Blue Violet Amethyst Mixing

[Daric Soldar]

Hello Saber Forum,
Several questions regarding the blue violet amethyst (formerly dark violet amethyst) color:

1. Can you request the blue/purple mix be closer to one side or the other?

2. Is there a wide range of shades this can end up, or is it fairly narrow?

3. If yes to 2, I'm looking for something that is only very slightly off blue, like a blue/indigo. Will this suffice?

4. It seems that shining the light on a wall gives some of the best clues as to how the blade will look. Could someone who has a BVA saber take a photo of the wall when pointing the ignited saber at it (without a blade or anything) so I can get an idea of how yours looks? Just taking a photo of an ignited blade itself directly makes it difficult to see exactly what color it will be.

5. For those with a BVA saber, do you use Ultra Edge or non-Ultra Edge blades?

Thanks!

[firehand10k]

There is electrically only one BVA. The LEDs are the same and US uses set resistors that they stock to control the color. Since the color is resistor controlled it would be very impractical to have too many options as it would increase inventory lines needing to be stocked and tracked.

If you really want to select the color precisely you would need to go for the Emerald or Diamond options and tune it as you wish.

[Karmack]

Firehand is correct.

I have a pair that are VA and BVA, and honestly they are very similar.   The blue comes out more as a corona on the blade rather than a really obvious difference in color.

Here is the BVA blade next to SY.  You can see the blueish corona in the table top reflection.  The color impression here is also very true-to-life, despite the "white core" effect in the photo.  That deep blue/purple color in the table top is very true to life.



A second photo, also pretty close to the color.  (and yes, I seem to have a lot of purple and yellow.   No I am NOT an LSU fan....)

[Daric Soldar]

Thank you for those images, Karmack. That helps a lot. I tried to gauge the color of the blade based on the corona (as you put it) and hoped the blade would look like that all the way through, but it sounds like that isn't the case and the blade itself will be closer to VA. If I wanted to try to get that darker purple/indigo, I would probably have to use the Emerald driver and tweak it as close as I can to achieve the color I would want.

And thank you to firehand for the explanation as to the hardware setup.

Points for both. 

[Karmack]

Glad to help.

I will say the BVA is VERY much bluer than the straight VA, but its not indigo.  Not to my eyes anyway.   :-)   I do very much like the BVA color.   I only got my second hilt in my staff in VA instead of BVA because I really wanted the blades to be slightly different from each other without being truly different colors.

However you decide I hope you greatly enjoy your saber!   :-)

[Daric Soldar]

After consideration and your input, I would probably need an Emerald driver to get the specific color I would need. But it is a bit out of my budget.

I'm now more towards considering a saberstaff/double-bladed lightsaber in either Guardian Blue (similar to Exar Kun or Satele Shan having blue double-bladed sabers) or in Sentinel Yellow (like the Jedi Temple guards).

Thanks again for all the help.

Daric

[Karmack]

After consideration and your input, I would probably need an Emerald driver to get the specific color I would need. But it is a bit out of my budget.

I'm now more towards considering a saberstaff/double-bladed lightsaber in either Guardian Blue (similar to Exar Kun or Satele Shan having blue double-bladed sabers) or in Sentinel Yellow (like the Jedi Temple guards).

Thanks again for all the help.

Daric

np.

If you decide to go the SY route, be aware that mixed SY fades pretty quickly to a more golden color and then into an orange.   The SY in the picture above is actually a tri-cree Adegan Silver (white LED) with a yellow LED filter cut from a Lee Swatchbook LED light filter sample book.   Others have used the color disks as well, but the LED filters work really well.  Just something to consider.

[Daric Soldar]

np.

If you decide to go the SY route, be aware that mixed SY fades pretty quickly to a more golden color and then into an orange.   The SY in the picture above is actually a tri-cree Adegan Silver (white LED) with a yellow LED filter cut from a Lee Swatchbook LED light filter sample book.   Others have used the color disks as well, but the LED filters work really well.  Just something to consider.

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, that's why I've been leaning closer to one of the pure colors (Consular Green, Blazing Red, Guardian Blue, Fire Orange, Adegan Silver...that's it, right?). I like the idea of Arctic Blue but photos don't really capture very well what shade of blue it is exactly, and it probably has a similar problem to the Sentinel Yellow (as the battery dies, the color will shift). I have heard from people with the tri-CREE Arctic Blue that it's also slightly closer to green than blue as compared to the normal Arctic Blue. So I'm considering a tri-CREE Guardian Blue saberstaff at the moment.

