TOPIC: ASP Review - sithassassin

ASP via indiegogo campaign arrived on Monday:




My pledge:

Emitter: Katana Emitter 4C . Weathered
Switch: Epoch Switch . Weathered
Body: Juggernaut Body . Weathered . Brown Leather
Pommel: Pommel 2 . Weathered
Plug: Blade Plug 4 . Black
Blade (If applicable): Blade 37''
LED (If applicable): Led 12W+ . Blood Orange
Soundboard (if applicable): Sound Viridian


In the box:




Not in the box:

Belt clip
Shims
- saberforge were emailed, no response at time of writing. Giving a week for a response


The wiring:





The hilt:


Switch colour is different to the rest of the metal - could be consistent here. This is my only issue (as long as my belt clip arrives!)



Turned on:



But....
I wanted an led switch and recharge port. So here are some changes:

Wow. I like this design. The color scheme you have going here works really well. Hope you get your belt clip and shims quickly.

Fantastic saber Jeff. Great use of Katana parts, I've put this almost identical combination together on the builder. Nice to actually see it for real. MTFBWY

I like the design and the added charge port. I hope they get the rest of the missing parts shipped out soon.

This also is noticeable on my fury switch section. I think it's just harder to control how much black gets taken off on the smaller parts when weathering them.

I am really digging that blade plug / emitter / tsuba combination. That looks so good with just the blade plug in. Congrats!

great looking saber! the brown wrap suits the weathering really well. i've read that o-rings work in lieu of shims. maybe you can go that route while waiting for the shims.

could you, if it's not too much trouble, post a tutorial on how you wired the illuminated switch and recharge port? did the switch require a resistor? and maybe where you got the parts? please, and thanks.

Thanks for your comments and questions.

Gnost-Dural, I went on the diy electronics section of the forum, where other members and previous posts really helped me. So thanks to the community!
Based on the advice I came up with the following schematic:


Please note, I did this before the asp arrived. The things I changed were the position of the quick connects on the led and switch; which was enforced due to the resistor and quick connect position on the led.
Resistor used for switch is annotated on the schema.

Shopping list:
Recharge port - eBay 50p
Led switch - Etsy KRSabers £4.50
Luxdrive resistor - Digi-key £1.89 (you could get a 2p resistor, but this was the advised one).
Quick connects - Component-Shop 70p a pair

You will also need cable, heatshrink, solder etc. And I advise a kill plug - I got a turning one that only needs removing for charging - in pic bellow:

Also, having the recharge port really helps as the battery charger supplied is of absolutely no use in the UK.

And now the sabre in context:

JeffVader wrote:
Looks like you got a different blade plug. Interested in where you found it? I really like the way it looks.

jonnys95s10, all the info you need for the blade plug is here: http://goth-customsabers.ftl-network.com/log/turbine-blade-plugs/

And a photo of the one I made:



The tube is from an old MR fx Vader blade. The laser printed tubes are just too brittle and smash as soon as you screw them in.

Jeff how do you like the rotating kill key, any unintentional deactivations? Sweet Outfit and awesome mask! Blade plug is unique.

Rotating kill key is small and unobtrusive. No deactivations as yet. How it feels in the charge port, both on and off, I don't foresee any issues. I like it a lot and have a few more fore my Vader and Luke ANH conversions that I'll be doing once I can get hold of aluminium blade holders.

These kill plugs were purchased from Shapeways.

Outfit is for the Star Wars Celebration Europe next month.
Had a sweat on the asp arriving in time!

Thanks for the reply Jeff. You will be dressed and armed to impress for sure. I'm sure Celebration will be off the chain, enjoy Let your Anger and Hate flow JeffVader.

That is one incredibly handsome hilt, Jeff! Congrats!

JeffVader wrote:
Mate, THANK YOU for the schematic and the tips. I'm thinking of trying my own installs once all my hilts are complete. This gives me confidence that I have a guide to follow. Cheers!

Nice work. I was looking into adding a recharge port to mine as well, though my hilt doesn't have as much room as yours does.

JeffVader wrote: Thanks! I don't have much room in my hilt, but I'm planning a similar upgrade and this answers pretty much all my questions.

There's a good chance I'll swap the sound board at the same time. Erv Plector makes some mighty fine toast.