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The S.A.B.E.R. GUILD: Saber Manufacturers => Plecter Labs => Topic started by: erv on May 03, 2017, 09:51:18 PM
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Please Welcome the NANO BISCOTTE v4
and May the 4th be with you ! The board should be in stock at TCSS later today. As for the EU production, that will have to wait around late may as I got busy with all this and haven't got the time to produce them, but the PCBs are on my way and all the parts are in stock !
The manual is in good shape too but not fully finished, it should be there by the end of the week.
(https://www.plecterlabs.com/shop/images/NanoBiscotteV4-WEB.jpg)
SPECS
- [NEW] Up to 3 fonts - Long press on the activation switch when blade is off make the saber switch to the other font. Comes with Lightmeat, Greymeat and Darkmeat
- [NEW] Configurable reboot delay
- [NEW] Adjustable beep volume (not really any innovation there lol)
- [NEW] Up to 16 swing and 16 clash sounds
- [NEW] Reverse polarity & over voltage protection
- [NEW] Dual Digital Sensor motion detection. Identical to CF MotionFusion™, very high swing sensitivity and vibration & battery ripple immune
- [NEW] Single switch Mute-on-the-go™ (MOTG) with configurable delay
- [NEW] Mute during power off. Optional silenced power-off sound when MOTG is engaged
- [NEW] 3 channel color "mixing" - 4A per channel
- [NEW] FoC Mixing Techniques allowins mixed color FoC as well as traditional and popular "On-top" type Flash on Clash
- [NEW] Pulse Fx :-)
- [NEW] 2 on-board LED driver (backward compatible with NB3) + 1 remote PEx for a 3rd channel
- [NEW] RGB Neopixel / WS2812 (and alike) support with power saving and adjustable timings
- [NEW] Ledstrip power saving StripOff™
- [NEW] Omnisabers™ support / Omnisabers™ Ready
- [NEW] Override master file + individual configuration files for font specific settings
[Legacy features, copy / paste from older releases]
- Improved file fetching, up to 16 GB µSD card
- Board is freakin' small : 28.5x18.5 mm
- Header friendly
- same 2W amp as my other boards
- Designed for single li-ion cell
- 10 bit audio
- clash and swing motion flow limiters
- momentary switch only
- off delay APOP
- progressive ignition / retraction (of course)
- quick on / quick off
- flicker / shimmer
- NO Aux switch
- NO R.I.C.E.
- adjustable drive to remove the resistor in some (rare) cases
- enhanced deep sleep with 0.1 mA consumption (12 months of shelf time with a 14500, 36 months with a 18650), no kill key really needed.
- changeable sound fonts, drop in support of CF/PC fonts, extra sound files are ignored.
The board wires the LED like a PEx, positive of the battery (eventually after the recharge port, if any) goes to the + of the board AND to the + of the luxeon via a power resistor
neg of the pack to the neg of the board.
L1- and L2- to the luxeon neg
L3 pad to a 3rd channel PEx or to Neopixel Strip
2 wires to the switch (switch negative share with board negative)
2 wires to the speaker
[Reboot & Mute-on-the-go™]
As the board use only a single switch to operate, we've included 2 configurable delay to separate the Mute-on-the-go™ and the Reboot/font switching features.
The Mute-on-the-go™ has obviously to be < than the reboot delay. Once reaching the mute delay a small beep (adjustable volume) will indicate the board is ready to power the blade on in mute mode.
Release of the switch at that moment will power the blade on.
Leaving the switch pressed after that first beep and passing the reboot delay will make the board reboot and move to the next font.
As usual, the MOTG delay can be set to zero to disable the MOTG feature and leave only the reboot feature .
The new Mute during power off features has been a recurrent request from people with bad WAF, especially when playing at night with their saber and after being threaten of divorce several times.
I think Saber League teachers were in the same boat too. I personally think it's sometimes important to hear the power off sound to be SURE the saber is still "ok" when leaving the MOTG mode but it's
also cool to allow the saber to be silent on demand.
[3 channels / color mixing]
There was loads of pros & cons regarding adding the 3 channel PEx. Room on the board is "ok" however not on the side. We decided for this release to not include it first because the board remains a great entry range board for *beginners* and it's also acclaimed for it's super small size and we wanted to keep it header friendly as it makes its install on a chassis super simple.
While I'm sure you'll all love the possibility to do color mixing and RGB sabers, there are a lot of customers using those for character sabers and first sabers with XX-W tri-crees (color + white FoC) and it's super easy to wire it this way. Still, with a 3rd channel available, you easily upgrade your saber with RGB, with just the use of a PEx.
