String Blades for Crystal Focus LS: Examples of Some Different LEDs Used

[EXAR KUN]

'Aqua New Hope' teal lightsaber string blade added in last post with build shot photos.

[Timo]

That Aqua though!  So legit!  Keep 'em coming, man!   8)

[EXAR KUN]

PURPLE STRING BLADE #2 WITH SOFT WHITE FOC (SB#22)


Purple LEDs have too narrow a viewing angle. I have to modify them by sanding them down and that also allows for me to fit more LEDs in the same space. Here is the original LED next to a sanded one:


In this photo you can see the FOC strip on top of where I'm assembling the sanded LEDs:


The FOC strip is made up of 69 Makoto Soft White LEDs. This should give a different look than the Purple with Cool White FOC I did earlier this year. Here you can see me lining up more main blade purple LEDs underneath the finished FOC strip.


I am binning the LEDs for size. The ones that are sanded less will be placed in descending order from the top LED of segment #1 to the shortest-topped LED will be the one closest to the emitter on Segment #6.


Almost finished binning the main blade LEDs for placement in the segments:


Here is the main blade being assembled (above the FOC strip now). It is starting to look like something!


Almost ready to start soldering the main blade. Just one segment left to assemble:


I'm checking the main blade assembly here before beginning to solder the 12 segments LEDs:


Not only did I test every single LED after sanding just to make sure, but I also test every half segment at this stage:


Time to wrap the blade and seal it into its plastic home:


Finally we are at the wiring stage:


Main blade is just about finished:


Modifying the nickel-plated DIN for a tighter emitter section for this blade:


Sanded and beveled for a finished look:


The blade is done! It's slightly shorter than my last purple blade at a very manageable 33 inches with maybe 32 or 31.5 inches of exposed blade. The light starts very close to the DIN plug however so this can be used for windowed emitters possibly.

Video in day light:
Purple Lightsaber Blade #2 in Daylight - YouTube

Video inside:
Purple String Blade Lightsaber (Purple II) Powered by the Plecter Labs Crystal

Main blade
110 5mm purple 4 v 100 ma 15 degree viewing angle (modified)
Seriallel Class II 
FOC strip
69 3mm soft white 45 degree viewing angle Makoto LEDs
33 Inch blade

[EXAR KUN]

RGB SLOW COLOR CHANGING STRING BLADE #1 WITH RED FOC (SB#23)


These RGB Slow LEDs have too narrow a viewing angle. I have to modify them by sanding them down and that also allows for me to fit more LEDs in the same space. Here are all the LEDs sanded down by hand:


Got to line all these up in descending order of LED dome height (variations from sanding by hand: the shortest LEDs at the base of the blade for superior brightness at the base just like a real lightsaber)










Beginning to assemble the LEDs into segments:


Main RGB string is done and in shrink wrap tube:


Next it is time for the wiring:


The red FOC string:


That red FOC string provides different FOC flash colors depending upon what color the blade is at any given time.
If the blade is blue, the red strip shows a purple flash. If the blade is green, the red strip shows a whitish yellow flash. Different effects for different colors of the blade.

Preparing the final wiring to the 8-Pin DIN:


Complete, wrapped, ready for testing before inserting into blade foam:


Segment test video:
RGB - YouTube

RGB Slow Color Changing blade video:
RGB Slow Lightsaber for Crystal Focus LS - YouTube

Very clear video of the effect of this blade:
RGB Slow Color Change Lightsaber String Blade for Plecter Labs Crystal Focus LS


Main blade
110 5mm RGB 4 v 30 ma 30 degree viewing angle (modified)
Seriallel Class II 
FOC strip
69 3mm Red 45 degree viewing angle 50 ma 2.5 v
33 Inch blade

[EXAR KUN]

WHITE MAIN STRING BLADE #1 WITH GREEN FOC #2(SB#24) for STEVEN M via YouTube


Test of a half segment of LEDs:


Assembling the main string blade segments:


A little more work and all the segments are in a row with the legs chopped and soldered:


Slowly but surely: Inserting into the shrink tube (carefully, now)


There we go! All wrapped and ready for wires:


And here we are all wired and a test of the FOC string while wired to the main blade:


And getting closer to the final steps... the wiring of the DIN plug to the blade:


A short video of me using my tester to test this construction:
Cool White Lightsaber String Blade with Green FOC #2 Test 1 - YouTube
That's some cool white goodness!!!

