DIY Lightsaber

Lightsabers are pretty cool, making one for yourself is cooler, so in this instructable I'm going to show you how you can make your very own lightsaber at home using common hand tools.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

Led strip 5 meters long(2835, 204leds/m)[colour of your choice]

Lithium ion batteries(18650) x3

XL6009 voltage booster x2

Li-ion charging module (TP4056)

Non-momentary push button switch

TOOLS REQUIRED:

Soldering iron

Hacksaw

Sandpaper(80grit or lower)

Spray paint(optional)

Create this simple circuit with the help of the circuit diagram given. Heating up a battery can cause a battery to degrade quicker, giving you a shorter run time, which is why I chose to simply tape over the wires on the battery instead of soldering them. Be careful! Li-ion batteries can be very dangerous, handle them with care. Make sure to not short the negative and positive terminals of it or it can lead to an explosion. Use an appropriate charging module that has at least these safety features: over voltage protection, over charge protection, over discharge protection and short-circuit protection.

To create a frosted look on the lightsaber, I used my rotary tool or dremel to sand down the acrylic tube which measures 1 metre(~3ft) in length, 40mm outer diameter and 35mm inner diameter. I ended up finishing the outer of the tube with 80grit sandpaper to create a deep frosting effect. You could simply skip the 1st step and directly jump to sanding using 80 or lower grit sandpaper. Make sure you sand it well enough and don't cut corners. Any spot that remains will be visible when you turn the circuit on, especially on camera.

For the handle I used a PVC pipe with an inner diameter of ~40mm, so it fits snugly on the acrylic tube. Cut it to approximately 20-25cm(~8-10 inches) and clean and sand off the rough edges for the next step. I chose matte black spray paint to colour the handle for its aesthetic looks, although feel free to use any colour. You can even use acrylic paint and a paint brush to paint it and make sure to be as creative as you can.

Its all coming together now! Put all of the electronics inside the handle, making sure there is enough space between the battery and the voltage boosters as both of them get quite hot under heavy loads. You can use some electric tape and/or double sided tape to hold the batteries in place inside the handle. In my case the wires held the batteries in place well enough. Try not to use glue especially super glue to hold the batteries in because it will make it very difficult and tedious for you to remove anything in the future if needed. The acrylic tube fit well enough inside the handle but to make sure it doesn't come out unnecessarily, I held it down using a few screws. I didn't use super glue or any other adhesive to hold it in place, so I can always open it in the future and upgrade it. On the other end use some silicon or high strength tape to hold the charging port in place. If the tape that you are using doesn't hold it well enough, you can use some high viscosity glue to prevent it from entering the charging plug.

Your lightsaber is now complete!

Check out the YouTube video to see how it looks when in action