Today we check out part three of the custom lightsaber build up to this point We have a lot done, but today we get to build a blade. My name is Jim and this is the edge of tech So like I said today, we're gonna work on the blade. That's this right here We're gonna take a bunch of pieces put it together and see if it works in the end Chris over at sinister props has been an amazing teacher and a trooper throughout this whole build Let's see how it goes today. Let's do it and we're back with Chris of sinister props and today This is making of the lightsaber for part three. We'll call it part three We are gonna turn this here plastic polycarbonate piece with some sort of Plastic diffuser thing of a jigger inside of it into a lightsaber blade That's what we're doing right lightsaber blade We're gonna make it we're gonna make it Light up we're gonna make it light up If you watch the end of the last video if you got that far, I know it's a long one It didn't light up it made sound Now we're gonna make it light up. We're gonna make it light up tonight So we're gonna do the blade. We're gonna rock and roll this one will be a little shorter than the last two. Hopefully and I Think we're gonna rock roll so so Chris we're making a blade. This is polycarbonate, right? What's yeah, so what's the thing inside of here? It's it's polycarbonate so a blade can a blade is pretty simple actually Okay, a blade is a polycarbonate tube on the outside Inside of that there is a diffuser film So it's it's kind of tough to see, you know, you're probably gonna get a better view on on On on Jim's end, but you've got the the polycarbonate tube on the outside You've got the diffuser Diffuser film which is just like actually don't know what that's made out of maybe it's that I don't know another kind of polycarbonate And then you've got the foam core, right? Oh, there's three Yeah, I didn't even notice So the other foam core short Shorter the foam car should be a little bit shorter. Yeah, so should be should be long enough and you'll see that At least on Jim is now noticing that these are all not the same length in the same size. Yeah, which means we are going to be Correcting that so And inside the diffuser is is these these are the Neopixel strips And this is a basic Neopixel strip that will be cut to size and stuck to the back of yet again another Neopixel strip And they're going inside of they're going inside of the foam part Yes, we're gonna be we're gonna be running Conduit essentially Nice electricians out there. Yes All my fellow electricians are going to be running some conduit here. So I was gonna say so the parts we need are our blade the diffuser and the foam, right? And these are strong blades, right?  That's two and then we're in trouble But you know, we're getting there. We're getting there Yes So polycarbonate is a flexible durable plastic And it's it's the kind of the lightsaber community believe it or not even Disney has Kind of corraled themselves into using polycarbonate tubes Just just a small little little fun history lesson for anyone who's interested in Star Wars lore When Star Wars was filmed in the prequels they Essentially CGI the blades that the color of the blades on to the the prequel sabers for instance like our small Obi-Wan Kenobi They would beat beat up these these metal poles And in the most recent series, they've switched over to polycarbonate and they found out that polycarbonate doesn't really get messed up So ever since the force awakens light sabers lightsaber blades have been made out of polycarbonate But in the prequels, they were made out of metal and they were also made out of metal in the in the original trilogy as well But in the prequels they would do a little battle sequence And then some guy would come in and change the metal blade out because they would bend their shit out of them So and now they don't have to do that They just have these plastic tubes that can take a beating and they were kind of returned to true form Right and they can have they're easily replaceable if they do break right? I mean Yeah, yeah, a lot of the times when they when they break funny enough a lot of people have a big fear of neopixel blades breaking and Jim now you will have the tools necessary that have a neopixel blade breaks or some reason the tube snaps or goes out Most likely the most expensive piece this piece Yeah, which is the neat this the actual neopixel Well most likely be okay And you'll be able to take a blade apart replace the tube whatever the bent broken part is nice and continue on with your day So we usually something is salvageable whether it's the most people lose this guy. This is the tip You don't want to leave you battle you're gonna lose one of these you do not want to lose the tip So what do we need to build this thing so We got the blade we got the two inserts here, you know the fuser and and the phone. Yes We have our we have our neopixels That are these Yes, I hope I Have the tip don't worry. I have the tip Mm-hmm. Yep. I have a little board that you sent And it's called the PCB. I have a PCB board. It's a PC I forgot what PCB stands for but probably blend lightsaber board No, I'm just uh, that's not even close But yeah, sure, whatever And then I have the little bees aboard. I have a little plastic piece too, right? The PCB holder. Yes. So um, what? It is look at that. Oh this thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yes So taking a look at this guy right here. This is the PCB, right? Yep This little guy matches up with The the inside of your The inside where we we built on the first we built that on the first part. Yeah, here's my graph. Like wow, you can't see that Uh Jim you got better lighting than me. Why don't you show the why don't you show the I Believe yes, let me look here. I Can I think I can make that happen? Let me turn this camera on and let's see if we can it's it's gonna be interesting to see in there but so I have my my light my saber here it's it's taped and Need some modifications to fit the bottom still because I need to sand it and make it fit a little better but Inside of here There you go. You can see the board down in here that we did the very first video that was my first soldering skills and you know That's where this connects into right so so that's that's the neopixel adapter, right? Okay, so then that neopixel adapter and and if you if you watch part one, you'll see the importance of that particular piece That piece has pins on it and these pins are kind of squishy. They actually have us. They're spring-loaded And there's I believe 11 of them and they are three different lines They are the positive line. They are the negative line They are the data line the data line being the center pin, right?  Yeah Alright, there you go. If you look at this PCB, you'll see that there are three even circles Right, and then if you look at the back you'll see There's six pads You'll see well, you'll there's really three pads. It's just two two pads, right? Okay, so Essentially, there's a positive line a data line a negative line and then you'll see the data resistor right here Which essentially brings the the data line down to the positive frequency or the the correct frequency That's required to be read by the CFX board. So okay Now I I typically install this data line on there Because I I have the patience, okay, but if I if I had If I had not done this if I had not ordered you with this already installed Jim that would have hands-down been the hardest part of the entire install Oh It's already there see that see that little thing. That's typically not there in this very center. Oh My gosh, I think it was worth the extra three bucks. Yeah Yeah Yeah, I'm making you seriously Yeah, I don't even know if I can show it good enough Piece in the very center, right? Yeah, that's typically not installed. Yeah All right, yeah They've the three dollars. Yeah Nice Yes So that's what we're doing We're gonna be matching the wires on the knee opens the blades with the PCB that PCB will read with the lightsaber and the lightsaber will tell the blade what to do Fingers crossed fingers crossed that this thing lights up in the end Well, this is this is actually pretty easy It's pretty easy compared to the other stuff, right? Yes Okay, well it compared to the other stuff and everything the hardest part is aligning everything up properly, right? You do not want You do not want any gaps between this this this filament this diffuser right here, okay? Cuz right cuz I don't you see this Well, let's let's just get into this. All right, let's take this foam diffuser out. Yeah All right and set this to the side. Let's let's just get straight into this because this is what you're doing first Don't mind me. I'm I'm playing with my soldering. I'm getting my soldering iron ready We're talking and you don't have to get that soldering iron ready quite yet, but that's gonna I want to whisper sweet. Nothing's because well Yeah, I'm hoping to use power tools. Are we gonna use power tools today? We are we're gonna use a dremel Yes If you do not if you're at home and you're doing this and you do not have a dremel Um Steve did bring a hacksaw and like this clampy thing that was pretty awesome But I'm really banking on my hands being not shaky and I can use a dremel and not cut my fingers off So, yeah, so if you're at home and you're doing this and you're watching this as an instructional When I started making blades I was using a hacksaw Okay, I Use I started using a dremel. I got a dremel. I started using a dremel and now if you're really Inclined and you want to do this in the best possible way you can use a a band saw That would be better a band saw is not one of them Yes, so what do we do I pulled out the foam now what okay? So now you're gonna separate the diffuser I want you to pull the diffuser out of the polycarbonate tube. Okay check. Sorry I was I was cleaning up my my dremel bit so that I'm also ready to go. Should I get my dremel out? Yes, I Could use Steve's really cool thing, but you know science Jim Jim how tall are you six foot? Okay, so not what you said six three Me yeah, I'm six foot six. Oh six six. That's right When you were in Master Chief you're like six nine or something like that, right? I'm like six nine and a half. Yeah, I'm pretty Yeah, I'm an animal I wish I was six three God that would be perfect. Yeah, I would fit in a bed I would stop hitting my head on stuff You could wear a new balloon for costume Six three six rig of bread to me is pretty damn short So here's a question for you, why are we cutting it to begin with? So for a couple reasons yeah Um Your Neopixel strip is gonna be really long the foam core is not The same length as the entire thing and you do not want a 42 inch blade That is ridiculous. I heard the bigger the better No, yeah, sometimes it's not how big it is sometimes. It's how you use it My solder joints doesn't hold up. I want to make sure I have something to make sure I can If the lightsaber phases out All right cutting wheel, let's see reinforce so which wheel do you use I have to make this blade 37 Wait, there's gonna be math No, I'm just I'm just joking Oh It's stuck. They stuck myself. No, don't do that. All right No, I have to make a 38 inch blade Sorry, I am I am I am at the same time my my example that I'm falling along Is a blade that is for a friend Got it to be 30. Yeah. Yeah Make sure you've got that right so I have a feeling and that's that's really long by the way 38 inches 30 inches a very very long blade So, um, really your six foot Yes, your six foot gym that that sockets about I would say we are going to make a 36 inch blade 36 inch We're gonna be making a 36 inch blade if this if this puts anything in perspective. This is my graphics, right? Yeah my creme de la creme right Light saber blade this this this light saber blade is 35 and three quarters and I'm six foot six. Oh, geez And that's long. I cut this guy long Yeah, remember that time I like I have tools everywhere and I can't find them right now The Dremel I have the Dremel. I'm I'm just looking for a quick flathead and What do you know Was there let me look I left what do you know what it for to put my cutting wheel on my No, dummy No, oh, yeah, that's it. No, oh you have one of the old school ones. You don't have one of the ones that like blocks in It does but the cutting wheel itself. I think I have to put on this on Looks different but like oh, yeah, that's that's just a different style. Yeah, yeah Yeah, I don't know I have no idea I have the one that I bought at the store before we started this project or maybe it was last video I can't remember And Everybody needs a drill dude. He said the easy lock doesn't come with a kid. I got Easy lock. That's it Easy. Yeah, no, maybe I need to get one though, right? So I have one of these Yeah Why do you need to change that? know the This wasn't on the shaft You want to know a secret? Take your take your fingers like this. So look I have one like right here. So put your thumb on the on the flathead Pinch it like this pull and turn Why you don't you don't need a flathead it'll tighten itself because the actual That way gotcha gotcha Yeah, and then So we're gonna use a cutting wheel so walk me through what we're about to do We're gonna measure Measuring's important so you you have a A tape measure correct Yeah, yes Definitely have a tape measure so We're gonna cut this blade to be 36 inches now. Keep in mind 36 inches is rough because You're cutting the blade to be 36 inches No including the the tip okay, and Let's measure the tip. I think it's There you go less than an inch. I had to spread it apart Had to spread it apart to get it in there So that this is a good guess this these two pieces right here together the bottom is gonna add Just a hair and the tip