Added sound to my Grab bag Aeon. do I need a resistor?

[Thane]

Hello all,

  This is my first post. I ordered a grab bag a while back, got an Aeon in Fire Orange. I have added sound using one of the Obi econo boards. The Clone wars lightsaber sound board.

I noticed that my FO Aeon did not have a resistor, and ran on only 2 AAA batteries.  This is how I wired my board in:
http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp242/wadeh13/Wiring%20Diagrams%20and%20reviews/Economy%20Boards/2010ModifiedBasicrev01-10-2011.png

I however did not add a resistor, nor did I change my power supply. I am still running on the 2 AAA pack the saber came with. I did use the PNP Transistor, and wired everything as in the diagram I found on the TCSS forum. Again though, I did not add a resistor.  

My question is: do I need one? and if so, what kind? The saber is working great, I really like the sound from the econo board, and I like the clash and flicker. The LED brightness does not seem to be any less than before I added the sound board.

Any help and input would be fantastic!!

thank you!

[Master Artorius Vidnyl]

I'll let someone with more experience contradict me but you should not need to add a resistor.  The forward voltage for a FO LED is low enough that you aren't supplying more power than it can handle.  It might be slightly over driven given your setup but not so much that you'll burn out your LED.

Cheers.

[Thane]

Thanks!    I kind of thought that, much appreciated!! Would still love to hear any other input.   

[KenshinTrigger]

Thats a pretty informative diagram there, been looking for something like that. my only questions to you are, since you've said you were sucessful, are these

what is the "swing" supposed to be?

Where do you acquire that transistor unit?

in fact, lemme just put it this way: what parts were required to modify the Aeon that weren't originally included, and where did you acquire the necessary additional components, wires non-withstanding? I'm trying to conserve both money and effort on this project, seeing how I'd hate to ruin a good saber, so any help you can provide from your experience would be great.

[Master Artorius Vidnyl]

Thanks!    I kind of thought that, much appreciated!! Would still love to hear any other input.   

What you should REALLY do is get a multimeter and check your voltage/mA after the transistor to confirm.  That would be the safe and SMART thing to do.

The Obi-Econo boards only give off 21mA when you bundle all three so you actually HAVE to have the transistor.  Just check the mA after the transistor and find out for sure.

[Thane]

To: Artorius- Good point, I'll check with my multimeter tomorrow.

to: Kenshin- I bought one of the $25/$30 obi-wan hasbro lightsabers, and gutted it. The only other thing I bought was the PNP Transistor from Radio Shack for about $2.00. The "swing" is just the swing sensor that is already connected to the board. That is all that I needed with my Fire Orange Aeon. A resistor still may or may not be needed, but depending on which LED you may use is more what decides the resistor need. That was all. The Aeon is a long enough hilt that everything fit very nicely.