Welcome, Guest
Username: Password: Remember me
Threaded Indented

TOPIC: Acolyte Switch unit removal

Acolyte Switch unit removal 5 months 5 days ago #68221

  • Amenthea
  • Amenthea's Avatar
  • Offline
  • New Member
  • Posts: 13
  • Thank you received: 1
Hi,

So I've had an Warrior Acolyte sitting on my side since April, as when it first arrived I went to check I had a removal LED unit and it turned out that the original fitting of the LED had pinched and partly cut the wire. When moving it the LED just stopped working.
SF CS were great and after an explanation of the issue they sent me a replacement LED unit, but due to the design of the hilt its virtually impossible to get the LED far enough back down into the neck as the cables bunch up (mostly due to the thinned neck section) and back into the activation switch column.

On multiple attempts the LED only goes down as far as the blade would normally go, so it looks like in order to get the cables to drop further down the hilt the switch column needs to basically need to not be there.
From what I can tell, it looks like a screw in unit? If this is the case I'm pretty sure that this will end here as I really can't see a way to get it back out without damaging the electronics or the finish.

I've tried over several hours and every few weeks using cable ties, poles with hooks on the end, pencils, knives...pretty much anything I can find that could prod/poke of pull (from either side) but without success, that switch needs to be out of the way.

Has anyone got any advice, experience or has done this before and can help? Feeling pretty gutted right now as its a lovely saber, but if I can't get this LED back in its just a pretty shell that cost me loads more that if I'd just brought it like that :(
The administrator has disabled public write access.

Acolyte Switch unit removal 5 months 4 days ago #68230

  • OvrcAHst
  • OvrcAHst's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Moderator
  • War. Mostly Dark, Often Grey, Sometimes Light
  • Posts: 2551
  • Thank you received: 1542
Amenthea wrote:
due to the design of the hilt its virtually impossible to get the LED far enough back down into the neck as the cables bunch up (mostly due to the thinned neck section) and back into the activation switch column.
On multiple attempts the LED only goes down as far as the blade would normally go, so it looks like in order to get the cables to drop further down the hilt the switch column needs to basically need to not be there.
From what I can tell, it looks like a screw in unit? If this is the case I'm pretty sure that this will end here as I really can't see a way to get it back out without damaging the electronics or the finish.

I've tried over several hours and every few weeks using cable ties, poles with hooks on the end, pencils, knives...pretty much anything I can find that could prod/poke of pull (from either side) but without success, that switch needs to be out of the way.

Has anyone got any advice, experience or has done this before and can help? Feeling pretty gutted right now as its a lovely saber, but if I can't get this LED back in its just a pretty shell that cost me loads more that if I'd just brought it like that :(
I don't have an Acolyte personally but if its temperament is consistent to all Apprentice Hilts (including long blade-well Elite Hilts) where swapping out and replacing the QC LED is a pain, then something you may like to try..


From the Acolytes anatomy and location of the LED retention, the Module should sit (red arrow) and the excess wires including the deans connectors (green arrow), and partially under the switch (purple arrow). The problem that's common is the bunched wires are flaccid and disables any directional guiding as you feed it back it where rigidness will help.

If you were to go the route of popping-out the switch, IMO it wouldn't assist much more as even if it yields success with feeding the wires back via the emitter, it will stunt the seating of the switch when trying to re-insert. SF Factory glue (around switches) isn't the strongest. I've had several hilts where the switch (and charge port) has arrived popped-out from unboxing. Applying gradual heat to the switch can loosen the glues grip but..

perhaps continuing from the emitter end (as the function is intended). To add rigidness to the wires with something non conductive i.e. plastic, instead of using twisty-ties where the wrapping can strip and expose metal, maybe cut some sectional pieces of a plastic straw* around the wires to encourage the rigidness so the feed-in can be located to just under/adjacent to the switch base (beneath the thinner-neck). If the blade socket is deeper than the length of finger, using the supplied blade plug to push against the LEDs heatsink is easier for re-insertion too.

Other Members may have suggestions. Good Luck.

* Macca's straws are pretty solid. 'cause of the larger diameter though, cut it lengthwise so it can be curled back into itself. If you want, applying heat along the cut edge can seal-it much the same way as using heatshrink on solder points.

