When will we get updates on the Diamond Controller requests?

[Isola815]

Isola, did you update the firmware on your saber itself?

Uh, yeah. Not my first rodeo

[cimredopyh]

I too am kinda disappointed that express doesn't have the 4th channel  so doing foc is kinda weird not having the white led. perhaps a mini update is needed to add the 4th channel.

Everything else is a welcome change.  Although i don't seem to have the same issues about reconnecting.  Perhaps due to my diamond controller being newer but i doubt that has anything to do with it.

[skribs]

Uh, yeah. Not my first rodeo

Ask the dumbest question first to get it out of the way, instead of assuming that the other person did that task and coming back after hours of troubleshooting to realize that something simple would have fixed it.

Like the old story about the guy trying to troubleshoot why his computer won't turn on, and after 10 minutes the technician asks the guy to unplug and re-plug in the computer, and he goes to get a flashlight to see the wires because the power's out.

[RSX Engineering]

Hi guys!

First of all I have to thank you all for your reviews, both positive and negative: they all helped. If after the recent update Diamond has become a better saber than it was before, this is mainly because of you taking the time to tell everybody what you like and don't like about it. Massive thanks for this!!!

Now let me shed some light on the dark side of the Express Font Wizard: it builds fonts based on your color options and some templates. White does NOT define color, only Red, Green and Blue, so this is the reason why you don't have a "LED4" slider in the color selector. However, WHITE IS USED on the fonts created by the express wizard, to control the light intensity (not the color!) on most effects. What White does to each effect is defined by the underlying templates, but if you want it to do something else then you can just edit the effects generated by the express wizard. Yes, if you want advanced control then you'll have to use the advanced wizard, but at least with Express you don't start from scratch. Same goes for pulse timing.

As for quick reconnect: it only works when you reconnect. Each time you start the Launcher, on the first connection it will take longer than on subsequent reconnects, because the software has to know what's on the internal memory of the Diamond Controller in order to allow you to edit. So if you want quick reconnects, don't close the Launcher until you finished working: for testing use the "Disconnect/Connect" button or physically disconnect the USB cable, but leave the software running. That's one of the many tips you can find in the new User Manual  

Marius.

[Isola815]

Hi guys!

First of all I have to thank you all for your reviews, both positive and negative: they all helped. If after the recent update Diamond has become a better saber than it was before, this is mainly because of you taking the time to tell everybody what you like and don't like about it. Massive thanks for this!!!

Now let me shed some light on the dark side of the Express Font Wizard: it builds fonts based on your color options and some templates. White does NOT define color, only Red, Green and Blue, so this is the reason why you don't have a "LED4" slider in the color selector. However, WHITE IS USED on the fonts created by the express wizard, to control the light intensity (not the color!) on most effects. What White does to each effect is defined by the underlying templates, but if you want it to do something else then you can just edit the effects generated by the express wizard. Yes, if you want advanced control then you'll have to use the advanced wizard, but at least with Express you don't start from scratch. Same goes for pulse timing.

As for quick reconnect: it only works when you reconnect. Each time you start the Launcher, on the first connection it will take longer than on subsequent reconnects, because the software has to know what's on the internal memory of the Diamond Controller in order to allow you to edit. So if you want quick reconnects, don't close the Launcher until you finished working: for testing use the "Disconnect/Connect" button or physically disconnect the USB cable, but leave the software running. That's one of the many tips you can find in the new User Manual  

Marius.

Hey Marius, just to touch on your last point. I did see that in the user manual about connect/reconnect, but my saber won't have any of that. As soon as I write to the board, is disconnects from the software and the ONLY way to reconnect it is to close the launcher, unplug the saber, open the launcher again, then plug the saber back in. It will NOT let me click "connect" to reconnect to the software like I can with my Emerald sabers.

It's a real shame that the Emerald interface couldn't have just been copied over for the "quick" editor with the addition of a drop down font selector. Because that one lets you have all four colors to work with as well as a pulse color and is still faster than the Diamond express. Plus an Emerald saber can be connected and disconnected by the launcher instead of the fumble-fest of a Diamond reconnect (at least for my saber anyway).

[RSX Engineering]

As soon as I write to the board, is disconnects from the software and the ONLY way to reconnect it is to close the launcher, unplug the saber, open the launcher again, then plug the saber back in.

This is not normal behavior. When it finishes writing it resets the board, which temporary disconnects it from the Launcher, but it should reconnect automatically (unless you clicked on Disconnect, which puts the connection in manual mode because, obviously, if you disconnected manually it can't reconnect automatically). Have you tried just unplugging and plugging back the cable, without closing the Launcher? If you did, please try reinstalling the USB driver - you'll find the instructions in the User Manual at the Troubleshooting section.

