Thank you so much for taking the time to make this. It’s very well explained and will help a lot of people out. For a replacement LED if you don’t have a holocron, could you use the one closest to the hilt since that part sinks into the hilt and wouldn’t show if it was dark?
Ruthsarian That’s awesome!! It means that those who don’t have holocrons or spare LED’s can still use your video as a guide to repair their damaged LED. Thank you for testing it!
Question: So I got a $40 lightsaber at Disney land, and it only works on try me mode. When I switch it to on mode and press the button it doesn't work. I think the problem might be in the circuit board but I don't have a great knowledge of circuit boards to fix it. I was wondering if maybe you could take a look at it and/or fix it?
Hello I have a question could you repair my Darth Vader master replica lightsaber? During the shipping the d’éleveuses guy twisted my blade and now I have a twisted lightsaber that’s so disappointing
assuming this is a galaxy's edge lightsaber, i would start by contacting their merchandise guest services and see if they will replace it for you. you can e-mail them at merchandise.guest.services@disneyparks.com. beyond that, you'll have to repair the crack. to do that you'll have to scrape away at the solder mask (the white paint that covers the copper lines that electricity runs through) on either side of the crack. once the copper is exposed you'll need to bridge the crack with either a blob of solder or use a short length of wire and solder it across the crack to reestablish the connection. there will likely be at least 4 such copper lines running through where the crack is. once you've got them reconnected with solder, carefully put the blade back together and test to make sure everything works. if it doesn't, you'll need to look for more copper lines that you missed and double-check the solder connections. once it's working, take it apart and put a small amount of expoxy across the crack (and over the exposed solder and copper) to help strengthen the joint. but before you do any of that, assuming this is a blade from Galaxy's Edge, contact Disney first. a lot of people have had problems with their lightsabers and Disney has mailed out replacements.
It could, yes. My first concern would be whether or not there are shorts between any of the traces on the PCB where the blade snapped. If there aren't, you could plug the bottom half of the blade in and it should still work even before soldering the two halves back together. My second concern would be with making sure that the joint where you reconnect the two halves together is mechanically strong enough to support the top half of the blade. I would probably scrape away (or sand) some of the solder mask (the white stuff on the board) to expose the copper traces on both halves near where it snapped. I'd then run wire between the corresponding traces on each half. Confirm the top half is working again (carefully) then use some epoxy to strengthen the joint. Alternatively, you could trim the tube down to the length of the bottom half of the blade and now you'll have a short saber blade, which would be rather unique. Good luck!
there's probably a wire that's come loose inside the blade. you would need to open up the blade and check the three wires that connect to the control board to see if any of them are loose. If one is loose you will need to solder it back in place. HOWEVER, your first step should be to contact Disney's Merchandise Guest Services about this. You can email them at Merchandise.Guest.Services@DisneyParks.com. Tell them about the problem. They may be able to send you a replacement blade.
@@Ruthsarian Thank you so much for this! I sent them an email telling them about my issue and they said they will not refund it. So my only hope is to fix it my self
When you put the new LED on, you only tinned the top most pad on the PCB. Why didn’t you tin all four so that you could just do tap tap tap with the solder and be done? How did you tin the other three that now had the LED leads on top of them?
i have a small tip on my iron that fits between the legs which lets me solder them one at a time. tinning all pads first would probably work, but I'm not sure all the pins would lay flat against the PCB. the led would still work, but if it's slightly raised you may find that LED appears slightly brighter on one side of the blade and slightly darker on the other because it's raised off the PCB by the tinned pads.
I would like to shorten my blade. Have you done this yet? I thought I could just cut off the length of leds I wanted, but not sure if that would affect the strip. Looks like the end of the leds has a special pad.
I haven't done it, but I've talked to others who have. You can cut a length of LEDs from off the top of the blade and it won't impact the it's performance.
Great video! You helped me take it apart. But..... I have two blocks of LED's out. I have a multi meter but I couldn't get any LED's to light up. What setting where you on? Thanks.
I am using diode test mode. If your multimeter has it (most do) you should see a diode symbol (a triangle with a line through it) on the multimeter dial
I JUST got back from California for the first time and made my Lightsaber. it hasn't broken, but as an avid cosplayer, I DiD want to take precautions and secure my saber for future use. what would you suggest I do for the electronics and the leds in the saber? I'm pretty moderately skilled in electronics, as well. is it possible to add more RGB led strips or replace the stock pcb with RGB from a roll I have? I was thinking of using L connector pins on that pcb connector point near the hilt, superglue the two boards together to keep that connection from breaking and adding more foam to protect it. would you say that's a solid way to "protect" my saber?.