EDIT: Just had an after thought. I'm a bit apprehensive from the residual heat from the LED possibly melting the straw. Maybe.. using a sheet of plastic (e.g. at about 100 gsm) like a funnel or piping bag (when rolled to = the ID of the emitter) to allow direction of the deans connectors into the neck. Once in, loosening the plastic should allow you to pull it back out past and around the LED so there's nothing foreign left in there? :unsure:
Last Edit: 5 months 4 days ago by OvrcAHst.
The administrator has disabled public write access.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Amenthea

Acolyte Switch unit removal 5 months 4 days ago #68245

  • Amenthea
  • Amenthea's Avatar
  • Offline
  • New Member
  • Posts: 13
  • Thank you received: 1
Thanks very much, I think this is the best advice I could have got tbh! And +1 on the heat issue, well spotted. The replacement LED seems to be a lot hotter than the original (its in a silver surround rather than black it came with) but it could also be due to the fact I recharged the battery..
The administrator has disabled public write access.

Acolyte Switch unit removal 5 months 3 days ago #68260

  • OvrcAHst
  • OvrcAHst's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Moderator
  • War. Mostly Dark, Often Grey, Sometimes Light
  • Posts: 2551
  • Thank you received: 1542
Amenthea wrote:
Thanks very much, I think this is the best advice I could have got tbh! And +1 on the heat issue, well spotted. The replacement LED seems to be a lot hotter than the original (its in a silver surround rather than black it came with) but it could also be due to the fact I recharged the battery..
I hope for your sake the suggestions made with troubleshooting the LED changeover works for you or minimally, enables some additional outside-thinking in order to achieve success. As for the silver heatsink versus the black, theories will suggest that one dissipates heat more successfully than the other with regards to heat retention, through my isolated experience, between the two the differences are marginal and generated heat is present regardless.

I may well be mistaken, but battery charge should ordinarily affect brightness only and notso much the amount of heat that is created as a result.

Good Luck and I hope your efforts return success. :)
The administrator has disabled public write access.

Acolyte Switch unit removal 4 months 1 week ago #69212

  • dmptrcks
  • dmptrcks's Avatar
  • Offline
  • New Member
  • Posts: 1
  • Thank you received: 1
I have an oracle with the same floppy wires issue and have found a great solution:
  1. Get a couple sheets of transparency paper
  2. Cut 3 long slender triangles with rounded points. MIne are about 1 inch at the base, 3 inches long and they round to about a pinky tip's diameter
  3. fold each right down the middle to create a shallow channel
  4. Pull the LED just barely out of the housing, enough that it is out of the way but not so much as to stress the wires
  5. Stuff all three transparency strips into the neck but outside of the wires, slightly overlapping so they create a guide chamber for the wires to slide down
  6. Gradually push the LED back down into the saber, going almost all the way in. You should still be able to pull the guide tube (transparencies) right out of the top one at a time
  7. tighten your set screw
    I've done this half a dozen times now with good success.
    Good luck!
The administrator has disabled public write access.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Amenthea
Threaded Indented

Member Login

Latest Posts

    • Payment types? (5 Posts)
    • I don't know about SF's reasons, but I know that another vendor doesn't use PayPal anymore due to...
    • Payment types? (5 Posts)
    • The bottom of the site says they accept American express, Visa, discover, Mastercard, JCB and there...
    • Payment types? (5 Posts)
    • well..........that sucks.
    • Payment types? (5 Posts)
    • Apparently they don't accept Paypal I asked CS a while ago which payment options they accepted. They...
    • New and Upcoming from Phi... (16 Posts)
    • Quote: Guess I need to clear my schedule then.... :P :lol: You mean it's not already cleared for the 4...

More Topics »

Forum Statistics

  • Total Users: 4710
  • Latest Member: TARoberth2C1e
  • Total Posts: 53.7k
  • Total Topics: 4311
  • Total Sections: 22
  • Total Categories: 114
  • Today Open: 3
  • Yesterday Open: 7
  • Today Answer: 33
  • Yesterday Answer: 41