[venkman71]

I have three of the incandescent kits and they're gorgeous. I haven't done any battery life tests yet but I tested one out and daaaaaaaaaaaamn it'e like velvet for your eyes.

[livewire008]

Turns out I am missing a part... the smaller aluminium side knob (part E-21 in the instructions). Of course, it's the only knob the shop here doesn't sell, haha. I'm not salty about it; I'll take one missing structurally non-essential part over several broken parts. Seems like I had pretty good luck with my kit.

So far, the defects haven't been anything I couldn't work around.. One of the holes in the N-Filter had a small chip in it. I filled it in with some bondo putty and painted over it. Probably the hardest thing has been getting the blue power cell window to fit... I didn't want to grind too much out of the cavity so I dremeled it as flat as I could and cut the blue lens down to fit.

I have some thinking to do about the trigger box... I'm not sure what I'm going to cut/sand down; the opening of the trigger box, or the piece its supposed to plug into, because my copies don't plug into each other the way it appears they are supposed to, and they don't overlap enough to just glue it as it.



The other outstanding issue I'm seeing is the clear wand tip doesn't fit down into the barrel of the wand. Am I missing a step here? Going by the instructions, it looks like it's just supposed to slide in + glue together.



Even if I could just glue it (which I can't because they *just* don't fit and there's no overlap for gluing) it's too long as is. Am I supposed to cut this down to the first recessed ring, or something?

[halliwax]

my buddy just got his delivered from anovos. i dont know if you guys are aware of the shipping issues anovos has had in the star wars community.. a lot of people paid years ago and havent received anything. my buddy is happy be bought this pack setup on black friday and it was delivered today.

i came on here searching for the spacer mounts that go between the frame and the pack. nick-a-tron use to make them but it seems he has retired? what a shame, wicked nice guy.

anyone have any sources for "hockey puck" Gb1 spacers? any advice is greatly appreciated

[twmedford23]

Karnivorous Creations

http://www.karnivorouscreations.com/?fb ... store/c2ck

[halliwax]

Karnivorous Creations

http://www.karnivorouscreations.com/?fb ... store/c2ck

Thank you very much!!

[livewire008]

In case anyone was wondering; my acrylic tube wouldn't fit into the barrel because upon closer inspection, it had a lot of "slop" around the cut line, and it was slightly warped so it wasn't even circular... I ground it out with a reamer, and cleaned that up with a round file. Perfect fit now.

The trigger box not fitting is still a real issue. I think I'm just going to kiss *a little* off the fitting sides on the instrument bar with a rotary tool, and it should friction fit nicely.

I have most of the kit painted/together that I can have together... aside from a couple pre-drilled holes not matching up (like the motherboard, and the wand base plate) I've very happy with this kit. Just waiting on a couple misc fittings (and my missing side knob from Anovos) and it'll be cosmetically finished. In the meantime, I can stare at it and think about how I'm going to mount the electronics.

If I was just putting the stock kit together and not replacing all the fittings and installing electronics, I'd be done already. Got it exactly a week ago and only worked about 2 hours a night on it.

my buddy just got his delivered from anovos. i dont know if you guys are aware of the shipping issues anovos has had in the star wars community.. a lot of people paid years ago and havent received anything. my buddy is happy be bought this pack setup on black friday and it was delivered today.

Your friend is extremely lucky... with the Black Friday code, he should have gotten this for about $620. I would have gladly paid the $20 extra not to have waited two years.

[mike_waclo]

Finally got my pack pretty much completed. I still need to replace the screws that hold the plate on the bottom of the thrower body, and I'm waiting on some vinyl decals from the GBfans store to arrive, but it's working and wearable. I upgraded the hat light lenses, and most of the colored tubing, but most of it is stock parts. I have the GBfans light/sound kit, but I put in a Pyle blue label 6" speaker, mounted behind the cyclotron, and pointed out the vent lines in the motherboard. I also added in the external charging port and master power switch from Rabid Prototypes, which I hid behind the HGA.

I may still swap out the fake "Anovos" Clippards for real ones at some point.







The biggest pain point by far, which I'd mentioned in another post, was drilling/dremeling out the lens area for the power cell. Some slightly misaligned holes, but nothing that really halted progress... The worst of it was the ones in the base of the thrower, but there's really only one screw that isn't fitting well... I just want to find some slightly larger ones that might grip a little tighter for durability. Overall though, for my first pack built, this was a really fun time, and I'm really pleased with the quality of everything.

[da_rambler20]

nicely done. how did you mount the electronics in the wand? I am doing the same set up.

I will start mine once Anovos gets around to sending me my replacement parts for broken pieces. Only been 2+ weeks now. Ridiculous.

[mike_waclo]

nicely done. how did you mount the electronics in the wand? I am doing the same set up.