The stock blade has a strip of LEDs on a PCB and a second PCB attached to the base of the strip which contains the blade controller. The two PCBs are joined together with 9 solder pad connections (7 on the 'front', 2 on the 'back'). That seems to be the weak point (physically) of the blade, although I have not had any problems with it myself. Perhaps a bit of epoxy to help strengthen that joint could help, although once you do that you won't be able to (easily/cleanly) separate the two PCBs. The only reason you might want to separate the PCBs is if you wanted to replace the stock control board with some custom board that's compatible with the stock LED strip or replace the stock LED strip with something compatible with the control board. Currently there isn't any known setup for either, although I am working on a custom control board that I plan to release in the near future (see: ruclips.net/video/yo7Vfhsd1CQ/видео.html). If you're looking to add or replace the stock strip of LEDs you're probably going to also have to replace the control board. The stock LED strip isn't quite like any standard LED strip and I haven't seen one that's compatible with the the stock blade controller. The other issue is current draw. The components of the control board are rated for about 1A of total current. Other LED strips of a similar length with likely draw current higher than 1A and the stock control board may not be able to handle that. There is a document online that covers how to create a Galaxy's Edge compatible blade using neopixels and an adafruit trinket here: 1drv.ms/w/s!Asy0Vb60mZ1el7hoTX-i5ShwGGqm4Q?e=9xP2ac That neopixel blade requires its own battery because of the excess current draw of the LEDs. I have not attempted this mod myself, but I know of a few who have. If you decide to go this route, you should check out the #makerspace channel on the Galaxy's Edge Discord server (swgediscord.com) where a lot of the neopixel blade work was first developed. You should also check out Dead Bothans on Patreon (www.patreon.com/deadbothans) where you can download code for the adafruit trinket to drive the blade LEDs.
@@Ruthsarian those Neopixel blades are quite pricey and I understand why 100%. I will very likely stick-around and follow your progress until I see an alternative to modding my saber for longevity. Thanks for the info!
Maybe you can help me with a problem. I just got mine. Like 3 days ago. And you’re supposed to be able to battle with these and they not break and I have only hit mine on something once and a little strip of leds stopped working as soon as I did it. But it’s midway through the blade and the ones after it still work
the first thing you should do is contact Disney and see if they'll replace the blade. you can e-mail them at merchandise.guest.services@disneyparks.com. or call 1-877-560-6477. Each segment of LEDs in the blade (there are 4 total) has their own power line. The power line for that segment is probably cracked somewhere, most likely at the solder joint where the LED strip and the blade control board are joined together. Reflowing the solder at that joint with a soldering iron might fix the issue. But I would strongly recommend contacting Disney before trying to repair the blade.
@@Ruthsarian okay, thank you. I think I may have been given a bad blade because my buddies all have one and they fight with theirs and none of them have had any issues. I haven’t fought with mine at all and it messed up before I got the chance
i have not found a source for the exact style of LED used in the blades, however just about any common-anode RGB LED will work, such as these from amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B077XD5T8P/ the biggest issue I've found with those LEDs is their color is slightly different (maybe because the package is different or the manufacturer is different?) so it may not look absolutely perfect, but it'll work.
Any plans to add blacklight 400nm wave LED's to make it into a darksaber blade? I am trying on a cheaper single led lightsaber blade on an ultimate fx lightsaber, but your skills and knowledge on modifying the Savi's would obviously make it even more awesome.
No plans, but I'll think about it. I'd probably have to hand-wire a string of 50 or so LEDs and then work out some way to connect them to the blade. There are a few different ways to go about doing that, but none of them stand out as being "good". There is an as of yet unused "dark" purple (more like a dim purple) color that the stock blades can produce. I'm not sure if that color exists due to a programming error or if maybe there were plans to potentially create something like a darksaber down the road. looking at my videos it seems I haven't covered that particular 'mode'. Maybe I'll put together a quick video tonight just to demo it.
@@Ruthsarian That would be really great of you to explore the "hidden" LED colors. I am just buying a ready made USB powered UV LED strip to see the effects at first since my soldering skills are not up to par. If the results are in any way effective, I would like to donate the UV LED strips to you in case you wanted to try it out or make a video. Just an idea for ya. I appreciate everything you put out there.
