A Merging of Science and Mysticism?

[Collan]

[ooc: Darren, not sure what you want to do next but I was going to see about upping my lightsaber repair]

Collan sought out Niil shortly after the training in the hibernation trance. While not terribly frustrated, there was definitely more to building even a training saber than Collan could manage. He'd been working on one for a few days in his spare time but he was reaching a stumbling block. It was like the circuits and power sources just could not work together. It wasn't that they were incompatible; they just didn't seem to work in a way that promoted functional use. At best, his saber's ouput would be a short spray of sparks before the power overload melted the circuitry.

He got the basics of the circuitry but Collan wasn't anywhere close to knowing how to attune it, either physically or through the Force.

He needed another opinion...maybe two. Niil knew a little more than Collan and maybe it would be best if they approached Ch'lana together.

[Niil Spaar]

Niil looked over the training saber that Collan was working on, and his brows furrowed.  Okay, what was the issue with the saber?  The crystal's all right.  "Just bear with me for a sec.  I'm gonna work backwards on this."  With that, Niil carefully removed the power supply and did a bench test.  Good, no surges.  The circuit board that Collan had standing by also checked out.  Let's see, the emitter matrix is all right, and the crystal looks aligned . . . so what the hell is the problem here?

Niil stepped back, frowning.  What was the problem?  There was something off, but . . . wait a minute.  Niil stepped back, peering closer at the focusing area.  And smiled.  "I think I might see the problem here, Collan.  When you installed the electromagnetic containment field, you based it on the captured lightsaber, right?"

[Collan]

"Yeah. I figured I'd copy it outright and see how it went...but honestly...I'm not that technical," Collan admitted, "I lived in my head more than I've worked with my hands."

[Niil Spaar]

Niil grinned.  Well, that makes two of us.  The only reason I've got a wee bit of an edge is because I was checking out the Red Lady's lightsaber back on Karvis every chance I got.  That, and Master Dhoresh telling me all about the components."  A brief pang of sorrow struck Niil as he thought of the resistance there.

"See, one of the big differences between a training lightsaber and the real deal is the strength of the electromagnetic field used to contain the blade.  Training sabers need a stronger EM field so that the blades wont dice us into cubes when we spar with them."  Niil absently rubbed at his leg, and muttered, "Or accidentally tag ourselves with them.  The circuit board that's getting crisped is designed for a training saber's power demand, and so are the crystals.  Both are trying to compensate for a . . . umm . . . lightsaber blade at full power.  The circuit board did it's job as a fail-safe, though; no overload.  So, I guess the first thing we need to do is get a stronger EM field in place."

Niil looked at the training saber again, and peered closer at the crystal.  "I can't tell for sure if it's properly aligned; it looks all right."  Niil thought for a moment.  "What about using the Force to concentrate, like we did in our first lesson?  Once you get into that state, maybe try focusing solely on the crystal, and testing its alignment."

[Collan]

Collan shook his head, "I tried that. I can't sustain it long enough for it to help." [ooc: Craig said no to that]

"It looks like it should be correct. See here," Collan had turned down the blade power instead of amplifying the containment, "But, it feels like I need 3 or 4 hands to get it done. There's a multi-tuning process that seems to need to happen and I'm only getting half of it."

Collan added, "I'm at the point now where I need pointers. How are you doing?"

[Niil Spaar]

[OOC:  I have no idea.  I just said that I was taking 3 weeks to try and build a training saber.  Whether I succeeded or not . . .]

[Collan]

[ooc: yeah...craig, could we have stsrted building our sabers while we were training in control or would we have had to started afterwords?]

[GM Craig]

[DC 16 for a training sabre. The issue is tuning the mechanism so you build up a resonance without overpowering the containment field. Think of it as aligning two mirrors to set up a standing light save. The tuning must be precise. if you're off just a little, you won't get any coherence. Too close, and you'll blow everything up.

A real sabre is DC 20, and the job there is more difficult. You must "tune" or imbue a crystal with the force, which alters and cleans up it's resonance significantly. Tuning the hilt to reinforce that resonance without destroying everything is the reason for the difficulty. it takes a lot of trial and error to tune the mechanism, which is why it takes so long. Tiny, minor adjustments must be tested, re-tested, adjusted. You'd be discovering that there is more art to this process than science.]

[Niil Spaar]

Niil shrugged.  "I just have to find a good crystal.  Once I have that, I'll have to make a few tweaks to the crystal housing and I'm ready to give it a try.  The fun part's gonna be getting the resonance right."  Niil thought for a moment, then brightened.  "Tell you what . . . let's get the proper containment field installed in yours, and give it a shot.  I'll try work on the resonance, and you stand by to kill the power if I call out."

[GM Craig]

[OOC: One last thing - functionally, a training sabre is exactly the same as a full sabre. Technologically there is no difference. The only difference is that a training sabre uses an untuned or unimbued crystal. That makes the resonance 'dirty' for lack of a better word, so the best you can do is a non-lethal beam. In all other respects, it is identical in function and construction.

A full sabre has a crystal that has been tuned or imbued with the Force by the possessor. This significantly cleans up the resonance, making a much more cohesive (and deadly) blade. The lightsabre then functions as both a weapon and talisman for the wielder, allowing them to channel the Force through the blade, and add their control die to damage, and their sense die to attack and defence. Without a tuned crystal (or when using someone else's sabre) a Jedi is limited to how they can use the Force with their sabre.]

[Collan]

"Gotcha..." Collan plugged in the temporary power connections. He'd been using an external power source in place of the main battery to give him more working space.

"I wonder if adding an additional capacitance bridge would help? I can't have the many in the working model, but as a test, at least I know how much power I have to run," he pondered out loud, "The resonating field itself looks mathematically balanced. I'm more worried about blowing the boards when I turn it on."

Collan looked again, and hurriedly plugged in a few other components, "Forgot the power sinks...I don't want it to activate the emitter yet. Without the crystal, it'd definitely melt it."

[Niil Spaar]

Niil nodded, his attention riveted to the task at hand.  "Take your time; no rush on my part.  Just say when."

[Collan]

Collan picked up the tools and gingerly added an additional bridge. It wouldn't fit with the case (which was the same size as the saber Ch'lana gave him...so clearly there was something off), but it was a good place to start. Elements in place he gave a nod to Niil, who flipped power on.

Collan watched the power meters closely. Total load was correct before and after the bridges.

"All right...it looks like my power deliver issues are a function of too much going across the bridges I'd had. Well...that's the problem...now to figure out the solution," Collan nodded again to Niil to kill the power flow.

"So how do I get power across the bridges and not make the case bigger?"

[Niil Spaar]

Niil blew out his breath and shook his head.  "Too much power zipping through here . . . yeah, I don't think you'll get another bridge in there.  Too many bridges, and the power . . . wait a minute."  Niil backtracked to the power supply.  "Okay . . . what about tweaking the regulator on the power supply itself?  What's the base power reading on ignition, and what's the tolerance on the bridges?"

[Collan]

"Lemme see," Collan fiddled with it, frowning and then a look of realization, "I'm an idiot."

"Okay...it looks like it's sending a steady steady along a single wavelength. I completely screwed it up. It's creating spikes that are overheating...it's not the flow itself that's doing it. I'm going to have to take apart the connections and reset it completely."

Collan took out a datapad and quickly wrote some figures into it and began to manipulate numbers and images.

"Yeah...if I did a three-phase power transmission with slightly smaller wavelengths, it should deliver the right amount of power without the burnout...and I can pull some of the bridges out and still have plenty of redundancy."