Thank you!! I got a set of nylon standoffs on Amazon... http://a.co/d/glzozP7

I screwed four of those into the board, and a couple more onto the bar graph board, and then superglued the risers to the body, so they aren't permanent. The lights I attached into the hat light lenses with hot glue. For the barrel light, I wrapped the wires with some foam (from the same foam roll I used to pad the top bar of the Alice frame) to stuff it down the tube, but to still be able to remove if necessary. For the ear light and switch at the end of the barrel, I routed out a small channel for the wires to lead into a hole I drilled in the barrel, so those are pretty nice and hidden as well. I'll try to take some photos of that setup at some point.

I also used the same standoffs to mount the sound board and power cell lights inside the pack, as well as the speaker to the mother board... Though for that, I actually screwed through the motherboard, since the speaker is pretty heavy.

[twmedford23]

How exactly did you dremel out the power cell window? That's the last thing I need to do on my kit and have been dreading it. I'm not sure how to even get my dremel around that oddly placed mounting bracket. Fantastic results, by the way! I hope mine turns out as well as yours.

[mike_waclo]

How exactly did you dremel out the power cell window? That's the last thing I need to do on my kit and have been dreading it. I'm not sure how to even get my dremel around that oddly placed mounting bracket. Fantastic results, by the way! I hope mine turns out as well as yours.

Patience. And one of these... http://a.co/d/7I9ysu1

I wore out two of the grinding bits that came with my Dremel, and picked up this one for less than $7 on amazon, and it worked wonders. I went in from the front, after cutting starter holes at each corner with a drill. Then I just slowly worked from one end to the next, until the window rectangle was cut out.

After that, there wasn't anything close to a flat surface on the inside to attach the blue lens to, so I used the same bit to slowly grind away at the excess fiberglass, and some of the tops of the injector tubes, until there was room to get the lens plate in there. I never got it completely flat, but flat enough to get a few good surfaces to apply super glue to, and to not have any light leaking out around the sides when the power cell lights are on. Most slow and frustrating part of the whole build, but just take it carefully, and it'll come out all right.

[twmedford23]

Thanks a ton! I'll run by Lowe's tonight to grab one of those bits.

[dsource]

How exactly did you dremel out the power cell window? That's the last thing I need to do on my kit and have been dreading it. I'm not sure how to even get my dremel around that oddly placed mounting bracket. Fantastic results, by the way! I hope mine turns out as well as yours.

Patience. And one of these... http://a.co/d/7I9ysu1

I wore out two of the grinding bits that came with my Dremel, and picked up this one for less than $7 on amazon, and it worked wonders. I went in from the front, after cutting starter holes at each corner with a drill. Then I just slowly worked from one end to the next, until the window rectangle was cut out.

After that, there wasn't anything close to a flat surface on the inside to attach the blue lens to, so I used the same bit to slowly grind away at the excess fiberglass, and some of the tops of the injector tubes, until there was room to get the lens plate in there. I never got it completely flat, but flat enough to get a few good surfaces to apply super glue to, and to not have any light leaking out around the sides when the power cell lights are on. Most slow and frustrating part of the whole build, but just take it carefully, and it'll come out all right.

This is awesome, I came looking for the answer to the exact same question. Thank you.

[echo419]

Did I read correctly somewhere that there isnt an aluminium motherboard that will fit this pack? I'm going to get my CNC router setup next month, I'll try to make one for this pack and even for the spirit pack.

[da_rambler20]

I'd love a new motherboard for this thing. Is the MB supposed to be bigger than the actual shell or does it need to be trimmed down? Mine is definitely bigger than my shell.

[ccv66]

It's supposed be a tad bigger in places, however the plastic motherboard has few spots that aren't right. ( Might differ from pack to pack & I had an early one) I traced the anovos motherboard on aluminum and was about to cut but luckily I caught someone else's post complaining about it. Definitely had to put my shell on it and edit my trace marks

[livewire008]

It's supposed be a tad bigger in places, however the plastic motherboard has few spots that aren't right. ( Might differ from pack to pack & I had an early one) I traced the anovos motherboard on aluminum and was about to cut but luckily I caught someone else's post complaining about it. Definitely had to put my shell on it and edit my trace marks

I second this. I didn't have to do any trimming on mine, though... just had to fix a couple misaligned pre-drilled holes (also on the wand base plate). I wonder if this is another weird QC issue?

As far as a replacement goes, honestly, after much fretting, I think the MB they supplied will be fine. I seriously debated making a new out out of MDF, but after pseudo stress testing it, I'm confident if I use washers on the Alice stand offs, and keep as many of my drill holes as possible to the outside (away from the middle) it should take the weight. I just wish they hadn't cut this square "vent" hole in the thing... kinda boxes me in as far as how I was planning to mount the speaker...

Most slow and frustrating part of the whole build, but just take it carefully, and it'll come out all right.

Yeah, that wasn't fun. Should go without saying, but I'd recommend anyone yet to do this step wear a particle mask... fiberglass is about the worst thing you can possibly breathe.

I had quite a time trying to fit the blue lens, let alone the pack lights there since you also have to level off the space behind it.

