Saber Forum

I have several UltraSabers, but have always gone with the Diamond Controller. In my research, it seems like the Diamond setup has everything US has to offer in terms of features. It never occurred to me to ask before, but I'm wondering if there is a reason to go with a different setup other than Diamond beyond the additional cost?

I've noticed a couple different options and some additional available LED colors for an "Emerald with sound" setup for instance. After selecting similar options to Diamond however, the difference in price is negligible; like maybe $20.

Diamond all the way.
Emerald if you are not good with computers.
My first saber was a mystery box. I got an emerald controller with v3 sound. I loved it, for a week. Then my diamond saber arrived and my emerald saber has been collecting dust ever since.
 Everyone NEEDS a diamond saber. There really is no comparison in my opinion.

Thanks KaiserSosay :)

I figured that was the case, but never really discussed it with anyone and haven't seen a thread debating it.

Customization is important to me, as you know. I like to change fonts, make new ones, change blade colors, sync LED effects with sound fonts, etc. When I bought that first Archon v3.1 a little over a year ago, it appeared that only a Diamond setup would allow me to do all of that.

(I'm ordering a Dark Graflex, and thought I would ask the question before doing so)

The gesture recognition is a bit tricky to program (honestly, my saved gestures effects is turned off most of the time) but I prefer it to the emerald immensely. With Emerald, you can change colors but have to connect to a computer to do so. With Diamond, you can pre-program up to 15 (or maybe 16, I forget which) fonts with colors and switch between them in seconds without any additional equipment. I have two Saviors, one in Emerald, and one in Diamond and I infinitely prefer the diamond one. It's just so much easier in my opinion.

The emerald controller let's you pick  two colors for the blade. You can change the speed they alternate and blend at. That is all. The cycling of the colors does not react to any movements. Just two main colors and you might get a few more colors during the transition if you really slow it down.
 Flash on clash gives you one more color to pair with one of the main colors you already selected.
It is just my opinion but if all you know is Diamond,  the emerald controller will disappoint you.

 That being said, emerald is what I have been giving to my niece and nephews.  The emerald is great for people who what to dip a toe in to a customizable saber. It is easy to learn and program.
The diamond controller  can be very frustrating to program when you first get started. As you know well, it is insanely fun to program once you know what you are doing. I'm still impressed by all the colors you packed into one swing of your Hardwired font.

   Hey, Lady Revan congratulations on your raffle win!

Thanks! :D Raffle is my Diamond Flamberge! So far rocking 3 diamonds. Savior, Butcher, and Flamberge V2
But yeah, once you do diamond you'll never want to go back.

Can't  argue with a lady!  Diamond all the way.

There are several reasons to not want a Diamond saber, besides price. Some people have no interest in color changing sabers, they just want single color sabers, with or without sound. Some people aren't keen on how you have to rotate the saber to cycle through fonts. And, there's one advantage to Emerald that actually makes Ultrasabers unique among saber smiths: you can get a color changing saber without sound. You don't have to get an Emerald and an Obsidian, you can get one or the other. Some people don't actually like sound sabers.

Now, if you want color changing and sound, Diamond makes the most sense. You get more fonts and other features, including up to 3 different colors per font. With Emerald, you have to plug it into the computer to change colors. And, on the subject of computers, the mini USB that Obsidian and Emerald use doesn't play nice with all builds of Windows 10. (the build on my computer, for example) Diamond, on the other hand, uses a micro USB, which uses the USB 3.0 standard, which is much more Windows 10 friendly. So, for those reasons, Diamond makes more sense than Emerald and Obsidian.

I personally don't own any Diamond sabers and likely never will, but I'm also a DIY person. Ultrasabers doesn't sell a DIY version of the Diamond board.

You can actually have more than 3 colors per font, but you can only choose 3 when you order My sakura pink font, for example, has the pink idle color, lavender power up and power down, a darker shade of purple for FoC, and crimson Stab. You can also program gesture effect colors within the same font, add a pulse color to your idle blade color, and a few other options. Made a font a couple of days ago with DVA power up/down, SD to AB pulse, and AS FoC. From your description of what you want to do, Diamond seems a better choice than emerald.

I don't want to do any of it, I was pointing out reasons to pick one or the other. As I said, if you want sound and color changing, Diamond is the way to go. Emerald + Obsidian doesn't really make sense anymore, since they released Diamond. However, the Emerald controller without the Obsidian board still has merits.

I am aware. "Your" was referring to the Orginal poster's (Dark Path Media) second post. Should have been a seperate line. I apologize for the confusion. It's 5:15 AM.

Ah, gotcha. No harm, no foul.

