Violet Amethyst & SRD: Alkaline vs. NiHM

[Master Artorius Vidnyl]

To please more people, there are now two ways to get your violet hue of choice by just using different batteries:

Alkaline batteries will produce a more blueish hue (truer to what most people think of when they hear "purple").

Rechargeable Nimh batteries will produce the reddish violet you're looking for.

This is because four alkalines make 6 volts whereas four nimhs make 4.8 volts.

To help illustrate the point I did my own research this morning on this.  I used my old Omen: GB as a control with alkaline batteries in it for color comparison against my new Prophecy: VA (Omen was used for color control.  My camera didn't show the difference between the VA without it).

Omen: GB
Prophecy: VA w/ Alkaline


Omen: GB
Prophecy: VA w/ NiHM


To further display the difference I removed the blade from the Prophecy and projected the LEDs onto a white sheet.

VA using Alkaline:


VA using NiHM:


Note the extreme blue in the first pic (using Alkaline) and the lack of that extra blue in the second pic (using NiHM).

I did the same with my Standard Issue in Sunrider's Destiny but I didn't see as much of a difference.

SI: SRD using Alkaline
Omen: GB using Alkaline


SI: SRD using NiHM
Omen: GB using Alkaline


The Alkaline is clearly brighter which suggests to me that the Blue has more power as is suggested by Ultra and Master Caine but I didn't see the color shift in these as much.  Maybe Blue and Green are too close together in the spectrum for the massive shift?  Not sure but interesting none-the-less.

At first I really didn't see the difference in the Violet Amethyst but now that I've really done the comparison it's much more apparent to me.

Here's the bottom line:  The color change is REAL.  You can do this at home.  The NiHM batteries aren't cheap (especially with the charger, 4AAA + Charger cost me $35) but the difference is awesome.  Really it's easier than bothering Ultra to do a color shift in your blade.

I thought it would be nice to see the actual difference everyone always talks about, and then I decided to share with you.

Keep on Sabering!

[Big Boss]

very informative thanks for sharing! 

[ThreadJack]

Thanks for sharing. Looks like I'm going to get some alkalines this week.

[Deedzy]

Cheers for the info, very informative  

[Master Nero Attoru]

Great post man, good to see the difference in pictures at last.  I will have to do some experimentation with my gf's VA saber.

[Darth Wraith]

Interesting........... Thanks For The Info Artorius   I'll Have To Consider This In The Future..........

[Caine]

The reason the purple is a different shade is because the red that is in the RGB is given less voltage with the nimh (1.2 V less than the alkalines) this affecting the color. The red is already resistored and tuned to be a proper shade of purple at 6V.

The blue and green have a higher forward voltage than the red, therefore the color difference is nil.

Isn't voltage fun?

[Master Artorius Vidnyl]

The reason the purple is a different shade is because the red that is in the RGB is given less voltage with the nimh (1.2 V less than the alkalines) this affecting the color. The red is already resistored and tuned to be a proper shade of purple at 6V.

The blue and green have a higher forward voltage than the red, therefore the color difference is nil.

Isn't voltage fun?

Voltage is fun.  Thank you for the technical explanation Master Caine.

[Qui-Tom Helms]

shocking (owww) news.  Should have paid more attention in science instead of science fiction

[ThreadJack]

The reason the purple is a different shade is because the red that is in the RGB is given less voltage with the nimh (1.2 V less than the alkalines) this affecting the color. The red is already resistored and tuned to be a proper shade of purple at 6V.

The blue and green have a higher forward voltage than the red, therefore the color difference is nil.

Isn't voltage fun?

I figured it was something like that. Thanks Caine!

[Saberstar]

Very helpful guys thanks. Its just that i ve got lithium-ion batteries with charger and stuff. So can I stil change to nimh or alkaline. The saber won't hurt? Will it???

[Artano]

One tangent but related question, can the recharger that comes with the Li-Ion setup be used to recharge other types of cylindrical rechargable batteries? I'll be getting rechargable AAAs for my son's saber, but his would use NiMh not Li-Ion. I'd love to use just the one charger, and the batteries would fit just fine, but I'm worried that the charger may be for Li-Ion batteries only. I'd rather not pop batteries like firecrackers in my kitchen. Anybody know for sure? 

[Master Artorius Vidnyl]

Because of the different chemical components and the fact that NiHM and Li-Ion batteries have different voltage I highly recommend AGAINST using the same charger.  The danger is that the batteries could explode and it says this clearly on every charger's manual.  I use separate NiHM and Li-Ion chargers and it's not that big of a pain, especially since it keeps my house from burning down.

MAV

[Artano]

Bingo. That's just what I needed to know. Thanks!

[Saberstar]

Very informative thanks a lot. :-)