Customizations with an Ultrasabers Aeon V3 - Customization & Review Videos

[moorecreative]

UltraSabers Aeon V3 - A Review of TWO Theme-Customized Sabers

This forum post is a review and presentation of custom themed sabers that I've produced starting from the fantastic UltraSabers Aeon V3.

Why Build A Customized Lightsaber? Why Not!

Growing up with Star Wars and being a creative artist-type person, I was always thrilled with the idea that the "final test of a true Jedi is to build their own lightsaber." So through high school my brother Dustin and I collected miscellaneous parts and items that we thought would look neat together. Following in the style of the movie model and prop makers who source parts from every-day objects around them in the prop department from cameras, electronics and industrial equipment, we collected all kinds of things to put together.

Flash forward almost 20 years later to my kids asking, "Dad, what's this box of junk?" and I got inspired, "Maybe it's time to put together my first lightsaber..." and I've put together 4 or 5 since then!

Themed Lightsabers & High-End Electronics!

As I've learned as I've moved from my first one or two assembled together sabers to ones now with lights, I've learned that the customization process is my favorite part!

Within the Lightsaber building community, there are so many kits that can be assembled, so many portions and milled pieces that can be combined, all the way up to epic $10K masterpieces of artwork. Some of my favorites that I've seen online are where people "mashup" their favorite characters and themes to create unique crossover or combo sabers. There's an Iron Man Lightsaber... a Thundercats Sword of Omens Lightsaber... Mark Hamill was even presented with a gift of a custom JOKER Saber to tie in his long work as the animated Batman series's voice of the Joker... and that got me thinking... "how can I bring together the two things that I love in a theme for a customized saber?"

I'm a web developer by trade and I wanted to bring together the different coding technologies and content management systems that I work within to make a themed lightsaber as a give-away for a conference earlier this year. Let me tell you, the interest in the prize was huge!


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Why Do I Love the Aeon V3?

https://www.ultrasabers.com/product-p/diy-aeonv3.htm
The Aeon V3 can be one of the more inexpensive hilts to start with, especially if purchased without electronics, but the entry-level cost isn't my main draw for this hilt. It's the construction of this hilt's style... the balance of sections, lines, tapered areas and most importantly, the balance of large flat space where I can have space for customization and artwork touches!

Many of UltraSaber's other hilts are finished pieces of art in their own right. You wouldn't purchase a completed painting to begin a new painting on top of, so here I want to start with a good frame that I see as a blank canvas, ready for artistic touches!

If you watch only one of these videos, watch this one... In it I make a case for why I especially love working with the Aeon V3 for customization.

UltraSabers Aeon V3 Review Video - Published on Mar 23, 2017

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyH9WUMgQ8" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyH9WUMgQ8</a>

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Customized Saber #1 the "DNNSaber" UltraSabers Aeon V3

Well, there are plenty of details that I can share and stories I can tell about replacing, testing, burning and rebuilding the electronics... about initial laser engraving and etching needing to be worked out in different methods... but it's all part of learning and the creative process. I've added a few photos of the initial construction stages as well as assembly steps.

>> Building In progress





>> The Finished Product, the DNN Saber - Theme-Customized UltraSabers Aeon V3





Cuatomized Hilt Presentation Video - Published on Jan 15, 2017
This presentation video served as an intro to the new owner and showed off the features of the customization

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqNnRESl10E" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqNnRESl10E</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhS6L7a0oKE" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhS6L7a0oKE</a>

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Customized Saber #2 the ".NETsaber" UltraSabers Aeon V3

After the first one was awarded to a lucky convention attendee, I was asked about making a second one as a gift to the conference's primary keynote speaker. For this second saber, they suggested that it have a purple blade and feature purple, so off I went!

Again, the Aeon V3 provides a wide space for paint and rings and elements to be added! I mention in the video that, for me, the Aeon V3 is the best canvas for working on... it has more wide flat sections than the other Aeon models and has plenty of room for additional switch holes, screws and more to help customize the look.


Customized Hilt Presentation Video - Published on Mar 13, 2017
This is a presentation video for a customized UltraSabers Aeon V3, which as been created as a thank you gift for the keynote speaker at the DNN Summit conference in Denver 2017.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmOxESK5fV0" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmOxESK5fV0</a>

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

[Jediseth]

Great reviews! I enjoyed watching. You did a great job presenting the sabers. Beautiful work ! Question was the end of the blade plug a stator coil?

[Dauntless Seven]

Awesome creative workmanship on these Aeon v3.  I would have a difficult time giving either saber away and especially the first one with the sound mute feature.  

