I've designed these inserts to fit a 1" thin wall blade I can obviously tweak it to fit a thick wall blade, 7/8" etc. The photos are fitted into some scraps for testing. The blade plug houses a 7bit neopixel disc. I'll pull apart and reassemble
Li'l Billy and install these over the weekend since it's all hardwired right now.
The inserts snugly house an 8pin aviation plug to allow quick disconnect of the blade. The nut from the male end snaps into the hilt side housing, and snugs up perfectly flush. The blade side female plug fits the geometry of the business end, with a hole placed for the retention screw from the metal housing, which can be discarded.
Depending on your setup you could use this for either String Blade, NeoPixel, or even a star LED (I'm waiting for some parts, but I'll have a prototype for that soon). Can be used with any card designed to be used with a 6 segment (or 7 if you aren't using a signal line), DIYino or other homebrew electronics. Even if you are using a standard Plecter card designed for a star LED, you could add an Arduino or ATTiny 85 in the hilt similar to my
R2ino project. You could also easily put the chip in the blade or plug to convert it between the different types while saving space in your hilt. In my R2ino I use the ignition and FOC pads from the Nano Biscotte as signals.
In this prototype I made the blade insert wide enough for an 8-32 set screw, but just barely. Now that I have it in hand it could obviously use to be a bit longer to use with screws, so I'll adjust for a version 2. It can be glued in as well, obviously, if you aren't concerned with maintenance or prototyping. Glue is probably the recommended solution for long term durability, especially with thin wall blades.
I had 3 prototypes made up, and I'll probably toss at least one up for sale as a kit if anyone wants to try it out, then put together a 10 pieces of the updated version in the new year.