HELP: What do I have here? Ebay Replica has soundboard in it???

[scottjua]

So I got a pretty decent deal on what I thought was just an empty Graflex Replica recently. It finally came in the mail today and when I opened it up I saw  some rubber insulation with holes in it, a soundboard (is it???), some wiring, and two contact switches under the  red buttons.

Also in the top part of the graflex tube is what appears to be a TCSS adapter, with a heat sink and an LED with a collimator...

Can any of you guys recognize what I have here? I have no clue what I have... but apparently someone was building a custom saber...

here's the pics (open in new tab or window for larger):









The seller didn't know anything about the items really either.

here's the ebay listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/130628347807?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_500wt_1413

anyone???

[Rafalema]

Looks like the old TCSS LED driver to me..

[Luke S.]

Its too small to be a sound board.  I'd agree it's just a driver as well.  The heatsink appears to be the same as mine. TGS BH. Good score though.  You got quite a few parts unexpectedly.

I would also agree that it's probably a replica. It looks way to new and shiny.

The seller's comment he got about not having the patent determine replica vs vintage is not correct though.  Parks has the patent while some of the vintages did NOT have the patent.  Theres a link here somewhere that shows the timeline of what's on the pommel cap.  The verbiage shows the year range.  Ie, patent, no patent, folmer Graflex, just Graflex etc etc.

[Aus_Jedi_Killer]

Bloody ripper! Now all you need's a soundboard and speaker and you're good to go! SCORE!

[JANGO FETT]

That's a graflexshop adapter/blade holder. The fins are pretty distinctive

[Obi-Shane]

Blade holder= 40 bucks
Corbin driver= 40-50 (guessing)
Lense/LED/holder-15+bucks

You got about 100 bucks worth of free parts there m8, very nice score indeed.

[Darth Inferis]

A V1 Corbin board & a TCSS blade holder, I wouldn't be surprised if you found the LED was a cyan bin1. The only way that purchase could get any better is if it had a Yoda chassis & a CF ready installed!  ;D

[scottjua]

Thanks for the replies guys (radical rhyme time).

I can't get the freaking TCSS blade holder out for the life of me to see what kind of LED is in there... The tactile switch under the second red button in the glass eye position is too fat to make it between the blade holder and tube... I don't know how it got in there...

Any tips?

Also, one of the brass pin holes has been drilled and tapped wider for some reason... and the slide switch is missing... :( So what else do I need to make this work? Sound... battery? which one?

So crazy, I thought I would just have a graflex replica, and now I've got a nice find, but I'm lost at this point at what to do with it... since it's missing parts.

here's a few more pics.

There's one of these under the other red button too... but this one I can't wiggle through




The drilled and tapped brass pin hole... only one is done like this...


this is the connector out of the blade driver. What hooks up to this?


these rubber pieces were also stuffed in the tubes



Also the guy sent me these PVC sabers and this all aluminum saber hilt. Its one solid piece as far as I can tell.. nothing moves on it... not even that knob. It seems glued in.


blade holder?








one PVC has batteries


All that's in there is the LED and batteries as far as I can tell...




anyone have any insight?

[Aus_Jedi_Killer]

The 2 pvc ones look like old school US ones. The machined alum one might take a carbon fibre blade or something similar?

[Gil Gamesh]

That larger drilled/tapped graflex pin hole may have been intended to use as the blade retention screw.  I did that on a Korbanth AHS model, worked decent for light dueling.

+1 on the V1 Corbin board.  Led driver.  The switch probably was soldered after the wiring was already fed through the hilt and out the hole there, that way they could have just shortened it to the desired length, solder it, and have very little leftover to cram.  

Unscrew all the screws you see and try removing the blade holder then.  The connector out of the led driver looks just like a basic connector, I don't think anything special went there, probably was just used for quick disconnect.  Nice find!

[robiwan]

Just snip the wires on that switch.

[Obi-Shane]

Yeah, indeed. Just clip the switch wires ( you will need to redo all the wiring anyways, besides its the wrong switch for the job) . Unscrew everything (except the bunny ears), and slide the blade holder down towards the clamp and out. Yeah, one of your brass pin holes in the blade holder looks like it has been drilled for a 4-40 (ish) size blade retention screw. If your going for screen accuracy you might wanna go with another blade plug.

[scottjua]

I'm going to attempt to disassemble it again tonight, but I don't want to damage anything. I don't know if I should keep this at this point, or sell it to someone more experienced and who may want to paly with a half built saber. My inclination is to build my own from my vintage from the ground up so I learn more.

That said, what can I use to power this sucker to check it out? Can anyone recommend a sound board or battery pack? Since there are two buttons, I assume one ignites, and the other is aux...

[Aus_Jedi_Killer]

If you are looking to sell any of them... Keep me in mind ;)

[Gil Gamesh]

If everything is already wired together and the switch is wired in to the corbin board, I'd throw a siple 4.8v pack to the board and see what happens.  But that's me, I'd see it as a free led and board and if I blew it in testing, I'm out nothing and gained experience  ;D