This is a quick review of my Obsidian soundboard. I’m going to make it a pretty no-frills affair.
I’ll start off by saying this is a POSITIVE review. I plan to order more of these (pending sound fonts) and my overall experience was positive. Also as a reference I used all MHS parts except the Obsidian. My wiring consisted of a series of quick connects, a 3.7 Li-Ion battery with charge port, a green rebel star LED, TCSS momentary push button (standard style) and a TCSS speaker.
I’m a casual DIY sabersmith. I discovered the hobby in February of this year and have built 3 sabers so far with another in the planning stages. I’m no expert, not by a long shot, and all the talk of MA’s and voltage and everything is about a mile over my head. I like things simple.
I ordered Obsidian the weekend of July 4th. It arrived about a week later and the box was pretty banged up. The UPS guy (who happened to be my dad) told me it was in that condition when he got ahold of it that day. I was concerned my new board was already broken but thankfully everything was fine. I order a LOT of things online, and a huge amount of it is shipped through UPS and my packages rarely ever arrive damaged, but for future orders I would really like the option to ship via USPS instead.
Upon opening the box I was a little surprised to see Obsidian in a fairly ratty plastic bag with no instructions or even a thank you card. I don’t imagine a black and white sheet of paper with a wiring schematic with a little receipt would increase the cost too much, but whatever.
My internet was down that day and I didn’t have access to the forum so it sat on my counter until the next afternoon.
Once a wiring guide was available I had everything soldered and functional within 1 hour. One hour! I’m not much for soldering and/or wiring and most of this stuff is Greek to me, so it’s really saying a lot that I was able to get this thing going within one hour. The wiring harness was a truly great idea and one I hope will catch on with other boards. The thought of wiring directly to any board, especially an expensive one, is pretty much a deal breaker to me and that was a huge amount of Obsidians appeal.
Having all of the wires concentrated at a single part of the board made things a bit confusing at first but I adapted quickly. Having them all together also helps to keep the wiring clean and simple and is ideal for a cramped saber design. If it had wires streaming out of every side it would have simply been too big and bulky for my saber.
On that note, I’ll post a series of pics showing Obsidian inside my saber.
First is the saber itself.
It is 12” long from tip to tip. It is constructed mainly out of TCSS “choke” parts that have an inner diameter of only .8”. The main body part is a 3” double female extension that only had 2” of usable space thanks to the chokes that surround it. Here is cutaway view of the inside of the saber:
This thing has been a nightmare for electronics. The only board that would fit is the Hasbro econo board, and it barely fit and was often breaking connections and coming loose. The Obsidian, however, fits PERFECTLY inside with absolutely no issues.
I’m able to put the battery inside the choke, and was able to upgrade from a short 3.6v Li-Ion to a larger (and far better) 3.7 since I didn’t have additional transistors or voltage regulators to deal with anymore. Obsidian is so thin and narrow that I have no problems getting it to sit behind the switch. Here is a blurry pic of that:
The sound on this thing is brilliant. Crisp, as loud as you can possibly want and the adjustable volume settings are easy to use and extremely handy. I have a small chamber for my speaker at the pommel of my saber but it isn’t that efficient. The obsidian sounds amazing regardless.
The ability to change the volume of each sound is very cool. For future versions I would appreciate the inclusion of a single volume bar that can turn every sound up or down at once. I often work on my sabers in my kitchen or living room at night while my girlfriend (and dog) sleeps. I wish there was a quicker way to take advantage of the adjustable volume and put it in a sort of “quiet mode” for times like this. However the ability to load themes, each with their own settings (including volume) and fonts, makes this possible but in a slightly more roundabout way.
I’ve used this board in 3 extensive dueling sessions so far, each with my girlfriend who is VERY rough on sabers. She’s always full speed and always swings for the fences. After my second duel I thought I had broken it. I kept frantically mashing the switch and felt like crying! I was able to get it to a well lit area and dissembled everything and noticed one of the quick connects on the board had come loose. At first I felt… well, a bit annoyed. I felt like these connections weren’t secure enough or would pop off every time I used it. Then I noticed my blade holder had become partially unscrewed in my previous battle. This caused the heatsink to lurch forward, which popped the connection loose. While keeping my comments about the MHS parts to myself (grumble) the Obsidian handled this situation PERFECTLY. What if this had been my old econo board? Or one of the other sound board options? The wire would have broken loose, requiring either a new wire or soldering, or it would have damaged or possibly completely broken the board. The quick connect SAVED my soundboard, and at that moment I honestly felt like I had a true gem in my hands.
People say this isn’t really for the DIY crowd. I honestly don’t understand that. This thing is so, so user friendly in every possible respect. The help file is extensive, the customer support has been great so far, the wiring is simple, the program is straightforward and will only get better with later versions.
This board is an exciting move in the right direction. It’s a definite jump forward in the world of custom Lightsaber technology and I am completely satisfied with my purchase and eager to see how everything evolves. I’ll be buying more as soon as more fonts start to roll out.
