Full tutorial of how to wire a ultimate fx Qui-Gon soundcard into an ultrasaber

[Big Andy]

Sorry I've not checked this thread for awhile. No i didn't use any resistor or buck puck. I don't know how they would affect the set up actually.

[Zren Tobas]

I would do this but I want to keep my Qui-gon as a collectible. =] Thanks for the info though. I might get another Qui-gon though or two and wire them to some V2s.

[Jakha]

so i did this with a moderate amount of success, two points of interest one a suggestion and the other a question.

1) if you splice the two white wires that head to the "demo switch and attach battery to red wire directly you can eliminate the need for demo switch

2) Im running a red led and its is sadly pale pink until full dark after adding sound card. have played with several pathways trying to brighten it. can the quality of solder be the cause or is the sound card just not letting enough juice through ? suggestions would make me quite happy as the pink makes my inner sith weep inside.

[Handfulloftito]

Hey guys, new to the forum. I want to do this to my dominix v2 LE blazing red. Although its only powered by 2 AAA batteries, don't know if that's normal but it's how I got it. Will this mod still work?

[Handfulloftito]

Hey guys, ill answer my own question. The 2x AAA battery pack that came on my dominix v2 LE is too weak to power the led and and soundboard. The sound does not work and the led is extremely dim. When I connected my setup to the stock force fx battery pack ( 3x AA ) it worked just fine. However with the small hilt that the dominix has, I don't think it's possible to run AA batteries. I also tried a 3x AAA battery pack from an led flashlight, the led was dim and flickering and the soundboard made a ticking sound.  I used a force fx anakin for this btw, not the qui gon

[ScorchMark]

Great vid's. Anyone done anything an Anakin 2005 MR? I opened mine up thinking it would be the same... its a bit more complex lol.

[Locutis]

I really want to do this mod to a Dominix V2. Does anyone know of a speaker that will fit?

[Ldogg1579]

Hello All.

Hope this thread is still being followed by the powers that be. I am new to this stuff, but have a pretty some background in electronics (even though I am about 20 years removed), so here is the deal.

I bought a LED with forum color BH, with standard setup from US. I tried this guide because I can't afford Obsidian, and had no issues with the sound working, but an issue with the LED. When I tested the BH LED on the Darth Maul Ultimate FX board, the color was BH for a moment, but then turned red. I am assuming that since the original LED was red, the board setup for the previous LED was at a lower voltage than what is required to run BH.

With that said, I was thinking about options and wanted some experienced opinions as to how I could go about this? My initial thought was to introduce a LM317 to the soundcard to decrease the voltage to the card and run it in parallel with the LED, then I read in the other place that the board can handle 6V, so I could possibly connect the board in parallel without any heating. I understand that with either of these option I lose the LED flash that the Ultimate FX provides, but I would still get the sound, which is my only real objective here. 

See my proposed design and check please. I have not done this type of stuff in quite some time.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/io1rt9zh49zxczc/WIRING%20BANE%27S%20HEART.pdf

First question: Will this work and which one would the most efficient for battery preservation?

Second: Is there any alternative to this without giving up the flash?

Third: Is it a board issue at all (i.e. the combination of Economy Sound and BH LED power requirements are too high for a 4AAA battery pack)?


Insight and Opinions Wanted.

Thanks Peeps.

[BioDelta]

Ok  noob  here  trying  to do what the tutorial say's. i took out the sound card  made sure  not to  hurt anything and  try to strip the wire's and satter them. my only thing i can think of that i did wrong  was use the power pack  that wasn't the speaker combo... I was hoping to use the speaker that was already on there... here are some shots of what ive done

[BioDelta]

So i might need to get that battery pack combo..... cause everything else isnt working .... im not sure what i did wrong?

[Xevarin]

so i did this with a moderate amount of success, two points of interest one a suggestion and the other a question.

1) if you splice the two white wires that head to the "demo switch and attach battery to red wire directly you can eliminate the need for demo switch

2) Im running a red led and its is sadly pale pink until full dark after adding sound card. have played with several pathways trying to brighten it. can the quality of solder be the cause or is the sound card just not letting enough juice through ? suggestions would make me quite happy as the pink makes my inner sith weep inside.

[Xevarin]

This was the actual post I intended to make.  Incoming wall of text.



First: Thanks for the videos.  They were extremely useful.

Second: Some notes on changes/modifications I wanted (and in some cases) needed to make due to some differences.

1) The story.  I got a grab bag saber while I was deciding on which US pimped out saber style I wanted.  I received a Liberator v3.  I chose the Adegan Silver option with some colour discs for variety.  After getting a Scorpion with Emerald colour and Obsidian sound and finding this thread I decided to budget upgrade the Liberator v3 and gift it to my son for his 4th birthday.  My wife has a background in electronics and had most of the gear, this thread had the videos, away I went.

2) Couldn't find the Qui-Gon saber at my local shop.  All they had was an Anakin/Darth Vader saber which alternates red or blue.  I made it work with the following modifications.
a)  The switch wires were really short, needed to extend them.
b)  The switch in normal usage mode alternates.  Press the button once, get a blue LED and a slow hum. Turn it off, it is... off   Turn it on again, get a red LED and a fast hum (fast is apparently evil).  From a sound perspective this is a non-issue, technically speaking, as there is bugger all you can do about it.  From an LED perspective though see the next bullet.
c)  The switch activates two separate positive LED nodes at the end of the board (one for red the other for blue in the original toy) but uses the same negative node.  I soldered two wires, one off each node, and then spliced them together.  No matter which hum turns on (slow or fast), the LED lights up.  Incidentally (read "unplanned but happy with") I also have flicker on clash.

3)  I didn't want to burn through a bunch of AAA batteries and I like the idea of Li-Ion setups.  I also wanted to this saber to have a bit more colour options in the long run.  Yes, Adegan Silver + colour discs is fine but let's add some quick disconnects so we have the option to swap out LEDs properly for the future.
a)  I figured on using 2 Li-Ion Battery Holder/Speaker Combo to allow for more room in the hilt.  I also figured on using the 1000mA Wired Buckpuck so I could swap any old LED in there.  I may not know much about LEDs and required current by colour but the bits I read on this forum made me believe that this was the smartest option for swapping things in and out.
b)  Problem 1 occurred here.  I wired up my battery pack, put in the 2 Li-Ion batteries and then went to test which speaker wire went where as per the video.  I got nothing.  Nothing.  After much troubleshooting and searching the forums I found I fried the board.  I missed Ninja-Jedi's (very important) post which, truncated, says:

[The board] does not act as an LED driver it works more like pass thru meaning what ever voltage supply u run will be run to the LED.  So if u run 3.7V that what will be run to the LED. With 3.7V u dont need a resistor or puck when running single color LED ....  You can use a 7.4V battery pack if that what u have but u need to get a 5V voltage regulator to not fry components on board, if you do this just know that the board will supply 5V to the LED so if running red or amber P4 be careful.

c)  First important bit: If you use the 2 Li-Ion Battery Holder/Speaker Combo with Li-Ion batteries (7.4V) you need to do one of two things. Either wire in a 5V voltage regulator before the board or use a Dummy Cell and one Li-Ion battery (3.7V).  The board can't take more than 5V.
d)  Second important bit: If you are doing simple single colour LED swaps with quick disconnects you won’t need the 1000mA Wired Buckpuck.  I have yet to verify this but I'll take his word for it he seems to have done loads with this board.
e)  Result:  Since the 1000mA Wired Buckpuck requires a minimum forward voltage of 5V, if you want to use it you will need 2 Li-Ion batteries (to be above the minimum for the Buckpuck) and the 5V voltage regulator before the board (to not fry the board).  However, for this simple setup used a single Li-Ion battery and a Dummy Cell.

4)  I followed Jhaka's splicing suggestion to get rid of the demo switch.

1) if you splice the two white wires that head to the "demo switch and attach battery to red wire directly you can eliminate the need for demo switch.

This freed up some more space and made things a bit cleaner.  With the Li-Ion Battery pack the board can fit nicely in the back-space.

5)  Wiring the quick-disconnects was a non-issue.  Finding the quick-disconnects, however, required me to go outside of US.

6)  I wrapped the sound board with electrical tape for basic protection.  I tried to do it gently but I think it is a bit tight and as such has affected the swing motion sensor in a negative way.  The board, unless completely still, will make the swing sounds.  Now this is for my 4 year old’s (birthday tomorrow) and he won’t care, but it is something I want to address when he isn't looking.

7)  When installing the press-to-fit Momentary Switch, I suggest doing it with the wiring extended out either end of the hilt.  I didn't and now I can only get the battery pack/speaker/board out enough to replace the battery.  This is fine for now, but I am unable to re-wrap the board at this time and could have potentially impeded the replacement of the battery.  I will need to remove the switch or at least lift it a bit to correct this issue.


Third: Here are the parts I used for this budget upgrade.
- Ultimate FX Anakin/Darth Vader toy lightsaber
- Guarded Momentary Switch
- Li-Ion Battery Pack/Speaker Combo
- One 14500 Lithium Ion Cell
- One Dummy Cell
- Quick Disconnects
- Extra Wire
- Shrink Tube
- Solder
- Soldering Iron/Gun

[Assassino37]

Hi all, I'm new to the place but have been following the site for awhile now. Been reading up on a lot of stuff and lurking in the shadows. ;-) But I had to post to this topic because it has been a huge help to me and answered some of my remaining questions. Thank you SO much for these videos, it has been exactly what I have been searching the forums for. I do have one final question though.

My first saber believe it or not is going to be a custom build your own. The only thing holding me back is everyone talks about soldering the wires. But based on the pictures and the videos I've seen, couldn't you skip the soldering part? When splicing the wires together, couldn't you just use a small wire connector after twisting the wires and put some electrical tape around it to keep it together? I do this all the time when installing ceiling fans. I also found http://www.homedepot.com/p/Tyco-Electronics-Butt-Splices-Vinyl-22-18-AWG-10-Clam-CPGI-2-1838199-0-10/202204283 which look very similar to the tubes he used in the video, I just don't think they shrink. They seem like they would be perfect. So do you really NEED a soldering iron for anything? My first saber won't have sound so I won't have to deal with that. For the sound card it does seem like you need to sodder though if I'm seeing it right.

[Master Bluespike74]

I would not suggest using electrical tape.  I have done what you are talking about with ceiling fans but you have a good deal more room than you do in some of these setups.  The main reason you should solder and use heatshrink is the fact you are dealing with DC and not AC.  DC will short on these hilts quicker than you can imagine.  I have seen plenty of soundboards other than Obsidian do just that. 

Last year, I had a guy argue with me about using electrical tape over soldering.  He bought $200 worth of equipment and then fried the soundboard.  Now he just runs around Facebook and other forums complaining that Obsidian and another soundboard are complete crap. 

Even if it is a soundless model, you still should use the heatshrink and solder the joints.  The only time I would imagine someone could get around this is if they made a model to just sit on their shelf but what fun is that. 

You can check out some of my tutorials over at www.youtube.com/bluespike1974.  I can walk you through just about any install you want to do.  Big Andy's video challenged me to find a way to get around that pesky on/off/try me switch and I have finally found a way to do it.  It will be included in an upcoming video soon.

[ChillyAleman]

Can this be done with other Lightsaber soundboards? I don't want to advertise, but there is a $40 Hasbro Darth Vader/Anakin Color changer which is rather small and has a plastic hilt. Since it is more affordable than buying a Qui-gon FX soundboard, I was wondering if it can be dismantled and placed into an Ultrasaber.