LED FX Stand (Tutorial)

[Snoballz]

Here's how to add LEDs to your MR Force FX stands as seen in this thread. http://www.fx-sabers.com/forum/index.php?topic=3197.0

This may seem a little too detailed, but I wanted to make it easy enough for anyone to do themselves.  This is also the basic setup for my other LED stands.


What you will need.

• MR Force FX stand
• 2 LEDs
• battery case (size depends on the type of LED)
• on/off switch (SPST)
• copper wire
• drill or Dremel with 3/16" or 5mm bit
• soldering iron
• phillips head screwdriver
• hot glue gun (just in case)

Remove the four rubber pads from the bottom of the stand.  Then remove the 8 screws holding the bottom plate on.


With the acrylic supports removed, drill a 3/16" hole in the center of each support pocket.  The holes need to be just a bit larger than 3/16" for the 5mm LEDs to fit into, so just open the holes a bit wider by moving the drill bit side to side.  They only need to be slightly larger, so don't go overboard. I'm sure you could just use a 5mm drill bit, but 3/16 is the closest thing I have.


insert the acrylic supports back into the stand.  Using the holes you just drilled as a guide, drill into the bottom of the supports about 1/4"  The LED will fit into this slot.


Insert the LEDs into the holes, they should fit tight.


If you went a little overboard routing out the holes, a little hot glue will hold the LED into place.


Start by soldering a piece of wire connecting the negative ends of each LED.  The negative posts are the shorter wires on the LED.


Now solder a wire between the two longer positive posts.


This exrta bit of wire is from the positive post of one LED and will be connected to the on/off switch.


Solder the wire from the positive LED post to one of the switch terminals, then solder positive wire from the battery pack to the other terminal on the switch.  This is much easier to do outside the stand, before the switch is mounted because of the limited room inside the stand.


Solder the negative wire from the battery pack to the negative LED post.  I chose to mount the switch in the existing hole in the stand used for wall mounting.  If you want to mount these on the wall, just drill a hole and mount the switch wherever you like.


This is what it should look like when you're all done. 

Pop the screws back in and you're all done.  There will be a small gap in the back of the stand where the LEDs are mounted.  You could fix this by mounting the LEDs deeper inside the supports.  It's not too noticeable, so I just live with it.

The finished product:

[Dark Skywalker]

Very cool. I'd try it but I don't want to hurt myself and/or others :D

[Darth Torment]

looks cool :)

[registrau]

That looks just great

[Knuckle01]

awesome.....MR is gonna steal that from you, lol

[cw]

Snoballz, I was at my local Source electronics store and they seem to have everything
you used for your LED mod (even the exact same switch). I was looking at the components
when it donned on me that I wasn't sure which battery pack to use. I assume a AA or AAA
double pack. The LEDs I saw said 4v in and 5v out so I assume 3 volts from 2 AA would be
okay but I'm not sure. I also wanted to ask if the copper wire was for soldering and if
it has to be copper or can it be regular soldering wire. Also, did you notice a risk of cracking
the clear acrylic saber supports when you drilled them (Should they be taped to prevent
cracking). Lastly is there a certain guage of red/black wire needed. Thanks.

[cw]

Snoballz, one more thing. After some experience making these LED stands what intensity of LED do
you recommend?

[Snoballz]

Snoballz, I was at my local Source electronics store and they seem to have everything
you used for your LED mod (even the exact same switch). I was looking at the components
when it donned on me that I wasn't sure which battery pack to use. I assume a AA or AAA
double pack. The LEDs I saw said 4v in and 5v out so I assume 3 volts from 2 AA would be
okay but I'm not sure. I also wanted to ask if the copper wire was for soldering and if
it has to be copper or can it be regular soldering wire. Also, did you notice a risk of cracking
the clear acrylic saber supports when you drilled them (Should they be taped to prevent
cracking). Lastly is there a certain guage of red/black wire needed. Thanks.

OK... Here's where the trial and error comes in.  I used a 3 AAA pack on my first stand with several different voltage and intensity LEDs with no problem.  I've used a 2 AA battery pack since then with pretty much the same results with the blue, white, and green LED (3.2v).  Until I tried this setup with the red and yellow (3.2v) LEDs that I purchased.  3 AAA & 2 AA burned them out.  2 AAA setup worked great with the red and yellows, but barely lit the blues.  Since I'm not using any type of resistors, I have no idea why some LEDs work and some don't.  Maybe someone who knows more about this can help out here.

The copper wire I mentioned is just plain wire used to connect everything together. 

Any type of solder should be fine.  I suggest the use of a heatsink (the clip in this pic) on the LED posts to keep from melting the LED if you're new to soldering.

As far as cracking the supports, as long as you use the hole you drilled in the bottom of the base as a guide and drill slowly, there shouldn't be a problem.  Use an X-acto knife to trim up the area on the acrylic that didn't get "drilled",

Snoballz, one more thing. After some experience making these LED stands what intensity of LED do
you recommend?

The brightest you can get  ;)   

[Knuckle01]

lol, this is where it has become to complicated for me, lol

[Snoballz]

lol, this is where it has become to complicated for me, lol

This is really easy.  I promise.  Just use LEDs that are rated higher than the voltage you are using and you are fine.  You might not get "all" the light out of them, but they will work just the same.

Anyone that wants this conversion done for them, PM me.  I have no reservations drilling into someone else's stand   ;D

[Knuckle01]

you should try selling your design to MR....make some coin on it.

[cw]

Snoballz, I was thinking of just doing white but I noticed it's easier to find clear LEDs and they seem to be cheaper.
How do clear LEDs look compared to the white ones (of the same intensity). It seems to me the light from clear
LEDs should look about the same in the stands, but I've never seen them lit to compare. I was just wondering if you have?

[Knuckle01]

hmmm, is clear and white kind of the same thing?

[cw]

That's what I'm hoping. The store I was at has both and the white of the same brand, type and
intensity seems to be more money. I was just wondering if the clear may be a harsh exposed light
compared to white which may look like it has diffuser inside when lit. If so, maybe the clear is better
or worse depending how intense the light is coming through the stand.

[Snoballz]

Snoballz, I was thinking of just doing white but I noticed it's easier to find clear LEDs and they seem to be cheaper.
How do clear LEDs look compared to the white ones (of the same intensity). It seems to me the light from clear
LEDs should look about the same in the stands, but I've never seen them lit to compare. I was just wondering if you have?

The clear plastic LEDs are *usually* the brightest, no matter what the color since they use different elements to make the color.  An LED with colored plastic is usually just a white LED on the inside.   If you're referring to true white LEDs, they are BRIGHT.  I had to arrange the hilt in this pic so that it reflected as little as possible, even with some editing there was still a bright glare.

.