Saber Forum

Hi all! I've got a bit of a question regarding wiring when upgrading my saber to a rebel trip-star LED. I have a stunt, blazing red, prophecy V3 saber (review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnuqRwe-dD8) which I modified replacing the single blazing red (or bright red) LED with a deep red LED. I did this to get rid of the slightly orange tinge of the blazing red, and it's beautiful, not a bit of orange can be spotted, just red, really looks like Vader's lightsaber.

However, the disadvantage of this is that the deep red LED loses quite a bit of brightness as you can imagine, so I'd like to upgrade it to a tri-LED, namely a rebel tri-star with three deep red diodes (not two deep reds and a white, but three deep reds) in order to increase brightness significantly, just stunt, no sound, no flash on clash, just bright LEDs. Ultrasabers itself does not provide it, but Luxeon (its LED provider) does. I'm really into DIY and wiring, so I know most of the drill. HOWEVER, I've only worked with single LEDs and normal Ohm resistors, not tri-LEDs or buckpucks. I know how to wire the tri-LEDs in series and what lens to use, but I'm not sure about the driver. Each diode is 2.1V to 2.8V, making them in series 6.3V to 8.4V. First off, I use standard battery setup, 4 Ni-mh AAA batteries, a total of 6V, so I can already see a problem there, not enough voltage, right? I could try Lithium ion batteries, each 3.7V. Using two would nearly make it, and three would over do it, wouldn't it? I know I need a 700 mA powerpuck or buckpuck driver (the deep red LEDs must be run at 700mA), but do these drivers maintain the 700mA throughout the circuit regardless to the voltage supplied? For example, let's say I use 4 Li-ion AAA batteries with a total voltage of 14.8V (despite being kind of a waste of energy). Would the current still be kept at 700mA? And would the buckpuck/powerpuck compensate for all that heat dissipation without a resistor?

I hope you guys can help me find out if my logic is correct or not, thank you all!

Tbh I understand nothing you are talking about :P. What I can say is that I got a 100% ordinary initiate saber from the giveaway, and I added quick disconnects on it. I tried it with my tri LEDs (all US though), and it worked perfectly. I also upgraded it myself to lithium-ion buckpuck (constant current that US resells), and it still works perfectly. I don't think you have to do anything about the buckpuck or any extra resistors, but idk if US adds extra resistors to their LEDs. I don't think they do, but can someone else check to make sure? Also, your buckpuck should be constant current, and also, US uses 1000ma buckpucks. Don't think you have to change your buckpuck type though.

hmm, so what you're saying is that the quick disconnect feature adds a standard 1000mA buckpuck instead of resistors in order to accept any kind of LED? That's seems really efficient, and too good/easy to be true XD Do you know if in the tri LED module that you added the LEDs were connected in parallel, in series, or two of them in series and one in parallel? (also, what colours? A photograph of the LED would be much appreciated :P Did you not see any extra resistor when inspecting the inside of your saber? Both my prophecy and my apprentice came with resistors and not buckpucks, so that's why I believe I'd have to adjust resistances a bit when changing the LEDs of my saber.

So far, I think I'd need to put two of the deep red diodes in series with the 700mA buckpuck and one of them in parallel with a 4.7 Ohm 2W resistor with my 4 AAA Ni-mh batteries (6V), but I'm not really sure yet =(

My LEDs are green, white, blue, and red, and all work. I also have another single guardian blue LED, and that also works with the sabers. I think the luxeon LEDs themselves already have resistors installed inside them, and my saber doesn't have any resistors at all (I took the whole circuit out of my initiate to install li-ion), just a buckpuck. If you want to, you can upgrade to a buckpuck cheaply. Ultrasabers does it for $35, but I did it myself for $30 (including batteries and all) because shipping is pretty expensive.

Here's my blazing red buckpuck:
http://s936.photobucket.com/user/alljiang/media/20160412_162405_zps466qeuun.jpg.html

I believe the LED is connected in parallel.

Hmmm, yes, they do look like they're all connected in parallel, very interesting. I do not see any resistors on the LED itself, so the buckpuck may provide enough resistance for all of the LEDs. Thank you very much! your help was much appreciated! =)

No problem! Good luck! :)