TOPIC: Owner's Questions

Disclaimer: I'd like to encourage all new owners to post a brief review, then possibly ask questions about their sabers that might not be already explored. Hopefully, we can all share knowledge and new members can use this to find answers to questions that they didn't even know they had!

Brief review:

Earlier, I received my two champion sabers, a 12W+ Green Prodigal Son (Viridian) and 12W+ Violet Epoch (Crimson). I immediately charged it and left to Disneyland (If you didn't know, they totally allow it; the park visitors and CAST MEMBERS were taking selfies and dueling with me and one was even a fellow SF owner). The Epoch is noticeably brighter than the PS, so I'd accredit that to the thin-neck's effect on the illumination. The Epoch is also a little more comfortable than the PS, but both are fairly easy to wield.

Questions that I have:

1) A grief that Prodigal Son owners commonly find is a loose activation card on the control box. How do you other PS owners address this?

2) My Prodigal Son is experiencing LED rattle. I did a little research and found that it's likely the snap-ring problem that can be fixed in seconds........What is a snap-ring? Should I be worried? Just in case, how could I fix it?

3) Since it's a lithium-ion battery on the Champion sabers, it's better to fully deplete the charge before recharging, right?

4) Exactly how much do you guys dimple your blades with the blade retention screw?

Thanks for your help

Sorry i'm not able to answer your questions as I don't have my saber yet. I too ordered an Epoch and it should be here in about a week and a half hopefully!

I had a gripe about disney! I happen to live down here in Florida just south of Orlando so my family and I have annual passes to Disney world. The no costume policy here is pissing us off to no end, especially now that they've added all this awesome new star wars stuff with even more to come (an entire new "land") in like 2018 or so. We got our pictures taken with Chewie and then another with Darth Vader and I couldn't help thinking how much more awesome it could have been if we had been in our jedi costumes.

The new policy really pisses me off. So you being out there in Cali, is it as strict there? You said you took your saber but you didn't specify if you wore an outift.

I talked to guest services about it because I wanted to voice an actual complaint or at least find out if there was any possibility of them loosening up on this in the future. I got a pretty crappy "blahblah terroristsOMG!" response.

I'm so sick of people caving to terrorist's agenda. Doesn't anyone realize that doing so makes it so that they don't even have to launch an attack? They've already accomplished their primary mission if you go around making rules and regulations out of fear of them.

Sorry I took your topic off thread, I just wanted to get that in there. We look for every excuse to wear our jedi outfits and sadly there are only a few conventions per year. Being able to wear them up to disney would be freakin bad ass. From what I was told though it doesn't look like its ever going to change back.

If you want to wear your costume to more than just cons I suggest you look into joining the Rebel Legion. Look into their Generic Jedi section and see if you meet the standards. We troop many more events than just cons every year.

As for Disney World, their costume policy isn't about terrorists. Wearing costumes that especially look close to the characters they have takes guests away from interacting with their actors. It could draw crowds to places they didn't anticipate.

Disney sets up their characters in places they know they can manage people as to allow free flow around the parks. If they had a lot of people in cool costumes taking pictures almost no one could get by (experienced this at the Air and Scare troop in Washington last year.)

Further they can't be sure of the standard of the costume you're going to wear. Since what you have matches one of their known properties guests can mistake you for one of Disney's employees. Should something go wrong with that their image can be tainted. With a kid it's alright because people expect kids to act a certain way and for their costumes not to be top notch.

If you do end up joining the Rebel Legion we do get to troop in Disney World in costume. Not as generic jedi or any named character but something like a pilot we've been asked to participate as. Another thing worth looking into. Hope this has helped.

You know, we'd probably be the ones scaring off the terrorists if they saw a party of lightsaber enthusiasts decked out in Jedi and Sith gear and toting lightsabers with knowledge of how to use 'em.

As for Lim's questions, I may have a couple hypotheses.

I don't know if you heard about my Prodigal Son dream, but in it Luke gripped the saber in two ways. One handed was his hand firmly around the grenade section (which could prevent the card from sliding if it only goes one way), two handed was his dominant hand at the chokepoint and his other hand with fingers wrapped along the side of the box. Dunno if that helps in the slightest.

