Electronics Install
I was able to get everything installed without too much trouble by working slowly when getting the wires to go exactly where I wanted them. The Velcro that helps keep the battery in also keeps the sound unit in place with no rattling, but with a few shakes I can get it out the bottom of the hilt to access the battery.
12mm Momentary Switch, Black
Nothing much to say here. It works as intended, and I can get it tight enough using the nut I don't need any glue. It does stick up a bit on the hilt, so my hand will accidentally trigger the aux sound when spinning the saber.
12w+ Yellow LED
SF seems to have switched to a different style of heatsink module than the one shown on the website. This one can screw all the way in instead of a set distance, so it could be used for a tri-LED if needed (the tri-optics are shorter). SF yellow is made using 2 amber and 2 green dies* [READ UPDATE
HERE].And it appears that each of the like colors share a resistor, instead of the 3 amber ones being resistored individually and the green left alone. I can't check what size resistors were used without cutting the heat shrink off, so I can't say if the greens have a small one to protect them or a larger one for color mixing (my guess is the latter) [UPDATE:
HERE.
^no blade or plug, shined on wall
^In the dark, full battery.
^This is the LED in broad daylight, and is closest to how it appears to the naked eye.
^In the dark, next to my B/B/W Graflex 2.0
Overall, I'm am very happy with the LED's color.
Sabercore 2.0 sound unit, Crimson
-Comments on the soundboard in general:
First off, I really like the Crimson soundfont. It's has a nice dark side sound, but still works with this non-Sith blade color. One could say it is a characteristic of the yellow crystal inside it, or perhaps the lightsaber has a more powerful power cell (It's my lightsaber; this is what I'm going with
). The hum, swings, and clashes are nice and powerful, and the force lightning is a nice aux sound (which works for me, since my Jedi character uses Emerald Lightning). I do wish there was more variety with each of these sounds though. Another thing that is slightly annoying is that it takes almost 3 seconds of holding the switch down before it starts to turn off. It also stops the flickering when it begins to turn off, which can be a bit jarring if you are using the slower flicker setting.
The in hilt menu is very convenient, though it would be nice if it didn't reset all the settings every time you enter it. On a side note, the menu voice is still the Viridian one, and not the deep voice that speaks on boot up. I have the flicker on 5, sound on low (which is still plenty loud), and the clash a bit more sensitive than the swings.
The speaker sounds good (it appears to be a bass speaker), and works well with the deeper sounds of the Crimson soundfont.
-Comments on the soundboard unit in an ASP application.
The soundboard would really benefit from a deep sleep mode, or recharge ports being added to the ASP lineup. I encountered a few blips and glitches with the soundboard, but all of them were fixed by simply reinserting the battery. So it seems the board doesn't like to be on and in standby for long periods of time (longer than a few hours). The board does appear to draw a significant amount of power while in standby, as after two days the board starts to act squirrelly and requires the battery to be recharged. So I now take the battery out whenever I am done with the saber.
Speaking of taking the battery out, that is a bit difficult to do due to its tight fit. I have to push from underneath in the empty space between the board and the speaker to get it out.
EDIT: Another thing to mention: with the sound on high, there is enough vibrations that the board will trigger swings if it has the sensitivity on a more sensitive setting.