Great Lakes Garrison & Base

So, with all of that done, I can start on what I have so far for the electronics:


I'll be using a green K2 led, which when properly driven (correct voltage/amperage for the led) it puts out 130 lumens of green light. I've these before, and they work well for the voltage we'll be using.

I started by applying some heat transfer paste to the back of the led, and then put it on the heatsink:

I had already put in one if the attachment screws, and slid the notch in the star-base under the head. I has to be lined up like this or the lens holder won't fit. I then screwed in the other mounting screw:


Then soldered a quick-disconnect to the led:


This will allow Scott to change the led from the green K2, to a red Lux III, blue K2, or anything that will work with the 6 volt battery pack. The soundboard will have the capabilities of running several different led's by selecting tham in a voice menu.

With the led soldered up, I assembled the optic into the holder:


These need to be trimmed to fit properly, as they have tabs on the bottom to help support the lens on the star-base, but we don't need them, so I'll trim those off with an exacto knife:


The trimmed lens holder fits on the led like so:


I dropped it into the saber hilt:




Added the optic/focusing lens:


And attached the emitter:


Viola!!:


Yup, changing the led is that simple!

Looking good! (The Halloween decor was fun, too. I love it when adults get into Halloween, my parents never dressed up or anything. This year the kids & I were ghosts and my husband was Ray Stantz from Ghostbusters, proton pack and all! http://costumesandartwork.blogspot.com/ ... oween.html)

I have a small update. (Well, okay, a bIG update, I guess!)

I drilled for the blade retention thumbscrew:



I then tapped the hole for the 8-32 threads:



I installed the screw, and noticed it was a bit too long:


I can fix that:



A quick buzz with the rotary tool, and it was just right:


The next thing i did was hone the hole for the blade to remove burrs from the drilling of the hole (no pics of that) and test fit the blade:

Nice and snug!

Here's how it looks:


Almost done!


I also worked on the battery pack:


I cut out the trianglular dividers so the batteries will have a better fit in the tube:




I did all four sides. This makes the pack a bit slimmer when the batteries are installed, so the pack will slide out easier.

Next up is the speaker:



The white piece you see there is a 3/4"pvc coupler. It will act as a resonator for the speaker, improving the sound quality while also making the saber louder. I actually have this all finished and wired temporarily with an MR Anakin Skywalker ROTS soundboard, and it sounds really good. I'll leave the board in it if I don't get the Ulttrasounds before the 15th, so it will be functional for the Kalamazoo game.

I continued on the speaker resonator:

Once it was glued into place, I soldered the wires on:

This yellow wire is the speaker positive. The brown is the negative:


I routed the wires through some holes in the battery pack, and pulled them snug:


I then used a fair amount of hot glue to secure the back of the speaker to the battery holder:


Done:


It'll slide into the saber like so:


Install the nut, and you've just completed the battery changing procedure!

Now, since I didn't have the US 2.0 board to wire up, and the basically completed saber was sitting here on my bench, I decided to wire up an Anakin ROTS MR soundboard, to at least get it working for Scott in case the US 2.0 board doesn't arrive by Friday, the 14th. I also wanted to be sure the speaker wasn't a dud:


THat's the board, prepped for install. I didn't get any shots of the install, it's kind of boring...me just soldering wires and all....but it's finished (for now):


Better pics coming up shortly!

Fantastic Jay!! I think when Im ready (and I have a job) I might just pay you to make me one!!!!! Again Steller job!!

Wags wrote:Fantastic Jay!! I think when Im ready (and I have a job) I might just pay you to make me one!!!!! Again Steller job!!

Thank, wags! I thought you had found a job??

I finished the saber, so here's a few "beauty" shots (click the pic for the full image):

Well, I have found a few jobs, but... they have not found me... lol. Finished product looks great!!! You do good work!!

Very nice job on the saber!

Okay, just a bit of an update. Scott wanted to have some extra leds to change the blade color with, so I made up a couple of assemblies, and installed them:



That is the cyan led that produces a blade color called "Sunrider's Destiny." These can be somewhat difficult led's to track down, but I happened to have 5 of them already.

The next one is the yellow colored blade that Scott requested:



I like that one, and think it really goes with the brass on the saber!