Anyone else encountered this problem?

Marius.

[BatMike90]

This is not normal behavior. When it finishes writing it resets the board, which temporary disconnects it from the Launcher, but it should reconnect automatically (unless you clicked on Disconnect, which puts the connection in manual mode because, obviously, if you disconnected manually it can't reconnect automatically). Have you tried just unplugging and plugging back the cable, without closing the Launcher? If you did, please try reinstalling the USB driver - you'll find the instructions in the User Manual at the Troubleshooting section.

Anyone else encountered this problem?

Marius.

For my sabers with Diamond, every time I write to board, it writes, disconnects and for me to reconnect, I have to physically unpkug the USB from my laptop and plug it back in to reconnect.

[RSX Engineering]

Are you guys experiencing this kind of connection/re-connection issues when running the Launcher on Windows 10 machines or also other operating systems?

Adrian

[Isola815]

This is not normal behavior. When it finishes writing it resets the board, which temporary disconnects it from the Launcher, but it should reconnect automatically (unless you clicked on Disconnect, which puts the connection in manual mode because, obviously, if you disconnected manually it can't reconnect automatically). Have you tried just unplugging and plugging back the cable, without closing the Launcher? If you did, please try reinstalling the USB driver - you'll find the instructions in the User Manual at the Troubleshooting section.

Anyone else encountered this problem?

Marius.

I tried many different ways, but the only thing that worked was what I said before. Close, unplug, reopen, plug in. Absolute pain in the butt.

I tried reinstalling both the software and the driver but I still have the exact same problem. I am on Windows 10.

And yes, fully charged batteries as well as updated firmware.

[skribs]

Windows 10, I don't have to restart the software.  However, I wish there was a way to hit a button on the launcher to make the saber think I reconnected it, without having to play with the wires.  It would make it more cumbersome.

Now let me shed some light on the dark side of the Express Font Wizard: it builds fonts based on your color options and some templates. White does NOT define color, only Red, Green and Blue, so this is the reason why you don't have a "LED4" slider in the color selector. However, WHITE IS USED on the fonts created by the express wizard, to control the light intensity (not the color!) on most effects. What White does to each effect is defined by the underlying templates, but if you want it to do something else then you can just edit the effects generated by the express wizard. Yes, if you want advanced control then you'll have to use the advanced wizard, but at least with Express you don't start from scratch. Same goes for pulse timing.

I'm not a programmer, but this sounds like an excuse to me.  Considering Adegan Silver is one of the colors offered by ultrasabers, it makes sense for Adegan Silver (white) to be an option in the LEDs.  At the very least the download link for the stock Adegan Silver options are available.  Plus, some sabers use an amber 4th channel.

Also, I don't see why white needs to be the color that is used as what the launcher uses for effects.  Why can't another color be used, for example if I want my saber to turn from green to blue when I'm spinning?  I don't see why "effect" can't be a 4th color option, which the others are based on.  After all, we can choose the Flash-on-Clash color.

As to pulse mode...why can't we set the frequency?  (Other than it isn't in this patch).  That one seems like a no-brainer to me that it should be available.

Like I and others have said, this patch is a huge step up from where we were before.  But I think there's room for the express tab to grow, and I think making all 4 channels (and I'm now adding the ability for spin effects to be based on effect color instead of just white) available, as well as making pulse frequency a setting should be among the top priority.

[RSX Engineering]

I'm not a programmer, but this sounds like an excuse to me.  Considering Adegan Silver is one of the colors offered by ultrasabers, it makes sense for Adegan Silver (white) to be an option in the LEDs.  At the very least the download link for the stock Adegan Silver options are available.  Plus, some sabers use an amber 4th channel.

Also, I don't see why white needs to be the color that is used as what the launcher uses for effects.  Why can't another color be used, for example if I want my saber to turn from green to blue when I'm spinning?  I don't see why "effect" can't be a 4th color option, which the others are based on.  After all, we can choose the Flash-on-Clash color.

As to pulse mode...why can't we set the frequency?  (Other than it isn't in this patch).  That one seems like a no-brainer to me that it should be available.

Like I and others have said, this patch is a huge step up from where we were before.  But I think there's room for the express tab to grow, and I think making all 4 channels (and I'm now adding the ability for spin effects to be based on effect color instead of just white) available, as well as making pulse frequency a setting should be among the top priority.

