Thanks guys . . .
Thanks!....also
I am VERY new to electronics...so I apologize if this is a dumb question.
what does he mean they will pre-wire is to the star? like they will have 4 separate wires for each light?
Haha I'd love to do what he has done with his saber, but i don't know much.
No dumb questions, we all start somewhere . . . part of the learning
In this one I’ve used an RGGB MLS unit . . . Some people call the actual chip the LED diodes are mounted on a MCPCB (printed circuit board) or some call it a “star” . . . If you want to see the ones I’ve received from US see here
http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=27654.msg418781#msg418781 . . . And, yes, if you ask US nicely they will sell you a pre-wired RGGB with a + & - wire soldered to each pad on the star (4 positive and 4 negative) . . . for what I’ve done here I do the colour mixing on the positive side and connect all the negatives together for a common negative . . .
Does the rotary switch work to change the colors even if the saber is off?
Yep
*
Ok, so I took this apart over the weekend, added a resistor to the red wire for my Gold blade colour to make it a little more yellow and took some pics of the wiring and things . . .
The current homemade chassis
dismantled
The battery pack is wedged into the cutout, I had thought about gluing it in or using double sided tape but I haven’t needed to
I had excessive wire on all the components here, partly because this was the quickest way to put it together
This is the space for the BuckPuck & m/l converter with all the extra wire & connectors
take out the retention screw for the switch and all the colour changing wiring can slide out
remove the tape, it’s a bit messy
I’ve taken this pic showing the wiring I can reduce and clean up (to the left of the allen wrench), all those connectors and extra wire don’t need to be there, and I’m sure I can fit a similar setup in the reduced space in a Sentinel v4 or Standard Issue v3 (you can see the length of the smaller chassis I’d need for a Sentinel)
Just a note of the component that lets this all work . . . it’s a small 1A diode that allows current to only flow one way around a circuit . . . these have to be added to any colour channel that uses more than one of the LED colours in it’s mix
Also . . . while I’m here, I thought I’d share some other things . . .
When I wire up the main LED wires I set them to one side and heat shrink them in place so the wires are guided down one side of the hilt cavity next to the switch, this is especially helpful when using a v3 or v4 hilt where the LED module sits resting against the switch and stops wires or solder joins being pressed against the switch . . .
In my last builds, I’ve used a 4 way connector for my LED positive wires and a 2 way connector for my common negative
but the seller I buy these from also have a 6 way connector so in the future I want to wire the 4 positive and common negative into the one connector for less clutter, the 6 way is on the right and not much bigger than the 4 way
Also . . . I thought this pic could be helpful . . . this shows the basic circuit principle I’m using with these builds . . . the positive from the BuckPuck connected to the yellow wire “into” the rotary switch . . . then the 12 “channel” wires, resistors & diodes back down the 4 positive wires to the LED module . . . then the common negative back to the BuckPuck . . .
I forgot to mention this in my last post, but I don't like the domed momentary switch in conjunction with a m/l converter (sorry Lord C) it was very easy to knock while dueling or spinning and while it looks sensational and feels very nice in its motion I've replaced it with a latching av on this build . . . I might try it again on a saber with sound, but I'd guess the same thing would happen and it would be too easy to knock and engage the lock-up FoC . . .
I’ve added the resistor to the red wire for my gold colour, wired up a black short latching av switch, took some of Kouri’s advice and put the switch before the BuckPuck, wired a couple of connectors to the battery pack, ready to re- install
taped up the wiring, and put everything back in the chassis
Tested everything and re-installed in the hilt
New Gold blade colour, the last one was a little too amber so I added a 0.5ohm resistor to the red in the R+G mix
A couple of final things . . . swapped out the pommel for a standard Aeon v4 vented pommel . . . and used a black Menace knurled screw instead of the blue
and the black short latching av
This prototype is a bit overly complicated and for my next one I’ll make it a little simpler, this will also reduce the wiring for the colour mixing . . . at the moment I have my notes, and the ideas in my mind, and for the next one I’ll take some progress pics doing the wiring as I go and might even do a wiring diagram if anyone is interested . . .
cheers