Finally, having a bare pad also makes wiring easier for the led strips support as the strip data line is exported on channel 3.
[4 AMPs / channel HUMF FAP OMFG yumnomnomnom what an upgrade !!!!]
Well not really. Over the past years I've been fighting some lack of common sense with direct driven LEDs, in particular the fact most people don't measure their LED and don't calculate
resistors and just expect it to work. Based on this, I tried to keep LED driving "reasonable" for beginners and rated the NB (and PRIZM) output up to 2A.
First of all, as a precision, the NB doesn't "output" 2A, just like with Watt ratings of speakers, a lot of people think that it's forced out while it's "requested" by the load.
Second, the driver part has its maximum current rating at 6.5A and it's safe to use it 4A.
Overall, if someone wanted to use a BBB tri-cree on a NBv4, I would however suggest to maybe split the load between a BB pair and the last B die but it should be fine to handle all 3 on a single channel.
[New motion sensor]
It's been a while since I wanted to harmonize the boards all together and it's been mentioned during the release of CF7. The real difficulty was finding a proper time slot to accommodate the board production (EU / USA), distribution (EU / USA) and overall growing demand (worldwide). While it's a cool update which brings the former super accurate motion detection brought to you via CF7 2 years and a half ago, I don't call it an innovation per say, and I'm happy to provide it to the whole range of board (planned for Pico Crumble too).
It also brings a very good immunity to power supply noise and infamous errant swings, but this shouldn't be an excuse for not measuring your leds nor verifying what your battery drain is (and not just from the "datasheet").
The motion detection uses the simplified parameters from CF, a motion "gate" that we usually set between 50 and 70 (not critical), no more general sensitivity to mess up with, and a swing threshold separated from the clash threshold.
[Omnisabers ?]
I've been using our former multi-saber wireless stage performance system for some year with Saberproject and during the period they designed their own wireless transmitter, I worked with them
to enhanced the possibilities of wireless live performance with lightsabers. This has been achieved in the Crystal Focus firmware and is now progressively ported to other boards.
There's both a known demand for this for quite a while (saber leagues, saber groups, stage demo, booth demo, conventions, artistic fencing) and personal interest to pursue that work, I just couldn't address that so far but be sure I haven't ignored it :-)
How does it work ? Basically, as I consider trying to stream the sensor or the digital audio from the saber is a bad idea (mainly for latency issues but not only), I rather chose (in 2006) to send saber actions to the computer to control a polyphonic sampler.
I'm currently working on my new omnisaber "dongle" to revive both hardware and software initially designed 10 years ago but in the meanwhile, I'm ensuring the new gen of boards can be "omnisabers-ready". The saber actions are exported on the board serial port / RICE port, just like any of the diagnostic information and remote configuration.
BUT WAIT... serial port ??? NB doesn't have RICE ???? True, but for a long time it has had an enabled serial port output on one pad. Diag / debug info can be obtained there and sent wired or wireless to a remote system.
[Neopixel (and alike) support]
The NB allows to drive a WS2812 (and compatible) blade up to 150 pixels. The strip data line is handled by the pad L3 when the board is configured for using a ledstrip. We spend quite some time to
build a neopixel driver that uses zero CPU along with an abstraction layer in the firmware so that the blade output / update is not different between high-power LEDs and a strip.
That means the strip gets the same exact refresh rate, flicker look & feel.
The driver has also adjustable timings, as some compatible pixels use a different chip (APA106, SK6812) have different timings, we therefore provide adjustable params in the override.txt fileto define the strip protocol timing with a resolution of 25.2 nanosecond.
Added for more explanation of blade total pixel number vs pixel addressing.
The board *addresses* 150 pixels max. With 2 strips you could have 300 leds.
So yes you can wire 3 strips NP. The current is crazy and there's more shadowing than expected but it's been tested by Alex Gordon.
I think you all got the point, I tried to separate the question of the addressed pixels vs the total number of pixels in the blade, which are 2 different things.
