Lightsabers & Blasters LED Blade Q and A's

Okay Ultra and others, Mace is apart... but before I post up the tutorial wich I should probably put in the take apart your FX thread, I would just like to know WHO'S YOUR DADDY?!

[image=http://home.att.net/~dan.theman/DSCN0329.jpg]

 

You're my Daddy!

That's excellent, dude! Now how the hell did you do it?

Hmm, where would you place a blade retaining screw in that thing? Maybe the golden emitter ring can house one?

 

Ultra, icbob, and all, I put the directions for Mace in the take apart thread...here

Now you'll have to show me on the circuit board for this one the best way to wire up Corbin's board to a proper Luxeon III so I can get some decent light out of it.

 

EXCELLENT!!!

My "Sith Windu" saber is now complete!

 

So did you take a pic of how to wire up the LED and board for me while you were in there?

 

ummm is LED lightsabers better then EL lightsabers?

EDIT: wat are LED lightsabers?

 

Read the thread and it will save you alot of embarrassment

 

hey ultra, my mace fx havent arrived yet so i havnt started modding, but i think using set screws will work alot better as a blade retaining screw then thumb screws for the mace saber

p.s. picture of ur sith mace plz : )

 

can you guys make a blueprint on how to make one?

EDIT: I mean how to put it togather

 

I'm going to start offering conversion services for fans with 4th gen (2005) MRFX sabers. What do yall think would be a fair price?

 

My name might not be familiar but I have been lurking for a while. UltraSWG, judging by what your conversions go for on ebay vs the price of a new master replicas, you could probably get away with over $100. I am not sure what your costs are, but I think if you made about $50 dollars profit per saber it would be fair.

All that being said, I probably wouldn't pay more then $60 for the conversion, but I am a cheepo trying to control his passion.

 

Personally, for a lightsaber that realistic and with all the functions of a force fx(sound, etc), The price they're selling at on Ebay seems fair. Besides, that is driven entirely by what people are willing to pay.

Which bums me out a little because it's more than I can spare for the time being. Maybe in a few months.

I would love to build my own, but I know my limitations.

Perhaps, once UltraSWG gets the kinks worked out, he would consider a less expensive 'conversion' service. You know, send him your FX and a reasonable sum, and he converts it.

*smiles hopefully*

 

Try throwing one up on Ebay selling it as a conversion service and see what it goes for but I think about $50-75 profit is a fair rate for someone providing the saber to you. Ultra if you would post a conversion wireing diagram it would be greatly appreciated, but I understand if its another trade secret.
Thanks
Saberfan

 

Price = Time + Materials
.
Typical skilled Tech/Shop labor rate = $40-60 per hour

 

You probably wouldn't get too much interest trying to charge people by the hour...there's no way for them to know how long you actually spent on it, plus, for things like this, people like to know what it's going to cost them, not, "Oh, well...It took me a little longer than expected, soo..." I would think that there are plenty of other people out there that would do it for a flat cost... you probably wouldn't fare too well without telling people what it is, in fact, going to cost them.

 

I think Saphire is saying that's how you should calculate the cost. Like I set me car work rates at $60 per hour so that's about what I consider my time should cost for anything else as well.
That's how I justify paying this person or that for their selfmade product, jedi belt, robe, pouches, whatever...

But I think we're highjacking this thread a little...

 

Back on topic, Corbin is sending me a light blue Luxeon III with optics. I'm going to see how well it works in the MR hilt. There's a heatsink concern and a battery drain concern, but I think I can work it all out. If all goes well, I'll start using Luxeon III's instead of Star/o's. I'll keep yall updated.

 

UltraSWG, do you mind giving us tips on converting a FX into a luxeon saber?
speciafically the mace FX

 

Boy i wish there was a diagram on how to do this conversion!! Being i have master rep sabers and luxeon sabers, offering a conversion would be great. Even if there was a diagram i doubt it would hurt your ebay sales since most people would rather pay then rip apart there master reps. Only the die hards would even try to do it.

 

I am not sure as I havent taken more than a few apart and have only converted them to EL sabers. If there is a standard size blade holder you are using ultra if you want toss me some good dimensions and I might make up a run of blade/luxeon 3 holders specifically for the MR's

 

Hey UltraSWG, this is Zion (the guy with the five saber order). Did you get my email this past weekend? It would be great to finalize a schedule this week. I've also got several coworkers bidding on those ebay auctions of yours. 'Can't wait for those Lux III results myself. When do you think you'll have some info on those?

Thanks,
IZE

 

thanx for hoggin up all the sabers Zion! Sike. I just wonder how you would get enough power out of the master rep battery pack to power a luxeon III.

 

Whoa the vader mr luxeon just sold for 400 bucks on ebay. Its worth it if you have no desire to build your own . My guess on what the conversion may be is a change in a resistor to allow more power to the led , that is if your powering the luxeon off the old led strip leads.If not than i have no clue..

 

Hey Zion I haven't forgotten about you. I have more hilts and supplies coming in on the 30th and Corbin should have that true Cyan LuxIII to me soon. After I see what I have then I can let you know we can do about the 5 sabers.

 

hm... im too chicken to try out this idea since im just a highschooler and have just enouh money to get my hands on a mace fx, but how bout hooking up all the power to each of the LED and calculate it out so that the sequance of the original chain will each give a lil more current to the luxeon creating a segmented but still "power up" effect.

let's say all 6 AA battery (bout 9v)is running the sound board and the LED in the original blade are those super bright LED with let's say 3 v foward voltage and 20 MA current (which is pretty standard for 5mm LEDs) the resister on the sound board much be between 270-330 ohms, and when converted to Luxeon star/o (1 volt) that has a 3.42 foward voltage and 350 mA, we would just need to change those 7 or 8 resisters to a lower ohms, and lets say we distribute the current to like 50 mA per connection, the calculation says a 110-120 ohms resister would do the job right.

i dont know much bout electronics, so correct any concepts here that wouldnt work