On dimples I'm much more helpful. I only turn the retention screw of my Ultrasabers enough to get the plugs out (usually a single 360 degree turn). The blade I tighten, but nothing super tight (Probably be secure at 360, but I always go just a bit more). Just a rough estimate, but I may be wrong.

Hey SithLordLim!
Congrats on getting your sabers! I too just received my prodigal son. My activation card on the control box stays in place pretty well. Not sure if will become more loose as time goes on but right now it's not an issue for me right now.

I've read other people's posts about the loose, rattling led---our friend Nebosa posted in his review how he fixed his loose snap ring.

I'm curious about the battery charging too. Not sure if you have to let it drain all the way down before charging or not. I charged it only once so far when i first got it.

The only thing i noticed with mine (and im not sure if its even a problem or not) is that when i look down the emitter (when the saber is off) to where the LED is i can see a small burn mark (not on the led but to the side of it). It doesnt seem to be affecting anything, the blade is very bright. Just wondering if anybody else has noticed this.

First welcome to the Forums.

I have done much research while wading through the abundant amount of information on the Forums and have come across posts from others that have had similar issues. To the best of my knowledge this is what I found.
As to answer your question about the rattle from the LED

The first image shows what the LED assembly should look like. This unit is found below the blade plug and has its own set screw. You will have to loosen this set screw and slide out the assembly. Be careful as the wires are still intact. Inside this assembly you should find the Snap Ring (image 2) To adjust this you will need a snap ring tool (possibly a set of needle nose pliers will do the job).

This is probably not something to tackle on your own if you don't have much experience with these types of things. I don't want to hear that you accidentally wrecked your saber.

If you have not done so maybe send an e-mail to customer service and ask them about these issues. Pending non where you live maybe you could send it back and have SF fix the issues.

I hope this information helps and I wish you the best in any route you chose to fix the issues.

May the force be with you.

Hey man,
Congrats on the PS.

1. Regarding the card on the box. I have no idea what can be done for that. Mine's 99% on display, so having it on a belt or swinging it around and have the card slide open isn't a real issue for me so I haven't looked in to ways of repairing it myself.

2. The LED rattle is fixable depending on whether you can separate the components of your saber or not. The threads often have adhesive or locktite on them to keep from spinning free. Mine didn't have any and I was able to unthread the section above the switch and gain access to where the LED module is located. There's no shoulder or groove for the snap ring to sit in and help seat the module in position, so with some usage where you hold the saber vertically and swing/hit it around, the ring will naturally shift downward in the bore of the hilt giving the LED area to move.

You can use a heat gun or a blow dryer and heat the area where the threads join so the adhesive warms up a bit and will make it malleable again then you can unthread the sections. You can use your finger or whatever you want and just push the ring back in to position which is literally, as snug as you can get it under the module and that should quiet your rattle.

3. Hard to say anything about battery specs as it may have been depleted at any time. Just charge it and go. Initial charge will take longer than expected (often quite a few hours). Charge time afterwards is much quicker.

4. Since the walls on the heavy grade blade are fairly thick, you can run them in a decent amount. You'll end up getting a feel for it so it's hard how to describe it with words. But the snugger you can get it, it'll take some of insecurity and wobble out of the blade.

Thanks for all of your responses!

1) DK44, mine was shipped loose when I received it. I'm able to secure it while I'm dueling, but when I hang it from my belt, it slides down and drives me crazy.

Does anyone have any clever ways of remedying this?

2) Nebosa and Furvious, I just tapped the hilt while it was held emitter-side-down, and I believe that the snap-ring settled nicely. Didn't have to open up the treads.

3) I did some research on Li-ion batteries, and I believe it's best to only charge when needed, so one can preserve battery life.

4) I get a pretty good dimple on that sucker because I duel pretty roughly.

BrickMacklin wrote:
Wow! I never knew that the RL can trek Disney parks in full costume!

SithLordLim wrote:
Only when we're invited and then those who are lucky to get on the list. I'm not sure if we get to go through the whole park in costume but we do get to be in parades. I hope to one day do this as a pilot.

