Lightsabers & Blasters LED Blade Q and A's

Think of the pattern as a camel's hump. Lambertian is a one hump camel, batwing is a two hump camel. Lambertian is what you want.

And I completed my yoda saber, it's on ebay now:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6555618860

 

Hey Strydur, cool pics. What kind of diffuser did you use?

 

The LED blade was just a gutted MR LED blade.

 

Any suggestions on the blade tip? Seems as though it would be benificial to reflect most of the light back down the tube vs. letting it escape out the end. Corbin had at one time (on a different board) diagramed a reflective end peice, but I have not heard of anyone attempting to use such a device (or even if it had been made). And, if not a reflective end peice, how about a diffuser ball within a hemi-spherical poly end cap? Any thoughts?

PS. UltraSWG - WOW, Your Lightsabers posted on e-bay are exceptional. Wish it was easier to get a hold of sound cards rather than having to canabalize Hasbro's.

 

You can get acrylic half-balls for your saber tips here:

http://www.usplastic.com and then search for part number 91589

For reflecting light back down the tube, I used 3/4" round mirrors epoxied to the blade tip. It doesn't cover the entire base of the tip, so it still allows the tip to illuminate.

 

I will have 1"OD 3/4"ID 1/8" walled PolyC for sale next week sometime. It looks like the price will be $14.95 for a 4 foot piece. About the same price as mcmaster but you dont have to buy 8 feet or pay the oversized shipping charge. I will get some 1" tips to go along with them. I will also be designing and selling 1" tube blade holders with built-in heatsinks that will hold the luxeon 3-watt and maybe one for the star/o. They will be designed to fit into a standard sink pipe like the other blade holders I sell.

 

That rocks, man. Any idea on the price point for the blade holders?

 

Does that only count for the red LEDs... I have been told that when it comes to the 3 watt red/orange LEDs that they have lower power demands than other colours so you could use 4AAs as opposed to 5 when dealing with the red/orange, but you're saying that I could use 3AAs with the 3 watt LEDs, so is that for all colours that I could use 3 batteries? Also, if I chose to use 4AAs to power a 3 watt LED instead of 3AAs, would that change the type of resister I would need, or could I still use a 1ohm 1 watt resister? If I don't need to use a blank in the battery pack, I would rather not so that's why I'm asking if using 4AAs would change the resister that I would need.

 

I think UltraSWG is avoiding the answer on how he might've used an MR sound module in that one...

BTW I like the yoda-like saber, maybe I'll snag that one for my youngling.

 

Strydur,

Will your blade holder / luxeon 3 heatsink be available next week as well? I originally was going to build a couple of EL blades but I think I have turned to the LED side. Thanks for helping us all out with your supplies.

 

Next week? Maybe, but I wouldnt count on it. I will build them as soon as I get time.

 

Anyone that has tried the 3 watters... which optic do you like best, 10 or 6 degree?

 

Anyone seen this site yet?

http://www.boogey.com/flexible.htm

 

It looks interesting, but I can't see how sturdy and impact resistant they would be if they were inside a blade that was taking blows...
And it looks very expensive... far more expensive than some of the other options out there... It seems to me that you would end up with a saber that would cost you almost $300 that wouldn't be as good as a MR FX saber, but that's just what I see. I like that it's waterproof though, that's cool, but I don't see myself dipping a saber blade in the water... it's not like you go take the entire saber under water with the wiring and power-source in the hilt, etc., so I don't see the advantage of them being waterproof. Plus, you would still need some sort of diffuser...I don't know, they look cool, but I don't know if they would be good for making sabers.

 

I prefer not having LED's in the blade, it reduces durability.

 

You can run a Luxeon III direct drive from 3AA's with a 1ohm 1watt resistor (Brown/Black/Gold).

Ultra, I'm still wondering if using this setup would be less bright than using 4AAs? Also, if I didn't want to use a blank in the battery pack and use 4AAs, would that change the resister that I would need or could I still use a 1ohm 1 watt resister with 4AAs? Thanks again.

 

Hello all. I'm new to the board and I am interested in building a LED blade. I would prefer to build one like MR. I see a lot of people saying you can't dual with these though.
Does anyone have any exprience with Gallium Nitride ( InGaN ) LEDs? From what I have read, there isn't a filament in this type of LED so there is nothing to break...

 

From what I've heard it isn't the LED that breaks inside the MR FX Blades. The problem is with the connection between the Circuit and LED so using a different LED shouldn't make a difference.

 

When you run 3AA's and a 1ohm 1watt resistor, you are delivering a full 1000ma to the LED. If you want to run 4AA's, you have to use a 2.7ohm 3watt resistor, which delivers 926ma to the LED. So in reality, 3AA's will be brighter than 4AA's.

And saberfan is correct, dueling with an MRFX saber causes the connections in the LED array to break, not the LED's themselves. I've bought a few of the "FX bundle" auctions on ebay, which are bundles of random non-functional MRFX sabers that were returned by customers. The sound worked in all of them, (which is where I get my sound modules, the secret is out!) but most of the blades had dark patches in the blade where a series of LED's no longer light because the connections have broken.

If any of you want to become familiar with some cool circuitry, and you have a few hundred bucks laying around, buy some broken MRFX sabers on ebay and take em apart. You'll be able to easily make your money back by converting them to Luxeon sabers and reselling them. (and the conversion is easy)

 

I did just that yesterday. I have been trying to buy non-functioning MRFX sabers for a few weeks and have only been able to grab one at a good price.

My personal copy has a replacement in the mail for it right now from MR. They have great customer service at that place. I bought one and it had a few dark spots out of the box and they sent me a new one, no questions asked...

 

Thanks ultra, 3AAs it is. I think I know everything that I need to know now to tackle this. Wish me luck...time to order some parts.

 

Can anyone post a pic of a Master Replicas FX that has been modified to a single LED setup. Thanks
SF

 

It looks like I wont have the 1" PolyC in stock until next week. I am also still looking into getting some that is transluscent white.

 

I just saw a lot of 5 of them for sale as a package... I don't remeber what the price was, but I remeber that it wasn't very much at all. Try checking it out.

 

Anyone have tips on how to take the MR appart?
I got a few broken ones that I want to strip down for the Luxeon mod.

ESB Luke (looks like the graphex tube one)
Mace Windu (6 battery)
Vader (6 battery)

Thanks for any help.