How Fresh-Out-of-College DIYers Built the Star Wars Lightsaber of Your Dreams

Just a fewer months aft graduating college, Jason Uy and his chap engineers built a lightsaber. Now, plentifulness of companies volition physique you a customized saber, “whoosh” dependable effects and all. Not to mention, Disney itself sells its ain Galaxy’s Edge blades for a premium. But Uy and his team’s DIY lightsaber tin widen and retract with conscionable the propulsion of a button. Plus, it glows with voluminous airy that a force-sensitive kyber crystal-power laser sword should. It’s the lightsaber each Star Wars instrumentality has ever wanted. 

Uy’s leaf is akin to 1 Disney built for itself but held disconnected sharing with the nationalist but for show astatine its now-defunct Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser. On his YouTube transmission HeroTech, Uy swung his leaf astir without it falling apart. Disney’s engineers reportedly struggled with that, hence wherefore the institution astir apt hasn’t tried to merchantability an extending blade to ravenous Star Wars fans.

Uy developed the conception portion helium was inactive studying astatine Olin College of Engineering successful Massachusetts. His archetypal rendition took a akin tack to Disney’s Star Wars laser blade, with the archetypal prototype utilizing a motorized portion measurement attached to an LED strip. That aboriginal lightsaber was “just a box,” Uy said. To make it further, helium recruited 2 different students from his school, Maddie Tong and Aaron Codrington, to make the extending lightsaber into thing you could grip with 1 hand. 

What’s particularly absorbing astir the HeroTech saber is what it’s utilizing to make the extension. Uy’s squad settled connected a magician’s cane, which simply unwinds and collapses but maintains its rigidity. An LED portion supplies the glow and controls the complaint of extension. It creates a “darksaber” effect from definite angles alternatively than the circular leaf emblematic of the Star Wars movies. The YouTuber told Gizmodo helium had plans to hole that contented simply by rotating the full interior mechanics accelerated capable truthful you couldn’t spot the sides.

Gizmodo spoke to Uy astatine magnitude astir his task and aboriginal plans. This interrogation was edited for clarity and brevity.

Gizmodo: Let maine guess. Have you been into Star Wars for a while? What made you privation to marque your own, and that’s not the accustomed polycarbonate style? 

Jacob Uy: Oh yeah, I’m a immense fan. Ever since I was a kid. I’ve ever loved lightsabers. I person a batch of respect for the radical who are making these things due to the fact that it’s a batch of work, a batch of engineering, and a batch of testing. I ever felt it was a small unusual that for the bully lightsabers, you had to instrumentality the extremity of the leaf on. Because, successful my head, that’s not the lightsaber experience. I person respect for anybody who makes lightsabers due to the fact that it’s hugely difficult. It’s costly and hard. 

Gizmodo: I’d similar to perceive however you guys started doing this task and however you developed it from its archetypal conception.

Jacob Uy: So I really started doing this arsenic a people project. Basically, for our final, we had a radical project, and I was with 1 of my friends. We some emotion Star Wars, and truthful we had the state to bash immoderate task we wanted to do. We asked, ‘Why don’t we physique a lightsaber?’ For that last project, we were capable to marque an extending and retracting blade, but it was huge. It was fundamentally a container that utilized a motorized portion measurement with an LED portion stuck onto it. I wanted to make further. I got 2 radical from my university, Maddie [Tong] and Aaron [Codrington], who stayed with maine done the full project.

Giz: How did you spell a antithetic way than Disney erstwhile designing your lightsaber?

Uy: Disney is doing thing interesting. I deliberation they developed their ain portion measurement blades, successful a sense, and their ain integrative to get the airy diffusion conscionable right. During our testing, our regulation was that we weren’t going to marque a customized integrative conscionable for this. When we were investigating the mentation with a portion measure, we recovered that you can’t plaything it around. It would conscionable interruption and flop each over, which I deliberation mightiness beryllium a regulation Disney’s moving into arsenic well.

Giz: So, what was your solution?

Uy: We tested a clump of antithetic hold stuff. We did the electrical car antennas. There’s these RC car winches arsenic well. Then we looked astatine whether we could connect that to—something that could telescope, similar the telescoping you spot successful artifact lightsabers. There’s a artifact mentation from a truly agelong clip agone that’s outpouring loaded, but past you inactive can’t retract it. Eventually, we recovered the magician’s cane, and we realized it could beryllium the solution due to the fact that it’s truthful small, it tin acceptable wrong a hilt, and it extends truly agelong and truly quickly. I deliberation it’s antithetic from immoderate different plan that’s retired there.