* To be noted that one significant difference between high-power LEDs and a LED strip when using the FlexiBlend™ engine is that the latter has a 10 bit resolution (0-1023) to define color with a significantly high resolution (billions of colors). The strip uses only 8 bits to define color, therefore there's a much more noticeable quantification (ie "step") effect on smooth effects
like pulse. Conversely, subtle effects like shy flicker become less visible or "obvious" due to the lower resolution of the strip. As a result, certain effects will need to be exagerated when using a ledstrip. Color remains defined on 10 bit just like our other direct drive boards however expect no visible color change by tuning channels with only 1 or 2 steps. The strip resolution being 4 times lower, steps of 4 are required to obtain a color change on the strip. For Pulse Fx (now on NB too) afficionados, the low brightness side of the ledstrip is also 4 times less smoother,hence digging too hard with the flicker depth will produce some stepped flicker. A depth of about 60-70% remains ok to the look (basically avoid the lower quarter).
* Neopixels & Power saving
In the global effort to reduce the need of a kill-key (would it be during a convention or for some shelf time) we wanted to preserve our super efficient deep-sleep mode that uses only 0.1mA of current,
and which allow more than 1 year of shelf time (tested).
The pixel chips use some current even when off, about .9mA each. With a trimmed blade using for instance 2 strips of 140 pixels, we have a good 250mA of current draw when the blade is off, which we found ridiculous to not address for deep-sleep.
As a result, we provide a "remote power control" over the strip by hooking the strip(s) negative to the on-board LED drivers (aka on-board PEx). Both channel 1 and 2 are enabled at the same time to split the load of the strip when the blade is on. Once the blade goes off, channel 1 and 2 will keep providing the idle current to the blade until deep-sleep is reached, then the blade will be disconnected.
We call this feature StripOff™, a naming that has received quite a positive response, for some reason :-D
* Obviously, a more radical solution is always possible, by removing the blade from the emitter socket to prevent any current to be used, however it's great for component blade sabers to stay with their blade in and secured when used often, especially for dueling (the blade being heavier) and we think it's great to have such a saber always ready to strike without disassembling it just for the sake to save on run-time when there's a smarter way to do it.
* Neopixel Special Fx
Based on our former CF-LS design, we combine a spatial scrolling with the fade effect of the high-power LED for a more dramatic scrolling effect. Two parameters lsfadeon and lsfadeoff define
if you use the fade effect during ignition or retraction.
I've also added a parameter called lightstick that illuminates the blade all the pixels at once (no spatial scrolling) and which can be combined with the lsfadeon and lsfadeoff parameters.
That feature might sound a little "off" compared to the lightsaber but can be useful for some other pikes or staff, and I got a few requests in the past for my electronics to go in devil sticks for instance.
Finally, the spatial scrolling is quite different to the eye compared to the progressive fade in / out of a high-power LED. As a result the sample-accurate synchronization between the power on / off sounds and the extension / retraction scrolling speed is rarely required or looks too slow. Like on our previous boards, the power on / off timing can be adjusted to an eye-pleasing speed using the quick-on / quick-off parameters in the configuration file.
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Brilliant work Erv! I can't wait to get a hold of one of these awesome Neopixel blades...
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Nice work!! I look forward to seeing what new ideas help the growing pixel blade niche!
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Awesome stuff, going to pick one up later today!
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Exciting news. I may have to pick up one...or 10
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Man, this is such a great upgrade. Can't wait to start building Plecter-powered sabers with WS2812 LED strips!
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Fantastic update - thanks Erv!
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THIS IS AMAZING!!! Can't wait to get my hands on one!
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Thanks Erv, this is excellent
Small form factor with Neopixel support!
Already ordered mine :grin:
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Test
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Aaagh, so many upgrades, may have to swap my nano V3 for this one!
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Will this new blade just work with the Nb V4, or will it work with the current Prizm V4, PC, and CF cards as well? If not, will there be a patch to download for them? Don't know a lot about the finer parts of sound card tech! I currently have Prizm V4 cards in my sabers.
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Wow, that's amazing. I am incredibly impressed and the speed and amount of upgrades. I can't wait to try out those neopixel blades!
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Wow, that's really awesome Erv. I have a few questions that will probably be answered in your manual but I'm too impatient to wait.
Wiring a BBW will only require channel L1 (blue) and L2 (white foc)?
Can we mix L1 & L2 channels for mixing BBR? And not use L3?
What's the output in L3 without a PEX?
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Wiring a BBW will only require channel L1 (blue) and L2 (white foc)?
Can we mix L1 & L2 channels for mixing BBR? And not use L3?
yes absolutely
What's the output in L3 without a PEX?
a ledstrip output, along with L1 and L2 :angel:
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Exciting news. I may have to pick up one...or 10
Ok just 3 to start ;)
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I already purchased mine too. Any tips about the blade, 2/4 inside faces, the better socket to attach it to the hilt?
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thanks everyone, glad you like it. I wished i could bring the stellar motion sensing (which is now our standard) earlier to this board !
