I think I've come upon an innovation!

[Xorren Hedrasii]

Let me start by saying that other than a class I'm taking at school (Digital Electronics) I have NO experence with electronics WHAT SO EVER. That being said i have an idea! You electroincs masters will have to back me up on this if I'm right. Rubies had plastic sabers that had a compact flashlight like thing in the end of them that allowed the blades to light up, while still being fully retractable. It used two AA batteries. The light in mine went out, so i took it apart to see what was wrong.(Turns out the batteries were dead) Anyway being the piece of crap it is the whole assembly fell apart. I took the lens and lightbulb and reflector out of the piece and noticed that its a rather simple connection to the batteries and the contacts. It looks like you could fit a light about the size of a GM brakelight into it. It also appears that with some simple modification to the contacts and whatnot that you could run some type of something off that. So with all that talking I've said basically nothing, therefore I'll cut to the chase. Is there anything that would even work off one of these assemblies or a modification of it?

[Leda EmBorr]

Anything... like what? Lightsaber related?

I think what you're asking here is what else can the guts of a Rubies lightsaber be used for... am I right?

[Jeffrek]

Those cheap sabres are essentially torches (flashlights to you )

They have batteries, a bulb and a switch, thats it. As for fitting other bulbs in instead, remember your batteries are 3v so you need a suitable bulb for that voltage. You couldnt use a car tailight bulb as they are designed for a 12v supply. Running one at 3v will make it so dim if it lights it up at all.

As you've pointed out already the internals are of a very low quality so using them in some other sabre would be a waste of time as you might as well use decent quality components like switches and have reliability and durability.

If your talking about fitting different stuff into the cheap plastic hilt then thats upto you. Personally I wouldnt bother as you would have a cheap looking plastic lightsabre, no matter what cool internals it had.