I find myself with a lot of spare time lately, but due to my current health and the length of time needed to recover I'm still largely housebound. So, I decided I'd like to learn a craft/trade to apply myself to in the meantime, I want to learn to build a saber -starting out simple, and then honing and mastering my craft. So I moseyed on over to Custom Saber Shop and watched a bunch of their youtube videos, then watched some videos on basic electronics when it occurred to me that I could use a refresher, but I still have some uncertainties that I'm not quite sure about, so I figured someone here might be willing to chime in.
So for my very first build, I'm going to be doing a stunt saber, one color, as simple as one can get, meaning no recharge (just plain old alkaline batteries), and I'll be using the modular wiring system until I'm more comfortable using a soldering iron. I'll be going for a cyan saber, and since you can't get a single-die Cree in cyan I plan on using the Rebel Star LED & MHSV1 Heatsink Module for that color, now here's where I get a bit confused - I've learned how to calculate resistor values based on ohm's law and all that stuff, but I'm going for a solderless install on this, so resistors are out of the question. I assume this is where the buckpuck comes in, right?
When I look at the details for a Rebel Star cyan, it says the following: "Cyan 122lm @ 700mA 3.4v - Run at 1000mA"
Now for the buckpuck it says "Input voltage must be greater than 5v and below 32v"; since I'll be using four alkaline AA batteries, that gives us 6 volts, so that sounds ok in my head, but does that mean when the batteries start to drain below that 5v lower threshold, it will die on me? I'm trying to avoid Li-Ion batteries until I have the prerequisite experience to do them safely.
Also, the "@ 700mA [...] Run at 1000mA", I'm assuming that is saying that even though the LED requires 700mA, for best results use a 1000mA buckpuck instead of a 700mA? Am I getting this stuff right? I won't be using sound, and will be using a latching guarded switch, so no other extra power requirements there, it's just the alkaline AA's/buckpuck/LED balance that I'm a bit fuzzy on.
Hoping someone with some experience can help me figure this out, thanks.