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This is awesome! Just ordered one from TCSS! Will be fun playing with the Neopixel
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Will VV be actually making the Neopixel blades for this? Or, are we still on our own here. It's quite a struggle to make one from individual Neopixels (Straw-hat style) and get an even smooth output and not have LEDs failing left and right.
Will the same RGB Neopixel support be coming to the CF8 soon? Thanks!
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Are the pad for a high power led and string blade the same?
Can a hotswap can be made then?
Thank you
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You say it can drive up to 150 LED's and later you say something about 2 150 strips. Im confused, is it that each channel can drive 150 LED's? (L1, L2). or would you just need 75 (ish) x 2 strips?
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You say it can drive up to 150 LED's and later you say something about 2 150 strips. Im confused, is it that each channel can drive 150 LED's? (L1, L2). or would you just need 75 (ish) x 2 strips?
I'm pretty sure he means 150 max addressable, so two in parallel would be OK.
However, I too am wondering about the maximum current drive if sinking through L1 and L2. 4A may not be near enough to drive 2 strips, let alone, 3 in triangular formation for no shadowing. It takes a 10A peak battery to provide enough with a direct connection, and even then it only lasts maybe 20 min before needing recharging.
I think the future of string blades is really in the blade tech itself. That is, high brightness/watt with smooth diffusion (no shadowing or corncob effect). Unfortunately, no one has perfected this yet for the mass market. Hoping it will happen soon though, because it's far too cool to ignore. :tongue:
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Are the pad for a high power led and string blade the same?
Can a hotswap can be made then?
Thank you
You need to at least reboot the boot with the LED / strip config but you could have 1 font set with leds and another one with strip. The strip parameter is stored in the override but could be relocated in the config.txt for a font specific setup.
So hotswap while the board is running no
the pads used are the same (in other words there's no special pad for the ledstrip. In addition of the data pad, we are also using the onboard PEx (L1- and L2-) to control the strip
You say it can drive up to 150 LED's and later you say something about 2 150 strips. Im confused, is it that each channel can drive 150 LED's? (L1, L2). or would you just need 75 (ish) x 2 strips?
The board addresses 150 pixels. I run 2 in parallel and indeed I mentioned 2 x 140 for current calculation if you're referring to one of my FB post.
L1 and L2 are used to control the ledstrip load
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Thanks Erv, Thats exactly what I was looking for.
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to summarize and rephrase that question above (along with FB posts about the same thing). I put that in the first post too and amend my article.
The board *addresses* 150 pixels max. With 2 strips you could have 300 leds.
So yes you can wire 3 strips NP. The current is crazy and there's more shadowing than expected but it's been tested by Alex Gordon.
I think you all got the point, I tried to separate the question of the addressed pixels vs the total number of pixels in the blade, which are 2 different things.
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Brilliant work Erv! I can't wait to get a hold of one of these awesome Neopixel blades...
Those realy look amazing.
Nice work
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Maaan, this is typical of my luck, I've got two NBv3s left and I just bought a PRIZM to test out the new JQ website, and now both those cards have shiny new versions with scrolling effects that make them obsolete :cry: don't suppose there's any chance of a buyback/upgrade program? :tongue:
Seriously, though, what is this LEDStriptm? is it just the fancy name for an LED string with Neopixel-like LEDs, or something new?
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Seriously, though, what is this LEDStriptm? is it just the fancy name for an LED string with Neopixel-like LEDs, or something new?
those are neopixel and alike as posted. Ledstrip has been a generic term for some years, as well as ledstrings (which is different)
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Amazing! (as always)
Maybe I missed this, but if we build a Tri-LED standard RGB saber, can we switch through colors in any way? Like can we have different color profiles per font? And/or is there a way to switch color while the blade is active within a font?
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Amazing! (as always)
Maybe I missed this, but if we build a Tri-LED standard RGB saber, can we switch through colors in any way? Like can we have different color profiles per font? And/or is there a way to switch color while the blade is active within a font?
For the NB it is one color per font. The color profiles are on PRIZM and above. The NB remains the entry level single switch board.
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Amazing! (as always)
Maybe I missed this, but if we build a Tri-LED standard RGB saber, can we switch through colors in any way? Like can we have different color profiles per font? And/or is there a way to switch color while the blade is active within a font?
For the NB it is one color per font. The color profiles are on PRIZM and above. The NB remains the entry level single switch board.
Great, having the option for a different color on each of the three fonts is still quite a nice feature! (Like the CF6-7 had before the 7.5).
