Just a little update on this saber.....OBI-WAN recently sold it to Sand People Are People Too, and requested that I take a look at the pommel led, because it was apparently having an issue with lighting up properly, most likely from a bad/broken connection:
I wasn't really happy with the way the white led lit the purple acrylic crystal in this one, so I decided to upgrade it to a violet/purple one I picked up from mouser.com:
Here's how it lights up the crystal in the pommel:
My camera wants to make it look blue, but in person, it's a nice shade of violet, that nearly matches the blade.
After removing the heat shrink from the positive side of the white led, it was clear what the problem was:
The leg of the led was broken.
I removed the white led, then I popped the speaker loose and using a pair of needle nose pliers, pulled out a little extra wire from the harness by sliding the battery pack into the hilt a bit;
I soldered on the negative lead of the new violet led:
Then the positive and shrunk the new heat shrink:
I didn't change the resistor that was on the board, so i wasn't sure how well it would light up, but it seems to be fine:
I also hot glued the wires in the side channels to keep them below the level of the speaker mounts surface to help prevent them from being damaged by the pommel when it's screwed into place.
I think it's done, and ready to go to the new owner on Monday:
Again, I think the purple acrylic is what's messing up the camera by refracting the light waves a bit or something, but it's actually a nice shade of violet.
The rest of the saber still works just fine, too:
so, Sand people, get ready, as it will likely be in your possession before Thanksgiving, or at the very latest, the Friday after.