Aren't all sabers LED? Should this forum be called In-Hilt LED Sabers?

[Gallandro]

Genuinely curious: why is this forum named LED SABERS?  Aren't all sabers LED?  I see the subtitle is "discuss everything about Luxeon LED Sabers", and it doesn't make much sense to me, because the current standard for in-hilt star configuration LEDS seems to be the tri-Cree.  Newbie here,trying to learn.

[TrypWyr]

Back in the day there were EL sabers (picture the movie "Tron").



We know also have LED string sabers (MR and Hasbro, but also MUCH higher quality builds by Makoto and others).

As far as "Luxeon LED", well, we now have others as well but still characterized by the single (or multi-die) LEDs in the emitter.

I may be missing other tech I'm not familiar with... 

[Gallandro]

Back in the day there were EL sabers (picture the movie "Tron").

We know also have LED string sabers (MR and Hasbro, but also MUCH higher quality builds by Makoto and others).

As far as "Luxeon LED", well, we now have others as well but still characterized by the single (or multi-die) LEDs in the emitter.

I may be missing other tech I'm not familiar with... 

I think you're reinforcing my point.  It seems like whoever set up or named this forum did so when the Luxeon was a big deal.  Now, it probably should be renamed "In-Hilt LED Sabers" in order to make sense. -edit- And, if it's supposed to cover all lighting, simply call it "Lighting", "Illumination" or "Light Sources".

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

You make some technically fair points - when this site began there were two major 'production saber' technologies; [EL] wire/sheet then used by Parksabers and small-LED strings then used by Master Replicas [whose earliest models also used EL]. The DIY custom saber hobby was in its early days and discovered that we could make brighter-than-EL and more-duelable-than-LED-string illuminated sabers by using the then new Luxeon high power LEDs in-hilt and so this site, TCSS and others made sub-forums to distinguish what were simply called "Luxeon sabers" at the time from the earlier technologies. As years went by and the state of the art in dueling sabers improved from Luxeon to Luxeon III to Luxeon V to Luxeon Rebels the term "luxeon saber" became standard usage to distinguish our DIY in-hilt illuminated sabers from the obsolescent EL tech that was replaced by MR and later Parks and the LED strings still used by MR and MR's SW-license-successor Hasbro. In time it became a 'generic' term widely understood in the community for all in-hilt LED sabers similarly to "Ski-doo" for snowmobiles or "Kleenex" for facial tissues generally. Even after the Lux III and Lux V were discontinued and the Luxeon tri-rebels were largely overtaken in most colours by brighter Tri-Cree LEDs that are the present standard for in-hilt LEDs the term has continued to  stick around in the hobby and on some web pages, perhaps out of 'tradition', though it is unfortunate if that causes any newbies confusion...sorry about that.

[Gallandro]

the term has continued to  stick around in the hobby and on some web pages, perhaps out of 'tradition', though it is unfortunate if that causes any newbies confusion...sorry about that.

Thanks for that, and for the condensed history lesson, I appreciate it!  So it looks like there is no dedicated venue for string blade discussion, which is interesting.  In thinking about my wants and needs for my first build, brightness and 'extension on ignition' outweighs dueling ability. It also looks like The Custom Saber Shop was stocking string LED parts for a while, and has since backed away from them.

[Sandpeople are people too]

the term has continued to  stick around in the hobby and on some web pages, perhaps out of 'tradition', though it is unfortunate if that causes any newbies confusion...sorry about that.

Thanks for that, and for the condensed history lesson, I appreciate it!  So it looks like there is no dedicated venue for string blade discussion, which is interesting.  In thinking about my wants and needs for my first build, brightness and 'extension on ignition' outweighs dueling ability. It also looks like The Custom Saber Shop was stocking string LED parts for a while, and has since backed away from them.

Naigon is doing some interesting things with neopixal blades -- NeoPixel Blade Upgrade - YouTube

there are also a couple of folks on here that are trying things with neopixals and doing a new board for them

[JakeSoft]

the term has continued to  stick around in the hobby and on some web pages, perhaps out of 'tradition', though it is unfortunate if that causes any newbies confusion...sorry about that.

Thanks for that, and for the condensed history lesson, I appreciate it!  So it looks like there is no dedicated venue for string blade discussion, which is interesting.  In thinking about my wants and needs for my first build, brightness and 'extension on ignition' outweighs dueling ability. It also looks like The Custom Saber Shop was stocking string LED parts for a while, and has since backed away from them.

Naigon is doing some interesting things with neopixal blades -- NeoPixel Blade Upgrade - YouTube

there are also a couple of folks on here that are trying things with neopixals and doing a new board for them

This is true. Here are a few threads of folks developing boards capable of Neo-Pixel string blade support.

Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
World's first Arduino lightsaber board - DIYino v1

IMO, NeoPixel (or something like it) are the future of string blades. They are less work to build and offer more capability than traditional string blades. As of yet they are not quite as bright as a traditional top-tier LED-string blade made with the best and brightest LEDs, but still seem to be brighter than the MR/Hasbro strings.

I imagine we'll start to see NeoPixel support from the incumbent commercial board makers in due time. Judging from the video posted it looks like NEC is already working on it.