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Amazing! (as always)
thanks !
Maybe I missed this, but if we build a Tri-LED standard RGB saber, can we switch through colors in any way? Like can we have different color profiles per font? And/or is there a way to switch color while the blade is active within a font?
that's what PRIZM does (with also more cool ledstrip fx)
Please Welcome the PRIZM v5 sound board (https://www.fx-sabers.com/forum/index.php?topic=51766)
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A nice set of upgrades and expanded features here. And I see that at least on TCSS, the price is the same as the V3 was. IMO, the value of this little board just went up a few notches. Nice one, Erv.
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sweet kenobi.... thank you good sir!
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What would be the battery life of a 18650 3400mah with two strips?
It seems that the shopping of a good strip is quite difficult, supplier doesnt use the same led quality and one strip can be defective really quicker than another one.
Would you have any reliable supplier?
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I have no idea where this myth comes from regarding "shopping a good strip is difficult" as there's probably a very limited number of manufacturers in china and those are the same providing adafruit as well.
True, there are some vendors who are doing a better solder job than others, my friend who does pinball mods got a few bad ones over ebay. I personally use aliexpress.
The runtime is probably rather half an hour.
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Here a link i found explaining some differences between led:
PSA: WS2812B LEDs may not be what you think they are! - General lounge - VHS (https://talk.vanhack.ca/t/psa-ws2812b-leds-may-not-be-what-you-think-they-are/5626)
Since i'm not an expert i let you judge of the article
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good points, I'll give the sharpie test on the ones I got. The solder job is really the thing too but what I got worked 100% so far. I got a few pixels blowing off a long time ago (adafruit neopixel) but that was on WS2811 and they are somehow sensitive to hot plugging and that was a problem I could reproduce (I fixed my strips by cutting the first pixel when I fried it).
when I purchase, I first make sure that the advertised chip is what I'm getting. Never got disappointed so far and I gave my strips a fair amount of abuse :evil:
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What vendor did you use on aliexpress?
In my article they are mentionning a big one (btf-lightning) that is not that good and another one (mokungit) that seems to be reliable.
Another i didnt really understood, it seems the sk6812 replace the ws2812b because they were not really reliable (maybe it was only at the beginning) and that a lot of vendors are selling sk6812 as ws2812b to not flood the market with a lot of different part number since they are really close technology.
So my question is, you ordered ws2812b it seems from your manual and you said you checked they were the right led, you checked the ortie tation of the pad then? Since it seems to be the only different between the both (cf my article in the comments i think)
Sorry for the headache about this but it seems rather complicated to shop.
You can't simply look at the difference in price of the strip from adafruit and aliexpress
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I've used BTF-lighting with success. I think that the results are also dictated that the moisture removal (baking) which I actually discussed with the led manufacturer we visited 2 weeks ago (that would easily explain the bad pixel / sharpie test).
The SK doesn't "replace". It's indeed cheaper reason why it's getting popular, has a different silicon / IC / controller with different timing and probably a different led too.
I haven't looked under a microscope each strip I got but I think I got each time what I've ordered. My default settings are made for WS28XX so when I get a SK I know because it doesn't work out of the box (timing need to be adjusted). I could tell by eye the difference between strips I got a year and 2 years ago (WS2811 or 2812 not B) by the pin number (easy) and by the shape of the led metal plates (inside the pixel).
Vendors I've used carry both chips, so I've been confident to get what I ordered, and that was the case.
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Finally got my nbv4 installed my in my Vader conversion. Sounds and responds amazing! Great board!
edit: pics for Erv. by the way, thanks for your boards they're awesome!
(https://www.fx-sabers.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1076.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw452%2FMeatsweats%2FIMG_0478_zpsq4iriebo.jpg&hash=1018e947903b56b1d4a017c7b4ad486bafa2b65e)
(https://www.fx-sabers.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1076.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw452%2FMeatsweats%2FIMG_0474_zpscnyv1ihh.jpg&hash=2c783c7a561da2b658da399d3c8820ae6e6e3f40)
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Finally got my nbv4 installed my in my Vader conversion. Sounds and responds amazing! Great board!
thumbs up ! hey, pics or it didn't happen ;-)
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Finally got my nbv4 installed my in my Vader conversion. Sounds and responds amazing! Great board!
edit: pics for Erv. by the way, thanks for your boards they're awesome!
