Power Options/Limited Battery Space

PropBoard
#1

I’ve been developing a lightsaber on and off (mostly off) for over a year. After learning that the batteries I was planning on using weren’t powerful enough, I switched to 2 18650 Li-ion batteries. The problem is that these batteries make my hilt way too long–12 inches!

(Frankly, I don’t know how anyone makes a hilt that’s significantly shorter than this using 2 18650 batteries and the Propboard. If you have any ideas, please let me know!)

To compensate, I’m considering going with the lower-power mode of the Propboard, so I only need 1 of the 18650 batteries. I’ll change the power settings of the Propboard using the method here.

I’ve got a couple of quick questions about this:

  1. What kind of LED should I use for this lower-power lightsaber? I had been using a CreeXPE2.
  2. Are there any other hardware considerations I need to make for this lower-power mode? Or is the LED the only thing I need to worry about? (I imagine the speaker doesn’t draw much power?)
#2

Hello @Joecool,

1-battery setups are ok. I have a test fixture with 1 battery on my own that I use to debug motion-related code.

  1. CreeXPE2 is fine.
  2. Audio might sound a little lower, but you may not notice it.
1 Like
#3

You’ve probably solved this by now but I also have a possible solution for future viewers. Depending on the size available inside of the hilt, you might be able to fit a 26650 (A beefier version of the 18650 but the same length). They are typically much higher capacity and can deliver much more current too. If your hilt ID is larger than 1.02" it will fit inside.