WIP - Fett263's KR "KRORSSGUARD" Proffieboard Neopixel Board

I tapped the set screw hold in the upper engine to support the chassis, I won't assembled until I route the wires but it was much easier to drill and tap separately than after everything is run.



Before routing the quillion wires through the engine I put a piece of heatshrink to both "hide" the wires but also to keep them together.




I also recommend taping the groups of wires together as you route, especially if you have same colors, it makes it much easier to keep track.



Next I routed through chassis and secured with the set screw in the engine.



Up next is the switch assembly




Then I slid the support ring up, the screw to secure the ring will pass through the switch PCB to hold it in place once it's fully assembled.





That's the progress so far, will be test fitting the shroud and buttons, Khal recommends sanding the back of the clear buttons to allow movement to press the buttons so I'll need to test them out and get it "just right" before closing up the top half. I should have the neopixels and blade parts this week to, so I'll be working on it some more as I get time.

Thanks, fixed.

I haven't gotten to that point yet. Hoping to get sometime later this week.

Just an update Travis asked about accessing screws for the cover on the shroud (I admit I totally forgot) but luckily I left enough slack to access.  If you're building and don't leave slack to be able to pull engine down it would be an issue so keep that in mind during your build, you either need to attach the shroud and cover BEFORE running the wires into the engine and chassis or you need slack to be able to access.

Finally finished this build so have to catch up on documenting.  I had a few set backs and a little bad luck and didn't get time to finish as I was juggling a lot of projects.  Hopefully, for those working or planning to work on theirs, some of the difficulties can be avoided if you know to watch out.

I love this hilt, it's beautifully built, but there are a few things that I realized as I was installing so keep these in mind as you work on yours it may save you some headaches and frustration:

#1 - you will definitely want to glue and reinforce the chassis and engine connection point, this is a weak point in the design.  I drilled the tap hole through the chassis to add support but I ended up having to take it half apart after thinking I was done to glue the chassis with E-6000 because when you're taking the bottom half on and off that thin neck is taking a lot of stress and I could tell it would break, especially if not handled delicately.  I do wish there was metal supporting the chassis, even with the glue this is a definite weak point in the saber particularly if you're updating the board or replacing the battery and have it resting on a desk and try to put any pressure on the lower half, the top is much taller so there's an incline for the bottom half to rest and it wants to pull away from the engine, the thin neck and single set screw is not that strong and I know others have already reported breaking at this point, I'm hopeful the glue reinforces a bit but you will need to handle with care if you don't want to break the chassis off

#2 - I had to sand the greebles/button covers a LOT to get them to work, I disassembled that section 3 times to get the buttons to actually work (which is why it took so long to finish, it was a bit demoralizing thinking your done 3 times only to have to disassemble the entire middle section to sand the buttons down further.  In the end the bottom of the buttons had to be sanded to half the thickness for me to allow the buttons to actually be pressed, particularly the lower button, do yourself a favor and sand the part and get it done FIRST before you even wire up anything else, because once your board is hooked up it makes it so much harder

#3 - I used the SHOTK short pin connectors as recommended, I found that if you push them all the way into the side blades the pins are a hair too short to make contact with theProplicator blades, which was a major headache.  Since I got thePropicator's finish work I could not unscrew the quillions to access the side connectors without destroying the beautiful finish.   Unfortunately, I had pulled the slack completely through to the chassis for the wire so as I was trying to back the connectors out delicately so I didn't scratch anything I ended up separating a wire and having to tear it all apart and start over, another very frustrating point.  If you get the hilt finished it adds additional trouble trying to take things apart for fixes so take more time and check everything so you only have to do it once. When I reassembled I lined the connector up with the set screw hole rather than pushing it all the way in.

OK, now that that's out of the way here's the continuation of the build.  My original plan was to just get the blades built to test, then close everything up but between the connectors not making contact with the side blades and the the issues with the buttons and reinforcing the chassis it feels like I built this saber 4 times over, some was just bad luck but some I had no way to foresee so I'm hopeful this helps a few with their undertakings.

Side blade assembly (before realizing the connectors were too deep):

I use skinny 3535s to be able to insert as deep as possible and illuminate the tips of theProplicator blades.  For diffusion I only use blade film from TCSS (I've done this same technique since originally getting theProplicator to open up the insides for neopixels on my first CG2 build).



Since the tip of the blade is very tight I wrap the end of the strips tightly with the blade film and tape it in place to diffuse the last 5/6 pixels



Then I wrap the blade film along the rest of the blade but leave it looser so it will actually unwind in the blade a little



Once inserted the film will unwind a little to fill the cavity and provide better diffusion, if you have it too tight it will cause corn-cobbing.



For the main blade I use a clear tube, the diffusion tube and foam only, I don't wrap the pixels myself I prefer the look with just the foam and diffuser.



Continued...

I am using Goth's Eco chassis from KR Sabers, I ended up having to sand the chassis a little, the bottom half was not sliding easily, again something that would have been easier to do before installing so definitely check it and and first.  Once I got it fitting better so the bottom would slide freely it's time for the red wire.




Khal recommends cutting the wire at the second holder so you can split it to remove the lower half, be sure to leave enough to glue the lower half into the connector but leave room for the top half to be fully supported







Then the top half of the wire is inserted in the wire holder in the engine, for now it's just a friction fit, no glue JUST IN CASE ;-)



Continued...

Just wanted to thank you for this tutorial. I’ve been studying it over and over, using it to guide me through my construction of this saber. I’m still waiting on another 7/8” pcb holder to come before I can wire it up but I’m getting excited to finally have it done. I will definitely agree that it is a little bit of a frustrating design but it definitely looks beautiful.

Anyway you’d be willing to share your config file?

Alright thanks. I’m looking forward to OS6. Two questions though. One, the button pcb. Can you tell much which color wire is ground and which goes to button 1 (I assume black is ground and the button 1 color can be fixed later but I thought I’d ask). And two, Is there any benefit to wiring up the cross guards to separate data pads verses combining their led pads and data pads into one parallel blade? It seems to be the normal way of doing it on the config generator but I don’t know why it couldn’t be done as one blade.

Hi does anyone know which of the switch pads works for each button? I’m sure I could test them all out, but it’d be great to have a guide