Other Than Price, is There a Reason not to go Diamond?

[Dark Path Media]

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.

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.

[scifidude79]

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.

[ThreadJack]

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.

[Infinit01]

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

[Dark Path Media]

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.

[Lady Revan]

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.