Running a Hyperblade with a 7.2V/3000mAh battery pack

[Luke S.]

Wow Matt, those are very attractive and extremely unique hilts.  I love them.  I bet they were a big hit and huge success.

Is it just my computer or in the first lighted pics are two leds blown?  Or is this a space between strips.   It appears in the red saber to have two dark spots.  Also I'm surprise in that pic that you can clearly see every led in the blade.  Is this at a lower power setting or are you weak on the batteries.  I have not seen this before.

[Matt Thorn]

Wow Matt, those are very attractive and extremely unique hilts.  I love them.  I bet they were a big hit and huge success.

Is it just my computer or in the first lighted pics are two leds blown?  Or is this a space between strips.   It appears in the red saber to have two dark spots.  Also I'm surprise in that pic that you can clearly see every led in the blade.  Is this at a lower power setting or are you weak on the batteries.  I have not seen this before.

Thanks, Luke.

No, it's not your computer. Because I had to make these as petit as possible, I used 3/4" polycarbonate tubes for the blades. That left very little room for diffusing material. I used a thin layer of foam, and in order to make the blades look silver when turned off, about 2 yards of polypropylene. I had less than a month to make these, so I didn't have time to track down semi-opaque 3/4" tube. On the other hand, these were meant for use on stage, in a huge arena, so I decided I could live with the "hotspotting" you see in the photos (particularly on the red blade). Hyperblades normally consist of three sections, each having 25 LEDS (if I recall correctly). I had them make this one shorter, so the last section was just 5 LEDs (again, if I recall correctly). That dim spot towards the top of the red blade is the small gap between two sections. With the normal diffusing foam and semi-opaque nylon tube that comes with a standard Hyperblade, that hotspotting is negligible.

[JANGO FETT]

Now that the event is over, you could swap the blade housings.

McMaster-Carr sells 3/4" Nylon tubing

Part number 8628K59
Nylon 6/6 Tube Tight Tolerance, 3/4" OD, 5/8" ID, 5' Length
In stock at $8.59 Each

[Matt Thorn]

Now that the event is over, you could swap the blade housings.

McMaster-Carr sells 3/4" Nylon tubing

Part number 8628K59
Nylon 6/6 Tube Tight Tolerance, 3/4" OD, 5/8" ID, 5' Length
In stock at $8.59 Each

Thanks, Jango. But the sabers are no longer in my possession.  ;)

Still, that's good to know for future reference.

[JANGO FETT]

ah, okay.
They also have 7/8" and 1" with various thickness.

 ;) ;D

[nartules]

Those are odd looking sabers.  Looks like they needed something with a more standard sword look.  Glad that they worked out for the event for you.  The gaps in the red blade are more noticeable then the green, but for a large concert audience and a little room between the stage and crowd I bet no one noticed.

[Matt Thorn]

Those are odd looking sabers.  Looks like they needed something with a more standard sword look.  Glad that they worked out for the event for you.  The gaps in the red blade are more noticeable then the green, but for a large concert audience and a little room between the stage and crowd I bet no one noticed.

Yes, they were very clear that they wanted fantasy-style swords that looked as little like lightsabers as possible. I made the crossguards from 1mm-thick aluminum sheet, powder-coated in chrome. The heart-shaped pommels I made from Super Sculpy. It was fun (and challenging) doing something so completely different.

If you look at the other photos of the sabers turned on, there is no noticeable hotspotting. I think the camera just caught the saber at the wrong nano-second.