Android app for Emerald Driver Configuration

[realmoe]

Actually was just thinking about it. Imagine a stage show where someone who is a jedi slowly turns to the dark side and his lightsaber changes color as the show goes on. The sound guys sitting on the set or off stage have each person on stage set in their laptops so they can alter color on the fly while play is going on. Imagine the cheers when a hard core sith suddenly changes his point of view and his blade lights up bright blue and he saves the day etc....

Having a wireless access with internal hardware and any wireless access point  you have a lot of options that an app just couldn't do. The rom needed is relatively small and you would just need to program it once for preferred networks. Then when ever they are within that wireless network range you can connect via phone/ tablet/ computer of any sort that supports HTML and be able to adjust color and or sound..........

Think about it.

[ilkeraktuna]

well, infact I believe you are looking from a wrong point of view...

First of all, "more money" is not always the key to success.

I will not give up buying ultrasabers if they don't develop for Android devices ever. But the "extra customer satisfaction" they would gain by releasing an Android app is priceless.

I don't agree about the cost of creating such an app. They have the knowledge and they can build it easily. Also, I don't agree about the support cost for newer Android devices.
Like I said before, I have 12 Android devices and all the newer ones support USB OTG in the same way. I have different Android versions from 4.0 to 4.4 ; they all support the same USB disk, keyboard and mouse.
If you keep the app user interface (GUI) simple, it would work on all Android tablets and phones in near future. Of course there is a slight chance that Google might change the USB API on new versions. But developers always supply a list of "supported devices" for complex hardware projects. Ultrasabers can do the same for their app.

On the other hand, as we all know Ultrasabers do not sell cheap sabers. Their sabers are the best quality but they are not cheap. I've spent 420$ (except shipment) for a single Emerald saber. Only the price of the Emerald driver is 110$ (with the cyber monday deal that is -  original price is 140$)
I doubt that its cost to US is not over 50$ (just a board which controls 4 channels to 4 leds and US is purchasing it in large amounts)
If money is very important to them, they can increase the price of driver from 140$ to 150$. I wouldn't hesitate if my saber costed 430$instead of 420$...

In any case, I believe, the best choice for US would be releasing the API for the USB control of the driver if they don't already have knowledge on Android app development.

That's all my idea. I don't say it is all correct. There are lots of assumptions.
But with this thread I wanted to get opinion about demand for such an app. I got my answer; most of the users are not interested in changing the color of their saber on the go without the need for a PC.

[Vyk]

Actually was just thinking about it. Imagine a stage show where someone who is a jedi slowly turns to the dark side and his lightsaber changes color as the show goes on. The sound guys sitting on the set or off stage have each person on stage set in their laptops so they can alter color on the fly while play is going on. Imagine the cheers when a hard core sith suddenly changes his point of view and his blade lights up bright blue and he saves the day etc....

FWIW, you could already do that with an RGB saber.  You couldn't do a continuous progression, but a continuous progression from blue or green to red looks a little odd to anybody who doesn't know how colors work.  (A blue-green transition is much more intuitive, but lacks the good-evil change you're going for.)  You probably could do a continuous progression with analog components if you wired them up yourself.  (I think you could do it with a potentiometer, a couple power transistors to minimize loss in the pot, and a two-or-more-color LED.)  I have an upcoming project related to this.

Incidentally, there's also an Anakin/Vader color-changing saber from Hasbro.  IIRC, one push of the button turns it on blue, a second turns it red, a third turns it off.  You could probably splice that board in without difficulty; it would be similar to wiring up an econosound mod, except with two power transistors and two colors on the LED.  (You might even be able to skip the transistors; if it's like the UFX boards, you get close to 1A total by using all of the leads from the blade LEDs.)  It's probably fairly wide, though, like the other Anakin and Vader soundboards, and I'm not sure which hilts could fit it without modification.

[Vyk]

well, infact I believe you are looking from a wrong point of view...

As I feel about you.    I think we're going to have to agree to disagree.

But with this thread I wanted to get opinion about demand for such an app. I got my answer; most of the users are not interested in changing the color of their saber on the go without the need for a PC.

