So, I'm a nerd

[justatroll]

Originally Posted by Packofcrows

Dang coulda had so many parts for the car... You coulda had it allllll!




How's the light work? Do you do the sound effects when you move it around?

He DOES.

Take that dual saber and put it behind the grill in the BRZ!

You could be '"Rice-Windu" Jedi-Bling master!

[themadscientist]

So, yes, I am a nerd, but I am a nerdy car guy! Things like cars and tools, to modding it leads. My car guy blood is directly attributable to me ability to jump into IT and start troubleshooting and wrenching on computers and network. Why would my new "shiny thing" (ADD speak) be any different?

When I ordered my two sets of sabers I had different use profile for each. The big dollar ones are the supercar you drive on pretty days and don't really screw with. The cheaper ones are the going to the store daily driver. As such, the pricey ones had all the bells and whistles and the subsequent wait. The cheaper ones are basic transportation and in my driveway that day.

I'm a car guy, though. What's the chances I won't immediately start screwing around with my new Corolla while I wait for delivery on my Lamborghini? If you selected absolutely fucking zero you are the winner! Much like when I picked up the BRZ I knew I wanted to make a few changes and addressed that. One of the reasons I selected the hilt model I did was so I could break up the expanse of aluminum and improve grip.

Add a couple of 30mm O rings and the saber acquires a new look that I like a lot and the grip is much better, success!



While pleased with my little quick mod, my expectation that just having a purple blade that lights up would be good enough was wrong. Both my wife and I had fun swinging our respective sabers, but are unanimous in that without sound they are less satisfying. Unlike the expensive fully kitted out sabers with every conceivable option, these ones are j"fun" a veritable blank canvas that are ready to become whatever I want them to be, very similar to a certain car, hmmm?

I've been good with my BRZ; still just the aftermarket wheels. Lightsaber tuning is comparatively affordable and presents less of a barrier to commencement. Get my tools!

So, essentially, this a fancy aluminum pipe with some gizmos inside, a dressed up Maglite flashlight. On that, if you want to convert your Maglite, they make a kit. Let's blow it apart and what makes it tick.



Like any machine there are various levels of features and complexity. My saber is as basic as possible. It has no sound; it only lights up and it avoids a more powerful and complicated power source for a simple four AAA rig.



The LED I picked is their simplest; there are a lot more powerful options out there. I picked the color I wanted, though and while the blade is obviously not as bright as it could be, I don't want to improve here. I still wanted to check it out to better understand how it goes together because I think after I mod my saber I might step up to a more powerful LED for the wife's saber upgrade.




Ok, small circuit board with some LEDs soldered on with a lens to focus them, pretty pedestrian. My blade is a shade of purple and they seem to arrive at that by running a blue and a red LED and I assume various resistors on each to tune the color.




I have been reading up on saber construction and electronics and I see that the LED board just sits on the aluminum base. That's less than optimal. From building computers and reading posts of sabersmiths I would postulate there should be at least heat tape attaching the pieces to better transfer heat from the board to the heat sink, a less than top notch aluminum material. Copper would have been better. My saber is very low powered, though, so it's not so terrible.

I would like my switch to light up, but I was ready to let that slide and just keep the switch I have, but I can't as it turns out. My saber, because it is simple with no control board, uses a latching switch to directly connect the battery pack to the LED. When I add a sound board it will act as a relay so I will need a momentary switch. I can add illumination as well. While my current switch is threaded, it's actually glued in. Not sure how much money and time the maker saves not threading a nut on there, but I will install the replacement switch properly.




Let it begin. I have to go shopping for upgrade parts.

[themadscientist]

So my parts came in.



The spiked pommel was to see if they really got the thread pitch right on the hilt. The pommel is from another company and the hilt I have is advertised as compliant. It is; it screwed on one smooth as silk.




Let's rip it apart!
The switch is threaded, but they glued it in. I had to heat the hilt up with a hair dryer to melt the glue enough to pry it out.




This is all that is in a "stunt" saber, one that just lights up.




I picked a gold illuminated switch and I intended to use a nut to secure it, but it's too short to thread the nut on. I will have to pop the LED out again and glue it like they did. This was an experiment before hacking into the wife's saber; lesson learned, longer switch.



The purple color is arrived at by using resistors to tune the red and blue LEDs.




The soundboard cannot handle the voltage of 4 AAA alkalines so I went with 4 AAA Ni-MH to drop the pack voltage into a safe range for the sound card.