Giz: And past you went for LED strips, right? I don’t cognize if it’s similar that based connected the video, but it seems similar it truly had an expansive glow.

Uy: We wanted to usage LED strips for sure. Because you tin usage base-lit, you tin usage lasers, but there’s thing visually that is truly comparable to a high-powered LED strip. This is erstwhile the comparatively caller exertion of chip-on-board LED strips had conscionable travel out. It’s really truthful agleam you can’t look straight astatine it. It is astir apt the closest happening I’ve I’ve ever seen to similar a existent lightsaber blade. I’ve had a clump of Neopixel customized lightsabers and those are beauteous cool, but possibly its to bash with the diffusion oregon possibly it’s not utilizing capable power, but—in presumption of brightness—I don’t I’ve seen thing similar it. 

Giz: The different large situation seemed to beryllium the spooling portion of the design. How did you yet determine connected a circular winch? 

Uy: Originally, to prevention space, we tried to spool the LED portion astir a vessel tread mechanism. The occupation with that, which we lone realized erstwhile we started testing, is that the LED strip—which has PCB and the silicon epoxy covering—it resists erstwhile you crook it into a shape. Then it wants to enactment successful that shape. So erstwhile we tried to widen the strip, it conscionable wouldn’t extend. When you crook it successful a ellipse it’s conscionable a changeless radius, truthful there’s truly minimal absorption to it coming retired oregon retracting.

Giz: What was the diameter of the grip that you guys went with? 

Uy: It’s 2 inches for the thinnest part, and past we person each the griblies that widen out. 

Giz: So you tin inactive grip it successful 1 hand?

Uy: Yeah, and I deliberation personally I support wanting to get it thinner, and that’s what we’re moving connected close now. I deliberation reasoning we tin get a spot thinner and past I conscionable watched The Acolyte, and I was similar wow, those hilts are massive. Even though we tin get it a spot thinner, I deliberation we’re honestly successful a beauteous bully spot close now. 

Giz: It reminds maine of, I don’t cognize if you ever had immoderate of the telescoping lightsabers arsenic a kid due to the fact that erstwhile you had tiny kids’ hands, you couldn’t get your fist astir it. So that’s what it archetypal reminds maine of, actually, and successful that way, it’s benignant of nostalgic. You said you had immoderate different lightsabers. Which different ones bash you own?

Uy: I had a customized Saberforge blade. I’ve had the Galaxy’s Edge lightsaber, which is besides what we utilized arsenic notation for our version, though they’re a small spot bigger than the movie-accurate version. I’ve had 1 from this institution called The Pach Store, and they marque immoderate beauteous bully stuff.

Giz: What’s the program for erstwhile you’re making the retracting lightsaber Mark Two?

Uy: We decidedly privation to marque the hilt thinner but besides marque it widen and retract overmuch faster. The program is to person the full hilt made retired of metal. The large occupation is inactive erstwhile you inactive look astatine it from the side, it’s got that acheronian saber effect due to the fact that of the mode we designed it with the azygous LED strip. So we bash privation to effort and rotation the full happening and the interior assembly astatine slightest to make similar that full-blade effect. That’s the truly absorbing challenge.

Giz: How bash you deliberation you’re going to marque that work?

Uy: We were readying to bash that from the start. That’s wherefore the interior chassis is each successful 1 assembly that holds everything together, and that outer ammunition is truly conscionable an aesthetic portion you tin descent on. The archetypal program is conscionable to rotate the full interior chassis with a centrifugal and a artillery connected the end. I was wondering if each that spinning would besides done the LED portion disconnected the magician’s cane, but it didn’t successful immoderate of our tests. As agelong arsenic we don’t rotation it supra a definite speed, we’re fine.

Giz: How’s that gone truthful far?

Uy: It looks truly good, but control-wise, it becomes hard due to the fact that the buttons are present rotating astatine astir 1,200 RPM. The question sensors with the sounds effects spell heywire due to the fact that they’re similar ‘what is happening? Why is determination truthful overmuch spinning?’ I deliberation the mode to counteract that is to power to a Bluetooth power system, and past we tin usage an further module and displacement the buttons there. As for the question sensing, we’re going to interaction the makers of the committee who helped with the archetypal version. We got a clump of comments suggesting we enactment successful immoderate diffusion layers, but I deliberation this is the closest happening I’ve seen to what the leaf should look like. I’m disquieted different furniture would detract from that.

Giz: You person to deliberation it’s a leaf made of plasma. It should beryllium beauteous hard to look at.

Uy: It should beryllium fricking bright.