A Lightsaber, With Rave Mode

How often after being exposed to Star Wars did you dream of having your own working lightsaber? These days — well, we don’t quite have the technology to build crystal-based weapons, but tailor-made lightsabers like redditor [interweber]’s are very much real.

Piggybacking off the Korbanth Graflex 2.0 kit — a sort of bare-bones lightsaber ready to personalize — [interweber] is using a Teensy 3.5 to handle things under the hilt. Instead of taking the easy route and cramming everything into said handle, a 3D printed a cradle for the electronics and speaker keep things secure. The blade is made up of two meters of APA102 LEDs.

As well as all the sound effects appropriate to ‘an elegant weapon for a more civilized age’, a cluster of buttons handle the various functions; , playing and cycling through music(more on that in a second), changing the color of the lightsaber — Jedi today, Sith tomorrow — enabling a flickering effect that mimics Kylo Ren’s lightsaber, color cycling, and a…. rave mode?

Altogether, this is probably one of the safer lightsabers you could bring to a party, since some of the more functional versions we’ve featured may not go over so well with your fellow revelers.

[via /r/electronics]

21 thoughts on “A Lightsaber, With Rave Mode

  1. I drew up plans once for two long wires fitted to a handle that contained a high voltage transformer and a fan. Basically a handheld jacob’s ladder with the frequency boosted by the air jet into a continuous stream of plasma. Sinceightsaber blades are made of plasma in star wars canon, it’s a real lightsaber. It never got off the drawing board it because it was too dangerous a project though.

    1. Sounds unstable, the fact that a Jacob’s ladder requires it to be oriented up-down, and not swung about wildly explains why it would have been a bad idea. It does however sound

      Totally Epic!

    1. Well nobody asked but about to close crap so before I lose the links, an aide memoire if you’re still going “huh?” …. we open with…

      https://media.giphy.com/media/7n9cny4aNQO8o/giphy.gif

      Warren: She’s ready.
      Jonathan: Sweet. Run me through it.
      Warren: Ah. We got nine high-resolution surveillance cameras hooked in, super-wide angle, infrared, auto-iris, plus six types of audio matrix monitoring… that’s filtered through a dual quad DVS system, and a…
      Jonathan: Yeah, yeah, fine, just tell me. Are you sure with all of this stuff that we’ll be able to watch Buffy without her noticing us?
      Warren: Absolutely. I mean, she’ll never even know- w-what the hell is that?
      Andrew: Death Star, dude! Wicked, huh?
      Jonathan: Thermal exhaust port’s above the main port, numb-nuts.
      Andrew: For your information, I’m using the Empire’s revised designs from Return of the Jedi.
      Jonathan: That’s a flawed design!
      Warren: Guys! Okay, the thing is, since we’re messing with the Slayer, who could pummel the three of us into a sludgy substance, it might be a good idea for us to not draw attention to ourselves!
      Andrew: I could paint over it if you want.
      Warren: Yeah, well, do that! Because this time tomorrow, the games begin. And the Slayer… will never even know what hit her.

      And an imgur album with part of the scene in anim gifs,
      https://imgur.com/gallery/bH63m

  2. A lot cooler than the one I made back in ’78 from neon tubing, a model T spark coil and a motorcycle battery. Backpack mounted with HV cables and a 12v switch on the handle for quick action. The mechanical contacts in the coil gave it that subtle flickering effect quite well.

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