Mini Saber Build

rocketmonkeys · January 26, 2023, 4:55am

Here we go!

Scratch-built Iron Man themed lightsaber Build threads

IT BEGINS This starts when I went to Disney with a friend to see what sabers they had on sale. Zero. Not a single one, not even for display. Really disappointing. While legacy sabers aren’t the best, some of the hilts are really nice for the price. But that’s ok, I can make them a saber. And it’ll be better (neopixel/proffieboard). And full custom, completely from scratch. And it’ll be themed to their favorite character. So I made a completely custom, from-scratch Iron Man themed lightsaber. And I got it done almost 1 year later to the day, about ~12 hours before I left for my trip!. The pics [Album] Iron Man themed lightsaber [Iron Man themed lightsaber] The parts Electronics: proffieboard v2.2 18650 battery TCSS 28mm speaker GX16 4-pin connector Blade ws2812b 144/m LED strip TCSS 1" thin wall (clear), diffuser packing foam & gift wrap GX16 4-pin connector Hilt 1 1/4 sink extension pipe from home depot 3d printed exterior lots of sanding & paint single ws2812b accent for the button small 6mm momentary switches (x2) Some odd choices No set screw – I really dislike the idea of retention screws. If I’m traveling with the saber and have to assemble on the spot, no way I want to mess with a tiny set screw + allen wrench. I really like how the Disney sabers twist & lock, so I created my own version of that. You just insert the blade & twist it. Magnets (and friction) hold the blade from accidentally untwisting, and screw-heads keep the blade in place (think frankenstein’s neck bolts, which get captured into slots in the plastic). The GX16 connector – I played with a lot of connectors (4mm bullets, XT60, XT30, MR30 3-pin). Bullets are nice and cheap, but very hard to make secure in a small 3d printed plastic base. I went with the GX16 which worked well. It’s nice to have a premade connector I can just drop in, but it’s also a little bulky and constraining on the design. Next saber will use (2x) XT30’s and I’ll try using epoxy to secure them. No pogo pins – I love the idea of POGO pins & pcbs, but they’re fairly pricy. GX16 costs ~$1.25. A pogo set costs $15-20 (factoring in shipping), and there’s fewer places to get them. Plus, I needed 4 pins on the blade (more on that later). Blade doubles as kill switch – This is why I needed 4 pins on the blade. The blade acts…