How did you mount the light in your N filter and your wand Vent light? With no "infrastructure" to support them, I'm a little leary of just hot gluing them off to one side or the other.

[mike_waclo]

Yeah, that wasn't fun. Should go without saying, but I'd recommend anyone yet to do this step wear a particle mask... fiberglass is about the worst thing you can possibly breathe.

I had quite a time trying to fit the blue lens, let alone the pack lights there since you also have to level off the space behind it.

How did you mount the light in your N filter and your wand Vent light? With no "infrastructure" to support them, I'm a little leary of just hot gluing them off to one side or the other.

I definitely second the mask park... You'll be ripping up a lot of fiberglass and resin dust throughout... Don't be breathing that stuff.

The power cell lens was large enough, once I got it in there, that I glued the standoffs I attached to the light board directly to it, in each corner... Gave a very nice flat surface to attach to.

For the N-filter, I lined the inside with some lightweight white foam I found lying around... It was probably padding something that I'd had shipped to me at one point. Then I actually did just hot glue the wire for the light to the wall at the base of the cyclotron... It created enough of an angle in the wire that it floats pretty evenly in the middle of the N-filter opening. The foam is thin enough then that the light shows pretty well through the holes on the "vent" effect.



As for the wand vent light, I actually didn't end up attaching that to anything... I just kind of nested in within the rest of the wiring inside the pack body. It might not be movie-bright, but it shows up well enough when it's on. You can see how it's sitting in this picture, though I didn't have the pack fired up:



And as a follow-up to some earlier posts, here's a picture of my wand ear light & switch from behind. I'd still like to do some heat shrink to cover up the back of it at some point, but I'm very happy with how neatly I was able to run the wiring into the barrel tube, rather than having to route it down the exterior of the barrel.



You'd mentioned the MB vent hole... This is actually part of why I upgraded to the larger 6" three-way car speaker. Better sound than the GBfans store speaker, and it was just large enough to mount around the edges of that cutout. You can see the four black nylon screw heads that are holding the speaker in this shot.

[da_rambler20]

You have a link to the speaker you used?

[mike_waclo]

You have a link to the speaker you used?

Yep! I got this set: https://www.parts-express.com/pyle-pl63 ... r--267-082

$22 for a set of two wasn't bad at all... and there's definitely a wider range of sound from the three-way speaker than I was getting from the single speaker I'd first purchased with my light/sound kit.

[livewire008]

Very cool, and thanks for the info! Great job, man.

[livewire008]

Got this baby mostly together so I can show it off when the family comes over for the holiday tomorrow...



Just have to mount the Alice frame on the MB, and get the battery all nestled up inside... and get the missing side knob Anovos still owes me.



I've put all the decals on that I'm going to, for the moment... I'm holding out hope the metallic labels come back in stock at the store here. Haven't done much in the way of weathering... I think I'm going to wait until I have some actual dings/scratches to cover up and just enjoy the "fresh from the factory look" for a bit. I hollowed out the crank knob so I could drill/tap insert a set screw and mount it to a potentiometer to control the volume. Still on my to-do list, the mother board will include an aux jack, external charging port and an illuminated master power switch. Should be able to knock those out in an afternoon.

Things I upgraded;
Hat Lights/clip lights
Clippard Valves and brass fittings
Elbow fittings
GBfans lights/sounds
Aluminium trigger ring
PH-25 Resistor
Booster Ladder
Spongeface's Bar Graph bezel kit
Some of the body tubes were replaced with 1/8 tubing I had left over from my trap build.

I might upgrade the bellows at some point... they included a nice one but I don't trust myself to weather it.

Total investment; just shy of $1100. Not cheap, but still cheaper than buying a pre-built one, and I got to have all the fun of building it myself.

I documented everything pretty thoroughly, and I plan on doing a build thread/video at some point when I make sense of all the chaos. I just wanted to thank everyone on this forum for being so helpful- it was really inspiring to see what people had done with their packs, and to be able to cherry pick from so many great ideas to take my own pack to the next level.

[da_rambler20]

Well done. Look forward to your thread.

[MasterChief]

Looks good!

[echo419]

Anyone got any ideas to strengthen the joint where the front grip attaches to the thrower body? Seems pretty weak and could break easily.

[da_rambler20]

Would a strong epoxy work?

[echo419]

Yeah, seems like the easiest thing to do.

[twmedford23]

Here's where I'm at with my kit:



I swapped out most of stock parts with real, vintage ones: elbows, straights, crank knob, clippard valve, resistors, Spectra strip, Venky casted bellows, Umpco p clamp, with Joe Luna aluminum labels. I also replaced the tubing and ribbon cable clamp, and used Heavy Props' booster tube and ion arm end cap. I haven't yet started on the thrower.

[ccv66]

I replaced most the stuff too, it be nice if you could just order the shells, especially on the spenglar pack

[AJ Quick]

The GBFans Shop may be offering an aluminum motherboard for the ANOVOS shell soon. I found the acrylic one that was included to be very far off!