The Express Font Wizard is a quick and easy tool to allow users to customize the fonts without going into too much details. The decisions not to include pulse timing, keep white exclusively for other effects and define colors on RGB only, were all dictated by the requirement to keep it light. On Emerald we could have all the effect settings in a simple interface because it has only Idle Pulse and FOC effects with just two time points each, but Diamond is a different animal: it has 15 effects and each can have up to 20 time points and multiple repetitions. If we would add customization options to cover more use cases, we still won't be able to satisfy each individual requirement and the express wizard would look more like the advanced wizard, which is against its purpose. Keep in mind that Express is aimed mainly as a quick start for inexperienced users, once you are familiar enough with its capabilities you can go to advanced mode and edit the express-generated effects to do exactly what you want.

Nevertheless, your feedback was noted, although for now I cannot promise we will extend the express wizard. There's no "one size fits all", so it all depend on the overall reception of this addition to the Launcher.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Marius.

[RSX Engineering]

Windows 10, I don't have to restart the software.  However, I wish there was a way to hit a button on the launcher to make the saber think I reconnected it, without having to play with the wires.  It would make it more cumbersome.

You don't have to play with the wires: press "Disconnect" and it will go offline. Press "Connect" and it will go back online. But keep in mind that once you pressed "Disconnect" it can no longer reconnect automatically, otherwise it would override the disconnect; it will only reconnect when you press the "Connect" button.

Marius.

[skribs]

The Express Font Wizard is a quick and easy tool to allow users to customize the fonts without going into too much details. The decisions not to include pulse timing, keep white exclusively for other effects and define colors on RGB only, were all dictated by the requirement to keep it light. On Emerald we could have all the effect settings in a simple interface because it has only Idle Pulse and FOC effects with just two time points each, but Diamond is a different animal: it has 15 effects and each can have up to 20 time points and multiple repetitions. If we would add customization options to cover more use cases, we still won't be able to satisfy each individual requirement and the express wizard would look more like the advanced wizard, which is against its purpose. Keep in mind that Express is aimed mainly as a quick start for inexperienced users, once you are familiar enough with its capabilities you can go to advanced mode and edit the express-generated effects to do exactly what you want.

Nevertheless, your feedback was noted, although for now I cannot promise we will extend the express wizard. There's no "one size fits all", so it all depend on the overall reception of this addition to the Launcher.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Marius.

I am going to completely disagree with you that adding in features to the express mode that would automate what is possible to do manually in the advanced mode makes it look more like the advanced mode.  In the express mode you could simply have a slider for pulse time.  In advanced you have to adjust each datapoint individually.  To put "pulse color" with a "pulse rate" button right next to it would not make it look like the advanced.

To configure the colors for each of the effects would also take a lot of time.  If that feature is available for the express mode, it is a time saver.

The express mode should be considered an easy way to perform color-changing tasks in an automated fashion.  Something that can be used to set the colors within the pre-defined timings of the fonts.  Something that can be used with a shallow learning curve to accomplish most of the tasks you would want to accomplish.  I do not feel that automating what can be done manually with the advanced tab makes it too difficult.  I also see that adding support for the 4th LED channel, and adding pulse rate are very popular suggestions.  I don't see how adding an "effect accent color" would make it that much more difficult for a new user.

Currently I have over 6 GB worth of fonts in a folder just for the default colors.  And those are just the ones I was able to download, as over half the colors aren't available for download.  The launcher software, on the other hand, is 162 MB.  I think there's plenty of room to make the client a bit fatter if it's going to give us better automation of font generation.

----

I hope I don't sound too harsh.  This is version 1.0 of the Express mode, and in my opinion it is a huge success.  Most people seem to like it, or at least see it as a net positive.  This update fixed at least 90% of what was wrong with the Diamond Controller launcher and firmware, and expanded on the features available.  It was a very good update.  However, version 1.1 should definitely have a couple of those features that seem universally desired - LED4 control, pulse rate control, and (the third one is not as universally-requested, but seems to be a good way to throw in LED4 control) the ability to set your effect color.

---I will try the disconnect and connect buttons when I get a chance to play with the software some more.

[skribs]

So there is no "reconnect" button.  I simply have Connect (or Disconnect) and if I press Connect it will only work if I unplug and re-plug in the cable.

Also, the LEDs are different power (I have a similar problem in my RGB saber, which I will do a review on shortly).  So 255 255 255 is a pinkish-white color.  I run about 128 255 191 to get as close to white as I can get.  So the ability to set white based on the 4th channel would be greatly appreciated.

[cimredopyh]

As far as this disconnect issue i don't seem to have that but i do still get random crashes when adding sound fonts or even adding points to the led controller on the advanced mode.
I've tried getting it to crash the same way each time but it doesn't repeat itself so thus im classifying it as random.  And so i've gotten into the habit of saving every time i edit one effect before moving to the next. Time consuming but better than editing everything only to have it crash on the last one and you have to start over from scratch.