cuts power, the saber circuit will reset and be ready to power up again when someone else walks into the room.

 

As I recall, the Vader ANH sabers uses 6 AA batteries, which is 6x1.5 = 9 V.
The light circuits run on 9V, but the sound circuits are tapped at 4.5 V. If you connect only the first and last battery post then you should (theoretically) get only light and no sound.
The Vader ESB saber uses 3 AA batteries, which is 3x1.5 = 4.5 V with both light and sound tapped at 4.5V.

However, many batteries have just a little bit higher voltage than 1.5V when they start up, with voltage declining as they are used up. The FX saber should therefore have been designed to handle a little bit higher voltage.

I would acquire/build the following items:
* A gizmo that turns on electrical outlets when it senses motion in the room.
* A AC-DC "wall wart" with 9V or 4.5V (or close) output (depending on which saber you have)
* Build a set of fake batteries that fit inside the battery compartment, with leads connected to the power supply. You could use cylinders made of wood, plastic or Sculpey. Connect only the first and the last battery post in the battery compartment.
This way, if you want to wield the saber, you could replace the fake batteries with real ones.
The tricky part might be where to put the leads that go into the saber.

 

Incorrect, both the light and sound are 4.5V on ALL of the LED saber. You can actually pull out one of the the sets of two and it still works perfectly. That's because it's 4.5V paralleled with those 6AA.

 

Ooops. Sorry. I must have got it confused with how the EL sabers work.