Power converter / Legends A power converter is the generic name for any device which converts power ( presumably electrical charge ) from one mode to another . A power converter is used to take power input from a source in one form and output it into another form , more useful to the task at hand . This can take many forms , such as tapping the main municipal power supply of a locality , which is likely to be extremely powerful - or else weaker than needed - and converting it to a form which could be used for taking the power produced by a vehicle ' s power plant and converting it to operate the vehicle ' s systems , such as display panels or engines . Appliance example . Squat green and orange boxes with power couplings on top could often be found in Rebel and Imperial holdings , both starships , smaller vehicles ( such as AT - ATs ) , and installations and structures , throughout and after the Galactic Civil War . These whole devices were effectively nothing but power converters and capacitors ; the green boxes restored energy to a personal energy shield ( and presumably other devices which ran on the same modal energy , since Kyle Katarn was the only known user of such a device during those times , ) while the orange boxes were apparently capable of transforming the energy from their internal capacitor into a form usable by many weapons , including blaster pistols and rifles ( the energy from which was apparently usably interchangeably on some models , such as the Bryar pistol ( and presumably the rifle variant ) , BlasTech DL - 44s , E - 11s , to esoteric weapons such as Bowcasters and Stouker Concussion Rifles , despite the ammunition supply for such weapons not being interchangeable once converted to that weapon ' s supply . These boxes were certainly capacitors , given their limited storage capacity , and they apparently transformed energy from the mains source which they tapped very slowly , given that they never re - charged during the limited time during which they were visited by Kyle Katarn or Jaden Korr . It is possible they were recharged by the Gonk or EG6 power droids which roamed the facilities in question , which is a hypothesis which gains credibility given that many such units were located in natural locales in which they could have been tranported by labor droids or laboring humanoids , but which were almost certainly not hooked up to mains power . They were also certainly transformers , given their ability to supply a broad range of weapons and defensive devices , and presumably other equipment of the sort which neither Kyle Katarn nor Jaden Korr carried with them . Vehicular example . This bank of power converters was the ignition system for a starship . It converted energy from the ship ' s primary power source to its propulsion units to achieve thrust . Power converters had a power supply unit and a circuit inside the unit which regulated the current of electricity . The circuit traveled extremely fast , regulating the current so that the power converter could stabilize it to a selected voltage . The current would then be sent directly to the engine . Without it , the engine for the starship would be fried instantly when someone would try to turn it on . Behind the scenes . Power converters in the " Star Wars " universe appear to serve the same purpose as in the real world .