It's funny you mentioned the Lee swatchbook. It reminds me that I actually ordered a Lee book when I ordered my Adegan Silver Sentinel v5 months ago, but it never got to me in the mail, so I kind of lost interest in it. I still like the white/silver tri-CREE AS saber  and love how incredibly bright it is. I keep it with an Ultra Edge so it is closer to white than silver.

[Karmack]

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, that's why I've been leaning closer to one of the pure colors (Consular Green, Blazing Red, Guardian Blue, Fire Orange, Adegan Silver...that's it, right?). I like the idea of Arctic Blue but photos don't really capture very well what shade of blue it is exactly, and it probably has a similar problem to the Sentinel Yellow (as the battery dies, the color will shift). I have heard from people with the tri-CREE Arctic Blue that it's also slightly closer to green than blue as compared to the normal Arctic Blue. So I'm considering a tri-CREE Guardian Blue saberstaff at the moment.

It's funny you mentioned the Lee swatchbook. It reminds me that I actually ordered a Lee book when I ordered my Adegan Silver Sentinel v5 months ago, but it never got to me in the mail, so I kind of lost interest in it. I still like the white/silver tri-CREE AS saber  and love how incredibly bright it is. I keep it with an Ultra Edge so it is closer to white than silver.

Sorry to hear the swatch book never came!   I would try again, I love mine.   :-)

I have in the house both a "normal" Arctic Blue and a Tri-Cree Arctic Blue saber.  The Tri-Cree belongs to my daughter, but its here for side-by-side comparison.   The color on the Tri-Cree is slightly more green, I think they mix that color by using two blue LEDs and one green LED in the set-up.  In the 'normal' mix they use a RBGW LED and mix blue with some green and I suspect add some white to it as well.   When I had an Emerald driver that was how I mixed my own Arctic Blue and it was nearly an exact match to what I have now in the "normal" LED.

As for fading: The AB doesn't seem to color-shift as the batteries weaken.  It does get dimmer but I haven't seen a shift to green.  However, the power drain for green and blue are similar, so they dim at about the same rate as the power level falls.   Add in some white to level it out...

SY is very different, as red uses a very different amount of power and weakens less as power falls off from weak batteries.   I notice the color shift far more in my SY and VA/BVA sabers than I do in my AB saber.   

And of course, with the filtered SY, the color just doesn't change, only the intensity.   :-)

Anyway, happy sabering my friend!   Fear not to order AB!  Whether you go for 'normal' or Tri-Cree it will look awesome and it weathers the 'battery fade' very well.  The only real question is if you prefer it to be more of an icy blue (normal) or with a hint of green (Tri-Cree).   :-)

[Daric Soldar]

Sorry to hear the swatch book never came!   I would try again, I love mine.   :-)

I have in the house both a "normal" Arctic Blue and a Tri-Cree Arctic Blue saber.  The Tri-Cree belongs to my daughter, but its here for side-by-side comparison.   The color on the Tri-Cree is slightly more green, I think they mix that color by using two blue LEDs and one green LED in the set-up.  In the 'normal' mix they use a RBGW LED and mix blue with some green and I suspect add some white to it as well.   When I had an Emerald driver that was how I mixed my own Arctic Blue and it was nearly an exact match to what I have now in the "normal" LED.

As for fading: The AB doesn't seem to color-shift as the batteries weaken.  It does get dimmer but I haven't seen a shift to green.  However, the power drain for green and blue are similar, so they dim at about the same rate as the power level falls.   Add in some white to level it out...

SY is very different, as red uses a very different amount of power and weakens less as power falls off from weak batteries.   I notice the color shift far more in my SY and VA/BVA sabers than I do in my AB saber.   

And of course, with the filtered SY, the color just doesn't change, only the intensity.   :-)

Anyway, happy sabering my friend!   Fear not to order AB!  Whether you go for 'normal' or Tri-Cree it will look awesome and it weathers the 'battery fade' very well.  The only real question is if you prefer it to be more of an icy blue (normal) or with a hint of green (Tri-Cree).   :-)

Thank you again for your help. It sounds like the issues of color shifting with decreasing LED intensity aren't as big of an issue with Arctic Blue, which is great.

I still am interested to find a way to make an Indigo color without requiring an Emerald driver. I want just the slightest off blue. I think the best way to do it which would also give me the most intensity might be to do the tri-CREE Guardian Blue and maybe get a Lee filter to add the tiniest bit of red to it. I don't know, maybe that's not possible.

I'm trying to emulate the indigo from the "Jedi: Fallen Order" game. It isn't quite blue, not quite purple. Here is a screenshot



Anyways, thanks again.