By tobycj
#4949653
That's the torch I have, I'll check how the reflector lines up against the vent slots later for you. You should be able to just cut off the bit sticking out of the reflector, that's part of where the bulb mounts, and then jerry rig something for your wand light LED.
By tobycj
#4949705
Looks like it'll be absolutely fine. You might need to square off one side so it sits centrally under the vent, but the diameter is about 39mm on the inner edge, so more than enough for the vent which is about 23mm wide on my BoK resin wand
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By l3w1sb159
#4949706
Since my 2nd Gbfans order came in with various electronics, I've cracked on with various bits; one of which was mounting the speaker.

It fit nice and snug under my cyclotron light shelf so I positioned it centrally, marked the holes and drilled out clearance holes for m5 bolts.
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Next was the oh so joyous task of drilling a speaker grill, using Alan Hawkins 4" speaker template. I traced the outline of the speaker while bolted in and used that to position the template. Taped in place, I used a punch to mark all the holes, drilled them out (pilot first then 4.5mm) then finished them off using a countersink bit to deburr them all, not the most exciting hour and a half of my life but it looks pretty good...
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While I was at it, I sorted out mounting my Talentcell inside. The simplest way is usually the best so I used some velcro strips glued onto the mobo and battery to wrap around the battery, which holds it nice and firm but can be removed if needed.
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By JWils23
#4949730
Are you talking about the gauge of speaker wire? I just used some old speaker wire I had laying around, honestly this stuff probably came from my dad which means it’s from the 80/90’s and it works fine. It’s definitely a thicker gauge versus what came with my speakers but works great.
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By l3w1sb159
#4949732
Ah right, it's more so the end of the wire that connects to the speaker + and - contacts, is there a specific connector end for the wire or is it just the case of wrapping the copper wire around the contacts?
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By JWils23
#4949733
I just wrapped mine around the speaker connections tight and then put heat shrink on them. On my spirit build I just wrapped them and didn’t even cover them. If you wrap them nice and tight you shouldn’t have issues. You can also buy connectors that you crimp the wire with to use, just depends on how you want to do it. Then the other ends just slot into the terminals on the GBFans board.
User avatar
By l3w1sb159
#4949885
So I finished up the last few bits on the shell side of things;
First of all, I sorted out the loom into the crank generator, I originally had planned to just have the dowel in the loom epoxied in place inside the shell, but it seemed a bit too tricky to get it to stay in place until it set. So I came across Bishopdonmiguel's build thread and saw he used magnets to secure his loom in place. So I chopped the dowel down in the loom and cut a smaller piece of dowel to be epoxied inside the shell for the loom to connect to, with 2 7/8" magnets gorilla glued onto the ends.
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Here's a view from inside the shell,
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While I was there, i chopped off the excess ribbon cable, wrapped it in electrical tape and popped a cable tie around it to stop it from pulling back out.
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Last and not least for the shell, I glued the powercell and cyclotron lenses in place. I also attached the aluminium plate labels; the bumper label was from GBfans and was top notch, I ordered the rest from EugeniousProps on ebay, I'll be honest they could have been a bit better. They didnt have adhesive backing; so had to be glued on, and the edges had sharp burrs on them which I had to smooth off. But they look pretty good and do the job. Once everything was done I gave the shell a light weathering, scuffs, burnt umber wash and black wash to give various parts a dirty/rusty look.
I also swapped the grey crank knob for a black one from the GBfans shop, I'll use the grey one on a future GB1 pack at some point.

And heres how she sits...
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By l3w1sb159
#4950049
This is going to be a long one, as I get ahead of myself with the build and forget to document it as I go ^^

Right, so I've been cracking on with trying to get switches and lights wired up in the wand.
It's quite snug inside my TC thrower so unfortunately I wont be able to use the rumble motor I was planning on installing, but I can save it for when I come to build an all aluminium wand down the line.

So to start with I fit the switches and push buttons, the latter of which I had to enlarge the hole on the trigger box to give me enough space to work it in. I drilled it out to 9mm as I didnt have and 8mm bit; which probably would have worked a bit better as the nut only just about covers the hole, but it's in snug and is barely noticeable.
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Next I sorted out the lights in the gun box, for the buried hat light on too i used the replica that came with TC's kit as you only see the tippy top of it, and for the hatlight down by the clippard I used 1 of 2 proper hat lights i got from the GBfans shop. As I didnt have the sockets to save room I simply drilled the hole so the thread could fit in snug and put a small blob of super glue on to make sure it didnt fall out.
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Theres a few things in those pics I'll get to later, next of which was the arcolectric clear and red indicators, which I got from a company called Farnell (similar to Radwell but managed to get 2 sets of each colour indicator for about £15 cheaper and for free same day dispatch)
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Next up is the bar graph, which fit snug into the 3d printed bezel I got from benofkent. It holds itself in place pretty firmly so I shouldnt need to use standoffs or the like. For my next build though, I am definitely going with spongefaces bezel kit to get it as screen accurate as possible.

