Single-Blade Flamberge w/ Bluetooth Color Changing

[Kouri]

First off, credit where do - inspiration for the bluetooth driver comes from JediXIX: http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=30735.0

Found a bulb that uses  the same app, so I figured it would have the same board. More or less, I was right - except my board didn't have any antenna wire. Fixed that during the build.

Tested the board and found it was running on a 7.4v power source and acted as a variable resistor for 8 LEDs. Well, since I'm only running four, I wanted to see if I could get it running on 3.7v so I could eliminate a few resistors.

Test was successful - some leftover US hilt components, one 18650 battery, one Obsidian v1 board, and one RGBW Cree XML later...

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzcyKLAhGEw" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzcyKLAhGEw</a>

Once the hilt was put back together,  I found out there was no range to the bluetooth signal (spotty connection even if I held the phone touching the hilt). Soldered a piece of wire to the antenna traces and ran it out the vented pommel. Now I've got color-changing range currently confirmed at 20ft+ (7m+).

[RevanReborn]

Unreal!  Props to both you and Jed!  I def remember when he did that, been wanting to mess with that but I'm not quite there yet.  SO wicked! 

 I'm sure this will be everywhere eventually- like I bet all the smiths/ boards will have wicked stuff like this, and by then they'll be set up like Pokemon go- only ultra sabers go, or whatever but you know what I mean lol!  They'll all work with an app so we'll be able to bring our sabers around town and when we randomly bump into one another, we can throw down, and all the swings, clashes, lockups etc will register on the app and we can check the leaderboards and creep on our friends etc- like people could look me up and see my stats etc., shoot they could give it gps and really set it off- "o looks like rev took his saber out for a walk today, let's see how he did.  (Pulls up google map) o shoot look, first he walked down Main Street and ran into Jed, and totally cut him down, then he went East onto 1st and bumped into D7, who put up a decent fight, but eventually got hacked to pieces, then LR and LC tried to join forces and ambush him on his way back downtown there, wow what a battle 10 lock ups!  Geez, he beat them too, can anybody stop this guy?!"  . He he

  ... ok maybe it wouldn't really be EXACTLY like that, and I'm probably getting carried away lol, but we all know this stuff is coming right?

[Hansrad]

Wow. That's a super cool function.

[Corwyn VonBeck]

Sweet! This is how all emerald should be! it would be easy to conceal an antenna right in the edge of the switch, in the bezel or something. Maybe even just attached to a screw on the body somehwere...

[hazard502]

What?  That's amazing - congrats on such an awesome customization Kouri!  And that Manticore emitter on the Flamberge lightsaber looks very nice as well. 

[Kouri]

Unreal!  Props to both you and Jed!  I def remember when he did that, been wanting to mess with that but I'm not quite there yet.  SO wicked! 

 I'm sure this will be everywhere eventually- like I bet all the smiths/ boards will have wicked stuff like this, and by then they'll be set up like Pokemon go- only ultra sabers go, or whatever ...

We're kind of half-way there. The top-of-the-line NEC board can be hooked up to a wireless daughterboard that'll transmit saber telemetry to another system that'll handle playing the appropriate saber sounds on a designated saber system. Most of the PL boards have contacts for a RICE port, but those same contacts can be hooked into a bluetooth module for debugging with the mobile app.

And then there's the nutty stuff from the guys whipping up custom boards.

Sweet! This is how all emerald should be! it would be easy to conceal an antenna right in the edge of the switch, in the bezel or something. Maybe even just attached to a screw on the body somehwere...

Yeah, if I wanted, I could probably drill a couple of holes and run the wire along that engraved detail at the switch - but as it is now, it's super-simple to get at the rest of the electronics for testing and battery replacement.

What?  That's amazing - congrats on such an awesome customization Kouri!  And that Manticore emitter on the Flamberge lightsaber looks very nice as well. 

Yeah, I had the hilt leftover since I really only wanted the Flamberge crossguard adapter, and the Manticore emitter was one of the few that didn't look bad with the wider-than-standard Flamberge body.

[Garou_of_Kar]

Oh

My

God.

Take my money!

[Lord Canterbury]

Once the hilt was put back together,  I found out there was no range to the bluetooth signal (spotty connection even if I held the phone touching the hilt). Soldered a piece of wire to the antenna traces and ran it out the vented pommel. Now I've got color-changing range currently confirmed at 20ft+ (7m+).

Nice work!  +1.

What you said here - that's the main reason it doesn't exist yet.  The aluminum hilt acts as a Faraday Cage and the remote signal just bounces right off it - so it needs an external antenna.

For it to be durable enough, the antenna would need to be designed into some kind of greeblie on the hilt - like the bits & bobs on a Menace.

Once that happens - look out! 

[JediXIX]

Good stuff Kouri, if I don't say so myself   . . . +1


I did find that if the end of the antenna wire is right at one of the openings in a vented pommel the bluetooth range works ok up to about 30cm . . . I guess it depends on how far away you'd want to connect . . . and of course Lord C is right about the aluminium hilt interference, will be interesting to see how the future unfolds 


Mine is setup with 7.4v and a BuckPuck before the bluetooth driver board, and I also tested it with 4x AAA 6v, with a standard US 2ohm resistor, worked fine . . . did you use any resistors with your one 18650 battery ? or just straight into the VIN ? . . .

[Kouri]

Take my money!

I've had my fun, so this'll probably wind up on eBay after a few more tests...

The aluminum hilt acts as a Faraday Cage and the remote signal just bounces right off it - so it needs an external antenna.

For it to be durable enough, the antenna would need to be designed into some kind of greeblie on the hilt - like the bits & bobs on a Menace.

Yeah, once I've replaced the board and hooked in a recharge port so this thing doesn't have to be opened again, I'm planning on drilling a couple of holes in this hilt and running the antenna down one of the grooves machined next to the switch hole.

Mine is setup with 7.4v and a BuckPuck before the bluetooth driver board, and I also tested it with 4x AAA 6v, with a standard US 2ohm resistor, worked fine . . . did you use any resistors with your one 18650 battery ? or just straight into the VIN ? . . .

I'm personally not a fan of pucks on muti-die LEDs since the puck limits current to 1000mA, and most of these color combos can be ran at 2000mA+. Rather than use resistors, though, I just added some extra diodes in series to drop the voltage to a safe level for each LED. Diodes just on the LED wires - Obsidian still gets full voltage from the battery - though on newer Obsidian boards, you'll lose volume on anything under 5v.

Green on the XML had a rated max of 3.9v, which is close enough to the ~4v of a fresh 18650 that I don't worry about it - wired straight to power.

Blue, White, and Red share a 0.3v diode on the positive line. That's enough to keep Blue and White happy.

Red gets another ~1v diode on the negative line leading back to the board.

Board has four positive contacts for each LED, but it's a bit redundant - it's actually a shared positive line. I'm planning on taking advantage of this to get flicker-on-impact from an economy board in my next test.

[Kouri]

Electronics are done, just need to tackle a few aesthetic details.

Using a BladeBuilder board with 8ohm 1W speaker - louder than the Obsidian v1 on a single cell, and now I've got a flicker on impact.

Also threw in a color-matching crystal pommel. Lights up when the kill key is pulled, regardless of blade ignition.

Antenna wires running along some of the hilt grooves.

[Kouri]

Updated video:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jC1WIOaut4" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jC1WIOaut4</a>

[Jediseth]

Impressive, most impressive indeed.

[Corwyn VonBeck]

That is fantastic! great work Kouri!+1

[Taegin Roan]

Wow, this is amazing. Well earned point to you.