It was difficult jamming all that gear in there and armed with the experience I would go with terminals over soldering on another project. The sound card is buried in there and while I could pull it back out to tune the action, I'm not that worried about it. The swing noise is hard to trigger because the sound card's motion detector really needs to be closer to the blade, but the clash noise works reliably. Overall, I'm pleased wit the upgrade.

CLICK PIC BELOW FOR VIDEO

[finch1750]

This is more detailed then most car build threads on here haha.

But very cool

[justatroll]

If you want FULL-ON Nerd then you needed to be able to adjust the RGB color when desired.
And you should have an accelerometer to know when you are swinging it and when it stops abruptly.
What is that circuit board and the mem stick?
Is that how you are going to get sound?
Arduino maybe?

If you had an arduino with an accel and various sounds on the mem stick, you caould vary the sound and the color of the LED based on what the accel measures.
Like maybe a burst of white light and a change in sound when the accel detects a collision with another object.

[themadscientist]

Click the little pic. There's a link to a vid. I'm now using a Plector Labs Nano Biscotte sound card with a bass speaker from the Custom Saber Shop.

What you describe is called flash on clash and I could do that with a new triple LED.

[themadscientist]

I needed a good way to carry my blade around, seriously.
I found what I was looking for at a fishing store, a fishing rod case.




I didn't measure the saber before I bought the case, it's longer than I need, but it confirms this will work so I'll measure the rest of my blades and get a couple more.



Hey, Mad, that blade looks longer than before. Why yes it is and aren't you a keen observer of detail. Yes, that is a 40" blade. With the saber already a little clunky and handling like a large broadsword I figured, fuck it, go bigger! The original blade I had in it was a 36". This thing is full huge now and when swinging against the wife it's downright overwhelming the amount of reach it affords. Don't swing wide and an opponent would be hard pressed to easily close distance. Here it is next to my newest saber and the wife's, both with fast-acting 32" blades.




This is my new acquisition. I opted for factory sound this time and it sounds good, but when I fire up the big un with the parts I put together the one I built blows away the off the shelf rig, so much louder even with the smaller battery pack, but I did pick the big bass speaker. This new one is shorter and with the short blade moves much quicker and I went with a pointed tip on it. The black powder coat contrasts nicely with the raw aluminum cuts and spikes.



What's that color you say? That is called Bane's Heart. Darth Bane was a Sith lord back in the day and created the rule of two. Info if you are a nerd and want to read up. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Bane

It's a wicked shade of pink-magenta and it's my new favorite color, definitely worth the markup. It pops between the big boy in violet amethyst and the wife's in guardian blue.




I need to order some parts to crank up the wife's saber. In addition to the new saber and the longer blade for my big saber, I got the vented pommel for the sound upgrade for hers. I am going to add flash on clash to hers and high power baller Cree LEDs.

[themadscientist]

I stumbled across a hornets nest. A coworker is a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism and I made the mistake of suggesting he was a LARPER. OMG, the nerd rage that welled up! If I suggested to a Star Wars geek that William Shatner piloted the Millennium Falcon or suggested to a Trekkie, Trekkor? that the Federation set up the neutral zone between them and the Sith empire, I would have received a less aggressive, defensive treatise and venomous looks than what I got from this guy.


He wanted to make sure I understood that when he and his friends dress up and pretend to be fictional characters, study and practice crafts and social behavior based on their chosen period and whack each other with sticks it's NOT the same as when other people dress up like fantasy characters, yeah and, um, study and practice crafts and social behavior based on their chosen subject, and sure, when THEY whack each other with sticks.


Dude, come out of the closet already. What you are doing isn't lame, to me at least, and I'm not talking down to your hobby. I can see how that would be fun and a part of me knows with my lightsaber thing that if I stepped across the invisible line by dressing up my saber practice helmet to look like a Sith it would quickly spin out into full on cosplay, comicon pilgrimages and all that. I'm not ashamed of that; I just don't need one, more, fucking, thing, to distract me.


Do your thing and have fun, but if you are going to get butthurt and defensive about what you do it starts to make you look like a loser. Be proud of what you are doing, tell me about how you beat a guy down with your mace because he didn't make his armor correctly or whatever. Don't be thin-skinned and whiny about it. It's YOUR thing. You chose to spend money and time doing it. Be proud of it or shut the fuck up.


I march into the gym and down to the first available open area and do my lightsaber drills head held high. Kids seem to enjoy it and I do enjoy that. Some people give me weird looks, but I give no fuck. I dig it and fuck you if you don't like it. When you pay my bills, motherfucker, you can judge me and the choices I make. Do or do not, there is no try, bitch.


resisting temptation to pick a Darth (insert something) as a sign off.