And if it wasn't painfully obvious, I managed to snag a set of dry rub transfer decals from Mack's factory and, oh lordy, are they good. I managed to apply all of the thrower and n filter decals without fudging it, so I'll have a whole set to use on my next build.
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Next I used the old "just wrap some craft foam" method of holding the leds each cap. For the vent light I did the same using a miltary flashlight reflector reccomend by tobycj. I had to saw the bottom threaded part off to save space, popped the foam wrapped led in and its ready to go.
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Firstly, I positioned the vent reflector as centrally as I could get it, and when I was happy blobbed a few spots of gorilla glue around the edge. 20 hand aching minutes later it was nice and secure. After I pushed the rest of the leds into their respective holes I mounted the wand board on some very low standoffs to save as much room as possible.
Trying to keep things as tidy as I can with some small cable tidy clips.
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Next up, I sorted out the front grip and barrel switches and leds. For the barrel led I unclipped the wires from the connector ( taking a pic before to remember the order) and fed the wires through the hole in the dowel that tobycj made up for me. Unfortunately due to the heat shrink on the wires under the led it was too thick to push any more through the hole and the led is visible when the barrel is popped out. I didnt want to try and remove and heat shrink for fear of screwing the wires up.
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As for the ear switch and led, I had already used the orange hat light from TC's kit and glued that in place over the hole, so simply screwing in the switch and poking the led up into the hatlight, and then feeding the wires along the channel of the outer barrel and taped in place ready for the grip to be screwed in on top.
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Once the main electronics were installed I did a little test run to make sure everything was working ( i had done a quick test before I installed everything with a 9v battery, but I wanted to make sure nothing had been managed from any man handling)
https://vimeo.com/559644329
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By JWils23
#4950074
Coming along nicely, bringing back fond memories of building my TC thrower and how much fun I had doing it. Also gotta love that craft foam, it works for everything!
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By l3w1sb159
#4950077
The way I see it; the simplest method is usually the best.
And if it looks a little rough around the edges, it will fit with the look I'm going for any way so its win-win.
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By l3w1sb159
#4950480
Working on the small bits I have left to do while I wait for the rest of my electronics.

So since I am fairly certain I have all the holes ill need drilled in the mobo I taped off the centre of the inside (forgot to take pics) and layed on the good old satin black for the final time. Painting officially done!
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Once the paint had fully dried I slapped the red danger label on and sorted out the foam at the top of the mobo. I ended up getting some black Neoprene foam 250mmx250mmx5mm, it looks about the right thickness and width-wise, it lines up just right.
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For simplicity, I glued the foam roughly the correct distance from the top, weighed down by some paper weights to make sure the edges were stuck down tight. Once it had set I cut along the contour of the top of the mobo with a small Stanley blade. Hey presto.
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By l3w1sb159
#4951819
While I'm still in limbo waiting for parts I thought I'd cheer myself up by getting a little accessory for my pack in the form of an old Fulton flashlight to throw in some ideas from TVG into my pack. Simple yet effective, held on by a safety pin.
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By l3w1sb159
#4951954
My welded trigger tip finally came in!

I had it marked up and drilled a small dimple for the set screw to sit into in no time. However; as the slotted hex bolts I have for my banjoes are metric they don't fit the thread on the trigger tip. If anyone can let me know what size thread I need for a new banjo bolt to fit the gbfans trigger tip it would be greatly appreciated!
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By tobycj
#4951961
My trigger tip should be here in the next day or two as well! I just measured my gbfans banjo bolts and they're 10-32. A check of the usual places I use for bolts, and a quick browse on Google, didn't turn up any obvious sellers in the UK, but 10-32 is slightly smaller than M5 so you could re-tap it if needs be.
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By Nighty80
#4951970
For the love of Cthulhu why can't we all just use metric ;)
#Controversial #EverybodyLoveEverybody

Looking awesome mate, great build!
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By l3w1sb159
#4952012
So I came across these...
https://www.rays-teksurplus.co.uk/20-x- ... 5785-p.asp

They look like they have the right style of head, hopefully they are long enough but that info isn't given. I've ordered them and I'll let you guys know! If they are the right size I'll have plenty spare if anyone would be wanting any so let me know.

Until they arrive I managed to bodge the smaller bolt I have to fit a bit more snug in the thread by wrapping a layer of electrical tape around it. Just as a placeholder so I can put the rest of the barrel together for now.

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So that is the externals of the pack completely finished now! Just need my pop catches and sound and lights. Hopefully I'll be done in time for Halloween.
:cool:
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By tobycj
#4952016
Looks great mate! Glad you turned up some bolts too. The real banjo bolts are quite low profile heads, and fully flat so you could even file the heads down a bit if you wanted.
User avatar
By l3w1sb159
#4952054
Thanks guys, I haven't had any experience when it comes to building props but I'm the kind of person who, if I'm going to do something I'm going to do it properly!