is gonna add another inch about about an inch So you can you can measure this piece right here. You can measure a blade at 35 inches and make a mark and then your blade will be 36 inches Okay, let me just kind of it's kind of long So 36 inches How what's the standard like what's is there like a mathematical equation for sizes of your saber blade They they went off of how long like a how long should a sword be based off of your height add plasma How long should a sword be in correlation to the wheel there? You know, we're googling stuff now We're googling it 36 inches would give me About that much. I know it's very important for a staff by the way a staff should be like six inches above your height Um, because I have I have dark mulled light saber and you can see it there. Yeah, I think it's huge and For a guy like me, it's massive. It's like seven foot six Or something like that so seven seven two maybe nice huge. I Think it's katana put this in the end And Whoa, he disappeared. I think he clicked he closed the window. Well, he's gone in the episode What what hey, can you hear me? Yeah? Yeah. Hey, give me give me give me one. Give me one second Whoa, that gave me one second one second He disappeared again That's okay though. I I Know I can you still hear me? Yep Okay, I'm just there's somebody who he's gonna keep calling me All right Calls me it messes me up. Do you remember? Okay? Yeah, Steve. How long's your blade? He doesn't remember well if you ordered guys should always know how long his lightsaber blade is if he ordered a KR lights if you ordered a KR blade, so I have a custom very custom KR blade if you ordered a KR blade It's somewhere between thirty two and a half inches and thirty four and a half inches But you've got to account for blade that socket depth Right here and since your six feet. Yeah Since your six feet you got to be careful, right? Because if my graphics is 35 and three quarters and I'm six inches taller than you You I think the rule of thumb is like I think if you like drop it to the floor Like if you like if you're if your arms are like resting If your arms are resting like if you're just like if you have the sword in your hand and you just like you just like Whatever it should barely be touching the floor Like you should be able to like walk and it not drag and like clip the floor Got it. It doesn't have to be perfect But just keep in mind that like I know your socket is is is heavier is thicker or is deeper than the graph looks even Okay, my graph looks is pretty deep. It's like an inch and a half.  Otherwise. I'm just above it if I swing so for argument's sake, let's see where that is and And This is this is very deep.  It's your lightsaber. That's late needs to be tailored to you That's true. So if I want to compensate for something It's okay, I have a 40 inch lightsaber. I just don't want to let go all right I'm driving a lifted truck, bro So I got Right I got about 20 If it's right there and my fingers are right there, I think I got 28 inches to my fingertips Yeah, 28 28 inches to right there plus whatever goes in the hilt Okay, cool So at the very minimum, I can tell you you don't want to go less than 32. Okay, so why don't we just make a 34 inch blade? Sounds good 30 34 inch blade. You got an inch and a half. You're gonna have Probably at least 32 inches off off the blade 34 is pretty standard. Okay Typically when I make a blade, it's a 30 or when I make a blade it ends up being a 34 inch blade Now the guy I'm making Blade for just for the video purposes of 38 inch blade But that's because his lightsaber socket is like three and a half inches. Whoa huge socket So I don't know what we do. We need to get a pen. We need to mark 33 inches then right go to the tip 33 inches somebody was listening. I Was I was definitely listening. This is important. Yeah, 33 inches because the tip is a one inch Do you see this tip? Yeah So go ahead and measure on the outside. Go ahead and measure that 33 inches. I'm going to do the same thing I'm gonna measure what I say 30 33 I want to measure 37 Okay So we're measuring we're marking about where 33 is. Okay. I said 33 not 32 Marking 32 it wouldn't be in the world. Yeah And it in my mark is definitely scientific perfect. Okay, it's not at all Not even close, but I have an idea of where it needs to be Right there 33 am I doing that with all these? All right These two are they for are they for different people? No, I meant I'm sorry with the inserts Uh, we'll get there do not do the insert. Don't touch the insert. I got a 30 33 Measured with a nice squiggly line I'm gonna show the camera that while you're measuring yours Already measured mine. Do you have masking tape on you by the way or any kind of tape? Do you have masking tape or any kind of tape? Uh, there's my there's my sweet line Cool. Yeah, so like yeah great professional tip is I typically make that line Yeah, and then I take tape like I'm doing right now And I mark off that line in a straight If you use masking tape you will get a perfect line all the way around. Uh-oh see that Yeah, I didn't bring I did not bring masking tape. Oh wait, don't worry about it. You can wing it blue tape blue tape blue tape blue tape You can do As long as it's as long as it's a rigid like Gaffer tape would be perfect. That's just okay. Gaffer tape's expensive. So I don't use gaffer tape for that and she's masking tape Hey, normally I have I I think I have blue tape, but I I was very prepared with always I always have gaffer tape Um, but I do I have oh, yeah, I do so you said basically just make the line With the gaff and then as long as the tape lines up with each other on the other side, you're good to go I use masking tape to cut straight lines all the time And paint straight paint straight lines. It's its purpose. Yeah, that's awesome That's a great that's a great maker's tip um right That is a good maker's tip use masking tape use masking tape And then hopefully I lined it up and it you know is correct And you know people people in your audience should have masking tape because I don't know about you But I use masking tape for print beds a lot. Yeah I don't but a lot of people do I do when my beds when my bed adhesion gets gets old and I'm trying to buy some My gaff tape is not straight. Um Well, we'll peel it off and then pull it taut and go around Yeah it's uh It's pretty funny because I went around And then I measured and I was like that is not what I was supposed to get I'm still here. Sorry. My printer started making funny noises It's like a ninja You know when your printer makes noises it's like when you walk into a spider web and you become a ninja Yeah When your printer makes noises that you're not expecting it's like what happened. Oh my god. Gotta fix that Quick save it. Don't don't worry. I figured it out. Essentially it was a my creality was Homing itself and it decided to not read the my god. I suck. Okay. It decided to not read the The z the z home button and then just went click click click click click click click That's That's You know That's sounds like creality. It does. But you know what? That's okay Gotta have workhorses, right? Gotta have burner printers and and you know what they're gonna, you know any printer is gonna have issues Okay, I am measuring again. I am being way too perfectionist on this but you know, I am This is you know, if we can't even get past cutting a blade. All right, we're good enough The only thing you're gonna end up being a perfectionist on is the Uh neopixel strip itself because if you cut that too short, then you got to go back and redo what you did So let's not make that mistake. Okay I believe I got 33 Now what cool Take that put that aside All that build up and we're not gonna cut it not gonna cut it quite yet You teasing me chris you teasing me. All right now what get these out neopixels check. Yes Uh unwind them Both of them. Yes. Okay sweet Steve's over here laughing at me Why I don't know Steve it's a Steve ever done this. I got a sweet I totally just missed the trash can from about two feet away Uh This tape the tape the tape this tape stuck to my finger. That's cool. Sorry. So Last time we talked a little bit about a laser Um since then I found out I'm getting a moped laser which is Essentially a pretty awesome fiber laser and in when I learn how to use it I'll be able to do custom etching on these things and I will be sending you a lightsaber help to be etched Uh Let's and a shark sure. I know how to use it first. What? Or in a shark so that you can tie the laser beam to the shark Yes, take over the world I don't know about that Um, bolt of a holla.  Yes Man I have I I He's gonna be making something for me and I was supposed to send him something And you just reminded me that I still haven't sent it Oh, thanks. Thanks Hey, send that because if you're up on his list and you missed your month you're in trouble You know what carl and I are good friends. Uh, I don't think it matters No, all right, but yes, we're already in the month that he said Uh, he said it I messaged him and he's like no worries because what I want is very small It's the sleeve to my graph like that's the uh, oh nice He's gonna make me a new one of these Oh sweet So if you're listening, I'm sorry. I love you. Um I'm sorry. I love you. It's november. I'm just forgive me Yeah I'll get it to you. I promise I'll throw it. I'll throw it as hard as I can um All right, I got him unwrapped now. Okay, so we got the neopixel strips. Um, oh gosh Okay, so one of these neopixel strips you're gonna see that there's there's tape on it, right?  I mean the actual tape Completely off of one of them Okay, the sticky part pull that off the whole thing not not just the blue part No, the whole thing off of one of them really are not gonna double sticker, huh?  It's a little sticky, but that's okay, right? Yes I got some residue. Yes. No. Oh god Is it So here's what we need you to do now push now what we need to do is you put it back on No, no Now the okay make sure make sure you're only doing that to one one of the strips only one Only one. I'm just playing. Okay. I got only one It's like only one, but only Okay, do you have a bad joke? Yep, uh, do you have one of these? Yep, of course I do Okay, yeah, do I need the actual creality one or can I use this one? You can use whatever you want. Okay, as long as it cuts you I don't care Well, I mean buy a create creality printer off of amazon right now. We'll see you. Yeah, hang on We'll be back in in two days. Um Actually, I'm gonna be a hundred percent honest with you I have At least four that I haven't unboxed yet for creality. I'm sorry, creality If you're watching, I'm sorry. All right Now what am I doing? I'm building like or creality printers. Do you have it unboxed yet? Maybe four. Um, oh god I'm building lightsabers here Yes So Okay, I'm good Oh I was an urgent dinner question. It was either I answered or I don't know. Yeah. Um, yeah, don't don't miss your dinner. Um All right, so I got my snips. What are we doing? So Look at your neopixel strip The one that we just pulled the stuff off Yes, okay. Do you see arrows? Yeah I see. Do you see how they're all going in one direction? Yes Follow them to the top Follow the yellow brick. Okay Follow the arrows to the top. Got it this side If you do not cut the bottom of the arrows You're gonna cut the top of the arrows. Huh? Follow the arrows to the top. Okay Right. Yep, you're gonna find the top top. It doesn't matter if it's Just just just go towards the top and just cut the top wires off I don't know what you mean by don't cut the bottom of the arrows So if you follow the arrows to the top of the arrows and you go all the way to the top of the strip And you're following the arrows and you're not going down. You're not at the bottom of the arrow You're at the top of the arrow Okay, top of the arrows. Yes. So peel this peel this shrink back and cut the top Nope, you don't have to peel it back. You just cut it at the first available Neopixel. Take this Take this and throw it at Steve Okay, so can I cut the first Neopixel off or should I leave that there? You can cut the first Neopixel off. We're gonna cut a lot more Neopixel off So don't don't worry. So so if you're telling me I can cut it right here Yes He's not look yes snap. No, all right. Yeah. I mean, yeah, because if you'd have cut it 10 down and still be good All right So Cut the cut the end off this end. Yep top of the arrows throw it at Steve Got it What he said so I can use these wires perfect. Yes um Uh, let's let's take a step back so that I can clarify to everyone who's watching this video The man like camera The um The arrows are indicating the direction of data flow Oh, okay So they are telling you that the data flow goes that direction If you wire a blade backwards it won't work it would essentially be the equivalent of Forcing water down a pressurized pipe That's pressurized towards you right the water is just not going to go down got it, right? So it's open this direction towards the arrows Right the arrows going flowing this direction. Gotcha. So So when we look at these two Neopixel blades yeah You want the arrows flowing out, right? Because you want you want the the data like favorite data that way From the bit bend to the end. Exactly. Um funny enough A lot of people in the audience Behind you Jim you have Neopixel lights that are lighting up the red and the blue side of your Yep, your cabinets whatever that's back there they have They have data for I mean they do they data flow flows in one direction So you're going to be receiving light light or data flowing in in in one direction And you'll always start the power off at least the data line on one side This is a great look at essentially how how that works Uh in in a very simple form because it's just a string