TOPIC: Custom Blood Red / Orange Oracle with NEC Spark 2

It's been a while since I've posted a review as I had been waiting on additional parts to complete my install.

Thankfully the parts came and I give you my Red Oracle! (yes, I woohoo'd my own Saber).

This is my first experience with the Oracle. I am very pleased how it turned out. Here are the specs:

• Initiate Oracle Standard Finish with Dark Red Leather Wrap
• Segmented Black Red AV Switch
• Quad Cree Red Orange / Red Orange / Amber / Amber
• NEC Spark 2 Soundboard
• Bass Speaker
• 2 Tone Covertech Wheel
• Quick Connects on the LED

I am VERY pleased with how this turned out! I can tell you that after this and 2 Bastion installs prior to this, I am exhausted from my Kram-Fu intensive sessions and will be building some bigger Elite sabers for a while and avoiding the Apprentice sabers since it is a challenge to get all of the electronics to fit (harder than soldering the board, anyway).

- Appearance -

I only have good things to say here. Some of this will be patting myself on the back. I feel like the choice of the segmented black AV Switch, the 2 tone Covertech Knob, and the Red Leather wrap really turned out to be spectacular. I wasn't sure what to expect when I placed the order for the initiate hilt through their regular site and never having seen an Oracle before. I added the Covertech knob after I received the hilt as I felt like sold silver was a bit much. The duck bill emitter is very unique looking and is eye catching, yet I would not call it my favorite either. It's different and a very welcome addition to my collection for its unusual appearance.








- Feel and Performance -

To my surprise, this little hilt has won the most comfortable and easy grip in my collection. The combination of a that nice choke section below the emitter (does that count as a thin-neck?...I would say no), the black, knurled switch section below that, and then leading to leather below that means you've got 3 very grippy places to keep it in your hand and out of a tree while swinging wildly. It's small, fast, and comfortable. The only nitpick I have is there just isn't enough real-estate here since it is an Apprentice hilt....or in other words, it's just not long enough. Where you can grip is comfortable, but I wish there was more.

My wife and I both found spinning this to be a breeze and a joy. That choke design makes even a novice Padawan learner look like a Jedi master due to the ease of handling it and sure grip. For this, it get an A+.




- Color and Brightness -

So I REALLY like Orange. It's been infused into me as a color that reminds me of home. So I wanted an orange themed lightsaber. I ordered a Ro / Ro / A / A LED from Saberforge and used the NEC Spark 2 to dial those colors in. I have 3 fonts that yield:

• Orange - All Amber with a touch of Red Orange
• [Something I would call "Not Orange and Not Red"...maybe Medium Blood Orange - All Red Orange and Half as Much Amber (This turned out to be my favorite color
• And Blood Orange

The colors are brilliant, and I especially like that Medium Blood Orange color. I tried my best to get the colors, but my camera is not cooperating. Believe it or not, the pictures above have different blade colors, but they all show as "Yellow"...and this saber does not have Amber or Yellow by itself configured.







Once again, I am very pleased how this LED turned out. It's bright and I feel it fits the saber really well.

- Sound -

HOLY COW. I did not think the hilt (and specifically, the Pommel) would make that big a difference, but here, MAN IS IT LOUD. I had to go into the config and turn down the sound it was so loud. Then hilt still vibrates from the bass. Yet nothing rattles. It's very nice!

The sound sounds muted in the video, but it is loud. Also, the color of the blade is best represented by the spot shining on the floor and the reflections on the walls and not the blade in the video

Here is a video I made trying to show the colors and the sound fonts I selected:


- Final Thoughts -

This saber is so unique in my collection and I loved being able to make a Blood Orange themed saber. Besides the saber being a bit short for my taste (which is hardly a critique), this turned out wonderfully. If you are a dueler, I would imagine this would be a wonderful saber. It's comfortable, quick, and full of personality. As someone who normally prefers longer hilts, this one is wonderful and definitely worth a look.

Here is a close-up of the switch and what the colors look like without the blade:



It is worth noting that the interior sections of the switch holes in the black knurled section are silver (not black), and that stands out a bit. It's not awful, but I wish the color had remained consistent.







The colors are best shown on the outer diameter or the color spot shining on the wall.

Very nice! I can't imagine trying to get all that in there (I hadn't realized just how long the Spark 2 would be until I got mine in hand). Did you use a 28mm or 20mm speaker?

Very nice! Spark 2 sounds like a really good board!

I thought Red Orange (i.e. Blood Orange?) is a combined color, so how did it come as a stand alone color for further combines?

Jaden Korr wrote:
Thanks, I went 28mm. It does fit...barely.
Execute66 wrote:
Normally it is. If you go to ShopSaberforge.com and select DIY electronics and pick the LED, you can choose Red Orange as a Diode option. Do I got 2 Red Orange and 2 Amber.

Going off memory, full XQ-E lineup is:

Photo Red (SF Deep Red)
Red
Red Orange
PC Amber (SF Amber)
Green
Blue (SF Light Blue)
Royal Blue (SF Deep Blue)
Neutral White

I believe SF Blood Orange used to be a Red/Amber combo back in the XB-D days. Not sure how it's made now.