Hey could you help me with a problem I’m having with my lightsaber I bought it from one saber it’s an RGB one I have charged it sufficiently yet when I try to turn it on despite holding the button for the specified time it just won’t turn on
@@Ruthsarian hi it’s from a company called one saber it’s their v1 range I’ve had a look at it and suspect either a bad battery or circuit board but I’m really not sure - think you could point me in the right direction ?
@@nathanhowe3192 i'm not familiar with their products. the best suggestion i can offer is to contact them. they have a contact form on their website at onesaber.com/pages/contact-us.
Thank you, my light saber which should be purple split to where the bottom half is purple. It lights up red as you go up it and the top part of doesn’t light up at all. So I will take it apart to troubleshoot & repair the light saber blade. Thank you for making the video!
it your lightsaber from galaxy's edge? is the problem that half the blade is not lighting up? if yes to both, i strongly suggest you contact Disney directly and see if they will provide a replacement (they have already done this for may people). you can e-mail them at merchandise.guest.services@disneyparks.com or call them at 1-877-560-6477 a galaxy's edge lightsaber blade that only half lights up would indicate something has gone wrong with the electronics inside and it is likely not something easily repaired.
If it's something I am familiar with, yes. You can email me at ruthsarian@gmail.com, explain the problem you're having with your lightsaber, and I'll let you know if I can think I can fix it and what the cost would be.
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this. It’s very well explained and will help a lot of people out. For a replacement LED if you don’t have a holocron, could you use the one closest to the hilt since that part sinks into the hilt and wouldn’t show if it was dark?
Tried this today. It works. The missing LED is only noticeable if you're aware it's missing int he first place.
Ruthsarian That’s awesome!! It means that those who don’t have holocrons or spare LED’s can still use your video as a guide to repair their damaged LED. Thank you for testing it!
@@Ruthsarian YESSSSS I DONT NEED TO BUY A HOLOCRON
Question: So I got a $40 lightsaber at Disney land, and it only works on try me mode. When I switch it to on mode and press the button it doesn't work. I think the problem might be in the circuit board but I don't have a great knowledge of circuit boards to fix it. I was wondering if maybe you could take a look at it and/or fix it?
Hello I have a question could you repair my Darth Vader master replica lightsaber? During the shipping the d’éleveuses guy twisted my blade and now I have a twisted lightsaber that’s so disappointing
unfortunately, I cannot. I am not familiar with the master replica sabers and wouldn't know where to begin.
I have a light sabre to and it is half is not lighting up so I took it apart and there is a crack in the led light strip what should I do
assuming this is a galaxy's edge lightsaber, i would start by contacting their merchandise guest services and see if they will replace it for you. you can e-mail them at merchandise.guest.services@disneyparks.com.
beyond that, you'll have to repair the crack. to do that you'll have to scrape away at the solder mask (the white paint that covers the copper lines that electricity runs through) on either side of the crack. once the copper is exposed you'll need to bridge the crack with either a blob of solder or use a short length of wire and solder it across the crack to reestablish the connection. there will likely be at least 4 such copper lines running through where the crack is. once you've got them reconnected with solder, carefully put the blade back together and test to make sure everything works. if it doesn't, you'll need to look for more copper lines that you missed and double-check the solder connections. once it's working, take it apart and put a small amount of expoxy across the crack (and over the exposed solder and copper) to help strengthen the joint.
but before you do any of that, assuming this is a blade from Galaxy's Edge, contact Disney first. a lot of people have had problems with their lightsabers and Disney has mailed out replacements.
So I have a question my blade LEDs where snapped in half. If I where to solder the blade back together would it work again?
It could, yes.
My first concern would be whether or not there are shorts between any of the traces on the PCB where the blade snapped. If there aren't, you could plug the bottom half of the blade in and it should still work even before soldering the two halves back together.
My second concern would be with making sure that the joint where you reconnect the two halves together is mechanically strong enough to support the top half of the blade. I would probably scrape away (or sand) some of the solder mask (the white stuff on the board) to expose the copper traces on both halves near where it snapped. I'd then run wire between the corresponding traces on each half. Confirm the top half is working again (carefully) then use some epoxy to strengthen the joint.
Alternatively, you could trim the tube down to the length of the bottom half of the blade and now you'll have a short saber blade, which would be rather unique.
Good luck!
I just bought one 2 days ago and part of blade lights up sometimes and mostly stays off. How can I fix this?
there's probably a wire that's come loose inside the blade. you would need to open up the blade and check the three wires that connect to the control board to see if any of them are loose. If one is loose you will need to solder it back in place.
