Home Depot build

[akodoex1998]

Greetings all. I apologize for the redundant or stupid question I am going to ask here. I have been toying with the idea of building my own lightsaber for both show and potentially dueling. I have found some great parts ideas from Home Depot but my question is what parts from US do I need to get my saber to light up and have sound. Again I apologize if this post is redundant and thank you Master's for your help. -- Akodo

[DeadSh0t77]

Well - I hate to discourage anyone, but if you’ve never done this before (or similar things with electronics, using a soldering iron, understanding LEDs & power requirements, electronic schmatics,  etc.) - you could end up with a rather expensive bummer if you blow out an LED or accidentally fry a board.

If you aren’t experienced, I would suggest buying a basic looking saber with sound installed that you can then customize the external look of to your heart’s content - and learn a lot more about the components and work your way up to doing the electronics as well.

(I am saying this as someone who has accidentally both blown an LED and accidentally shorted a sound board years ago before I really knew what the heck I was doing  )

[akodoex1998]

I appreciate the input. I have never built a saber before or really done electronic stuff before. My area of expertise is automotive mechanics. I mean I have spliced on new connectors for my car, so there is that. I've always wanted to try my hand at this kinda thing though.

[DeadSh0t77]

Ok - start with this thread and post any specific questions you have along the way:

http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=11521.0

[akodoex1998]

Will do DeadSh0t. Thank you for the advice. I really appreciate it!

[DeadSh0t77]

Some of those links may be out of date, but you’ll get the idea.  And again, just ask for specifics as you need them.

[ThreadJack]

I would at least stick to cheap electronics for your first few builds, that you don't accidentally fry an expensive sound board. Years ago it was popular to gut the Hasbro toy sabers and wire sound boards into US(and other) sabers, which I think would be a good way to get acquainted with working with electronics and soldering, without being out a lot of money if you screw something up.

[akodoex1998]

So I got all my lightsaber's guts. I got a green led kit with switch and batteries. The kit is pretty legit. The speaker and soundboard I got from the hasbro saber forge toy at Walmart. It sounds good. The snag that I've run into isn't that none of it will fit inside the hilt, because it will. The snag I hit is that the activation button is a contact pad on the board itself. My question to the Jedi masters is, is there a way to bypass that contact pad so I can wire up my activation switch? Any help would be great.

May the Force be with you all! -- Akodo

[firehand10k]

Connect the wires of the switch to the contacts of the contact pad without bridging them.

[akodoex1998]

I got a friend to help solder the electronics for me. That was clutch. Now the problem I'm running into is finding a blade that will fit my hilt. The drain pipe is 1 inch in diameter so I need polycarbonate tubing that will fit inside the hilt. Any ideas on where I can find this?

I also wanted to say thank you to all who have offered advice on this build. I look forward to sharing pics of the final product.

[firehand10k]

TCSS has 1 inch 7/8 and 3/4. Pc tubes and the tips fir each. Don't forget cellophane to roll up inside and difuse the light.