Main blade
120 5mm White 4 v 30 ma 75 degree viewing angle
Seriallel Class II 
FOC strip
68 3mm Green 45 degree viewing angle 100 ma 3.8 v
37 Inch blade

[EXAR KUN]

3 EXPERIMENTAL STRING BLADES with WHITE FOC #1-3(SB#25-27)


Test of full segment of LEDs for blade #1 360 degree 5mm LEDs:


and a second full segment:


The fully wrapped main blade:


For measurement's sake:


Wired, but we need to attach the modified DIN plug:


There we go:


Boom! Fully encased!


Straight as an arrow :)


Video:
August 25, 2015 - YouTube

August 25, 2015 - YouTube


EXPERIMENTAL BLADE #2: UV

30 Degree lens is no good. We need a different head on these... so onto sanding each one!!


Ok so once we've sanded them all down,... I don't yet have a jig for this job.... so each one is not sanded uniformly. To maximize this blade technology we must separate the LEDs from longest to shortest, and use the longest ones for Segment #1 (the final segment farthest from the hilt), and the shortest LEDs for Segment #6 (the segment closest to the hilt; igniting first and turning off last) to achieve more of a 'flare' down at the hilt side just like a real lightsaber.


After that is done, start at segment #1:


Three segments together:


Testing the fourth segment:


All tests performed at maximum 80% peak power. In-hilt tests performed at 50% power for the safety of the LEDs.
These particular LEDs are UV rated, so most of the spectrum is invisible to the human eye. This makes it difficult to test the LEDs, but you can see that all the LED's are visibly 'on'.

Here is the main blade without the FOC strip attached and not yet wired:


The main strip partially wired:


The main LED strip is wired (above the FOC strip in the photo), and here is the FOC strip being tested:


All wrapped up together, I'm readying this project for the DIN plug:


All finished! Here is the video (again, powered at 50% and the light is not all visible with our eye)
Experimental Lightsaber String Blade: UV and Unseen Spectrums - YouTube


EXPERIMENTAL BLADE #3: 120 Degree Lens Royal Blue


Half segment test (amazing brightness!)



All half-segments, unsoldered, unwired:


A full lit segment:


All segments complete, soldered, and lined up (unwrapped, unwired):


Now we need to assemble the DIN plug:


Ok. Ready for the blade test:


It worked! So the final shrink wrap section goes on to hold the DIN firmly:


Good for another test:


Video tests:

#1: Experimental Lightsaber String Blade #3 Royal Blue 5mm LEDs Test #1 - YouTube

#2: Experimental Lightsaber String Blade #3 Royal Blue 5mm LEDs Test #2 - YouTube


FOC String Assembly Photos:



Testing each LED string before shrink tubing them:


Experimental Blade #1 Specs:

Main blade
106 5mm Blue 3v 462nm 360 degree viewing angle
Seriallel Class II 
FOC strip
82 3mm Cool White 45 degree viewing angle 100 ma 3.9v
34 Inch blade


Experimental Blade #2 Specs:

Main blade
120 5mm UV 4v 400nm 30 degree modified viewing angle 100 ma
Seriallel Class II 
FOC strip
90 3mm Cool White 45 degree viewing angle 100 ma 3.9v
36.5 Inch blade


Experimental Blade #3 Specs:

Main blade
106 5mm Blue 3.3v 470nm 120 degree viewing angle
Seriallel Class II 
FOC strip
83 3mm Cool White 45 degree viewing angle 100 ma 3.9v
35 Inch blade

[Greywolf]

Your string blades are awesome!

Did you see the hint that VV will soon carry fluorescense enhanced saber blades?
Overdriven CREE XP-E2 LED Sabers & Fluorescence Enhanced Saber Blades

I wager that combining those with your strings might be a blast ^-^

[EXAR KUN]

Your string blades are awesome!

Did you see the hint that VV will soon carry fluorescense enhanced saber blades?
Overdriven CREE XP-E2 LED Sabers & Fluorescence Enhanced Saber Blades

I wager that combining those with your strings might be a blast ^-^

Thank you!!

Fingers crossed. We will see what happens.

[EXAR KUN]

EXPERIMENTAL STRING BLADE #4 with BLUE FOC #1-3(SB#28)


Test of half segment of LEDs:


Here is the FOC strip completed and fired up for the first time at about 70% power:


Main blade is wired, but we need to attach the modified DIN plug:


All ready and wrapped for testing:


Ready and complete:


Video test:
Experimental Lightsaber Blade #4: Royal Blue 360 with Blue FOC Test #1 - YouTube

Video tests inside the chemically enhanced blade (Special thanks to the Photonic Bladesmith for discovering and researching this for the Lightsaber Community, Thank you to LUMINARA UNDULI who turned me on to the idea of combining this with a string blade, Thank you to Tim at the Custom Saber Shop for stocking and selling these blade tubes at an affordable price so anyone can build their own Photon Blade :) ):