SithLordLim
Mate, congrats and well done with receipt of your two Hilts. I reckon with your hint all the other Owners waiting for their respective Prodigal Sons have just edged a little closer to explosion.

Regarding your Control Box Card problem, I remember reading about a troubleshoot that was suggested (but not knowing where it originated from, spent some time finding it) and found it.

Credit goes to bro2044 as this method to resolve was made by him.

Hope this has equal success for you as it did for him.

Thanks, OvrcAHst. I tried it last night, and it works well for awhile, until the tape comes off. I was hoping to find something more permanent like a locking mechanism or way to thicken the card.

SithLordLim wrote:
Has anyone here ever looked inside the hilt? I am concerned that some(?) of our sabers do not sit inside a battery compartment but is apparently soldered on, which means it is beyond many of our skills to replace a Li-ion battery should that day come for whatever reason.

BrickMacklin wrote:
I wasn't just throwing out conjecture, I was posting what they themselves said. The reasons you listed were some minor annoyances they had thrown around which don't hold much water. I spent a good while in guest services speaking to three different staff members and also the general manager who had luckily stopped by at that time. I heard the same thing about people mistaking us for official staff and all that. I suggested that they should implement a program where they issue some type of bright colored neon armband to all cosplayers so as to easily identify them. Pretty much every dumb reason they had I was able to poke holes through on why it was ridiculous and how you could easily remedy the problem so as to allow us to wear jedi outfits.

Then they finally dropped the bullshit and gave it to me straight. Its about terrorism. They said its not the sort of thing they really want to go around advertising but they have had some very credible threats in the recent past and they can't allow people in costumes for fear of an attack. Ridiculous.

On the way out, a guy stopped me to talk more about it. He had been on the security detail for disney for 2 years and had just recently gotten a new job. He said that in just the two years he worked there they actually stopped 3 separate incidents that truly were intended attacks. Apparently some dudes would stay at the resorts and try to smuggle shit in that way. Apparently "terrorists" want to release some kind of bio agent in the magic kingdom and they've damn well tried several times.

I don't know if any of that is true but even if so, it pisses me off. When we walk around caving to terrorist bullshit and constantly looking over our shoulders...they win. We live in fear and they smile. When/if a terrorist were to strike, I'm pretty sure they won't be dressed like Obi-wan. Everything I tried to argue was met with "but terrorists bro" or "no but seriously....terrorists bro" as if I'm just like any other asshat emptyheaded american that cowers at the mention of terror. Its the ultimate goverment tool to automatically shut everyone up and stop them from questioning authority.

Ok sorry to hijack your thread. I just had to answer that guy. I wasn't pulling that out of my ass, these are disney officials saying why we can't wear our jedi outfits. Because terrorists bro. *sigh*

SithLordLim wrote:
@SithLordLim, maybe if you just use hot glue from a glue gun on both edge sides of the card, it would prevent unwanted slippage. Glue from a glue gun is kind of rubbery when it cools so besides widening the card a little it would also provide gripping properties and should be a pretty permanent solution. You can just keep adding more until it's a good fit and if you put on too much, it's easy to just melt the excess off with the hot tip of the glue gun.

SithLordLim,
I know this has been an issue for a few people but if you look up some YouTube videos of SF PS, there was one where a guy used a small button magnet on the back of the card and it would sit over the activation switch under the card. When it would line up it wouldn't slide. It seems like the best solution and non invasive. Hope this helps.

I remember a thread about the possibility of magnets doing something to the electronics but that was being debated in the thread. Not sure if a small button magnet would negatively effect anything. Any other experts can chime in here and comment.

Thanks, Andi-Jae EL and drgolds, I'll look into both. Hopefully, some saber building specialists can shed some light on both! I'm particularly interested by the magnets since it seems like a great, permanent fix, as long as it doesn't harm the electronics.

Execute66 wrote:
I'd also like to know whether the average saber enthusiast is able to work his or her way in to replace it!

Hey SithLordLim,
here is the video I was thinking of. Shameem does a good job of addressing this issue. Hope it helps.

That seems like an awesome rig, Andi-Jae EL! Now, I just have to figure out how to place the magnet and magnetic tape under the activation card, and also which magnetic tape to use lol patience is a strong virtue.