Saber Forum

So, I got an RGB under the free saber give-away deal. Actually got it for a friend, but I've had ample opportunity to play with it and check to make sure it's working. A lot. LOL.

Anyhow, I've noticed that there's an odd difference between the arctic blue on the RGB (they added this in place of SRD as a nice little bonus) and the arctic blue on the Prophecy I bought back when the color first came out. The Prophecy AB looks a little more like my SRD, it has a slight greenish tint to it. The Arctic Blue on my RGB looks BRILLIANT. It's a very nice, pure, bright sky blue. I've replaced the batteries in my Prophecy and everything and I just can't get it to look that nice. I wonder what the deal is? I'll post pics when I can get them uploaded.

Hmm, that is weird. Maybe the LED was not as defined as the RGB now, if that makes sense, hah. I mean, the way they make SRD and AB would make you think since the RGB uses the different colors at the same time, you would get the same/different results. Slight flaw? But then again, flaws and US do not go together, so maybe just something a little wired differently.

RGB colors are all about how much resistance is used on a particular die, which is on the green on SRD and on the Arctic Blue. Different resistors will yield different results based on many factors, particularly the battery solution.

And for "Kaiden's Arctic Destiny," there aren't any resistors involved!  I just spliced the wire directly into the green and blue LEDs.  I did use a color disk to make it more like SRD, but that doesn't count, right?

Hmmm maybe I should try switching the batteries, though anything beyond that I'm not going to mess with, my prophecy is too nice to take apart and mess with.

How much additional strain do the resistors put on the battery? The battery pack is still pushing current and the resistors are....resisting, does that drag the battery down even further as it's already running multiple LEDs?

To my knowledge, no.

One thing to keep in mind is that the resistors used are not exact values. A typical carbon resistor has a 5% tolerance. So a 100 ohm resistor could have an actual value range from 95 to 105 ohms. This kind of difference in value can result is a difference in color. Particularly for colors that are blue or close to blue. The human eye is can be more sensitive to blue colors under some conditions. The same thing can make blue-ish lights seem brighter then red ones, even when they are the same lumen output.




Resistors do not put any "strain" on the battery. What they do in this case is limit, resist, the maximum  flow of current through the circuit. If you don't have one most LED's will burn out because they will try to draw an unlimited amount of current. The more current you have flowing, the more heat you generate, and this heat can quickly destroy the LED.