I hope this kind of thing is welcome here. If not, my apologies.
First off, I love what Ultra Sabers has put together. I've done my research and I think this place is probably the best for any kind of cosplay and customization. I'm an avid DIY'er, though, and I want to build my first saber from the ground up with spare parts like the prop masters who did it the first time. Metz flash handles, plumbing parts, & PVC. I'm going with an US blade and building my own RGB LED and driver for the emitter. I'll probably pick up a few other parts off of the US website (the emitter cover looks cool). I've put feelers out to US looking for the outer diameter of the blade so I can fit things properly. If it goes well, I might wind up adding a dagger for a twist on dual-wielding, and maybe make a couple of boffer blades for something that's cheap and I can tear up without caring too much.
Part of my idea is that if you look at some of the original props, even as late as the new trilogy, some of the light sabers have little boxes on the side that probably started just as a thing they needed to cover because it was too difficult or expensive to round out. I'm thinking though that it could be the perfect little container for an Arduino nano on a custom PCB with a trio of little trim pots so I can adjust the color on the fly without reprogramming. Plus it tickles my geek sensibilities for a person to adjust their saber with a little screwdriver. The pins on the Arduino don't push enough power to drive the 3W RGB I've picked out, so I'm going to work on a mosfet arrangement so I can drive PWM signal to the led at about 700 mw per channel through some kind of simple regulator/capacitor arrangement (though I'm not sure if this will be necessary if I do the math right on the resistors). Then of course I'm going to do some kit bashing and maybe once my 3d printer gets here I'll fab out some custom parts. Suggestions on good model kits to use are greatly appreciated.
One thing I wondered about is some kind of switch that works as a twist collar, sort of like a grip shifter on a mountain bike. I haven't been able to find one, though. Engineering my own might be a little beyond my skills at present. I also thought about seeing if I could house a small tube subwoofer inside the handle which could provide both a deeper hum and some haptic feedback, but pulling that off might require a beefier battery setup than 4xAAA.
I think I understood about the first four sentences....
Anybody have thoughts on this? Tips, tricks? Have I totally lost my mind?
Yes, yes, yes. But that's not a bad thing. I don't think any of the following is exactly what you're looking to do, but they should give you some good ideas/inspirations/information/etc.
http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=25382.0 - Good DIY thoughts on what might/might not work. Kouri's link to the LED resistor calculator doesn't work, but this one should, and it's to the same site anyway:
http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz/ http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=27654.0 - This is actually the first thread I thought of when I read your post, if I understand what "trim pots" do correctly. Similar to what I think you're looking to do, just using a different method.
http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=34175.0 - This is just DIY saber paradise, with pictures of everything from work space, to dog, to machining out switch openings on hilts, to other shiny stuff.
http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=25995.0 - Neat RGB build with light up switches.
http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=32194.0 - Also, this is possible should you wish to take a US hilt that doesn't have a removable emitter, and put something different on it.