of Neopixel um All right, so I got to answer another text, Jim Honey, yeah, I said mac and cheese. Oh All right, well while he's doing that if you're just joining us We are building the blade of the lightsaber We have officially marked it at the point that we want to cut it We're working on the Neopixel strip now And um chris chris from sinister props is walking us through Actually making the blade to put on our lightsaber so we can light it up for the first time Right. Yes. Yes All right, so so picking up where we left off I want you to do the same thing to the other side. Yeah But do not cut through the 3m tape. Okay So don't cut the tape but cut in the same spot Cut the same top leave the tape. So you have we now have one Neopixel blade with with 3m tape on it Yeah, and one that we've pulled the tape off So so do you want me to peel the top tape down a little and then cut it? No, you just just cut straight through it. Okay. You said don't cut through the tape So I wanted to follow instructions. I might I might have cut off But there but yeah cut through the tape. Okay. Just making sure you know So Data float up. Yep. So data flows up right here. Yeah, we're good there We're going to you're at the tip of the blade Yep, we're going to cut Cut here. Maybe Okay, nailed it and then uh, very important throw it at Steve. Okay. We got that part done Yes, I followed directions very closely on that one. Oh, I cut it on you. We will be throwing at Steve Yes, I like throwing stuff. I have a picture of Steve over here. I throw things at Yeah Steve Steve is our guy who throws stuff at him. Yeah, yeah, yeah Steve's cursing our names right now Okay Just throw these at Steve The next step the next step is going to be I told you to have an exacto knife. Do you have that? Check Okay, this heat shrink that's on the end You're going to be making making a surgical incision Surgical incision you're going to be removing the heat shrink. I'm over exaggerating just just do a little a little slice and remove the heat shrink Check move heat shrink Don't don't slice wires I don't give it. I don't give it your place the wires We're removing the wires. We're not using the wires that this That Adafruit. Sorry Adafruit your wires below Provide well the truth is is that Adafruit does not expect Me to make a lightsaber out of this. So that's the truth So I cut this little piece off here Yes, and you should have you should see the wires Yep, and do that on both Yes, yes, okay Just making sure you pause there for a second and Cool You have your soldering iron Okay, hang on. Let's let's let's uh get the second one peeled first Yes, I have my soldering iron and it's heated up Cool remove the wires Just put them on the edge of a table Okay Press your soldering iron to them remove them Okay So here's the shrink We got that removed Once you have all those wires once you have those wires removed Yep, I threw it at Steve. Don't worry throw them at Steve Yeah, very important part if you're watching this at home Get a picture Steve Yeah, don't worry don't worry there will be a a A 4k picture of Steve in the comments or in the description of the video So remove all four wires Steve is like, please god Oh, there will be now So remove all wires. Yeah, remove all the wires and and and We their wires are very um, I like silicone covered wires for this project Because they can be curled the inner insides of their wires Are very rigid and I noticed that they break off And you need you need wires that have some spring to them because your blade's going to be moving in there um And so I use silicone based wires and I I give them a A turn and it provides spring. You'll you'll see when we get there Got it. I gotta get apparently apparently What's this at interesting Apparently I just have to give her You can do it I do too Well, I am running out of wire You know, it's bad for a guy like me when I run out of wire I just start using all the same color and that's how you know, you're a professional When you're using all the same color and the install still comes out good That means you're pretty good If I remember right you were running out of wire last time so we better get on that I go through a lot of wire. Yeah That was a couple months ago. I do a lot of installs Uh, Steve said amazon subscription, you know, it's interesting I'm um I'm getting this I can't show it really easily but I'm getting that what is going on here.  Oh, you're talking like there are their solder.  I mean, they're pretty intense. I didn't think about it. There's there's a hundred There's like 70 something neopixels in the small space. I mean this is a high power demand okay Okay, what we're gonna do what we're gonna do Is you're gonna find the top of both We're gonna start with the sticky end. You got the wires off of both. Am I not getting ahead of myself? Uh, yes, I got the wires off of both. I'm just cutting Some extra tape off of this one because it was sticking out and bothering me That one's good. Okay watching so Make me big I'm watching Oh, I said make me big Oh, make you big Uh, I think you need another text for that. Um Hang on That one went over my head. I don't get So I'm just gonna leave it there so, all right So what what we're gonna do is I typically take a razor Yep, and I take the sticky side. Yep And I peel it. I peel the the blue part back, right? I'm leaving the 3m Sure I'm grabbing my tweezers Okay, so I peel the the tape back a little bit and I'm gonna line them up It's very important I am going to line them up a little off center Okay, okay I I want to I want to see if I can get the camera to see this. Do you see how they're like that? Yeah, can you see that? Yep Okay, that's what you're gonna do kind of every other in the easiest way to say that and what you're gonna do is you're gonna stick them together And you're gonna make sure they're straight as possible. Oh boy I'm known we're going to then pull down another couple of inches And you are going to Keep them straight and keep going be very careful. What?  Uh, you just go through it I'll I'll show you I'll show you. All right. I'm I'm gonna go for it. All right. So let me let me do this um There we go so What is the best way for me to show this? I think I'm going to show it just like I am right now Okay, you want to you want to keep it tight tight too, okay?  I gotta peel up a little bit Oh boy Trying to figure out the best way to do this here and show it so um So when you get to the joint when you get to where it's there's two it's essentially two strips sorted together Yeah, be careful because sometimes they're not soldered together straight and you might have to correct Oh, I don't know.  Okay, so they're not flush on top of each other. Yeah Gotcha. Okay. I'm gonna go for this um It is not the easiest thing in the world to show No, it's pretty tough to show because I think I think that the little visual that I gave Yeah, that was perfect. You did pretty good. And I think you get the idea and you just Once you're done what I do is I take my my thumbs and I just kind of straighten the whole thing out make sure it's all stuck together And then I let it drop We're good And then I take this blue thing the blue trash Yeah Bundle it up in a nice little ball next to it and see That's the best I like this game. This is my This is my favorite favorite game so far. It's called throw at Steve Oh I don't know how to do this without So you started a little offset Yeah, I've got a pixel offset so that the gap area between the two pixels There's a pixel on the other side. So this this reduces what is called what the community calls corn cobbing Uh, and honestly there I can't think of a better Like metaphor for what it is You know, if you look at the blade you can see that there's neopixels and there's a small gap in between them And and there's there's something it's called corn. It looks like a corn cob It there's there's like, you know, you're looking at the corn cob is not a solid object. There's like little pieces And this this helps mitigate that and that's what the diffusion does to the diffusion the foam core Yeah, and the diffusing film and the blade itself There's a reason that your polycarbonate blade is is like a cream color Right, it's because it's all meant to diffuse the blade so that it looks like one solid bar But still I mean you still will see we'll still there's a dark spot a slightly dark spot Got it. So in the lightsaber world diffusion is king Any time you can diffuse something It means it looks even I like it now. I watched a couple of videos before this admittedly Okay, and people had different methods for this, right? There's a lot of different methods to do this.  Yes Oh no, are they not you're not Not Bro, wait start over quick For it's too sticky. I thought I had them the same I thought I had them the same way. I swear I did All right, all right, you know what I dare. I put it I put it up. I I went to I think I put it up here to try to film and I flipped them. I'll flip them around Because I'm a genius like that You know, I just wanted that dramatic effect Yeah, I was too Thanks, Steve. I was too worried about throwing stuff at Stevie said Oh well, maybe Steve throw more stuff at Steve. Maybe I think you're right I just um, I think what I did is I flipped them around to try to get them up here by the camera And I twisted one of my hands this way To put them together and I didn't twist the other hand I'll have to go back and I'll have to go back and consult the film, but I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I did because I Then I started looking at the arrows when I was doing this. I'm like, hang on so This is exactly why we're doing this though. I mean, we're learning from mistakes and we're learning uh In some cases the hard way, right? I can tell you that I I personally have installed a lightsaber blade with one side of the arrows going the wrong way Yeah, looks funky. It didn't work. Did it or one side one side works the other side does Yeah Yeah And then I had a customer. I've had a customer hit me up and say hey, my blade's not working and I go Hey, did you check the arrow? They check the arrows and indeed they go in the wrong way flip it around and boom. There you go Yeah So at least I caught that now Yeah, Gregory you're probably watching this video Yeah talking about you Please leave that in Oh, I'm sure you will I don't think we're doing much editing to these so Okay Yeah, we're going for it. This is this is raw uncut We're learning as we go Otherwise, I would look like I was a genius by the end of this and really I mean I pretty much Messed up everything uh that you could mess up I broke the chassis the first video Didn't get magically it's a different color. Did you imagine they're like wait does the chassis change color? Yeah, yeah Yeah continuity air there was a glitch in the matrix. Yeah It's the sun. It's the sun. It's the lighting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I thought it was black. No, it's definitely gray Yeah It's two different. No, wasn't your first one your first one was blue. Yeah, it's probably blue It was like light blue Aurora borealis steve said All right, I'm gonna throw that at steve. Hang on Let me just double check my arrows. We're going up. Whoo Yep No one saw that I'm just pressing.  It should be a rock climber. So my hands are pretty tough Well, I mean that's because you can climb a rock in two, you know, two pushes because you're seven feet tall. Oh, yeah All right All right, we're good Now what Um, he's like seamen everest three jumps watch this three pulls Yeah crux was the start Okay, what we're gonna do now is we're gonna cut this We're gonna leave this we're gonna leave this right now. I just wanted these to be stuck together So we're gonna go back to the blade. Okay. I just picked up an existing blade Okay So so this is a strip. I just made I want to show everybody how kind of big it is there. Yep arrows are correct arrows are too long I mean that depends on who you talk to but you know I can see that there's a couple couple little spots in here that are not perfect Now that I'm looking at it closer, but I'm okay with that because not perfect is what makes it mine Mine is um mine is crooked, you know I mean that's a common thing Crooked is okay. Yeah. All right. What are we doing with the blade? It's like you can take your tip slightly to the right. Um, you're gonna take it. You're gonna take your tip Yeah The crooked tip and you're gonna you're gonna shove it into the the the top so push the push the Find a side and just put the tip in The top is I'm guessing the not the side we're cutting off Yes Yes So let me just do this again So we're gonna take the tip here, right? Well, well funny funny enough that you say that because whatever side you cut You probably want that whatever said you do not cut you probably want that to be the bottom You want the bottom to be as flat as possible. Got it. So you can put the tip in either either side Yeah, uh, I would I would prefer it to be the other direction That where the top where the tip would actually normally sit. Yeah, um Or sorry, the bottom would sit so what the reason we're doing that Is because we're making sure that we we've got a difference here. Okay So The tip is in one side And then you'll see that it'll push the diffuser out of the bottom side, right? Okay. Well, I don't have mine in there anymore But yeah You need the diffuser in there put it in there. It's the whole reason we're doing that Not the foam. Yep Yep Okay, that's is a great visual. Um So now we're going to get our dremel out, which means we're probably going to mute our mics Okay With the diffuser in there All the way press to the end I want you to cut along your line All the way through cut the diffuser too Uh, cut the blade as well We're going to cut the polycarbonate tube and the diffuser At our line Yes, leave the tip in there By the way, put your tip when you put your tip in the end Give it a nice little smack on the ground Okay Make sure you push the diffuser back in there And then get your dremel out Okay, I smacked her Okay, and I'm gonna I'm gonna mute my mic. Yeah, this is a good idea. I'm gonna put on my PPE Yeah, good idea PPE okay I'm watching Hang on.  