And here's everything the saber will come with:

Great work, know come to the Dark side.

great job on the saber you did. do you think you can make a set of
greeble(2) if you have time to do them?

Rich "tall TK" Clarke.

tk1440 wrote:great job on the saber you did. do you think you can make a set of
greeble(2) if you have time to do them?

Rich "tall TK" Clarke.

This may be a dumb question, but what's a "greeble?"

Anyway, I made a few improvements to this , while getting it prepped for the new soundboard that will be arriving this weekend sometime:


Usually when I build one of these, I try to make the blade bolt line up in line with the button. this was right on this saber for awhile, but after removing and re-istalling the blade holder a few times, I think we wore off the powdercoating from the bottoms of both parts, which allowed the blade holder to screw on a little further, and causing the blade bolt to be off center. I corrected that by re-drilling for the mounting screws that hold the MHS adaptor inside the brass tube. now the switch hole is off a bit:



I'll have to drill a new switch hole, anyway, so it's no big deal. Scott has gone with a different switch option for this and it requires a bigger hole, so this isn't a big deal.

After I fixed that, I noticed that the screw that holds on the shroud for the blade holder was off, too....


I double checked the alignment, and the black dot is whre the screw needed to be to line up with everything else:


*sigh*....being the perfectionist that I try to be, I had to do something about that, too. so I cut a piece of extra material I had laying around to add to it:


I think that'll work. It will cover up the other hole in the brass and the also the blade holder. it won't weaken anything to drill another hole, so no worries there. It will fit on like so:




It's held in place by the screw on the bottom:




I think that looks a lot better! It gives the emitter more depth! Next up will be drilling for the new button hole, and hopefully, showing the new soundboard going in this weekend!

they are the emblems on the imperial officer belt buckles and caps.

Rich "Tall TK"Clarke.

tk1440 wrote:they are the emblems on the imperial officer belt buckles and caps.

Rich "Tall TK"Clarke.

Uh, okay....I didn't realize that's what you guys called them! I've never tried to make anything except sabers, so probably not, unfortunately....I'm up to ears in people that a saber, and I don't have enough time to do them all...

thank you for trying,hope to see you at next year Novi comic con.

Rich.

Okay, the Ultrasound v2.0 soundboards arrived on last friday, and after sucessfully installing one in my son's saber (see video here!) I decided to get started on the installlation for this saber.

Since the saber was already dismantled, this wasn't that difficult, at least not after I figured out how to mount the board in the forward grip.

The first thing I did was drill a hole for the new switch...it required a slightly larger one....then I gatherd up all the parts:


Here's the new switch:

That is called a "guarded" switch, and it can be found at the Custom Saber Shop. It is a momentary, which is just what the board requires. These can be difficult to use when navigating the menu, though. There's a little too much travel in the the button, sometimes causing a double signal, which shuts down the board. There's a way to fix that, which I'll show next:

I decided the best way to get around that shut-down effect for now, was to install a recharge port. I also made a small plastic plug that when inserted into the port, will kill power to the board, resetting it. It will also allow for the use of rechargeable batteries later on if Scott decides to go that route.

The installed port:


The rest of the wiring:

This is gonna be fun!! 8O

This next pics shows what I came up with to mount the board:



It's basically a fender washer with two holes drilled through it to mount two 2 1/2" long 8-32 screws to it. On top of the screws are four nylon 1" long spacers. they are non-conductive, and will insulate the board from the rest of the hilt pieces.

It fits in like so:

The washer was a bit too thin when i test fit the grip section on the saber, so I put a rubber o-ring in the adaptor first and then seated the chassis on top of that. I ran the wires through the hole and arranged them in order to where they attach to the board. I then soldered all of the wires to the board.

I made sure to have the battery pack pulled out to ensure that there was enough speaker wire to allow the pack to actually be removable:

(I know, the pic is blurry as all get out, but you get the idea!)


I then installed the ribbed extension....you can see the board sits in there very nicely:


I then re-installed the led/heatsink assembly, the lens and then the blade holder and blade:


I then pushed the button:


WOOO-HOOO!!!! IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

Here's a short vid to prove it, too: