Matty Matt
Active Hunter
That looks so cool.
Making progress on ESB EE-3
- Thread starter bcurtis
- Start date
Ghostrider
Active Hunter
Excellent finish!!! Love it.
intwenothor
Well-Known Hunter
bcurtis
Active Hunter
Just an update on this project. I decided to install a Plecter Labs Blaster Core v4.0 in the Hand Schaub after drooling over RedArc's for the last year. The grip/trigger portion is being fitted with a functional, replica trigger by RedArc. I spent some time this weekend creating the chassis for the electronics. I figured I would share some photos of it. I doubt this will be of much use to anyone trying to install electronics in their EE-3 because I didn't take photos from each step of the process. I only took them when I thought of it. Sorry about that. I basically built a lightsaber-esque chassis that will slide through the barrel of the Hand Schaub. The photos aren't of the finished product because I am waiting on some resistors from Mouser for my main and auxiliary leds, hence why it is taped in the midsection. The blaster core board and recharge port/kill switch will be attached at the end. I'll post up some test videos once I install the resistors. I used a bunch of parts I already had from old lightsaber projects, as well as cannibalized parts from old hard drives. This already heavy blaster is going to get a lot heavier once I'm finished. Ugh.
This is the LED housing which holds a tri-rebel mounted to a heatsink. The red and royal blue dies are being utilized. I also have a focusing lens on top of the tri-rebel to control the angle of the light. This mounts to the speaker housing you see in the image which is mounted via 4-40 threaded rods sheathed in brass tubing.
Here is a side view with part of the batter chamber exposed. I used some parts I purchased from the custom saber shop years ago. The upper compartment holds two 18650 Li-Ion batteries for 7.4v as well as the wires from the front speaker and tri-rebel.
Same thing, only from a different angle.
This is the rear speaker housing and speaker. The housing is a hard drive part that has a strong magnetic ring on it which holds the speaker firmly in place. Pretty convenient. This speaker is rear-facing and is mounted in the lower compartment with the Blaster Core, recharge port, and soon to be LED bargraph.
Here is an image of the rear portion of the battery chamber. The nuts will match on the finished product (not that it matters. No one will ever see it, lol.)
This was the basic layout of the rear chamber (minus the recharge port and bargraph). The rear speaker is compression fitted in the tube.
Just another angle of the setup.
A closer shot of the LED housing mounted to the front speaker housing. I'm just using electrical tape. It suits my needs. Surprisingly the speaker is still loud as hell, as well as clear. The copper heatsink does have 6 holes drilled in it to accommodate multi-die LEDs so that's probably helping a lot.
A view into the rear chamber. Nothing is fastened down yet but you can see that I will have easy access to the micro SD card in case I want to adjust soundfonts or configuration files on the board. Things will be fixed to the sides of the chamber. Once I get my custom bargraph as well as the grip section back from RedArc, I'll put everything in place. You can see the rear-facing speaker in the back. This will be the view when you open that blaster on its hinge.
Last photo. This is essentially what the finished product will look like. I plan on getting a male-male adapter to connect the two tubes, but I just have electrical tape there for now. Who knows, I may just use electrical tape in the end. The chassis will be compression fitted once I put the Heiland tube on in the front and I plan on hot gluing the rear portion of the tube. As you can see, the whole thing will slide through the barrel of the EE-3. I am working out a solution to getting the auxiliary switch installed in the space behind the front battery housing. I've got an idea in mind for it though so I'm not too worried.
Well that's about it for now. Once I install the resistors I'll make a test video for sound and lights. Thanks so much to RedArc for installing the functional trigger for me. Can't wait to get this completed. Let me know what you think.
Bryan
**Edit** I forgot to add a few pics of the chassis inside the barrel. Here you go:
This is the LED housing which holds a tri-rebel mounted to a heatsink. The red and royal blue dies are being utilized. I also have a focusing lens on top of the tri-rebel to control the angle of the light. This mounts to the speaker housing you see in the image which is mounted via 4-40 threaded rods sheathed in brass tubing.
Here is a side view with part of the batter chamber exposed. I used some parts I purchased from the custom saber shop years ago. The upper compartment holds two 18650 Li-Ion batteries for 7.4v as well as the wires from the front speaker and tri-rebel.
Same thing, only from a different angle.
This is the rear speaker housing and speaker. The housing is a hard drive part that has a strong magnetic ring on it which holds the speaker firmly in place. Pretty convenient. This speaker is rear-facing and is mounted in the lower compartment with the Blaster Core, recharge port, and soon to be LED bargraph.
Here is an image of the rear portion of the battery chamber. The nuts will match on the finished product (not that it matters. No one will ever see it, lol.)
This was the basic layout of the rear chamber (minus the recharge port and bargraph). The rear speaker is compression fitted in the tube.
Just another angle of the setup.
A closer shot of the LED housing mounted to the front speaker housing. I'm just using electrical tape. It suits my needs. Surprisingly the speaker is still loud as hell, as well as clear. The copper heatsink does have 6 holes drilled in it to accommodate multi-die LEDs so that's probably helping a lot.
A view into the rear chamber. Nothing is fastened down yet but you can see that I will have easy access to the micro SD card in case I want to adjust soundfonts or configuration files on the board. Things will be fixed to the sides of the chamber. Once I get my custom bargraph as well as the grip section back from RedArc, I'll put everything in place. You can see the rear-facing speaker in the back. This will be the view when you open that blaster on its hinge.
Last photo. This is essentially what the finished product will look like. I plan on getting a male-male adapter to connect the two tubes, but I just have electrical tape there for now. Who knows, I may just use electrical tape in the end. The chassis will be compression fitted once I put the Heiland tube on in the front and I plan on hot gluing the rear portion of the tube. As you can see, the whole thing will slide through the barrel of the EE-3. I am working out a solution to getting the auxiliary switch installed in the space behind the front battery housing. I've got an idea in mind for it though so I'm not too worried.