He cannot talk back now We're gonna watch the the master cut Maybe I should use the clamp I don't think he can hear us right now Link twice if you can't are you held hostage out of your will? Yeah. Oh, that was easy It was much easier than I thought it was gonna be Okay, so keep in mind when I do this there's gonna be a lot more dremeling before you you stop this so Keep in mind when I do this I am putting the dremel in place And I am turning the tube Not the dremel. I am not rotating the dremel I am I get what you're saying. Um, he got it Don't worry. His food is here You hear me? Oh wait. Yep. That was my mom that time I was like, don't worry his food just got here. He'll be back in 30 minutes. That was my mom. Yeah, uh Mom Mom Dremel in place cut so I dremel in place and I turn the the um I turn the tube what could go wrong here. Where did my where did my tip though?  I know Your dremel must not be as fat as mine because it doesn't rest up against the What?  I got yeah, see See, oh you have a handheld thing. Oh, I have the little extender Oh Freakin fancy Fancy pan. I practically live where I'm sitting. So yeah, I suppose Oh, yeah, what do you mean you got that? He's got the handheld thing. He says It's all about it's all about length. We talked about this earlier, Jim. It's all about Yeah Oh Steve Over here it's saying the benefit of the easy lock ones that is that the blades a bigger diameter So you get around a fat dremel handle Well, also the the little extender thing that I have is very thin Yeah um So I'm gonna attempt this somehow The problem I'm having here is that it's angled, right? If you angle it, it's fine because you're gonna probably take the dremel wheel wheel anyway and go Okay, if it's angled it's don't worry about it. Just cut it for now Fingers crossed. No, this this is the easy part, right? Well While you're doing that Jim, I'm gonna respond to my mom. Hold on a second.  Um That's not true.   This is going to be the cleanest cut I've ever done On on a lightsaber blade Yours went much smoother But this is uh, not the first blade I've made so How thick is this thing? What? I'm joking. I said, how thick is this thing? Yeah, the smell of burning polycarbonate in the studio I have dandruff hair now pretty much But it was worth it. Huh? Is polycarbonate toxic?  Not bad Could be better, but it's not bad All right. Yeah Gonna need a vacuum Okay, it's gonna get worse. Um, it's okay. It's gonna get worse. So now I want Now I want you to remove that tape remove the tape Yeah, hang on.  I'll get pulled over and never let go sir. There's white powder up your nose I promise it's polycarbonate That's a new one All right tape removed.  All right Your air purifier. Yeah Yeah, I have a fatty I got a fatty one back here huge one Take the diffuser out. I do this stuff all the time. So I keep the air free clean Take the diffuser out Get your sanding Blocks. Yep, and just kind of clean it up a little bit. Okay. What grit are you using there? Uh Sandpaper Sanding grit 120 Uh It's sanding grit I just I got what I got are these really cool block sander um Like these yeah I really like these for a lot of projects, but I have multiple like this is the 120 I have multiple different Grits and you know, so these can be wet or dry All right. So what are we what are we sanding? Yeah, you're you're just sanding the end quick I also take my razor my exacto knife Just really quick. Just just just clean the dirty pieces off Uh I take my exacto knife and I just kind of go in the inside here Okay I do it this direction though Should I use an exacto knife or yeah, it's just to get like kind of debur it, right?  Sorry I can't make it whistle, but all right, so Um, I'll wash this off later. I got a little marker still on here But we got it sanded. I got around the edge a little bit got the inside edge So it's pretty much not buried there And yeah, so so there if you look down the if you look down it you might see some polycarbonate stuff Which is what I was talking about Just why I say kind of just fling it if you can And believe it or not that kind of actually gets it out. Um So you just get as much out as you can because if not those spots are going to show up When the blade gets up can I yank my tip and blower on her? Do not do that because if you do that you're going to put saliva down there Close son of a gun. I really wanted to blow in it I guess we're we're not to the point of getting some good saliva on your tube If you do this it will work for the big stuff But I I I promise you that if you take the end of it and you do look at me Yeah, see how I'm just doing this It'll come out Centrifugal forces hit anything there's lights and you know they can get closer to steam and if you hit him We just Then we're on par But yeah, it's it's a typical force that's gonna force those things out of there, right? So mostly I see A little bit. Yeah, you'd be surprised how well that works. Um, okay Okay, so I'll see in my tube hang on So we've got the tube. Yep um The tube is good poly poly carbonate everywhere.  Now we get to start playing the fun guessing game. Okay So let me let me go back here What's the guessing game? So Now we are going to take the tip off the other end Okay, and put it on the side that we just cut Okay And just pop it on see what we just did Take the tube off the other end put it on the side. We just cut Okay Okay Pop it on saber over and now you have a flat side on this side. Yep Take the tube the diffuser tubes pick it back down there All the way to the bottom Where's my diffuser? Oh this one. Yeah, okay Whoops. Whoa. Whoa My bad the meat the meatloaf Uh, here it is I was trying to open up a drawer and it just pulled my Diffuser tube in and I put the cut end In so it would be flat on this side too, right? Yes And then I take This piece the PCB holder. Yeah And I hold it I hold it kind of flat right here so your Your diffuser film should be flush Yes, your blade correct. Is yours left with your blade? Looks like it because if yours isn't Like mine isn't For some stupid reason You can take your exacto knife and you can actually waddle it away Like this. Okay. Yeah, I have I have It's it's flush Okay, mine is not so give me two seconds while I remedy this camera like like this camera's on but it's not Yeah, give me two seconds while I while I remedy this issue Keep in mind you can cut the diffuser the diffuser With the exacto knife it's pretty easy to cut So if you make an error you can do that So Now we're gonna what we're gonna do is we're gonna take this we're gonna put this right here with the lip. Oops and drop it Right here with the lip Yeah, what that means now is you're gonna pull the diffuser film up Okay, because you know That it has to go this far Okay And then what you're gonna do Is you're gonna push it down like that Did you see what I just did?    But what I typically do Is I take uh my handy dandy new two pencil and I draw a very fine pencil line right here So that I know that there's a line right here And then Do not use your dremel.  Yeah You make it look so easy I just took a huge accidental chunk off, but it doesn't matter because at the end And when you put the blade on that's my new band name accidental chunks When you put the when you put this end on you should be able to go like this Should be able to shake it back and forth in here nothing Nothing you hear something If you hear something you've done this process wrong Why Because that means your diffuser film is banging back and forth Oh And if you've done that wrong that means that you actually actually have to make your blade shorter than you wanted to Um, it's not the end of the world. So don't cry about it And all you do is you take your sandpaper and you just kind of kind of go back and forth until you're This portion can you can you use the sandpaper on that diffuser? You can't I wouldn't do that because it's pretty fragile. You might kind of kink in or bend in it That's You know, I like your style If you don't do a clean cut at the end as long as it's flat It doesn't matter because all of that portion is going to go into your blade socket anyway No one's going to see the end of your blade Got it.  It'll work. Yep. So so I should be able to push it in Let me you know, let me make you not beg anymore Yeah, I don't need to be Center of attention We were learning So I push it in Like that Yep, okay, and then You're good There there also if you if you if you've got the If you've got the piece in there shouldn't be a gap between the actual blade and the adapter either That makes sense. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so you're saying it should be flush if there's a gap Then you need to cut it a little bit more um Here it looks pretty good to me, dude I mean, there's a super slight one, but I think that's that little flange that's on the uh You know the other that will flare out. Okay, don't worry about it. Then. Yeah, you're good Nice. All right. Now what? Now we are going to size the actual neopixel blade Oh not the foam yet Not the foam Okay, so set the foam that foam's coming coming quickly Set the polycarbonate aside Set the pump. Well, keep keep it keep it with an arm's reach. Oh, yeah, so we're gonna need that. Yeah Yes, actually where's the foam where's my foam?  No, and you're going to cut There we go see me. Yeah You're going to cut a little tiny At the top one here Yes at the the part you're going to be running And this is going to allow it to go up into the tip of the blade Yes, you know, you're going to be feeding this so so Um, what part can I not cut?  That's a pcb. That's like the white or the So this top upper part you see here. There's a little resistor right there Look at me. Love the white screen Don't cut the resistor off It doesn't Really matter right now, but it will matter later. But yeah, you got it. Uh Yeah I didn't I didn't cut the resistor off I think good So But I am Going to be closer on I mean like I feel like it could be better But it's not it doesn't matter. It's not even because that resistor so It doesn't matter. Okay It doesn't matter take your phone Foam oh where's my phone? Oh, my foam is my foam has fallen. Okay. Got it Sticker in the phone.  Okay, and you're going to put your leds in here this part socks Just straight up Because it doesn't typically want to go in there And you're gonna have to squeeze the foam and get it in there You might have to pull it out and start over This is great I like to drag it sometimes. I don't know This part makes me want to cry. I just cut into my foam. That's just You just what? I just cut into the foam core Nice Keep keeping mine mine is a little different than yours because mine's a seven eighth inch blade So it's tighter. Oh that made it way easier. So if I go through and I do this Yes Give it a give it some give it some squeezes Give it some love. It's usually it's usually the last like The last like 10 or 15 percent that just really makes you want to like die Well, this this is where it's riveting everybody. I mean, this is where the magic is, you know coming together the uh You're you're putting the sausage back in the tube Carefully oh Jesus carefully in and I think I go do that Your goal is to essentially get it to come out the other end Yeah, so I'm gonna I'm trying to Yeah, it's pretty intuitive as to how to get it there. It just it's not the quickest almost fun process in the world No, it just takes time Right Yep, it's you know what this reminds me of Uh I I want to know I I could write I could rant about this.  Could you make a fish line for these? I don't know. Maybe mine's mine's not moving. So I gotta pull mine out Yeah My unofficial goal Is to finish this before yours Because my knees is literally smaller than yours This would be so you know the reason I say that is because it would be the only thing in this whole project another Oh, I have resorted to cheating. Oh, yeah This could take me like this could take me a while Oh, no Oh, no, don't stop don't stop now What if I just cut a slit down one side? And then you'll see that then you might see that slit. Yes, you will Well, this is terrible This is how far I have to go everybody This is how far I have to go and I'm only halfway there on the tube Oh my gosh Did you have to do this on your other ones? No. Oh because they're not neopixel, right? Oh my gosh Steve doesn't didn't have a neopixel on his other one So it's just a tube, right?  He pulled out that pixel stick he got from KR Savers Yeah, and he's he's pushing it through his foam as we speak with no issue Because his is rigid And he's done and it took him about 20 seconds Yeah Thanks, Steve way to show up. You want to show everybody what that is?  He's hanging out in the studio for this whole build. So that's awesome Steve And Steve's a good friend. He's actually going to be building one of these as well so he wanted to be here for the process to learn from Chris and And he is building another one on the side as well, so he found something from I think it's KR Savers, right Chris? and It's it's a pixel stick. It's more expensive definitely more expensive to did but as you can see It's essentially pixels on a big PCB stick right the top of it's already rounded It's very stiff Good solder points on the end there and it literally pushes right into the foam. So if you are considering this And and You know, you don't want to go through what we're going through here Maybe I would suggest that but what what Chris told us though is That one will not be as battle ready because You know, it's it's a little more What's what's called stiff? So it could could be a little more breakable if you're actually going to use this for combat I also could be I also could be wrong I'm sure there's people out there who say He could be wrong.   