I don't have direct experience with the Diamond controller, but it has all the advantaged.  Its even easier on the batteries, since its just one card instead of two as you have in the Emerald/Obsidian setup.  I no longer have my Emerald saber, it had become a shelf queen because it was very hard to program and swap light colors with.  Which was the reason I got it in the first place.  At some point I will be getting a Diamond, I just haven't built up the necessary funding.  :-)

Just need an appropriate hilt for it.   Probably a Dorian....   

Thanks Lady Revan. I'm very familiar with the Diamond Controller and like it a lot. The truth is, I'm not at all familiar with any of the other options, so I appreciate the input on Emerald. You can load 16 fonts on the Diamond board now, which is a feature I really enjoy. As someone who enjoys making fonts and enjoys fonts made by others, I have a ton of them, and I like to have unique lighting effects for each; especially the music-based fonts.

Connecting to a computer isn't a big deal, and I actually find the UltraSabers Launcher software to be quite easy to work with. It doesn't get a lot of love outside of this community, but the process is substantially more intuitive than pulling out SD cards and manipulating text files IMO. I really like to see the changes in real time, and as glitchy as bluetooth interfaces are, I actually prefer the reliability of a physical USB connection.

Forgot to reply to this. I agree mostly. The gestures have been easy enough to program for me, but getting them to consistently trigger has been a little sketchy. I think it's just a matter of playing around with sensitivity settings relative to how complex the gesture movement is - but - that can't be done in real time. I suppose in the end, I just need enough time and patience to dial it in.

Thanks scifidude79. You are right of course. If you don't want / need the ability to change blade colors on the fly, don't need sound, don't need to change fonts, etc., there would be no reason to go with the Diamond Controller.

I should have been more specific, as I do enjoy all of that immensely. My primary inquiry had to do with Diamond vs Emerald w/Sound on comparably equipped sabers otherwise. I just grabbed a Dark Graflex, and ultimately went with Diamond. However, I had it configured with Emerald with many of the same options and in the end; it was only about $20 cheaper than the Diamond configuration. That seemed odd to me.

Yeah, in that context, Diamond all the way. If I could afford one, a Diamond Dark Graflex would be on my shopping list, as opposed to the stunt I'll likely buy and upgrade later. ;)

Plenty of reasons. Maybe you don't want to change colors at all, or are only interested in 1 or 2, maybe to make a single saber be able to work as a Jedi or Sith saber. In which case quick disconnects is a more cost effective option, if all you want is the ability to change from blue to red. Maybe you just want a cheap stunt saber you can practice spinning, dueling, or choreography with and not worry about dropping it on the ground or accidentally smashing a $600 saber into a tree or something hard because it flies out of your hand while practicing(I have a nice silver gouge in my Dark Sentinel's pommel where just this happened and it landed smack in the middle of the driveway). Maybe technology intimidates you and you just want a simple "press to turn on/press again to turn off" setup. You're buying it for a kid, in which case you apply the same logic as with the "beater saber. Maybe you're looking to wire the saber up DIY, in which case Diamond controllers aren't available.

Personally I'm not terribly interested in one, because I don't like messing with sound fonts and all that, I've never even plugged my sound sabers into a computer, and I've had them both for years now. I only really cycle through on my DS to go from "Blackstar" to the "blank" font and back again, the other ones may as well not even exist. I can see myself getting frustrated with the gesture control and simply setting it to one color/font combo and leaving it, which pretty much negates the point of even having Diamond in the first place. Basically I'm the "intimidated by technology" person I mentioned above, I want simple on and off.

I might pick the Emerald Driver because that seems less frustrating for me to work with, and I'm not terribly worried about changing things on the fly, I'd rather plug in and do it, than mess with things like "gesture control" that are bound to frustrate me more than anything. I know myself, I have an iPhone 6S partially because I hate Bluetooth headphones and don't want to mess with adapters. It took me a few months to even set up the fingerprint scanner.

The Diamond controller is like $40.00 or so more than the Emerald. I like the Emerald but I like space more and the micro-USB port versus the outdated mini-USB port on the Emerald card.  I also like the fact that changing LED color or sound plugs into one port on the Diamond since the soundcard is built in versus the Emerald has a separate port for the actual LED and one for the Obsidian card since both cards are separate.  The Emerald driver with sound can take a lot of space and won't fit in older model sabers.  It's still a good driver and if you want to save a few bucks, go for it.  The Diamond would be my choice between the two

Yeah Infinit01, that's part of what was confusing to me. The price difference is negligible. Not that $40 is nothing, but when you're up above the $500 mark, $40 doesn't mean much. Based on that, I had to wonder if the feature set was completely different and didn't want to discount it.

The biggest thing for me (comparing my two Saviors because I have one Diamond and one Emerald) is the ability to switch quickly between colors. I like to change colors a lot, sometimes to fit my role in a choreography practice better, so needing to connect to a computer is a huge slowdown, especially since I'm on the move a lot with my sabers. That alone makes the difference to me, personally.