A while back I purchased a Saberforge Prodigal Son stunt saber. I had wanted Luke Skywalker's green lightsaber since I watched Return of the Jedi as a child and although the LEDs and switch weren't real and its not the most accurate replica I was happy with what I received for the price I paid. This was my third saber (not counting the broom handle ones my dad helped me make when I was little) with the first two being MR/Hasbro ones. I converted I felt it was time to try something a little more serious so I got the Hero hilt and installed a GGW trip rebel and the simple blade controller from JQ Sabers with an eye to adding a Crystal Focus when I was able to get hold of one.
I eventually got a CF and installed it, with a lot of help from Erv' answering my endless questions. I had planned on installing real LEDs now that I could add accents with the CF and maybe a switch or maybe just a completely new accurate control box. Unfortunately as I am a musician on cruise ships I rarely have much time at home for projects and didn't have the tools or the time to send the saber out to someone who did so I left it at that.
I have had the last couple of months off from ships due to medical problems and when my gf went to her next ship a couple of weeks ago I found I had a lot of time on my hands. I also found some triangular LEDs that are almost exactly the right size for the milled slots of the fake LEDs on the hilt, so I decided to see what I could do with just a dremel.
Prepare for some ugly work... Luckily its mostly hidden :)
My terrible mess of a workspace. I'm also working on a Graflex install:
I went to work on the inside of the control box with the dremel and managed to cut down to where the LED should be and then cut through with some smaller tools. It took a long time and was a little messier than I'd like but it worked and the LED fit in nicely. There is a gap as the 4.5x3mm LED is slightly smaller than the already milled indentation, which I had to use as a guide. I haven't done the red so you can see there what it looked like before:
I found some finer dremel bits for the red and it ended up cleaner than the green. With both LED holes cut out I decided to do the switch. I bought a small slide switch and drilled a hole in the back of the aluminium switch piece. The toggle of the switch was then epoxied into the hole and I had my fuctional switch! I just needed to install it in the control box...
As the copper on the control box is just a couple of angle pieces glued on top of the aluminium and the external switch part is supposed to be as close to the copper as possible I decided the easiest way to achieve what I wanted with the tools I had was to cut down from the top with the dremel and glue it in, figuring as long as I was precise enough the copper angle part would stop the switch twisting:
Everything worked and fit nicely but I decided to go further. Why not put the recharge port in the hole where the old push activation switch was and detail the inside of the control box? (Did I mention I had time on my hands ^-^)
I decided to make myself a little 4 segment PLI to go in the control box as I wanted to try and utilise as many features of the CF as I could, partly as a learning experience and partly just because it's cool.
So I soldered some 0603 SMD LEDs to a scrap piece of board and made a little bar graph:
Not the cleanest solder job I've ever done but I had plans to hide it anyway. I covered the LEDs in epoxy and built a plasticard box around my bargraph:
If only it could have stayed this neat and clean, but clean and white doesn't belong in the control box of a weathered, lived-in Star Wars universe, so I painted it with various metallic paints. In hindsight I wish I'd been able to build it from black plasticard or very thin brass or copper sheet, but thats what you get when you just work on a build with only a vague plan and minimum patience :)
On the original control box there were big gaps on both ends as the entire card pressed down on a spring to press a switch. This would never do with LEDs inside so I needed to make something to cover it up. I used some square styrene rod of just the right size with heat shrink tubing around to fill in the gaps, assuming the rubbery texture would keep the card in place but allow it to slide out with enough force:
After some fraction of a mm sanding they hold the card perfectly. It will never fall out but moves when I want to access the inside. It also stops any light spill from any of the LEDs.
Not visible here is the tactile switch for the aux button under the clamp card, sanded down just enough that you can't accidentally press it while swinging the saber around.
As I was putting the recharge port in the control box and adding fake circuitry I knew I'd need a disguised kill key. A filed down capacitor glued to some styrene tube was ideal. The capacitor has a lip so it completely covers the top of the port and is just short enough for the card to slide over:
Test fitting the PLI and kill key in the recharge port:
Green triangular LED and PLI glued in. You can also see the grooves I cut from the nut so you can actually get the precisely made kill key out!
The same view from the other side. I cut a notch in the kill key so it can be in the control box but still have the accent LED sequence for display:
Finished! Or so I thought... I had misread the CF manual and wired all the accent LEDs the wrong way round to use the 4 SMD LED bargraph as a PLI! So it took me a day to take the whole thing apart again, soak, heat and chip off the epoxy I had put around the accent LED solder joins for strength, resolder them the right way round and put it all back together. It was not a fun task so to make the whole thing worthwhile in my head I thought of a way to use the last two accent LED pads on the board:
A cheating crystal chamber and another blinky! It looks great, the mylar speaker cone works really well with the reversed green LED and I use the red pommel LED as a deep sleep indicator. Now if only you could use those special accent modes on only one LED I could pulse the green and mirror the blade :-X
THINGS STILL TO DO:
- Install the red triangular LED if it ever arrives ::)
- Add 'stage dressing' circuitry in the control box. I was going to use real circuit board but it is very difficult to cut and also too thick to fit with any components on :-\ I'll either waterslide decal some plasticard or thin copper sheet
- Swap out ledengine RGBW for a nice GGR Cree XP-E2 Justintmars is sending out to me. As the LED is shining through the thin neck I need all the brightness I can get, so I'm doubling up on green and I've heard good things about the XPE2s ;)
- Maybe find someone to help me machine a new LED holder in the emitter à la Darth Ryô's Luke V2, making the saber brighter and more sturdy with thin walled blades (the original emitter is built for thick walled)
To be honest I can't even imagine what else I could possibly do with this build, I haven't the skill, space or the desire to make a proper crystal reveal chamber, it's got 8 accent LEDs, a tactile feedback motor, a PLI, recharge port and RICE port. I could work on the weathering but I think its quite realistic to what it would look like during ROTJ (assuming Luke built the close up, Vader's hands saber somewhere around the beginning of the movie shiny and new, rather than the scrap parts V2 style ;D)
I suppose I'd prefer the pommel area to be more accurate but it seems like it'd be more work than it's worth to fix it...
Thanks for sticking through this long read, let me know your thoughts on this build! I'll update as and when I have anything new to show and I'll leave you with a vector drawing I have done of the saber as it is now (but with the red triangular LED and some resistors I plan to use as part of the fake circuitry)
Tom