And . . . . It’s been a while  


I’ve been very busy with life, family & work over recent months, and even over my Christmas break this year I haven’t had much time to put into my saber hobby, I had some time off the grid, and that was nice . . . but . . . I found some time in recent days to finish a long overdue project I’ve had in my mind and in stages for probably over a year . . .

I’ll start with a pic  




The hilt is an Overlord main body, MHS 1” extension in the neck, Renegade SE side emitter (left over from another project that’s in the works for this year ) and a v3 vented pommel (looks almost the same as the Overlord pommel, but with a 1” sound hole) . . . I’ve added one of Lord C’s infamous domed momentary switches to give it a try, I just know he would have gone on and on and on if I hadn’t installed one at some point . . .




but . . . the reason I’m here is for this :



It’s a Menace knurled screw, attached to one of these 1x12 position Rotary Switches :



installed in a pommel mounted blade plug . . . and with this wired up with different resistor mixes using an US RGGB MLS unit, I can now do this :

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuH75hL1b3s" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuH75hL1b3s</a>

Rotate the switch to select these 12 blade colours :





BR, PO, Gold, Lime, CG, SRD, Cyan, AB, Mid Blue, GB, VA & BH . . . well, some are very close to the US colours . . . I’ve used an RGGB LED primarily because my favourite blade colour is green and using 2x green diodes for my CG mix is very close to the brightness and fullness of Tri-CG to my eyes . . . and this then also means I can get a very nice Lime colour using G+G+R (5 ohm 2w resistor to R), SRD colour using G+G+B (10 ohm 2w resistor to B), and Cyan is a straight G+G+B mix . . .

I get some of these colours in a similar way US wire up their module colours . . . If you’re not familiar with some of my previous projects that have bought me here, you can check out these links :

In-Hilt colour switching . . . mk2 (4 switch)

In-Hilt colour switching . . . mk3 (6 switch RGBA)

In-Hilt Bluetooth LED driver experiment


I guess I’ve been on a journey to have a setup where I can change my blade colour when I want, without the need of a computer or other device, or to have to change Quick Disconnect LED modules, or even unscrew a pommel . . . maybe it’s just laziness, lol, but I’ve been dreaming of this for a while . . .

So . . . this is my first working prototype using this Rotary Switch in a hilt . . . the wiring is a little messy, more excess than I’d like, and for my first prototype I had hoped to fit this in a Sentinel hilt, but I got impatient and settled on the full MHS Overlord as the surrogate . . .

This is also my first hilt with a handmade chassis using 32mm electrical conduit pipe, just to make it easier to install with all the wires everywhere . . . this chassis needed to be longer to fit the wires, buckpuck, momentary to latching converter, etc, but it’s ok in this hilt . . .


Here’s a few more pics of the pommel end for now :



I secured the rotary switch with a retention screw tapped into the chassis, and also used the Overlord’s pre drilled Covertec hole with a retention screw to secure the chassis to the hilt so the switch won’t move . . . this leaves the pommel free to remove without any twisted wires . . .






The cut down blade plug has a 6.5mm centre hole drilled in it, and the switch shaft is cut down to just protrude past it . . . I drilled a small pilot hole to find centre, then used the drill bit for tapping an 8-32 screw, and as the shaft is plastic I carefully threaded the screw itself into the shaft without needing the tap tool . . . the screw is held tight doing this, and as the switch rotation resistance is less than the screw resistance the switch movement works very well without the screw breaking free . . . If I had a problem with it, I intended to glue the screw in, but it’s not needed . . .





I’ve also used a small 19mm disc at the base of the shaft that the blade plug fits in perfectly to keep it in line . . .


This is the first of many I want to setup like this, and for the next one I’ll take some more pics along the way to share how I do it, so if your interested keep an eye on this thread, as I hope to do these over the next few months . . . I’ve been thinking lots about how I’ll be reducing the wiring, and I’m sure I can get this setup in a Sentinel v4 hilt, and even a Standard Issue v3 hilt . . . And . . . because I love pommel lights, this will have to happen as well :




For now, these will all be stunt sabers with a pommel mounted Rotary Switch . . . but . . . I’ve also been thinking how I can add this switch to a saber with sound, and as this switch can fit in an MHS hilt like this :



I hope to mount one next to an av switch to look something like this (so I can have the standard sound setup at the pommel end) :




cheers . . .  

So awesome to see this hit daylight, Jed .  What an epic mod!!  Just unreal!!  I knew about this before and I'm still blown away right now haha!  It turned out SO amazing, incredible work, as always.  This is the kind of stuff that inspired me to start tinkering right here. 



Great to see you back in action Jed . 

What a killer setup! Fantastic idea! Incoming point and masses of respect for giving something like that a go and sharing it with us all

Simply put...wonderful.

Bloody hell!

I just dont even have words for how awesome this is man! truly losfer words

That is bloody brilliant! I'm speechless. Bravo, man! +1 at least!

IMPRESSIVE, MOST IMPRESSIVE!!! 

Congrats!  Glad you got that done! 

Now here's the real important question:  When did you get a Renegade SE???!!!

That's not the Emitter from your LE  . . . that's an SE.


I'd also love to see a good pic of all the wiring; that must be intense.