No This before has put me into like boiling point by the way Oh, yeah, yeah where I have been fuming Well, I could almost see that happening because this is like super tedious. I mean if you like slow tedious stuff Who likes this who would like this? Well, I mean you like The words Ah I wonder if I push steves through mine if it'll open it up a little Huh, I don't know there's thinking right there folks As he just put it away and in the box Where's that foam you just had The the foam you just had or is that the one you bought? The dang it I was gonna say we should push your stick through this and maybe it'll like open it up in here And then I could push the strip better. Yeah, this foam is going to be different than yours too Is it? Yeah Well, let's try your stick. I'm gonna buy a different foam for the KR stick What this might be thinner Come on, baby Work it I'm the farthest progress is very subjective here, Steve He asked me if I was making progress Yeah, he was busy showing off and not paying attention to the struggle. I gotta say right now. The struggle is real. This is By far good as much as I suck at I really I'm not good at soldering. I'm the first to admit. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm learning I'm trying, you know trying to just get it good enough so I can learn and make this thing functional at the same time and This may be worse to me than the soldering Yeah, this is definitely one of those things where you're just like cursing at the sky Well, I appreciate I'm not doing that though. I am I am right here I am right here like I only have this much to go But in this world that's like two days I also keep doing this, which I don't know if it'll be good or not, but I'm doing it Yeah, you just start doing stuff that just may or may not work One pixel at a time Sometimes it helps so I put it on a table and like flatten it out a little bit Yeah, that's what I did. I was doing that with The case for my exacto knife I am so close yet so far. I mean this this is how much I have left I really don't want to pull this thing out again Yeah, I'm in the same the same seat Where I'm like I'm like I'm not pulling this thing out again It's so close And it's not going in anymore No Oh wait Pixel at a time one pixel at a time people We got this we're doing it. We're doing it. You can do it too All of the positivity here chris I have faith And your tube is smaller than mine. Yes I'm making a seven eighth inch size blade Seven eighth inch what size is this? I don't even know what size is one inch Oh, oh your your whole Your whole uh blade is smaller.  Um Oh no, see that if you thought that was fun It's not done Or at least we're not yanking them out No, okay.  It doesn't matter if it's perfect. Um But now you're gonna feed this into the tube I'm still close yet so far. I got away. I got like another 30 40 40 minutes of this year You do not I hope not I'm I'm I'm already cursing your name for this but it's what's worth it because I'm learning What if my arrows aren't going up? They better be What I would turn it around right We should point out this is chris's favorite part making neopixel blade. Oh, yeah, I hate this piece Where's the chip there it is So and and if you're making one of these there is easier ways to do this that that's um neopixel stick thing that steve has freaking great Um, I mean especially my fingers are like swiss cheese here Um, I got polycarbonate on my Okay, what are we going here? We're going hour and 30 An hour and 30 minutes to here We will we will be we will be done real soon.  I'm gonna use steves as a fish stick We're gonna solder the end. What'd you call him? Yeah, I said i'm gonna use steves as a fish stick. I'm gonna solder mine to his and then yank it through and then unsolder it You could do that Steve's leaving Like i'm out of here Okay It's not going anymore man. I've been working at it for a few minutes And it hasn't gone in at all How much is left like that much Yeah, it's not good I'm getting there This is how much I cut off of my phone Oh, yeah, well I have a ways to get there Not much This is terrible. I shouldn't have been cocky and said I was gonna try to beat you Because now i'm not beating you. Yeah, because now i'm bored, you know Now I might have to pull these out because they are not going in Damn it. I'm gonna try something new It doesn't matter which way you push it in because up can be either way, right? So I would just make sure the up Yeah, it doesn't matter that on that end. Yeah, it doesn't matter.  I did when I pushed the other end in for a second but I'm just I'm I'm gonna talk sweet things to this thing Well, Chris explains to us what we're gonna do next Come on After you're done with that you're gonna put the Foam to the diffuser and that's not easy either, but it's not as hard as the wall Yeah, you're gonna get right here so you're The next thing we're doing you said is putting the foam into the diffuser Yep And I'm assuming you said we're gonna be cutting this pretty soon Yes. Yeah, we're gonna be cutting that We're gonna be Soldering some wires and then attaching it to the blades Nice I wonder There's got to be a good way like Somebody's come up With like the genius way to do this And I was just thinking Soldering something for the end and pulling it through isn't the worst idea, but yeah I was just thinking Steve has it in the box over here That's the genius way to do this It is the more expensive way Full disclosure right So what um while we're talking like if we're gonna make this blade what what does one of these blades like retail if we buy all the parts Um, I believe the the actual neopixels themselves are like 26 bucks Okay Which is the most expensive piece I'm actually gonna find that out for everybody. Um, the the neopixels are 26 27 dollars the accessory parts like the tip Uh, they depend on which which piece you get. Yeah, so the the neopixel themselves are 27 dollars. They need two of those Um, keep in mind that the KR strips the ones that Steve has that's an 80 dollar purchase so Is it 80 bucks for your Something like that for your sticks I came by this I think it was on sale Oh What was 22? Oh, were this were the pixel strips 20 dollars each So yeah to 27 dollars each so keep in mind what what we're achieving for 57 dollars 57 dollars for what we're doing 80 dollars for what Steve is doing Plus the polycarbonate or is that with it? No, that is not everything the polycarbonate. No, I'm gonna tell you it's saved 80 Saved the 30 bucks This part 30 dollars. Well, maybe it maybe if you want to do something cool You know, but I am seriously I am like six eight inches here Like I'm so close that yeah, keep going because then you can just cut the end off because you're probably you're gonna cut a little bit of it Anyway, yeah, well, I got to get there first.  I'm just breaking stuff while I'm working on the foam the foam tube is seven dollars Yeah The one inch thin trans white polycarbonate tube that's 10 10 and a quarter Okay, and then you've got another 10 dollars for the the bottom and the top piece So the blade the blade pieces itself Are going to be $27 another $27 Got it And then for the pcb with the resistor on it, that's five dollars Okay, get the resistor on it. You're looking at 32 plus 57 90 bucks Plus shipping Once you get the blade, you've got a different kind of shipping box a little longer Shipping's a little bit more So close We are so close Keep in mind if you buy the blade from bendu armory Or sabre bay you're gonna be paying 100 to 110 dollars. I think it's 105 or 115 dollars So if you want to buy a blade I always say leave it to the people who do it all the time purchase from my friend shane more over at sabre bay Um Or purchase from bendu armory and he has them ready to go He has them rts. He has them ready to ship So he just makes blades and that's what he does He does more than that that's that's That's not correct Shane more over at sabre bay. There's a lot more than that. He also He's a park supplier as well He sells a lot of stuff, but I always send people over to sabre bay to get blades So if you don't want to make this I rate it. This is definitely um On the top 10 things that I don't like Yeah, it's frustrating. Um But i'm gonna get there My finger is you A little closer than I was when you started talking You say You know, you can also get So one thing you can do is you can if you're very close to the end You can take the end of it and like literally sponge it down and then force the rest of it through. Yeah I If you are if you are one of the main the few people that is going to watch this thing whole Um, I hope a lot of people do but I could tell you watching me struggle with this for 15 20 minutes How are we not the best way you ever spent? It's just a banter. That's what you're here for If I was not filming If I was not filming Here's my exacto knife. Um If I was not filming I would be using some words um Yes, and they would be strong But you know what though? I recognize that in the end That makes this project that much more fulfilling because Because in the end it's like man, I did that Yes, it took this much work and it sucked and this part is by far The worst part we've done so far even with my bad soldering and just know too that that um The tighter your blade is in there the more sturdy it's going to be. Um, yeah You know So it has a reason why it's like this Yeah, well, it's going to look better too, right with this diffuser on there Yeah, yeah, you can't do it without any of this stuff Then and the neopixel will be nicely Nice, you know secured in the foam So when I beat my head in after I do this it won't hurt the neopixel at all Man, I am so close. I'm like You know that far I shouldn't have opened my mouth.   So you can cut like six inches off Um, I appreciate the The pity um, no you you really could Well, I'm getting this in there now So we're gonna we're saying you don't you don't need to do the entire length because even I cut the end off We're all gonna have we're gonna have to cut it anyway, right eventually Yeah, but but even when I was feeding it through I cut like the last inch off That's where that piece came from Got it. I thought I was telling you you said did you just cut it and I said yes, I did Well, I threw it at Steve. Oh here it is. Oh, yeah Steve we threw it at you Steve is famous because of lightsaber videos where we talked about Steve and And I don't know if we've seen his face yet So this this is this is how much I this is how much I cut off But no, there's no lights up front there So Jim I I cut Two and a half inches of my foam off Okay, so that means You could cut over six inches of your foam. I'm close So I mean I am I am Here I want to show the struggle the struggle's real I'm this far away. Yeah Okay. Wait, wait, wait. How close are you? Go to the other end. How close to you? Steve Steve officially ruled that I don't where are you? I am right there cut that off Just cut it off cut it off Cut at least cut cut close to it, and then you can grab the end and pull it through Trust me. You're not gonna use it all so you're pushing it through for no reason Well, I think I think Steve's right if we take my blade here, and we put that part at the end I am still longer. Oh, you can't see that So all right, I'm gonna listen to the master that the padawan does not become Jedi Without listening to the master right Yeah Think that's how it goes Cut it I will Or you get killed in the temple All right. I got my skizzers Too soon too soon. Yeah, definitely too soon All right skizzers So you said just cut the tip Yeah, just cut it Okay To the point where you can pull it through that's through okay ready? No, but yes Now what how much Pull pull the tip through Farther than I have it now Far farther farter than I have it now. I think you're saying farther farther. Okay, I couldn't hear you so Yes, right there. It's good Now what you're gonna do is you can take the foam and you're gonna put it into the diffuser I don't know when you put it before you start crying What you do is you actually turn the foam So hold the fuser and turn it and what it does that twists the foam a little bit and it gets it through there Great To the end you just straighten it out so that the Neopixels not twisted Shit. All right. Hang on.  No tip you said Take the tip off. Hold it that you want to set it to the side. They're gonna use it really soon This this plug here definitely in there good. Oh Really what I like to do is like take my exacto knife blade and I just put it in there and I just wedge it out Ow, how about my fingernail that just broke I got better idea. Hang on Oh, yeah nailed it I got tools for that All right, oh I thought I had it out it was Ouch for everyone at home This was in there pretty tight. So you want me to take the tip off too? Take the tip off. Yeah tip it off Okay, diffuser take the diffuser out completely Feed the foam core with the neopixel blade into it Okay And like I said twist the foam core slightly as you push it in there Okay If not you can lose the neopixel down into the foam core a little bit so just be careful All right. Yeah, it should go pretty easily actually if you do it right And then you start twisting it start twisting the foam core It's very slightly Oh boy Come on You get in there. It's really hard to push in there.  