HOWEVER,
your first step should be to contact Disney's Merchandise Guest Services about this. You can email them at Merchandise.Guest.Services@DisneyParks.com. Tell them about the problem. They may be able to send you a replacement blade.
@@Ruthsarian Thank you so much for this! I sent them an email telling them about my issue and they said they will not refund it. So my only hope is to fix it my self
When you put the new LED on, you only tinned the top most pad on the PCB. Why didn’t you tin all four so that you could just do tap tap tap with the solder and be done? How did you tin the other three that now had the LED leads on top of them?
i have a small tip on my iron that fits between the legs which lets me solder them one at a time.
tinning all pads first would probably work, but I'm not sure all the pins would lay flat against the PCB. the led would still work, but if it's slightly raised you may find that LED appears slightly brighter on one side of the blade and slightly darker on the other because it's raised off the PCB by the tinned pads.
I would like to shorten my blade. Have you done this yet? I thought I could just cut off the length of leds I wanted, but not sure if that would affect the strip. Looks like the end of the leds has a special pad.
I haven't done it, but I've talked to others who have. You can cut a length of LEDs from off the top of the blade and it won't impact the it's performance.
this was so interesting and fun to watch
Does it work for any lightsaber?
Great video! You helped me take it apart. But..... I have two blocks of LED's out. I have a multi meter but I couldn't get any LED's to light up. What setting where you on? Thanks.
I am using diode test mode. If your multimeter has it (most do) you should see a diode symbol (a triangle with a line through it) on the multimeter dial
I JUST got back from California for the first time and made my Lightsaber. it hasn't broken, but as an avid cosplayer, I DiD want to take precautions and secure my saber for future use. what would you suggest I do for the electronics and the leds in the saber? I'm pretty moderately skilled in electronics, as well. is it possible to add more RGB led strips or replace the stock pcb with RGB from a roll I have? I was thinking of using L connector pins on that pcb connector point near the hilt, superglue the two boards together to keep that connection from breaking and adding more foam to protect it. would you say that's a solid way to "protect" my saber?.
The stock blade has a strip of LEDs on a PCB and a second PCB attached to the base of the strip which contains the blade controller. The two PCBs are joined together with 9 solder pad connections (7 on the 'front', 2 on the 'back'). That seems to be the weak point (physically) of the blade, although I have not had any problems with it myself. Perhaps a bit of epoxy to help strengthen that joint could help, although once you do that you won't be able to (easily/cleanly) separate the two PCBs.
The only reason you might want to separate the PCBs is if you wanted to replace the stock control board with some custom board that's compatible with the stock LED strip or replace the stock LED strip with something compatible with the control board. Currently there isn't any known setup for either, although I am working on a custom control board that I plan to release in the near future (see: ruclips.net/video/yo7Vfhsd1CQ/видео.html).
If you're looking to add or replace the stock strip of LEDs you're probably going to also have to replace the control board. The stock LED strip isn't quite like any standard LED strip and I haven't seen one that's compatible with the the stock blade controller. The other issue is current draw. The components of the control board are rated for about 1A of total current. Other LED strips of a similar length with likely draw current higher than 1A and the stock control board may not be able to handle that.
There is a document online that covers how to create a Galaxy's Edge compatible blade using neopixels and an adafruit trinket here:
1drv.ms/w/s!Asy0Vb60mZ1el7hoTX-i5ShwGGqm4Q?e=9xP2ac
That neopixel blade requires its own battery because of the excess current draw of the LEDs. I have not attempted this mod myself, but I know of a few who have. If you decide to go this route, you should check out the #makerspace channel on the Galaxy's Edge Discord server (swgediscord.com) where a lot of the neopixel blade work was first developed. You should also check out Dead Bothans on Patreon (www.patreon.com/deadbothans) where you can download code for the adafruit trinket to drive the blade LEDs.
@@Ruthsarian those Neopixel blades are quite pricey and I understand why 100%. I will very likely stick-around and follow your progress until I see an alternative to modding my saber for longevity. Thanks for the info!
Maybe you can help me with a problem.
I just got mine. Like 3 days ago. And you’re supposed to be able to battle with these and they not break and I have only hit mine on something once and a little strip of leds stopped working as soon as I did it. But it’s midway through the blade and the ones after it still work
the first thing you should do is contact Disney and see if they'll replace the blade. you can e-mail them at merchandise.guest.services@disneyparks.com. or call 1-877-560-6477.