Thanks for sharing the informative videos and photos.  How loud is the sound with the Hasbro sound cards ?  You likely would get more saber noise using vented pommels.  Also did I miss you showing the speaker... as the battery pack looked like the standard stunt one. 

well deserved light side point for you  


Suggest that you PM a Moderator to request a move of your post to the better suited Customization topic section instead of Saber Reviews.  

[moorecreative]

Great reviews! I enjoyed watching. You did a great job presenting the sabers. Beautiful work ! Question was the end of the blade plug a stator coil?

Hey, thanks!

After my first personal saber that I worked on for months, these were my first two for other people : )

YES, it is a stator coil of sorts... or at least a very tiny one. They're my favorite items to recover from old PCs and electronic equipment. They're often the perfect size to have in the blade plug space! In the two there are slightly different looking... i LOVE how they look when light up by the different color saber light!

[moorecreative]

 How loud is the sound with the Hasbro sound cards ?  You likely would get more saber noise using vented pommels.  Also did I miss you showing the speaker... as the battery pack looked like the standard stunt one. 

Both great questions!

With the one saber which has the sound mute switch, it's not a Hasbro card... with that one, it was fairly loud initially... almost too loud so I wanted to muffle the sound a bit. For that, the pommel was a simple slotted one, I believe the Overlord  https://www.ultrasabers.com/product-p/z-pommel-overlord.htm

However, with that light window in the middle of the hilt... If you look at how the Aeon V3 starts with a 16mm switch hole, you'll see that i've used that space as the view inside.

I drilled and set 12mm spots for the other switches for the saber. So that 16mm hole with grill cover is where most of the sound came out. The speaker was positioned facing "up" above the battery when inserted into the base, so in addition to the red/blue light coming out through that area, most of the sound did as well, but, again, a bit muffled because it was travel along through the midsection of the hilt and through/around the wires, switches, etc.

With the second one, I did a similar approach with the speaker, but this time, attached it to the bottom of the main LED facing down... that made it closer to the hole and with less obstruction... it worked great. In that one, too, it was a hasbro sound card from a 2009 ObiWan and, honestly, even switching and trying different speakers, it was a touch soft. But compared to the earlier one that was too loud, I appreciated the difference.

In both cases, I was trying to keep the speaker as separate from the battery so that the owner didn't have to touch or position around it. The one where I hot glued it facing down below the LED worked really well... just hope it holds up with the heat over time!

[Dauntless Seven]

Thanks again for your detailed reply.  My initial queries became more clear after watching your videos and viewing pics again... but I so appreciate the added information.  

My first US saber was a loaded Aeon LE v3 and I have quite a few Aeon/Dominix and their Initiates. I too really like this saber and the Shock pommel is generally my favorite for them.  Here's a pic of one of mine that you might enjoy seeing as you are new on the Forum.  This is my one and only attempt at a saber customization on a stunt Aeon.  Didn't have a plan so this was experimental... but eventually I would really like to know more about customizing the electronics.

You deserve an additional appreciation point and here it is.  

[moorecreative]

My first US saber was a loaded Aeon LE v3 and I have quite a few Aeon/Dominix and their Initiates. I too really like this saber and the Shock pommel is generally my favorite for them.  Here's a pic of one of mine that you might enjoy seeing as you are new on the Forum.  This is my one and only attempt at a saber customization on a stunt Aeon.  Didn't have a plan so this was experimental...

WOW, I was trying to zoom into this image to see more details... it's the same hilt of course, but looks so incredibly different!
I think it looks great!

I like how you alternated the texture/rough on the different bands, it helps them sand out as bands vs mine accented with rings. What was that, sand paper grit #1 ? (rocks ; )
Also, I'm assuming that's dremmel work in the top to make the light reveal area, that's incredibly detailed with the organic style curves, cuts, I imagine that was hard (and a touch dangerous) to do with a dremmel by hand. TOO, the switch is roughed!

[Dauntless Seven]

Hi again.  Thanks, I appreciate your liking.  Don't want to highjack your thread but I used a battery operated Dremel Mini Mite with a 5000 and 10,000 RPM settings.  Took forever to drill through that thick aluminum emitter area with mostly Tungsten burrs. Batteries couldn't be re-charged quick enough.  Was wanting to play with textures and light.  No sandpaper used.  I have an older post in Customizations I think called something like Aeon with Large Emitter Window for a few more details.  

You inspired me to go to a bookstore today to see if I could get an electronics book that is even more simple and understandable than the one I presently don't use lol.  By the time I got through looking at a few my brain went into complete anxiety ridden overload.  I considered jumping off a cliff into the Pacific Ocean... and not in warm Hawaii.