I got it I'm getting this Because I just did it off camera, but It's probably should have done it off camera. No, it's okay. We're almost there I am to here so pretty close Okay, turn it turn like rotate the foam as you go Rotate After you get that in there. It's pretty much like the hard part like over with Yeah, you forgot about soldering again, but that's the easy part now, right? Yeah, you should you should be able to knock that out for the good Judging by the last two three hour videos, this should go great. What could go wrong? Um Man, I am so close So this is not as bad But I also notice you got to be careful. You don't want to cut the foam, right? You don't want to cut the foam. What do you mean? meaning Wait, we wouldn't want to like cut up the The diffuser foam the foam I would cut it up. I mean Like pushing this in if if you were like doing They kind of get squished in there. It's not a huge deal, but yeah Yeah, I know you're saying you could see it. Yes Uh, not really you'll be okay.   Um Like This is a game of inch now So close I'm gonna uh Don't twist it too much there. Jeez. That looks like a lot Not like a corkscrew. No No Well, damn it. I thought that's what you said to do No Do you want to watch me do it really quick? I'm almost there. Okay Think if I turn this towards you I could grab my needle nose. Would that help us? Yes. I do that frequently All right Just don't grab right onto the led. Just kind of grab that little tab at the end there And not on the resistor No, you're not going to grab the resistor anywhere. There's a little tab at the end. You should be able to grab it Victorious Okay Good thing steves here Okay, make me big now.  So how do we straighten this out? You said make make me big So I can show you the next step quick. Okay. Okay. I just straightened it out Ish so Right here this end what you're gonna do Is you're going to to put your finger here on one end. You're gonna pull the led to the point Where when you put this on When you put this tip on right here, it meets with the diffuser and then there's no foam It should be sticking out the perfect amount where it goes into that cavity That's where you're gonna get first right there This is very phallic looking, but that's what you're doing I don't understand phallic looking. What's that mean? You know So you're you're saying okay like this, uh But but pull the led down a little or the neopixels The so you need the foam up more there. How did you get it that far out? What so the problem is now you got to push the foam all the way through the other end Got it because look at how I have out the other end right now. I got this Remember I have all this uh neopixel still at the other end So I could uh, you know go back and forth a little bit the foam needs to be spanning the entire diffuser length. Yeah Yeah It is Okay much. Yeah. I mean we've got this much overlap here Okay So So what do you got about two pixels there? I have Yeah pixel and a half seven seven Huh Oh, you mean at the top? Yeah, two two pixels and then one and a half two two and one and a half Got it So uh, I'm just gonna Hold the foam a little right And pull my led back and then it should be perfect fit at the top and that's very important that it's a perfect fit Yes Because you want the tip to be evenly lighted, right? You want the maximum amount of leds in the chip evenly lit. Is that is that the right? Yes Well, you want as many leds or as many portions of the leds that'll fit into the tip as possible right I'm just trying to fix You got it. I'm pushing it down a little bit So close I'm uh, I'm like a half a pixel Half a pixel here. This is something else man. You the crazy thing is you do this for a living And you know, you've done quite a bit of these right? I mean, I maybe not necessarily all the blades for everyone. I would say in my life. I've made like 50 neopixel blades 50 Yes, you've had to go through that fun 50 times Uh, I've done krs probably at least a dozen I still hate neopixel. There's a reason I don't like doing them.  Um All right, there are there are lightsabers that are far more brutal than this though. So yeah But I I get to sit here and say I make lights for this for a living. So Yeah Yeah, aren't you Not in any boo boo stick your head and do do All right I think I'm there. I mean I am Close Let me see the the end of it Okay, if your if your blade goes down there and that's where it sits, then you're good Put your user over for this side. This is what I got. Oh But the diffuser needs to be all the way up Yeah, it should they should meet So I'm just like so close yet so far because I'm like an eighth inch or something Yeah, and then just neopixels exposed at the top Yeah Like that like that like this and I'm This back and forth here, I tell you the um, I'm gonna not lie here the This is definitely the the most challenging part of this And if I was gonna do this again Which I am because I have another one um So I'm not gonna use what steve got that pixel stick on that one because we already have parts for this, right? But if I'm gonna if I'm gonna do this again um You know it build like a complete buy buy everything again I probably would do the pixel stick because of this part right here. You know what's crazy is that like Whenever I have to make a whole bunch of these blades like it always seems like it's easier the second time around And then sometimes it just goes right in Yeah Yeah, sometimes it just goes right in it's so infuriating Like some of them are like so difficult Some of them just slide right in Yeah that I wish we had one of those because Currently, where are you stuck right now jim? What's what's going on? Well, I'm just I got like an eighth of an inch too much Into the foam. Yeah Then no, I'm sorry of Okay, there we go. I think I got it now boom. We're good. Okay. I had um the foam was not The neopixel was sticking out too much still and it was bothering me and I wanted to make sure Yeah, you don't want to curl because then you'll see you'll notice it.  Yes Uh While I'm while I'm replacing gopro battery hang on So and that's just that at the other end not the tip end Yes, the other end we're done with the tip turn on Uh-oh, I might have a bad battery in it Give me a second Son of a gun. Look at that. Sorry everybody Must have had a bad battery Try this again. Try this again. Here we go Now we're in I just want to make sure I can I can get the shot Not that I'm getting great shots during this project, but okay So go to the other other end this end Cut the Cut the foam at the end like right at the end um Yes, so where the diffuser is you're going to just trim the foam off Okay You shouldn't see any excess foam anymore on both ends Just making sure I'm playing with the lightsaber while you do this. No, that you know that you deserve it I'll get there My like a yeah, I got a wax on wax off Before I can play with it, you know I just not not cut the neopixel part. That's the That's the part where I'm at right now Yeah, yeah, just don't dig too far in just kind of trim the the foam off Yeah I tend to do the foam after the neopixels in just in case I some people turned it before but that the foam tends to To change shape when you feed it through. Yeah, and I don't know how much I need so I never I never take it off completely Okay close And like what's cool about this is this is like you do this all the time.  Yeah so Let me know when you're done with that. All right, I'm I'm pretty much done with that Don't put your exacto knife away. Okay Keep it Okay, got it make me big Make you big hang on real quick Very demanding Make me big All right, I have my exacto knife and I have this All right. Mm-hmm. I am going to take my exacto knife I'm going to split these two These two strings. Okay. I'm gonna peel them like a banana Oh boy And then I'm going to cut them As close as I can Leaving the pads You see these pads you see those copper pads leave us Leave those leave as much of them as possible right And the you're going to see one of them is going to be pretty deep Into the foam and I'm going to pull it out a little bit and cut it You want this to be as flush as flush with the with the the pat the neopixels possible And then I take the excess Neopixels Yeah And uh, I put them in the drawer because I use them for other projects But you may throw them at steve man Those are my favorite instructions That's the joke if you're watching this and you're this far you're awesome. I really appreciate it and during the next hot makes Uh hashtag throw them at steve Um whenever the next hot makes it after I post this yeah All right, so if you put something something fresh off the printer Throw it at steve Yeah, the support from peel it Feel it like a banana steve's like why did I come? um Feel it like a banana practice and then and then help me out here I want to make sure i'm doing this right so I peeled it like a banana I have a low side and a high side All the way until it meets the diffuser and where you cut the foam And then you're going to cut The the neopixel strips like this As close as you can get it But exposing as much of the pads as possible That the pads that are like right below the neopixel is like there's like proper pads. It says g plus And like uh, is that a d I think it's a d should say d Okay, and you said one is almost going to be in there, huh? One's kind of in there.  Yeah, the the the wonderful creality ender So My brain is not functioning. Okay, so I'm gonna go up in here. I'm gonna cut this with I'm gonna cut this right Here Yep, but make sure you're make sure you're not cutting the pads off You know, I'm talking about when I say pads the copper pads that you're going to solder the full pad or where the line is Just leave as much of the pad even if it's past the line More the pad that you leave the easier it's going to be to solder to Got it So I flip the trimmer's over so that it cuts like close to the neopixel But leaving the pads does it uh, that makes sense Yeah, I get you The bigger the pads the more room you're gonna have to solder to it. Which means the better solder joint you're gonna have Got it. Yeah Well, that one went okay And then on the flip side of that one That's the longer one Yeah, it's still just as close as you can get it to the diffuser So shorter than the other one even or it should stick out by like one pixel maybe or no Yeah, it might stick out a little bit All right, let me Let me do this and then if I need to modify it I will deal Yes So here's what I'm what I'm trying to do here okay Cry a little and then throw these at steve Actually, I'm not gonna throw these at steve because he might keep them and I want them So We'll throw them over there this time. All right, so here's what I got I have one Clearly I need to trim up because it looks like garbage. So I have One that's Like that on the the front and one that's like this Yes And then okay, so now that it's extended out a little bit We're gonna start soldering Um Okay But there's two solder points, right or is there actually gonna be six solder points, right? There's six I just threw my phone Is that your mom again? Uh-oh, he's gone.  I'm out of here Hey, can you hear me? Yeah Can you hear us? Yes I just finished my vitamin water. I'm gonna throw it at steve Okay, perfect. Got it nailed it. Wow steve sounds like a trash can Well, I didn't I didn't hit him All right Let me go here for a minute. So so i'm i'm Watching you with Fated breath here. Is that how the word see this thing?  Yep. Okay I can do that Maybe I mean I was pretty confident there wasn't I? I was like, yeah, I could do this Okay, I'm done already hurry up You just told me what to do and then you were doing it.  So I'll give you extra homework. Okay So I'll plan on that right away and Let's do this I don't Really need to do something different here, but well, it's close. Hopefully you can see this. Can you see this clear ish? Me? Yeah, you No, because my phone is pointed completely down Oh, well Okay, so you can but hopefully other people can Yes Um By the way, if you're soldering iron burns some of your foam at back. Don't worry about it. Like I said, no one's gonna see that It burns some of the I just ridged a whole bunch of stuff.  I just like crazy And I can't undo it It's like one thing now I don't know what I just did Wasn't cool. So you and there's gonna be six solder points on this other one, right? Yes Can I pull it out a little? Yes, you can give yourself some space to work with good Good, I have the solder down in here a little area down in here And maybe I should find a way to make this thing not spin on me, but We're going for it We're going for it Son of a Steve Steve is spinning on me He's like watch this Sucker throwing stuff at me So a little dab on each pad. Yes Are you getting that in? This is great Sotter they say It'll be fun he says so Yeah, once you're done with that Okay, give me a couple minutes here. I'm working on I realize I needed to wait Yeah, I don't even know I like bridge the pad and I'm gonna have to fix it I don't even know what I did Now I'm throwing things All right done, it's okay if I Can I do the six on the same side? Yes, that's what I did. Okay. So the back of the taller one and the front of the other one. Yes Did you say something? I'm done.  I just cut like an inch Cut one end off Tane one end Red black and green. Yes And I'm gonna get ahead of myself. Oh, I need six of those Yes, so two greens two reds two black Got it. I'm gonna get ahead of myself and solder this on so that You can see what it's supposed to look like when it's soldered. I'm gonna go a little long on these.  So all right So you want me to tin all the ends of all How do I say this the one side of the ends of all of them? Yes, got it. You can still see me. How you guys doing We're just joining us Here in the middle of the video. I would go back and watch the other our two hours and 20 minutes We we promised that this wouldn't be a three hour video We lied But that's okay We're learning as we go You know That's what we're doing and you said just a little of the end, right?  