Suggestions for Emerald v2

[maxjive]

Well, since the v4 Obsidian is being tested, and to great acclaim, it is only natural to think about improvements to the Emerald LED Driver.  I have the Guardian w/ Emerald, and I absolutely love the level of customization it provides, like shimmer, FoC control, and not being locked into any one blade color for too long.  I'll throw out one or two suggestions for the team, and if you have any more, please leave them in a reply below!

1. Ramp up (Fade) ON/OFF.  As it currently stands, the LED just turns on or off with ignition, but it would be cool if we could control the ramp speed of the illumination (separate from pulsing).  With that said, I am very happy with the blade light/sound syncing in the current setup, it looks very natural.

2. Fix for the brief flashing that occurs at the beginning and end of the 4th pulse setting (with Pulse Enabled).  My LED has a fast flicker right at the initiation of that  4th phase and again at the end of it.  It's not noticeable at faster flicker rates (0,.02,.06, etc.), but if you increase the time to 1-2 sec during the four phases, #1-3 are smooth, but in #4 there's flicker at the beginning and end.  Anyone else notice this?  Please investigate it you have an Emerald Driver for me!.  **I'd include a video of the flicker I see, but it doesn't show up on film**

3. This is a big one.  The next version of the driver should include multiple LED/Configuration settings slots, so that they could be both paired with sound font slots on the Obsidian Soundboard, as well as, selected from in the configuration menu on the saber.  The LED settings could either be accessed through the AV switch (menu cycling) or through saber clashes.  Each impact could be used to cycle to the next preset color in the configuration menu.  Either way, changing colors on the fly would be awesome!  As insinuated in the first sentence, pairing the configurations settings with the sound font slots would be another great improvement.  As it currently stands, if you had Lockup Flash initiated in the configuration of one sound font (saber lockup), but not in another (music, blaster, force, etc.), you have to separately adjust the configuration settings every time.  If it could be tied to a particular sound font preset, that would be best (am I missing a reason why this is not currently the case?).

Thanks

[JediXIX]

Points maxjive 

Fade in and out control would be great, and combining with v4 obsidian to have a different colour set for each sound bank would be "perfection" 
A rainbow in one saber  ..... Ultrasabers could call it "UltraRGB", pre-load Jedi / Sith colour settings with Jedi / Sith sound fonts for the "Ultimate" RGB saber straight out of the box, and then we could modify as we wish..... I'm guessing this is in development, its just too good an idea not to do, lol...... 

[Relan Tarel jedi kinght]

I agree with most of those suggestions.
I would say that the color selections would be done via an aux switch

[jfusco]

I thought about pairing color settings with sound banks as well. The only hitch I could see is that the sound board and the LED driver are discreet components (they're not connected to each other). There would have to be some method of getting them to signal each other.

Being able to have color banks might be easier but the method for changing color banks would have to be worked out.

-- Joe (Lentic Arbiter)

[Roband]

POints to Jive for the suggestions, and Points to Jfusco for the explanation on the Osidian/Emerals relationship...

I'm guessing that getting the sound and LED to "talk" to each other, is in the works, but in order to keep the components functional by themselves, AND costs down it will take a bit of develoment, and both  the emerald and the obsidian will need an update for this. From what I've seen, Emery is not one to "rest on his laurels" and as awesome as the current Obsidian/Emerald are, I;m sure he is already working on how to take them to teh next level.

[Sarich Belmont]

Everything being described has been done, just with other sound boards. If US does combine the Emerald and Obsidian together, that would put them exactly level with their competition, which is a great thing.

[Groovidad]

Everything being described has been done, just with other sound boards. If US does combine the Emerald and Obsidian together, that would put them exactly level with their competition, which is a great thing.

Once again, true that!

[Roband]

Although I have seen other boards that can swap color settings along with a sound font "on the fly"; I don't think I've seen any other saber maker (much less at a comparable price point) with an LED driver that allows you to customize exactly which RGB variables you want for your blade colors... only ones with 2 predetermined color selections and (maybe) a third "flash on Clash"

[Sarich Belmont]

That's how it was with one sound board, but every single sound board on the market today has 100% RGB color mixing as an option. I won't name any other brands, but trust me, it was already done by several years before Ultrasabers did it.

Sent from my HTC VLE_U using Tapatalk

[Roband]

That's how it was with one sound board, but every single sound board on the market today has 100% RGB color mixing as an option. I won't name any other brands, but trust me, it was already done by several years before Ultrasabers did it.

Sent from my HTC VLE_U using Tapatalk

After searching a little more extensively; you are correct. I was able to find two saber manufacturers that offer it as an option on their $800+ sabers and one parts manufacturer that makes $300 circuit boards (at the current exchange rate) that offer those features.

I was unable to find features comparable to an Obsidian/Emerald saber at a price point anywhere near Ultrasaber's though.

[Groovidad]

After searching a little more extensively; you are correct. I was able to find two saber manufacturers that offer it as an option on their $800+ sabers and one parts manufacturer that makes $300 circuit boards (at the current exchange rate) that offer those features.

I was unable to find features comparable to an Obsidian/Emerald saber at a price point anywhere near Ultrasaber's though.

This is a topic worth researching. There are boards that do everything, and some for $115.  The issue comes when you need to acquire the skill set to do the work yourself.  U.S. Is definitely the most affordable yet, if you can manage a soldering iron and perform the work, you can realize a build that is UBER!

[Sandtracker]

The competition sound boards range from $65-$150, roughly. Just trying to give information.

[Sarich Belmont]

I do apologize for how strong I came off, this hobby is my second passion (next to cooking). I think the point I was trying to make was that if US really wanted to combine the Emerald and Obsidian together, they could very easily, as it has been done quite successfully many times before.

[Schtuperman]

May as well toss in a couple of my suggestions:

** Ramped LED power up/down (user selectable) to mimic a blade extending/retracting.

** Ability to add more steps to the pulse mode & a "Random" pulse setting so it wouldn't be so mechanical.

[Groovidad]

May as well toss in a couple of my suggestions:

** Ramped LED power up/down (user selectable) to mimic a blade extending/retracting.

** Ability to add more steps to the pulse mode & a "Random" pulse setting so it wouldn't be so mechanical.

The way I'm currently seeing this issue, it's truly all about game.  The one that stays ahead of the development curve, garners the patronage!  Just my take.