I think it's a neat idea, but it's very much a niche application (especially when you bear in mind that there already is an Ultrasabers solution to changing colors on the fly--RGB sabers--although with only 7 different colors).  "Is there an Android app?" and "is there a Mac app?" have been asked repeatedly since Emerald was announced, but so far I think you're the only person to go past "is there an Android app?" to "how can we get an Android app"?  So, yes, I think there are people who would use it if it existed, but there is little actual demand per se.

All this said, I just learned that there are Windows-capable x86 emulators for Android.  They would have to be heinously slow, even on high-end hardware, but perhaps they'd be fast enough?  Cram XP on there, cross your fingers, give USB a thorough test (read-write tests on a good-size flash drive, perhaps), and then give it a go and hope you don't break your Emerald/Obsidian.  (I've read that Obsidian 3.0 is more resistant to breaking due to transfer problems than older versions were; presumably that's true for Emerald as well.)

[ilkeraktuna]

I don't think an emulator would be a good idea for this particular usage.
Most of the time, emulators do not have all hardware supported.

But I would like to give it a try. I searched for Cram XP but couldn't find it. Can you post a URL ?

Btw, even if emulator works, it would require a tablet with X86 processor, which is not very common among Android devices.

[Vyk]

I don't think an emulator would be a good idea for this particular usage.
Most of the time, emulators do not have all hardware supported.

But I would like to give it a try. I searched for Cram XP but couldn't find it. Can you post a URL ?

Btw, even if emulator works, it would require a tablet with X86 processor, which is not very common among Android devices.

"Cram" there was a verb.  I saw a couple of emulators out there; this one seems like the most mature (using that as a relative term; the app is 9 months old and seems to be a side project).  That does appear to be a true emulator, i.e., running x86 apps on ARM hardware.  (The device pictured in their video is an HTC phone; I don't think HTC makes an Android-x86 phone.)  They mention it being built on QEMU, which does have the ability emulate a different processor architecture, so this is plausible.  (I'll also note that the not-very-impressive demo video shows it running Windows 95; considering that Win95 flew on 100MHz Pentiums with 64MB RAM, dynamic binary translation would still give acceptable performance on almost any Android device.  XP would be another matter...)

Anyway, as you've noted, the relevant hardware is the USB port; as long as they have USB support, it would work.

[ilkeraktuna]

thank you. do you have an idea where I can find a XP image to run with this ?
is it possible to create my own image using an original XP CD ?
thx.

[Vyk]

thank you. do you have an idea where I can find a XP image to run with this ?
is it possible to create my own image using an original XP CD ?
thx.

If you look at the reviews, Alboooza Afi mentions a piece of PC software.

[ilkeraktuna]

well, I've installed Win98 on the emulator to see how it accesses USB port.
Unfortunately Emulator does not bind the USB port to the Win98 OS. When I connect a USB disk, it's accessible through Android but not Windows.

sorry...

[Brian64]

Not sure why you would need to port the whole obsidian launcher to android. Aren't we really just needing an app to save and load different config files?

[ilkeraktuna]

ok. but if you would like to do  it when you are mobile ?
no PC or notebook with you...

[Brian64]

I get the attraction of being able to customise on the fly, but for a first version app I'd be happy enough with just being able to save and load config files. Maybe if it gets enough use it would encourage development of more functionality.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

[Ultra]

This is a very interesting thread. 

Ultimately, you will eventually find mobile solutions for configuration made by the mobile industry itself. There will be no need for us to create our own app for that with how fast technology is progressing.

Not to go off on a tangent, but I think it would be a very bad PR decision to work on an app for Android while ignoring iOS 

[ilkeraktuna]

I get the attraction of being able to customise on the fly, but for a first version app I'd be happy enough with just being able to save and load config files. Maybe if it gets enough use it would encourage development of more functionality.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

agreed. for an initial app, that would be nice.

[realmoe]

ULTRA that is why I suggested wireless connection built in to saber. This way the saber will need to be setup once in the rom on the obsidian soundboard. Attatch it to a wifi spot and give it an IP address. After that point any device can connect to the saber via WEB BROWSER and configure there. NO NEED FOR A STAND ALONE APP. Any device with a browser can connect and modify configuration file in the rom.

This technology is small and with a small increase in the price of the saber could be useful. I also agree ULTRA that the IOS vrs Android would alienate one or the other. By doing the way I suggested will allow even MAC's, Linux, UNIX, BeOS, Windows, and Chrome OS to make changes as long as they can be on the same network and use an internet browser. It is worth thinking about.