Friday, December 18, 2015

Lightsaber ala over-easy

running short of time to make a lightsaber to bring along to the cinema to watch the latest installation of starwars? fret not. you will make your own lightsaber in about 30 minutes or so and still able to make it in time to rescue princess leia. 
many years back, yours truly have made a DIY lightsaber with a differnt methodology, URL here http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-light-saber-for/
In this guide, we will be making a lightsaber ala over-easy; we shall address the electromechanics needed to build a lightsaber with surpluses from previous project. The design of the lightsaber holder deserves an i'ble by itself.
lightsaber over-easy is de-constructed as per the following parts needed
1. a diffuser. In this i'ble i have used 5mm OD side glow fiber optics inserted into a 10mm OD acrylic tube.
2. a light source. There are 2 flavours here. one with a 3W blue LED, and the other with a lightsaber holder look-alike torchlight.
3. power supply. 5V from a mobile power bank made with 18650 cells or coin cells.
4. 3D printed holder of some sort to bind the diffuser, the light source, and the power supply.

a 5V USB power bank is used as the power source to turn on a blue 3W LED mounted on a heat sink.
Assuming the forward bias voltage is 3.3v, and ideal current of 350mA, i would need a 4ohm 2W resistor. I only have a 10ohm 2W resistor handy.
to construct the light source, these are the items used
1. small veroboard
2. 1x USB male connector
3. 1x 3W LED (BLUE) mounted on the heatsink, collimator (focus beamacr) is optional
4. 1x 2W 4ohm resistor
5. 1x usb mobile power bank made with 18650 cells
*note: the 3W LED and resistor get hot after several minutes of play.
The force must have led me to discover this lightsaber holder look-alike torch light that was well hidden deep inside the goods cabinet in the local hardware shop.
The acrylic tube inserted with the sideglow fiber optics is connected to the lightsaber holder look-alike torch light with a 3D printed adapter.
Link to the 3D model of the lightsaber adapter herehttps://www.tinkercad.com/things/2pGvKJvmqpj
check out the pictures for a detail description on the assembly


Do or do not, there is no try.


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