I I'm Currently stripping them Strip you strip and then tin them. Yeah Strip and tin that's That's how I roll the little that's my new song strip and tin I threw it at steve though. Don't worry All of those extra wires just thrown at you. Yeah I just wanted to point that out. I didn't want to disappoint anyone watching Um that I didn't throw something at steve today But again, if you're just watching, um, basically I'm I'm learning we're learning how to build a lightsaber blade today I'm you know It is well, here's the thing chris is teaching us from across literally across the u.s Like I'm in wisconsin.  That was not my favorite part Well, here's the real truth too is there's a good possibility that If you mess up on the the soundboard You're out $100 Yeah Absolutely, you know, you're you saw or something wrong. You short the board like you just You just blew up $100 the equivalent of dropping your phone in the toilet. Yeah, and if Chris messes up, he's out $100 so 100% And that's happened here we are I have a graveyard of sound boards Do you um, oh, yeah Oh, yes, I do. I have a graveyard of sound boards. We need a little cleanie cleanie Got a little clumpy on the ends there here Yeah, I just I almost just threw the soldering iron at Steve Not on accident. I mean purpose Really what happened was I missed what I was going for here and I just am not great at This but I'm getting there and I would highly suggest if you do this Don't make it your first soldering event No This is not The way to learn soldering So you guys can get these things called breadboard Yes, we have one. I'll show you what it looks like Empty boards and you can practice soldering and you can practice soldering wires Lay flat you can practice soldering them into holes You can see what tips work better for your soldering iron You know, you can look up videos on how to get like the perfect little globs of solder.  Here you go.  Yeah You know when someone says cold solder Like what a cold solder join is like it's important to know what that is Soldering is a very useful skill. I can tell you that I've soldered to Soldered wires together to a lot of my 3d printers. So bringing it back to edge of text Whole thing, you know, I I've soldered wires and created Funky switches that connect to my 3d printers that switch between like lasers and stuff And I'm I'm good here You're good. Yep Okay So now what you're gonna do Is you are going to solder those wires To the respective channels Green is data. Remember green's data I have whites for the negative that would be Your black and then red for the positive keep in mind Do you see how they're do you realize that they're mirrored? So the greens the center and they're the Follow the symbols on the blade The water wire them to the channel. So just read the symbols in the blade G is ground which is negative G is ground Red is to the right where the plus signs are and and green in the center Yes, and so you want to do this You shouldn't have the red shouldn't the reds and the white should not be on the same side as well I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying I catch what you're throwing here And and I I am going to to take a bathroom break while you do that. Yeah, you would deserve it You you let me know I'll be right back. All right We'll see what happens. You have six wires to solder. So I know it's going to be a little bit. Yeah, um We're hopefully they can use sorry about that everybody. I'm Where's it powered on still?  Hello. I lost you There we go Hopefully that doesn't happen again. We'll keep watching um Anyways, I was saying I got six wires to do Uh, I'm going to try to use the helping hands to do it Hopefully you guys can hear me because he's not there to tell me you can hear me. So If this runs out of volume, I'm in trouble um So I'm going to go green and know what was G for ground is black, right? Wow, this is harder than I thought it was going to be Mostly because I'm shaking Hopefully you guys can hear me Maybe I'll have to get rid of those other wires Thought this would be the easiest way and all red goes over here and it's in our way. So I'm back. How are we looking? Um, I'm getting there. Can you hear me? No, I cannot Hold on You can't hear me. Can you hear me? Yeah, can we hear you? Yeah, I can hear you. Are you there? Yeah, I'm here Not doing good, but I'm here. Um Hang on That's not working What could I do here? All right, let me try that this way Can you hear me still? Yep So we had a my a minor mic issue So I had to pause for a second You can just now or Ottering what you mean just now? Yeah Uh, all of a sudden it said my mic was stopped being recognized And I don't know why so I had to turn myself back on after I just explained exactly what we were doing It was awesome. I don't know What I'm doing But I can tell you it's not good soldering Try this All right red on this I don't know why I have such an issue with wires And maybe it's because I'm trying to film at the same time, but whatever All right red Red is on it looks like Greens next I just may realize I made a grave mistake You want to know what that mistake was? What? No, I did the I did the top one first Oh, yeah, I did the bottom one first like a dummy. You can still do it. You just pull it up a little bit Don't desolder anything Yeah, see I should have started at the bottom wires and then the top And then the bottom one should be opposite, right? Yes I just mirrored Got it. So that means black green red And it means trying to get my soldering iron in here underneath these But if anybody's been following this series, they know I'm a master Not I'm a master pretender solderer So Yeah, this is this is crazy We should have started at the bottom. I uh, I didn't catch that drift, but I know now for the next time Right Chris Now you know What is it the more you know confidence come great confidence There you go I think I got them. Let's see Oh, yeah, baby That'll six That'll six Okay, so now here's the here's the weird part. So I mean here's it So I'm probably gonna have to do it Uh, but what you do is you go back and forth, right? So let me let me pick my camera up really quick Oh Buddy there we go So I'm here, right I think I need a little bit more space Um Which means I'm gonna have to push it through here and as a matter of fact, I actually recommend you do that to probably and so What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna push this through one pixel why What why are you saying that like why? Because on the other on the other end You can't have the end of it hit Hit the pcb Right So I'm gonna push it through really quick I'm gonna take one more pixel off the end, which means I need to round it off. So I get my exact on my fat again That's just the way that I it's just the way that I cut mine You don't always have to do that but um It jim you might have to do it Um because we did the staggered Sometimes I don't do the staggered and then therefore I don't need to do it so what do you So you're pulling up you're pulling it through a little on the bullet tip end. I am cutting off another pixel Yep Pulling it through just one a whole nother pixel Yep Okay And then don't forget to to uh To round it off now by the way, I'm pulling it through another pixel. I'm not pulling the foam through I'm going to trim the foam again I'm going to trim the foam with my exacto knife You just said you're not pulling the foam through Nope, I am not going to feed the foam more. I am going to why would you why would we trim the foam? Uh, because I I you don't need it on this end with the wires. You just don't need it All right, let me let me jump on the mine so I can kind of yep catch what you're throwing here I lost my bullet. I don't know where my bullet tip is Oh boy, that's the worst when you don't know when your bullet tip is. Okay, so I pulled it out one more pixel Oh, we got a full pixel sticking out here like this Yep Yep So then what what do you want me to do? Cut you did you cut the pixel off already?  Yep.   And then make sure you round it again. Make sure you round the tip And you you make sure you test fit the bullet and then you throw the trash at Steve I'm definitely that that is happening.  I mean, I'm not great at this rounding thing, but Oh man, my camera's Sagging it I always get nervous because I'm near that resistor thing. It's close enough Cool, let's see And then you test fit it and then you push it all the way back down and make sure that the cap meets with the diffuser and you're good Let me just make sure Yep, okay Okay Now what you're gonna do is you're going to Make the ring the pcb ring.  I'm afraid I'm gonna have to start over No, you're good And then once I've cut them I split them all apart And I am going to strip the ends of them just a hair and I'm gonna tin them all Tin them all he says Tin all six wires the time we got holy mother mercy It's okay.  So 10 all 10 all six wires I got to get all of them stripped here first. Sorry camera Working on I'm working on stripping big strippers here.  Hopefully for you Then it is for us because we're you know taking the time to learn and he's teaching and and um I'm fumbling and you're probably a better solder than I am That part hasn't been actually too bad tonight yet But we haven't got you know that far down that we haven't really done We'll see it's coming Yeah, I figured Okay Let me see now. I just got a 10 all these monsters Oh, sorry guys And gals I just want to make sure I don't have any phrase Okay Now I'm gonna figure out how to 10 these because That should work I'm not gonna lie.  I don't know I feel like I feel like I do but maybe it's just me You are gonna hate this next part um Awesome I love when you say that Even I don't like this next part.  Because that was the worst I'm just I'm getting it started so that you can see If you're watching and you're wondering Why I don't have an uh smoke eater thing Sorry Oh, you mean like I do I don't know. I have um actually something in the other room Uh that I haven't unboxed yet, so I can't use it But it's there and it will be used soon. Okay. I'm 10 Okay, now you're going to match the pads So you're gonna put this I don't know if you can see you're gonna put this little wiring harness on there Okay For the love of god do not forget to do this Because if you put the pcb on there before you put this on there You're gonna have to undo everything you did I'm doing it right. You're gonna see What I'm doing it right now So you're gonna see this like this Now what you're gonna do is Okay, so every wire is in is in like a set of three, right? Um Yes, they're in three pairs. Yep Like this The data lines are in the middle. Yeah separate them in the middle The positive lines Are going to cross like that Do you see that? Along no Do you see how the negative line is going this way in the You see this Hang on. Let me I'm I'm trying to let me let me just do this So, okay, if I'm looking at it top down You went up with the bottom one So take a look at your Take a look at your pcb.  Looking all over for my pcb, and it's on my helping hands That's where it is. You're gonna need your helping hands, too I will so I'm trying to I'm trying to see where you're going with this so Um, so you could if you're in if you don't understand you could start off first By soldering the data lines I'm just trying to see what you meant by crossing each other So well, I'll show you just solder. Yeah solder the data lines on first To the center of each. Yep. Do they need to cross each other? No Oh gosh Well, this is the only one soldering sideways You are soldering sideways. Yes We could try it. Yeah Let me move this temporarily All right almost there. I have another bridge, which is cool I'm supposed to be the professional. Yeah.  No Um Here's what I'm gonna. I'm gonna try to get the camera in here. I'm gonna Yeah So this is what we got cooking. I'm right here. I'm gonna bring my Helping hand down here like this And we're gonna do The green to the center Oh my gosh So I got to kind of do this sideways. I mean, that's how it's going to end up, right? Yep Great Once you get the data lines on you'll see what I'm saying About the fact that the wires need to actually cross to the other side Okay Maybe up like that My mind is like floating in mid-air here. I also have a helping steve Uh, it's very very helpful To have a helping steve The more you throw at him the more he helps Yeah, it's crazy All right, so I just want you to get out of my way Be dummy Okay I am just I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and go in From like that. I think okay This is this is gonna be great if you're doing this by yourself. I'm sorry For your first time and second and third and 17th Um Yeah, steve says you can rent a helping steve if you want He only charges Six payments of Yeah, exactly plus shipping Yeah, plus airfare and What I'm out He said no amazon prime. I'm out. I need my helping steve like right now Oh Uh-oh No I hope not Nothing I was hoping I didn't cross the street. Oh man the camera does not even catching this this greatness That we're ensuing Uh, it's not great by the way But all right I see what I I see what you're saying now So I just need to get the positives on the positive get the negatives on the negative You see what I'm saying when I cross when you cross it No, but I just kind of But get positive It's very important that the data lines meet at the ones that they're closest to and then the positive from the other side Goes to the positive On the other side. Oh The positives have to be on the opposite positive thought. Yes Great. Okay. This makes sense because when you're done Yeah with wiring everything which I just did you are going to You are going to roll you're going to twist The wires and it's going to create like a spring board so That one is There so that one has to come up This one is there and that one has to come up this negative is on the bottom So that has to go down. Oh my god While you're doing this, I'm going to test my blade because I just finished Gotcha because I think I might have bridged something wrong. So I just want to make sure I didn't do that Geez all right. Um, oh, I just got grouped. Don't go any more group. Come on You got what Baby group took another side. Yeah What about him? Maybe He took a dive he fell off. Oh you you have a group and he took a dive Got her This is Not my This is kind of crazy man.  