Well that's about it for now. Once I install the resistors I'll make a test video for sound and lights. Thanks so much to RedArc for installing the functional trigger for me. Can't wait to get this completed. Let me know what you think.
Bryan
**Edit** I forgot to add a few pics of the chassis inside the barrel. Here you go:
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DeathProof
Active Hunter
So this is what blaster porn looks like.
bcurtis
Active Hunter
This is also what sleep deprivation looks like, lol.
bcurtis
Active Hunter
Hey guys. Just wanted to update the project. I have gotten the main wiring done and decided to shoot a video of the light and sound test. Still a little ways to go but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The video turned out a bit dark in spots but you should be able to get the general idea. Hope you enjoy!
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A-W-E-S-O-M-E
bcurtis
Active Hunter
Thanks guys! The video ended up being much darker than I had hoped. Oh well, it gets the point across. Not sure why the blue looks so purple in the video... I think i need to source some material to diffuse the light some. It's like looking at the Sun, lol.
I'll post another video once I wire up my custom bargraph.
I'll post another video once I wire up my custom bargraph.
DeathProof
Active Hunter
Holy epileptic seizure Bryan. Hahaha. That. Looks. AWESOME! 
I love the blend of colours. Staring down the barrel, you can definitely see the yellow blend into the red. But yes, I would diffuse it. I think that setup works perfectly for the ESB gun to allow the lights to show out the flash tube vents. I don't think you'd get the same effects from a ROTJ blaster.
The audio sounds good....but how much are you going to use the music? Are you going to have enough control over it or are you going to have to wait for it to end? I can imagine talking to someone when that pops on to be a bit difficult. Can you tone the music volume down and leave the blaster volume up?
Get rid of that morrison guy's voice. That never happened.
I love the blend of colours. Staring down the barrel, you can definitely see the yellow blend into the red. But yes, I would diffuse it. I think that setup works perfectly for the ESB gun to allow the lights to show out the flash tube vents. I don't think you'd get the same effects from a ROTJ blaster.
The audio sounds good....but how much are you going to use the music? Are you going to have enough control over it or are you going to have to wait for it to end? I can imagine talking to someone when that pops on to be a bit difficult. Can you tone the music volume down and leave the blaster volume up?
Get rid of that morrison guy's voice. That never happened.
syllander
Active Hunter
True story....
bcurtis
Active Hunter
I didn't show it in the video, but if I just tap the aux. button during the music, it acts as a pause button and if I press and hold for two seconds, it will skip to the next track. The iSaber mode on Erv's boards is really meant to be used as a display mode. I have it on all of my custom sabers. I do have the ability to lower the volume by adjusting the variables in the configuration files. If I wanted to have a song, or background noise, such as the sound from the supertrooper, while I was walking around a con, I could set that up as one of the blaster sound fonts. The Blaster Core is a very versatile board, and I would recommend it to anyone who has the means to get one. It has six different sound banks, meaning you can have six completely different blaster profiles, two flash modes (main flash -mine is red, and auxiliary flash -mine is royal blue), it has a clip in/out feature (that I'm not using right now), and it can power 6 external LEDs (I'm using it to power a custom bargraph that shows the remaining ammo). The possibilities are pretty much limitless. OK that sounded like a commercial for Plecter Labs, lol. I've been using Erv's stuff since 2008. Imo, he's the best around for blaster/saber electronics. I am currently working on a "Man with no Name" sound font for this. There are so many badass Eastwood quotes to use for boot sounds. lol.
Oh and in regards to the Morrison thing, I completely agree. However I know that some people prefer it because of the continuity thing, even though I find the canon version of Boba's back story to be lame.
I'll post more soon.
tterrell
Active Hunter
I did like the Man with No Name in the films 'A Fistful of Dollars', 'For a Few Dollars More' and even 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' was ok. Clint channels the Yojimbo character well and removes dialogue to make the character more silent and thus adding to the mystery of the character.
But, my favorite inspiration for a Boba-like bounty hunter was portrayed by Clint Eastwood in the movie Joe Kidd, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Kidd.
In this film, he is a bounty hunter, walks around with spurs clanging, and even "sneaks up on" bad guys with spurs on! You'll see the automatic pistol with wooden stock that Clint uses in this film and how much it looks like the future EE-3 from Empire Strikes Back. Nice wooden stock and short barrel ... a lot like the auto-pistola from Joe Kidd.
But, my favorite inspiration for a Boba-like bounty hunter was portrayed by Clint Eastwood in the movie Joe Kidd, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Kidd.
In this film, he is a bounty hunter, walks around with spurs clanging, and even "sneaks up on" bad guys with spurs on! You'll see the automatic pistol with wooden stock that Clint uses in this film and how much it looks like the future EE-3 from Empire Strikes Back. Nice wooden stock and short barrel ... a lot like the auto-pistola from Joe Kidd.
DeathProof
Active Hunter
Great explanation! If I ever decide to upgrade my blaster, I'll definitely keep it in mind
bcurtis
Active Hunter
Hey all. Another tiny update. I made a panel faceplate for my LED bargraph. I used 0.75mm styrene (I accidentally referred to it as sintra in the video) to create the panel. I then wrapped it with 0.001 brass sheet. I used some 0000 steel wool to score the surface a bit then some Birchwood Casey "Brass Black" to give it the same look as the gun. I want to do something else with this section to make it "fit" the weapon. The panel here is a good start, but I want to do more in order to make it look sci-fi believable.
Here are a few still photos:
Here are a few still photos:
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