Awesome colour coding you did, always like it when sabers either go for a theme or have some contrast going
Loving that segmented AV-switch btw!

Awesome hilt HotRod. That red grip wrap is sweet. Well done.

HotRod wrote: Nice and exciting build HotRod. I'm actually seeing these very same die ratios beaming from an Archon. Your next Elite build maybe..?

HotRod wrote:
I forgot to ask. Did you order the hilt from Etsy or main site? If it was from Etsy, then I suppose it was possible to specify what color leather wrap you wanted?

CrimsonJax88 wrote:
I try. Thank you for noticing. I like the segmented switch as well. I've got a Blue one I'm going to stick in a Mercenary soon. The only thing I didn't like is the light shines around the outside edge so it's sort of a circle with a segmented circle inside that. It awesome, just not what I expected.

Greysider wrote:
Thank you, sir, I quite like it. Glad you agree.

OvrcAHst wrote:
Mindreader! That one is on my list! I have an all Black ASP Exhalted with Pr / Pr / A / A (same colors as this one but Photo Red instead of Blood Orange) that I am building for a friend up next and an ASP Mercenary on deck. I cannot for the life of me figure out what colors to use on the Mercenary. I keep thinking some kind of Royal Blue, Blue, White Combination....maybe frost blue?

Execute66 wrote:

I ordered off the main site as an Initiate Tier Hilt and asked for the Dark Red Wrap.

HotRod wrote: I'll let lucky-guess have that one. Interesting. Sitting about mid-section on my List is a quad Cree Pr/Pr/RO/RO which may just equate to a standard Red or Medium Red? Got a Tri Cree (recently) running a Pico Crumble with multicolour rB/G/W that's pretty sweet (similar to your CR Exhalted I guess). But your Frost Blue may sound like a strong possibility.

OvrcAHst wrote:
I really look forward to seeing the Pr/Pr/Ro/Ro. I just got the Pr/Pr/A/A today and I'll start work on it this week. This all black ASP Exhalted is a monster because ASP requires the switch section. it's about 15" long right now.

Nice thought on the rB/G/W...might have to look into that.

HotRod wrote: May be a while before that gets shared, say likely after Christmas. It's a List mid-section item that hasn't received a trigger pull yet. This, I'll be following with interest. As for your ASP Kiwi, will guess that you've gone with one of the grenade TN Adapters? I'm working on something similar with TN Adapter1 into a switch part that measures shy-of 13". Depending on your chosen switch part, have you thought to use a male/male coupler to then (DIY-drill) to accommodate switches into said coupler and TN grenade Adapter, to shorten the whopping 15"?

OvrcAHst wrote:
I did manage to get one of these for another project I was working on, but I wanted to try to avoid having to drill the switch and recharge port holes myself. I have completed this saber and hope to get the review up sometime between tonight and the next few nights (I'm catching up on my missed posts).

hi HotRod,

I have an warrior Oracle on the way and was looking at wiring it up for sound in the future.
It is good to know that the board & speaker fits into the hilt, but a few questions for you...

Did you get this as an empty hilt and used your own battery holder and/or a internal chassis?

Are you utilizing the FoC, and if so, how did you wire up the LEDs? I have a preference towards the Spark 2 over NBv3 as it can handle the 12W+ LEDs, but does that mean you lose x1 of your LEDs towards FoC?

If it isn't a big hassle, a photo of the internals would be MUCH appreciated! Cheers!

Hi Khariot,

I will do my best to answer your questions:

I did order this as an Initiate Saber (empty) and put together my own board, battery, AV Switch, etc. However, my chassis is basically the battery and board covered with a clear protective tube from TCSS (The Custom Saber Shop). I have wanted to do an install with a full blown chassis, but I have not done one as of yet. However, this is not rattling and it is a TIGHT fit in both directions (diameter and length) since you run out of room fast with your LED wiring.

Yes, I am utilizing FoC. To do this, I requested a "Hero" Quad-Cree LED from Saberforge. It's important that you tell them you want the diodes individually addressed (all 4 of them). Then, you can soldier the negatives of any combination of them together. In my case, I bridged the 2 Blood Orange dies together and 2 Amber together. So I had 1 positive and 2 negative leads coming from the LED (positive, one for the Blood Orange, and one of the Amber)...and then wired one negative to each channel on the board....which is a nice segue to your next question. No, because of this, I did not loose an LED for FOC. You could also put 3 on one lead and the remaining on another for each channel.

Ha, well it was such an act of Kram-Fu to get it all in there, it would be quite an act to get it all apart, but I can send you a picture of another Spark 2 I did which is exactly the same concept....





I hope this helps! Thanks for your interest!

It's also worth noting depending on the color LED, the LED will need to be resistored as well...but that is a whole other conversation.

Not to hijack, but I'll be putting up some pics of the Spark2 going into a forsaken in the next couple of weeks, and that will be sitting in a full chassis.

I don't call that a Hijack at all...I call it helpful! Thanks!