Chemically Enhanced Lightsaber Blade in Lighted Room Scenario Test #1 - YouTube

Chemically Enhanced Lightsaber Blade in Darkened Room Scenario Test #2 - YouTube

Chemically Enhanced Lightsaber Blade: Test #3 Darkened Space - YouTube

Chemically Enhanced Lightsaber Blade: Test #3 Daylight Entering Room - YouTube

Check out some photos of me with the blade in front of a window. Usually, this would be a bad way to take a photo of a lightsaber blade, but with these new Chemically-Enhanced blades, they look great even in bright conditions:


This is a really good shot of the way the blade REALLY looks in real life:

You can see the neon style edges and the hue of the center part of the blade. Very cool and new green color.

Hear my layman's explanation of how this works:
Explained: Chemically Enchanced Lightsaber String Blade for Plecter Labs CF LS -


Experimental Blade #4 Specs:

Main blade
108 5mm Blue 3v 462nm 360 degree viewing angle
Seriallel Class II 
FOC strip
80 3mm Blue 45 degree viewing angle 100 ma 4v
Makoto foam
TCSS Inner Diffuser Lining for 1 inch thin walled blades
TCSS Photon Chemically Enhanced blade tube for 1 inch thin walls
34.5 Inch blade

[EXAR KUN]

COLOR COMBINATION STRING BLADE: ICE (SB#29)


No more joking around. Two strips of LEDs. 108 Cool White 5mm LEDs alongside 110 Blue 3mm LEDs. Trying to get that 'white core' effect:



Wrapping the two Seriallel Class II strings together. Careful to make sure these two LED types are very close in their power requirements:



It's a delicate job. But somebody's got to do it.



Setting up a critical stage: The wiring of the DIN connector:



All done and ready for testing, then to the inside of it's foam tube.



Tried this one in a Photon tube from TCSS. The effect was similar to straight Blue LEDs in a Photon blade. Very bright and fairly even although I could see some spots from the color differences here. I liked the effect in the white tube from TCSS the best instead of Photon or clear. This blade looks a lot like the ESB blue. Really happy with this Corran Horn style color.


Video test:
Ice String Blade Test - YouTube

Video test complete and inside my lightsaber:

Ice, Ice Baby - YouTube



Ice Blade Specs:

Main blade
108 5mm Cool White 4v 695nm 45 degree viewing angle
COMBINED TOGETHER WITH
110 3mm Blue 4v 495nm 30 degree viewing angle
for a total of 218 super bright LEDs for main blade
Seriallel Class II 
Makoto foam
TCSS Inner Diffuser Lining for 1 inch thin walled blades
TCSS trans white blade tube for 1 inch thin walls
TCSS clear bullet tip
37 Inch blade (35 inches exposed blade)




CLASSIC RED II for SITH MAGISTRATE LIGHTSABER (SB#30)
  This blade has been destroyed

These are 8mm fat ultra bright high power red LEDs:



Lining them up, stringing them together is Seriallel Class III for warm colors:



Wiring them all together:



Let's get the DIN plug attached so we can go home:



Here it is all wrapped, wired, DIN attached. Now, for the next hour, I will sweat on getting this squeezed into closed cell foam. Open cell is for panzies.



Tried this one in a Photon tube as well. The color was... still red!! It seemed just as bright and no brighter. I actually liked this inside the trans white blade also, so that is what I went with.


Video test:

Classic Red II Test #1 Lightsaber String Blade - YouTube

Ice Blade Specs:

Main blade
72 8mm Red 2.1v 395nm 100ma 360 degree viewing angle
Seriallel Class III
Makoto foam
TCSS Inner Diffuser Lining for 1 inch thin walled blades
TCSS trans white blade tube for 1 inch thin walls
TCSS clear bullet tip
35 Inch blade (33inches exposed blade)




TATOOINE SUN SWORD 12mm COOL WHITE LED STRING + PHOTONIC BLADE(SB#31)


Check out how big these 12mm LEDs are. I show them here next to some similarly colored 5mm LEDs:




Here is the monster string of these LEDs which will be wired in Seriallel Class II:



Here is the 12mm blade wrapped in the first layer of shrink:



Video:

Worlds First Photonic Lightsaber String Blade Using 12mm LEDs - YouTube

Full Video Explanation and Comparison between another Photon color:

Explained: 12mm Photonic Lightsaber Segmented String Blade for Crystal Focus LS


Blade Specs:

Main blade
52 12mm Cool White 3.5v 700nm 100ma 360 degree viewing angle
Seriallel Class II
Multi-layer shrink wrap
TCSS Inner Diffuser Lining for 1 inch thin walled blades
TCSS Photonic blade tube for 1 inch thin walls
TCSS cloudy white rounded tip
34 Inch blade (32 inches exposed blade)

[Mr.Sir]

Ive been looking at a lot of Space Windus work with these string blades for CF LS and have decided that when its time to get my first bright string blade saber i will be ordering one from him. Just the care and amount of work i see has persuaded me and will be well worth the price for the blade.

