Off target lights in Saber

[Kemijaba]

From time to time within my club during practice saber bouts, I have noticed one of the fencers will occassionally register an off target light at the finish of an action. I am not exactly certain what causes this and was wondering if any of you do, I believe it has something to do with the bell and grounding out of some sort, but I am not an armourer, so I am not sure. Any help would be appreciated.

[Inquartata]

The only time I've ever seen off-target lights in sabre is when the socket isn't grounded ( and then the light keeps going off, it doesn't happen only when you hit ), or when there's a problem with the constancy of the circuit---ie a loose fit between socket and body-cord plug or an intermittent connection somewhere in the body cord itself...

[KShan5[PrFC]]

If he is fencing two prong.....

Have him expand the prongs to make a better connection, or wiggle the body chord at the socket to see if there is a loose connection in the wire.

[Kemijaba]

Hmm interesting, I think it may be along the lines of what you said in terms of the socket Inquartata. The club uses bayonet sockets, and instead of buying complete electrics, our armourer converted dry sabers into electrics, so its quite possible somethings wrong in there(hehe thank god i have my own equipment), I will take a few apart new practice to check them out. Thanks guys.

[Peach]

It's most probably not a problem with the weapon, because a dry sabre and an electric sabre are identical except for one simple piece. All you do to convert a dry sabre to electric is slip a socket onto the tang. It's more probably a body cord problem--that's what it usually is.

[DHCJr]

I believe he mentioned bayonet, which I assume means Leon Paul or one of the copies. To convert a Leon Paul Foil connector to a sabre connector is more difficult to do than an equivalent 2-prong connector. Most just put the wire under the screw and wrap it around the base. Unless you make a more permanent connection, i.e. solder the wire to the base of the connector, you will have the problem describe.

There is another alternative as I suggested in " 2-Prong Mr.Chen Body Cord Experience? ", get a Leon Paul Sabre connector.

[Peach]

ah, you're right--I keep forgetting about bayonet.

[KShan5[PrFC]]

My friend grounded my sabre differently(bayonet) and I am not quite sure how he did it. He bent the extra piece off of teh bayonet socket where you usually attach the grounding wire, tehn taped the top and sides of the bayonet socket and bent it so it was touching the bell. Dunno how it works, but it does.

[neevel]

Originally posted by KShan5[PrFC]
My friend grounded my sabre differently(bayonet) and I am not quite sure how he did it. He bent the extra piece off of teh bayonet socket where you usually attach the grounding wire, tehn taped the top and sides of the bayonet socket and bent it so it was touching the bell. Dunno how it works, but it does.

By breaking off the plastic nib beneath the tab, and then bending the tab back so it's in contact with the bracket, the B (tab) and C (bracket) lines are shorted together. The problem is making sure that the tab is held in constant contact with the bracket-- that's almost certainly what the tape is for. Soldering the bent-over tab to the bracket would be a much better solution than the tape.

-Dave