Each segment of LEDs in the blade (there are 4 total) has their own power line. The power line for that segment is probably cracked somewhere, most likely at the solder joint where the LED strip and the blade control board are joined together. Reflowing the solder at that joint with a soldering iron might fix the issue. But I would strongly recommend contacting Disney before trying to repair the blade.
@@Ruthsarian okay, thank you. I think I may have been given a bad blade because my buddies all have one and they fight with theirs and none of them have had any issues.
I haven’t fought with mine at all and it messed up before I got the chance
It happened to me too when I bought the new one and end up revisit the downtown to exchange it :(
where can i find some led like that?
i have not found a source for the exact style of LED used in the blades, however just about any common-anode RGB LED will work, such as these from amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B077XD5T8P/
the biggest issue I've found with those LEDs is their color is slightly different (maybe because the package is different or the manufacturer is different?) so it may not look absolutely perfect, but it'll work.
@@Ruthsarian you think it's the same led on black series kyo ren saber?
Any plans to add blacklight 400nm wave LED's to make it into a darksaber blade? I am trying on a cheaper single led lightsaber blade on an ultimate fx lightsaber, but your skills and knowledge on modifying the Savi's would obviously make it even more awesome.
No plans, but I'll think about it. I'd probably have to hand-wire a string of 50 or so LEDs and then work out some way to connect them to the blade. There are a few different ways to go about doing that, but none of them stand out as being "good".
There is an as of yet unused "dark" purple (more like a dim purple) color that the stock blades can produce. I'm not sure if that color exists due to a programming error or if maybe there were plans to potentially create something like a darksaber down the road. looking at my videos it seems I haven't covered that particular 'mode'. Maybe I'll put together a quick video tonight just to demo it.
@@Ruthsarian That would be really great of you to explore the "hidden" LED colors. I am just buying a ready made USB powered UV LED strip to see the effects at first since my soldering skills are not up to par. If the results are in any way effective, I would like to donate the UV LED strips to you in case you wanted to try it out or make a video. Just an idea for ya. I appreciate everything you put out there.
Does this work for hasbro lightsaber
Thank you for sharing, I’m new with lightsaber. Do you know how to repair hairline crack?
Hey could you help me with a problem I’m having with my lightsaber I bought it from one saber it’s an RGB one I have charged it sufficiently yet when I try to turn it on despite holding the button for the specified time it just won’t turn on
Is this a lightsaber from Galaxy's Edge or is it something else?
@@Ruthsarian hi it’s from a company called one saber it’s their v1 range I’ve had a look at it and suspect either a bad battery or circuit board but I’m really not sure - think you could point me in the right direction ?
@@nathanhowe3192 i'm not familiar with their products. the best suggestion i can offer is to contact them. they have a contact form on their website at onesaber.com/pages/contact-us.
@@Ruthsarian ok thanks
Does this same thing work on a legacy lightsaber? My green Luke Skywalker saber has a dark spot
yup! savi's and legacy blades are the same, just different lengths.
Were you able to do it with the green Luke Skywalker saber? I’m having the same problem
Thank you, my light saber which should be purple split to where the bottom half is purple. It lights up red as you go up it and the top part of doesn’t light up at all. So I will take it apart to troubleshoot & repair the light saber blade. Thank you for making the video!
try changing the batteries first. be sure to use alkaline batteries.
@@Ruthsarian ok I’ll try the simple first, sigh lol I should’ve tried that first so good advice. Ty!
could anyone help me half of my light saber is not working does this also work for that?
it your lightsaber from galaxy's edge? is the problem that half the blade is not lighting up? if yes to both, i strongly suggest you contact Disney directly and see if they will provide a replacement (they have already done this for may people). you can e-mail them at merchandise.guest.services@disneyparks.com or call them at 1-877-560-6477
a galaxy's edge lightsaber blade that only half lights up would indicate something has gone wrong with the electronics inside and it is likely not something easily repaired.
Obviously you decided to leave the cloudy led. Do you think it matters?
not really, more of a curiosity than something that requires any sort of corrective action.
Can people pay you to fix their sabers just wondering
If it's something I am familiar with, yes. You can email me at ruthsarian@gmail.com, explain the problem you're having with your lightsaber, and I'll let you know if I can think I can fix it and what the cost would be.
Thank you so much this helped a ton!
I have this on my xneopixel lightsaber
This seems very confusing and I don't think I can do it ;-;
First