 Keep it up man!

[EXAR KUN]

Ive been looking at a lot of Space Windus work with these string blades for CF LS and have decided that when its time to get my first bright string blade saber i will be ordering one from him. Just the care and amount of work i see has persuaded me and will be well worth the price for the blade.

 Keep it up man!

Thank you buddy!

Check out this new combination string blade (2 strings of LEDs for mixed main blade):

COLOR COMBINATION STRING BLADE: PLATINUM (SB#32)


The idea here is to try and obtain a 'white core'. I wanted to make a color like Luke's lightsaber looks in ANH original theatrical version. I know they may have cleaned up the saber effects for the Blu Ray release, but the original movie had a whitish-teal colored blade instead of the straight blue Anakin has in Episode III. This Platinum combination string blade for the Plecter Labs Crystal Focus LS is my attempt at recreating the lighting effects from Star Wars: A New Hope.

We've got to start somewhere, right? The 5mm Cool White LEDs seem as good a place as any:



Now you can see the side-by-side strings coming together. The 3mm Seriallel Class II string of Aqua LEDs is starting to form underneath the 5mm Cool Whites:




Ooh, pretty. A complete segment of Aqua 3mm LEDs:



And now I must wrap each segment individually... we don't want any wires touching each other in the blade!



Ok so the white blade is fully wrapped for strength here. Like I said above, the teal segments must be wrapped as individual segments so as not to touch the other main blade when I press these into a Platinum sandwich:



Sweet reward! PLATINUM!!!




And now for wire, wire, and more wire:



Above you can see the bridges I make to connect the two segments to each other. Yes, there is a lot of wire, but we severely reduced the amount required by bridging with the LED legs when we can. That's what planning ahead does for you. Don't cut those LED legs until you are sure you don't need them:



Fully wrapped together:




Video test:
Platinum Lightsaber String Blade Test - YouTube

Video test complete and inside my lightsaber (looks a bit greener in this video than it really appears):

Platinum Lightsaber String Blade for Plecter Labs CF LS - YouTube

This video shows a truer color for how it appears:

Platinum Lightsaber String Blade for Plecter Labs CF LS Completion Test #2 -


Please check back here soon because I'll be making a video explaining more about my Ice and Platinum combination blades as well as upcoming Viridian and Electrum combination blades.
Like Doc Oc says in Spiderman: "The power of the sun in the palm of my hand!" Thank you Plecter Labs


Platinum Blade Specs:

Main blade
120 5mm Cool White 4v 695nm 45 degree viewing angle
COMBINED TOGETHER WITH
120 3mm Aqua 4v 505nm 18 degree viewing angle MODIFIED VIA SANDING
for a total of 240 super bright LEDs for main blade!
Seriallel Class II 
Makoto foam
TCSS Inner Diffuser Lining for 1 inch thin walled blades
TCSS trans white blade tube for 1 inch thin walls
TCSS clear bullet tip
35.5 Inch blade (33 inches exposed blade)

[EXAR KUN]

This video might be worth a look for people into Photon blades and also people who like yellow blades for their sabers:

Explained: 12mm Photonic Lightsaber Segmented String Blade for Crystal Focus LS

[EXAR KUN]

This one is quite possibly my finest blade.

I made it for Motown on these forums.

I used three new techniques on this blade to make it the best ever. I am constantly finding better methods to make the blades smoother and stronger.

This uses 108 5mm 360 degree Blue LEDs for Main blade and
90 3mm 45 degree Cool White LEDs for FOC

An example of a segment (not fully powered):


Constructing the main blade:


The main blade wrapped:



Making the FOC strip alongside the main blade:



Here's the blade wrapped up with the FOC strip:







Here it is all done:


Video of the first test of this completed blade, not yet in foam or its blade tube:

5mm Blue LEDs Segmented Lightsaber String Blade with White Flash on Clash

Testing the final blade:

Blue Segmented Lightsaber String Blade for Plecter Labs Crystal Focus LS Night

Blue Segmented Lightsaber String Blade for Plecter Labs Crystal Focus LS DayTest

Blue Segmented Lightsaber String Blade for Plecter Labs Crystal Focus LS DayTest