[Ashikabi]

Originally Posted by themadscientist

I stumbled across a hornets nest. A coworker is a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism and I made the mistake of suggesting he was a LARPER. OMG, the nerd rage that welled up! If I suggested to a Star Wars geek that William Shatner piloted the Millennium Falcon or suggested to a Trekkie, Trekkor? that the Federation set up the neutral zone between them and the Sith empire, I would have received a less aggressive, defensive treatise and venomous looks than what I got from this guy.


He wanted to make sure I understood that when he and his friends dress up and pretend to be fictional characters, study and practice crafts and social behavior based on their chosen period and whack each other with sticks it's NOT the same as when other people dress up like fantasy characters, yeah and, um, study and practice crafts and social behavior based on their chosen subject, and sure, when THEY whack each other with sticks.


Dude, come out of the closet already. What you are doing isn't lame, to me at least, and I'm not talking down to your hobby. I can see how that would be fun and a part of me knows with my lightsaber thing that if I stepped across the invisible line by dressing up my saber practice helmet to look like a Sith it would quickly spin out into full on cosplay, comicon pilgrimages and all that. I'm not ashamed of that; I just don't need one, more, fucking, thing, to distract me.


Do your thing and have fun, but if you are going to get butthurt and defensive about what you do it starts to make you look like a loser. Be proud of what you are doing, tell me about how you beat a guy down with your mace because he didn't make his armor correctly or whatever. Don't be thin-skinned and whiny about it. It's YOUR thing. You chose to spend money and time doing it. Be proud of it or shut the fuck up.


I march into the gym and down to the first available open area and do my lightsaber drills head held high. Kids seem to enjoy it and I do enjoy that. Some people give me weird looks, but I give no fuck. I dig it and fuck you if you don't like it. When you pay my bills, motherfucker, you can judge me and the choices I make. Do or do not, there is no try, bitch.


resisting temptation to pick a Darth (insert something) as a sign off.

Jedi are pussies anyways. SCA is technically "Larp" BUT the Larps use foam weapons for safety and to just make the size/weight practical but the SCA has rules for combat(can't hit below knees etc) and uses minimum 1.25 diameter solid bamboo(rattan) and lemme tell you, getting hit is no joke. Technically still roleplaying but the SCA is like Super GT and Larp is your local Autocross combat/competition wise. Also SCA is "as historical accurate as possible" and larp is "pretend" so you're gonna rustle a lot of jimmies there. I never gave a shit. I just wanted to fight. Got out because of local politics. Now I paintball. Which is exactly the same just without the silly historical tradition shit and pretentious history buffs but with guns now LOL.

[themadscientist]

I'm with you. I just want to fight and let the people deep in it enjoy themselves with that, but the first impression doesn't impress me.

[Shinchu]

This thread is so awesome. Its like... i found a clone of myself lol

I got bit by the custom saber bug back when i was stationed in yokosuka in 2005. I was building sabers with whatever i could find plus parts from tcss. Then i got a pc 1.5 and then somebody hacked it and erv decided to let us put custom sound fonts on them and holyyyyyyyy shit its been a hell of a ride! I am on the fxsabers forum as kyle katarn. Right now my only working saber is my luke rotj hero that ldm converted for me for the low low price of $800 lol!
I have others in various stages of building and repair.
Actual graflex flash handle converted to luke anh
Graflex 2.0 replica in tfa config
Starkiller from the force unleashed game
Mara jade scratch built from tcss parts for my wife
My own custom build from tcss

Man i need to post some pics.

This shit is so fun!!!!

Oh and i like cars too.
And action figures.

Damn i am so broke lol

[MountainCruise]

Damn that thing looks SWEET! Now you have to go to a nearby John Williams concert and blast it open during Star Wars songs

[wbradley]

Didnt read whole thread but fokkkk, if I lived in Japan it would be all Beyblades and Pokemon.

My 9 yr old son approves. The 18 yr old daughter away in university is THE biggest nerd, Lolita wardrobe and all, like a walking anime. She'd approve too.

Madscientist is either a big kid or he just has WAYY too much money to burn. LOL

Come to Toronto when Anime North and several other manga and anime events are on and its like living walking fiction.

[Ashikabi]

Originally Posted by wbradley

Didnt read whole thread but fokkkk, if I lived in Japan it would be all Beyblades and Pokemon.

My 9 yr old son approves. The 18 yr old daughter away in university is THE biggest nerd, Lolita wardrobe and all, like a walking anime. She'd approve too.

Madscientist is either a big kid or he just has WAYY too much money to burn. LOL

Come to Toronto when Anime North and several other manga and anime events are on and its like living walking fiction.

Sounds delicious