Shadow's Bane - custom lightsaber build COMPLETE "All done and duel-worthy!"
#31 Posted 06 September 2016 - 06:05 PM
#32 Posted 06 September 2016 - 07:01 PM
#33 Posted 09 September 2016 - 05:19 AM
Started soldering to the board last night. Had it all working albeit with a couple problems. At first the emitter LED was constantly on and didn't turn off. Discovered it was just a bridged connection on the board pads and solved that problem. Then I realized that I wired it all up without putting all the hilt parts on so I had to desolder them to get everything in the right way. then after I resoldered it I had the constant LED problem again. So I soldered AGAIN and now it won't even turn on. I think I'm just using too much solder. I suck at soldering. Going to try again to clean off all the soldering off the pads and start over. It was exciting though, having one successful test. If I would have just wired it up through the hilt parts correctly I'd be done.
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 09 September 2016 - 05:20 AM
#34 Posted 09 September 2016 - 05:41 AM
#35 Posted 09 September 2016 - 06:00 AM
#36 Posted 09 September 2016 - 06:10 AM
MusicallyInspired, on 09 September 2016 - 06:00 AM, said:
maybe. if it's not heating your connection enough you'll end up with globs.
#37 Posted 09 September 2016 - 09:47 AM
#38 Posted 09 September 2016 - 08:16 PM
It works! Sounds, lights, flickers, clash, ignite, disengage. The only thing that doesn't is the switch LED, of which I ruined the resistor for. But I just need to buy a new one and then throw that on too. Also need a chassis for the battery and board. Don't want bridged connections from the pad/wire connections touching the hilt itself. Also need a blade retention screw hole drilled somehow still and a screw hole for the belt clip covertec knob. Also filled my blade with cellophane film. Also looks good. Oh, and I need to come up with something for the kill key (right now it's just a piece of plastic sticking out of the charge port). I don't know if I'll make one myself or buy one somewhere. I'm not sure where to being to customize it myself so far....I'll keep my eyes open, maybe a cool little pin or button would work.
So excited to get to the very end of this journey, but I'm so happy that I didn't screw anything up and fry the board or blow up the battery or something (though, the battery is protected so that won't happen anyway). Can't wait to go open carry with this baby...now I just need a costume...
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 09 September 2016 - 08:19 PM
#39 Posted 10 September 2016 - 11:07 AM
#41 Posted 16 September 2016 - 03:34 PM
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 16 September 2016 - 08:06 PM
#42 Posted 16 September 2016 - 06:12 PM
good thing canada has socialized health care
#43 Posted 16 September 2016 - 08:07 PM
#44 Posted 16 September 2016 - 08:19 PM
#45 Posted 16 September 2016 - 08:51 PM
#46 Posted 16 September 2016 - 09:19 PM
Lunick, on 16 September 2016 - 08:19 PM, said:
She should. That woman in the painting is her mother. That was a 10th anniversary present I got my dad to paint just this July.
#47 Posted 17 September 2016 - 04:09 PM
(the swings are sparse and the clashes are far too frequent because I still don't have anything inside holding the board and battery still)
#48 Posted 05 October 2016 - 08:10 PM
New kill key and lit AV switch:
From left to right, the new blue LED with my original trans-white blade, the new photon blade, the photon blade unlit, and the photon blade close-up. As you can see it's not really that green which is a little disappointing. The photos people would share were looked quite different to mine. As you can see on the closeup picture there's a bit of a blue core still visible which casts this ugly turquoise colour that I despise:
From left to right, the original green LED with my original trans-white blade and the photon blade, which is my favourite look out of all of them. The trans-white blade kind of dilutes the colour and gives a sort of milky green, but with the photon blade, it doesn't light up as much as with a blue LED, but it still gives a fairly powerful green light and one that's more vibrant than the milky trans-white green. In the pictures here it looks like the photon is dimmer but that darker shade of green in the photon blade core is probably just an effect of the blade and light with the camera lens or something. You can see that it's casting a bit of a brighter and richer green on the desk and surrounding objects:
However, some have told me that it's supposed to be quite a bit brighter and a little greener with blue (and indeed their photos are far more brilliant and vibrant). My blade is just straight transparent with some cellophane film inside, though. Others have suggested I take some sand paper to it and sand it down to diffuse the light better towards the edges. Someone showed me a photo of their blade pre-sanded and then post-sanded and the difference is quite noticeable and the blue core is much less visible to boot. So I'll keep you all updated on that. But I'm already realizing that the photon blade is not what I expected it to be. Not that I regret getting it, I'm trying to get first-hand experience with as much in this hobby as I can. So for anyone considering lightsabers and considering a photon blade, know that they are quite bright, but not like you think and the colour is not exactly a pure green like the photos portray.
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 05 October 2016 - 08:13 PM
#49 Posted 28 October 2016 - 03:14 PM
#50 Posted 01 November 2016 - 08:31 AM
#51 Posted 01 November 2016 - 10:36 AM
This post has been edited by Forge: 01 November 2016 - 10:36 AM
#52 Posted 01 November 2016 - 10:55 AM
#53 Posted 24 November 2016 - 04:50 PM
Then I did a mockup in Photoshop of what it might look like. Looks so nice! Especially after some weathering maybe.
#54 Posted 25 November 2016 - 08:01 AM
I don't really want one (that fancy) but I can appreciate this whole process and I find it awesome your family is involved. We don't really enjoy similar things as a family, with the exception of a few video games and dolls/action figures.
Anyway, thank you for sharing all these great posts.
CatNapDreams
#56 Posted 01 February 2017 - 06:37 AM
#57 Posted 01 February 2017 - 11:16 AM
JaseSerre, on 01 February 2017 - 06:37 AM, said:
Welcome to the forums.
#58 Posted 01 February 2017 - 01:41 PM
#59 Posted 13 March 2017 - 09:01 PM
This post has been edited by Striker: 13 March 2017 - 09:24 PM