No. Oh where's my tweezers? My tweeters would be good here. Wouldn't they or my little guy put them? No He might have Made off with my tweezers Where the heck He likes to play with the tools and I don't see them anywhere shoot And maybe Yeah, that might work So this wire needs to cross streams and go Through here a show off I don't know what you're seeing show off on. I don't got nothing No You know, my blade is not working Uh-oh I guess I was just listening to the sound so That's why I was saying Did you cross streams? I gotta find out Well, you said you bridged something right? I thought I might have yeah So Is it possible that you did? Yeah, I'm gonna check it again All right So now We're kind of cooking with fire ish Because I gotta get this one Up There oh my god Yeah, this is like To me If I knew how to spin these before I put this down it would have been easier But I didn't I wasn't seeing what you were saying You know and If I had A million dollars if I had my stinking Tweezers That'd be so easier so much easier but Considering they're missing I'm gonna have to go with needle nose pliers. Where do I throw those? Of course I just had I just used those right here. Let's see if this works Come on We're so close man So close so far Yeah, like so close so far.  I just wanted to make sure This is gonna hurt My fingers on the other side of this Got it. Didn't even burn myself. All right. I got that side So now I gotta I hope I got that side But now I gotta get this positive there and that negative there All right So this positive has to go Here Not looking good for me Uh-oh Is it just that little board you think? Huh Is it just that little board? Do you think The the last word you did or is it something else? I think I broke something Uh-oh, I think I accidentally melted something Happens like nothing I can't fix I just think I I melted something There's one side of my LED work the other side doesn't Oh man If you if you Would you believe if I told you I have one more solder? I mean, I don't know why you wouldn't but I just don't I just don't know how to get it to the pad I have a helping steve and He's helping me spin this thing around and hold it and this is much Much easier than Trying to uh Look at it go there just Trying to figure this out on on my own, but So if you have a helping steve I highly suggest he helps you with this part at and or You understand Before you do this because I could have crossed these wires and would have made it a little easier But I didn't understand what I Don't understand you so I yeah And it's not necessarily why it's just what what we exactly were trying to accomplish and And if it this it's just this last negative I can't get it to the pad needs to be at Because the the wires are so small right? I mean they're so yeah And then you have on top of that you have that Stinking cap floating around in your fingers But if you want one of these They're awesome.  So this video is almost like Kind of interesting because like I am not a professional at making blades I mean I already fail right now on my own blade Yeah, so You mostly put the Um the hilts together There are the guys who make the blades they're talented guys. I mean they're just It's just it's it's like a whole nother art form And like I can do it, you know can make the blades but like It is this you know, there's a lot of people out there who make blades and they don't make like Nice So go use one of them This this part is not my favorite. It's not my favorite so far. I'm just not the best at making blades Like I said, I can do it I'm trying to fix my mistake I made a oopsie Okay, let me see how that works. Can you hear me Jim? Yeah, I can hear you. Can you hear me? Hello Can you hear me? Uh-oh Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Yeah, can you hear me? I can hear you. Yeah Breaker breaker one nine over. I think I'm done You think you're done? I think I think I got it So what you do is you pop the pcb into that little pcb holder. Oh god, okay Pop the pcb into the pcb holder.  Yeah So that it's kind of like a little swing And it should meet with the diffuser.  Yeah, I'm like line it line it all back up again Okay, all righty. Uh, hang on. I'm gonna get my tip and measure it Thank you, Steve. I really appreciate that I I highly suggest to helping Steve if you're gonna do this. Okay So we're lined back up there. This is what I got here.  Um, yes Okay, this The tip should be not on the blade at all It's not no Okay, now what you're gonna do is you're going to slide the whole blade back down Like the polycarbonate to the heart the outside part. Okay, so let me let me change cameras here So what we're gonna do is put this in the polycarbonate Yes, right, okay leaving the flush end at the bottom Um, yes the part with the connector at the bottom Okay Got it And then I'm guessing we're gonna push it in so that that cap Is in there Yes Are we gonna glue this or no We are we're gonna use a little bit super glue and we're gonna lock it into place Should we test this first before I glue it? You can test it So what I have let me just come back over here I put the end on like this there we go End is on the flush We've got a little bit sticking out here and that's where Our tip is gonna go on Yep like that Okay, then to test it I believe the idea is to to put it in the blade, right? Is that what I'm doing? You can touch it directly to the blade tip. Yeah, and you can test and make sure it turns on So now that I like now that I think about it I think you need to change some settings because wasn't your nail pixel only going like Five pixels up the blade. Yeah Well You might have the same settings, but that's the next video Yeah, you're gonna need to do that now or you're just not going to find out if the blade works Do I need to shave the bottom of this? Is it not going easily? It's not going in at all Into the hilt Yeah, you might need to stand the bottom of it. You can use it. You know the dremel wheel the dremel wheel Yeah, if there's like a little flange Yep And that part's not going in To the hilt. Yep. You can put the little dremel wheel in there Uh, where? You just like take the dremel and you just kind of shave the end of it Uh, the end of the tube. Yes. Yes. Okay.  I I'm nervous. I'm nervous I'm real nervous Because I have all that there and if I slip it's over, huh? Dude, I cannot get my blade to work. Can I sand this? Instead You can sand it with your hand. Yeah I think I'm gonna do that because I don't trust myself with the dremel I cannot believe I cannot get this to work. I do not know why It's wild. This is wild dude I probably Would be much faster with the dremel, but I don't what are you afraid of undoing Cutting what I just because it's that thing is pushed into the end, right? I'm afraid that I'm going to cut into it or something or ruin the bottom of this after I just did all this work Does that make sense?  Excuse my language darn it So basically this video I mean we're so close to getting this to fire if this fires Then we're good here. We come back and we're gonna do a live stream next And we're gonna program the blade I just dropped my soldering. I Nice What Okay, I burned myself on the daily It is but it's further down. Yeah infuriating So Anger, I don't know.  Just period won't do it. Is it backwards? Did you check your arrows? Yeah, I'm staring at it right now I'm actually I'm actually beginning to think that I have a bad bad blade What do you think this one? Yeah, or like this I could do a little one like that I don't know what the difference is. Oh wait. There's a little one like this Like that. All right. I'm going for this. We're we're I'm busting out the dremel I'm going to cry a lot of it if I if I ruin this but Oh, you know what? I need I need to There's so much polycarbonate on this thing. It's everywhere. I do not know what's happening here at all Um, maybe it's a bad neopixel I don't know. It's crazy because I haven't done anything wrong. It's just not lighting up It's just what it's I haven't done anything wrong and it's just not lighting up weird So we hope that mine does right Yeah, I hope so I'm sorry, man. This just this just shows that even a skilled installer can have hiccups once in a while, right? Very true, especially with blades Well, sometimes even I mean, I just had a saber recently where like the board was bad And I spent the entire day trying to figure it out just And it was the part I thought I did something wrong and it was the part So at the point I'm at right now, Jim. I am doing like weird wiring Just to see if it works Okay On yours. I'm I'm weird wiring it up in like a weird way Is there any don't do you have a like a negative positive tester? You could just You know wire tester? I could yeah The problem is is like That might pop up But then I wouldn't know if I could get it on working properly I cannot hear him Sorry, man. Give me one second. It's not working I am just Why would you not work here? Why is it not working? Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing Oh, I think I got it Now I need to take out that set screw Which is a little allen wrench, right? Yes Oh, great.  Yeah It looks like a little lightsaber as well See Like it helps I'm in Now what Powered on it on test it. All right. Listen This is a combination of freaking 10 hours Probably already know that your blade isn't set to the appropriate length probably 11 hours of of Stuff okay, your blade isn't set to the appropriate length. So don't expect too much. Yeah, so We're just hoping that this thing fires in the blade itself Because if it fires in the blade itself Then we know that we wired it correctly and then we need to program it and that's what we're gonna do next Not in this video but next All right You ready? Yep. I mean it's not gonna light up At all No, because you got to change the number Does you see a little bit at the base? Dang, yeah, I thought it would come up a little bit put the put the sd card in your computer quick. No Put the sd card in the computer. I'm like totally stumped where I'm at right now Remember I had to do a new firmware and config I have I have straight up run out of ideas On my end like no kidding. Okay We're getting this d card. I'm gonna drop it in the computer The goal of this is just to see the blade fire, right?  I'm sure for you're familiar with that from the last video All right I can hear you All right one second everybody I'm going to the config file here maybe If I can find my cursor My pointer All right One second. I'm just gonna make this much bigger. Okay The uh config dot txt. Is that what I'm looking for? Yes I'm gonna put this aside because I'm gonna cry Okay, I'm in Change led strip to 135 Okay, it's set to 10 right now. Yep. That's why Okay I'm in It's a What do I need to do to make remember only five of those eight leds we're lighting up Yeah, that's what we're doing, dude Okay, so that's all I need to change is led strip to 135 Yeah, and strip power set to 111 because the le the neopixel was turning on earlier Yep Anything else? Nope All right Say I'm I'm man. I'm hoping After last time playing with this I'm hoping this is uh is easy and easy Oh Oh, I have the config open don't I hang on How did that uh, how did that work Steve? Do you see that? All right, cool make sure you ejected you ejected it, right? Yeah, I did hopefully it saved it All right, it's saved I'm pretty sure And I'm trying to remember I think it goes that side down and of course I taped it in here pretty good So I still have a little bit of work to do you in the back end of this thing, but I'm getting there Yep. All right. I'm ready 135 moment of truth Yeah, I hope that lights up Got nothing Well, as you can see in the end it did not work Um, we think it's some connection between the board here and the board in here I'm gonna have a video call with chris to try to figure this out But the next thing we're gonna do is a live stream. We're gonna have some fun with this thing You guys are going to be able to customize colors stuff like that through chat or we'll figure out some way to fun We'll figure out some fun way to do it. So if I put the battery in like that And then I fire it up We have sound We have lights inside of here, which means those connections are good Uh, we just don't have anything when we put the blade in so if I take our blade and I push our blade all the way in This should light up We're getting nothing. Um Nothing And I don't know why so we're gonna troubleshoot that Between now and the next video. We're gonna get it figured out But thanks again to chris from sinister props. I really appreciate it man. You are a trooper This will be like the third three hour video that we've done Um, and we're to this point. We are so close So close to getting this thing up and running. I hope it's helping and I hope anybody out there who's watching this That got this far is a little bit entertained and learned a little bit until next time check out that video right there