So those bolts I ordered came in very quick. However they only just pass through the banjo length wise so it only hangs on like 2 threads.
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I filed down the back of the head a bit to give more length in the bolt and it seems to have enough bite to hold the banjo on.
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For comparison, the old m4 bolt is on the right and the new 10-32 bolt is on the left.

If needs be, I can always file more off the back of the bolt head so the thread has more grip if it becomes a problem.


And I've got 20 of the bloody things! :blush:
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By l3w1sb159
#4956489
Long time no post...

Finally got my pack lights and soundboard, as I'm sure many of you guys have also been waiting (im)patiently for.

Quick question: does anyone have any instructions for the new boards? The ones I got off the shop are for the old style boards and I'm not sure about the config dip switches on the pack lights, as it used to be just a potentiometer.
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By l3w1sb159
#4956528
Nice, wasn't sure if there would be any other things to make sure of before removing it. I've tinkered with proffieboards using arduino in my 2 lightsabers before so I wondered if these worked in a similar way.
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By l3w1sb159
#4956539
Righty dokey skip flip flap jack, me old nick nack paddy whack slip de dip lipstick, oh look mrs jones bomber harris tweed coat and hat it might be raining, achtung baby psycho ward ten minutes please gentlemen it's the lavatory express!
(Lets see who gets that)

Sorry about that, I'm just very exited as IT'S ALIVE!

So after getting my sound and pack light kits, I set to getting them into my pack. In case I forgot to mention it before, I made up the split loom from the thrower to the pack and used some silicone tube inside to give it some weight and protect the cable inside.
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I attached the loom to the thrower handle using a cable tie, should be nice and sturdy.
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To start with I did a test run with the kits to make sure it was all working properly, and once I'd set up the dip switches and potentiometers I cracked on with getting them installed.

First off I got my charging plate wired up with nstevic's wiring kit (makes it so much easier) just a simple charging port and battery toggle switch. I have a place for a switchcraft xlr on the plate when I manage to get one. I popped a grommet into the 3/4" hole I drilled for the wires to pass through safely.

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Onto the pack lights, going from the bottom up; I used the old "wrap in craft foam and shove it in" for putting the vent LED into the reflector cup. Then I glued the cup into the pvc pipe I had ready on the mobo.
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Next was the task of rejigging the cyclotron shelf, as I had already drilled holes ready for the old LED lights rather than the new circuit board version, I had to cut slots in the shelf for the connectors to go through so the boards could sit flush on top of the shelf as I still planned to use the reflector cups on top.
After securing them in place with a few blobs of gorilla glue, I measured the total height of the lights with the reflector cups on top, and then the distance from the cyclotron lenses to the mobo. Unfortunately the reflectors were sitting about 3 or 4 mm too high, so I ended up cutting off the top lip of the cups as neatly as I could. They don't look too rough and they have enough clearance to sit under the lenses.
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Next I sorted mounting the powercell board to Ben's 3d printed bracket; which I had to modify a bit more as the slots that were part of the design were slightly off from where the boards mounting holes were. A few redrilled holes later , I put some standoffs on the board to clear the wires underneath and attached it to the bracket.
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As for the soundboard, I just eyeballed the best place for it to go; screwed some standoffs on to clear the volume pot on the bottom (as I couldn't be arsed to drill another hole for it to poke through the mobo) and gorilla glued it in place. I also wired my speaker to the soundboard using 1.5mm stereo speaker wire; just wrapped the wire through and around the speaker contacts and wrapped the bare copper ends in electrical tape. Once the boards where in place it was just a case of wrangling the wires into what I like to call "organised chaos".
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Last but not least, I attached the thrower hose to the mobo using the same way they did with the original packs.... cable ties. Hey if its good enough for them....
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With the last cables plugged in she's ready for a test drive.
:cool:
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By l3w1sb159
#4957021
Before I could get to the good part I had to wade through the part I was dreading...

The pop mech.

I got my replacement pop catches from freekygeeky, and as it was the last thing left to do on the pack. Let me start by saying to anyone who has installed a pop mech on a Throwingchicken thrower - I salute you.

So I had originally planned to use a small tension spring on the pop tube, but somehow the distance from the end of the tube inside the thrower to the brass spacer bolt was further than expected. Add that to a smaller diameter tube that TC uses for the barrel equals about an hour of non stop cursing and rage trying to hook the one end of the spring over said bolt and threading a nut on over the top with about 3/4" room.

NOT FUN.

So eventually I gave up on the spring and went with a rubber band instead, which was much easier to get into position.
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With that ball ache out of the way, I carried on setting up the catch. A bit of filing was needed to get the catch to lock onto the bolt and setting the stop was fairly easy.
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It's my own fault for being impatient and putting the pop mech in last rather than doing it before installing the electronics, but I got there in the end. However after spending hours of aneurism inducing work setting the pop mech up and testing it before sealing it up to make sure everything worked properly....

After putting it back together and popping it again, the catch slid slightly out of place on the lever and now won't re-latch....

But that's a job for another day. :walterpeck:

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