TOPIC: Overhauling my Ultrasabers Apprentice

Gotcha. Trustfires it is.

Okay, current total comes out to around $185 dollars, not including wiring, a soldering kit, flux and resistors.

Speaking of, what kind of resistors will I need?

What kind of LED are you using?

scifidude79 wrote:
I'll be using a Tri-Rebel BBW for the LED

OK, finding your resistor value is as simple as finding the forward voltage and amps of the LED you'll be using, as well as the voltage of your battery. Fortunately, TCSS lists these values on their store pages. To find these values, you have to go to the single star page.

Blue: forward voltage: 3.4v, run at 1000 mA (milliamps)

White: forward voltage: 3.1v, run at 1000 mA

TrustFire 18650 battery: 3.7v (max charge, about 4v)

Now, there's an equation you can use to figure this out, I don't remember it off the top of my head. However, easier is to just use an online calculator:

http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz

That will tell you what resistor to use. For both the blue and white, that calculator recommends a 1 ohm 2W resistor. TCSS sells those:

http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/1ohm-2w-resistor-P21.aspx

You'll need one or two, depending on how you want to wire it. Your LED will be wired with a common positive; a single positive wire that goes to each LED's + pad. You can put a single resistor on the positive wire if you want. Or, if you feel the need, you can put one on each negative wire. There will be a common negative for the two blues, assuming you want those two to always be activated as your main, and a negative for the white. Since you're wiring the board as a single color, you can just skip wiring all 3 LED pads.

So let me see if I've got this.

A single wire from a single LED pad on the soundboard will go to two negative pads on the LED, and this wire will not have a resistor. Both of those wires will go to the two Blue LEDs.

A single wire from a single pad on the soundboard will go to a single positive pad on the LED for the White. This wire will have a resistor.

Did I get that right? And while we're on the subject, how simple will wiring the board to the battery tray be?

EDIT: Also, how will I be able to tell which pads on the LED go to which LEDs?

Okay, I'm just going to break this down. This is without a recharge port.

Red wire: battery positive. Goes to the battery positive pad on your sound board and to the positive pads on your LED. If you want a single resistor setup, you can put it on the wire going to the LED.

Black wire: battery negative. Goes to the battery negative pad on the board, and to one of the switch posts (doesn't matter which.)

The other switch post goes to the dedicated switch pad on the board with some other color of wire.

I find it's best to color code your wires, but feel free to change these:

Blue wire: blue LED negatives. You can wire this one of two ways. One is to have two of these go back to the board, and wire to the red and green pads. This may be the simplest way. Alternately, you can combine the blue wires and wire them to just the red pad. It's doer's choice. If you wire them separately, you'll be able to cycle through and get different shades of blue as the board mixes the LEDs at different levels.

White wire: white LED negative. You can either wire this to the green or blue pad, depending on your wiring for the blue wires.

Alternative setup: If you want, you can have one resistor per LED negative wire instead of the resistor on the LED positive.

Some other color of wire: two lengths from the two speaker pads on the board to the speaker. Positive and negative don't matter here.

This is incredibly helpful, you've been a Force send. I very much appreciate it, this probably saved me from asking a ton more questions and you and KelbornX having to answer them!

I'm going to start buying parts in about a week, and I'm also going to start doing work on the saber itself, which I want to have ready when I finish the electronics.

No problem. Like I said, I’ve wired two Picos. I may do another one in the near future, it’s a good basic board.

What thickness of heatshrink am I going to need?

Eddlyss64 wrote:
1/16"
1/8"
1/4"

Those are the ones I used most frequently, the 1/16" see the most use by far, it's ideal for a two wire splice

Gotcha, Jas-Ot.

Something else just occured to me. This is the switch I plan to use. Will this require a resistor, as well? If so, what kind?

Yes it will, you will want an 82ohm resistor for that assuming you wire directly from the main power LEDs.

I'm not sure which sound board you are using, but if you have one that has accent LED pads, you could also wire it there. Those accent pads are usually 3.3 volt and limited to 20ma, with a 2v LED I would still recommend a resistor, if it was say 2.7v or higher you could get away without using one if you wired to the accent pads. you probably could even with that one, but you'd run a small risk of burning out the LED eventually.

Oh, and do yourself a favor and buy on one of the mats TCSS sells that has the Nano Biscottee wiring diagrams on it. REALLY useful for checking on things and even if you don't wire up a NB.

Thanks Jas. I'm using a Pico Crumble v2 for my board.

Very similar to wiring the NB.

Just download the manual for the wiring diagram.

http://www.plecterlabs.com/shop/article_info.php?articles_id=118

Jas-Ot wrote:
Out of stock, unfortunately.

What should I be using to encase my chassis? TCSS offers a clear tubing electronics shield in their Sound section, but the inner diameter is 1.25”. That's going to be too big, what should I use instead?

EDIT: Also, how does threading a drilled hole work?

EDIT EDIT: Anyone have any reccomendations for soldering kits? I have a heat pen from a woodburning kit I got a few years ago, can I use that instead of buying a new soldering pen and just buy solder and flux?

EDIT EDIT EDIT: TCSS' 28mm speaker is sold out. Will the SF one fit in its place in the chassis I'm using, and will I have to use a different resistor?

Regarding soldering irons, I use one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/X-TRONIC-MODEL-4010-XTS-Digital-Soldering/dp/B0053491YO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521478343&sr=8-1&keywords=X-tronics+4000

Don't use a wood burning iron, it won't be as good. Since you're dealing with small electronics, something with a small, or swappable tip, should work. I've had great luck with the above.

Threading a drilled hole is called tapping. You'll want something like this:
https://www.harborfreight.com/60-piece-sae-metric-tap-and-die-set-35407.html

That has both SAE and metric, which covers your bases. When you tap, it's basically forcing a slightly larger 'tap' into the hole, which cuts threads into the hole's size, creating the threading for bots, screws, etc.

As for an electronics shield, lots of options. If you have specific dimension needs, I recommend going to Taps plastics and find one that fits your size requirements:
https://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/plastic_rods_tubes_shapes

You can get tubes in many sizes and internal diameters.

Other tools that end up being REALLY useful:
A solder sucker/remover for de-wiring.
Heat shrink in various tube sizes.
A heat gun. (An blow dryer works in a pinch, but much slower).
A good dremel.
A dremel drill press kit.
Stepper drill bits for making large smooth holes in a tube.
A drill press (To ensure going perfectly straight).

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