(https://www.fx-sabers.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1076.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw452%2FMeatsweats%2FIMG_0478_zpsq4iriebo.jpg&hash=1018e947903b56b1d4a017c7b4ad486bafa2b65e)
(https://www.fx-sabers.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1076.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw452%2FMeatsweats%2FIMG_0474_zpscnyv1ihh.jpg&hash=2c783c7a561da2b658da399d3c8820ae6e6e3f40)
Beautiful Vader and beautiful blade color
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thanks a lot for your input, Space ! glad you like it !
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Got my Nb and ledstrip.
The speaker is rattling, you mention to use Panasonic NCR and it's what i used; would the capacitor on +/- of the ledstrip could help?
Another question about diffusion, i tried some foam and also wrap film but either or both at the same time can let me see each led.
You are talking about manifactures in the manual, meaning that someone could produce a proper diffuser?
I have the white tube similar to the MR blade that fits the 7/8 blade and they seems to work pretty good but dim a bit the leds sadly.
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This new NB is listed as Omnisaber ready ... does that mean choreographers like me will soon have a better sound solution for performances? Is there any kind of ETA, like a year or less? :grin:
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Got my Nb and ledstrip.
The speaker is rattling, you mention to use Panasonic NCR and it's what i used; would the capacitor on +/- of the ledstrip could help?
Another question about diffusion, i tried some foam and also wrap film but either or both at the same time can let me see each led.
You are talking about manifactures in the manual, meaning that someone could produce a proper diffuser?
I have the white tube similar to the MR blade that fits the 7/8 blade and they seems to work pretty good but dim a bit the leds sadly.
the capacitor will probably not solve your speaker rattling, which is probably caused by a battery that can't provide the juice. The brand is great but I don't know about the capacity and more importantly the max discharge rate
The foam is still worked on by some of my affiliates. One supplier said he could do it then failed on us but we keep moving on.
This new NB is listed as Omnisaber ready ... does that mean choreographers like me will soon have a better sound solution for performances? Is there any kind of ETA, like a year or less? :grin:
I've received my omnisabers v2 PCBs yesterday, and most of the software is done on it, however I still need to revive the server software (Computer / audio side). So, it's coming...
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My batteries are 18650 3400mha seems to be 6A discharge rate.
Edit: i have found two tyoe of panasonic with 10A drain one model 18650BD 3200mah and one 18650PF 2900mah, why the difference in mah since bith are high drain at 10A?
What battery/model do you use?
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I've used it 2900 mah 18650 battery from elegant weapons which has at least a 10A discharge rate
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Thanks Erv, i have made some research and 18650 protected high deain batteries are easily foundable.
However for 18500 it is another case! I didn't find any!
Did you already have to search for such a battery or not yet?
There are a few hilt pending on my bench that will only fit a 18500 and since i'm planning for a ledstrip i need a high drain battery (KR Hero, Ahsoka hilt for exemple)
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I haven't searched at all for 18500 so far, only used 18650 sorry
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Hey Erv,
Finally got my new batteries both from pana: NCR18650PF and the other GA rated at 10A continuois discharge Max.
However even with these it cant power my two ledstrips (240leds).
The blade initiate and along it turn off and reboot.
Could it be a wrong wiring?
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it could be however if the blade is initialized and even starts, then the board is driving it. I would rather test with first a lower number of pixels and / or with lower channel values / single color. While the white is a serious current draw, a single color should be fine with any cell, I've even used crappy / cheap ultra fire (red/black series) and they do power 220+ pixels (but the sound is bad due to voltage ripple).
If you get a power shortage, there a huge chance your power supply path gets broken. Recharge port or battery PCB, imho.
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Thanks Erv for you mr support!
Finally found out what was wrong...apparently it was the battery holder i was using...while it is perfectly good for a powering a tri cree it was not for led strip.
When i powered the strips directly with the wires on the battery i did't have any problem, even my "old" panasonic worked and cherry on the cane, the 18500 i have!! All my batteries seems to handle the strips (pretty amazed me!)
So yeahh everything works fine now! Sorry for the headache on this one!
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NP. I'm just happy to see that my initial guess was correct (power supply issue in the power path). For the record, I'm using high quality holders from Vader's vault, they just work and have very little serial resistance over the power path
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Honestly i woulnt have tought of something like this, that's just thing i a learning, like transformer effect :tongue:
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Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but the "localized blaster bolt deflection" or "AccuBolt" effect that is available on the Prizm5 is not available on the NB4 correct? Didn't see it listed here or on the comparison chart on your website, but wanted to ask to be sure. I plan on doing a Neopixel build soon.
Thanks!
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Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but the "localized blaster bolt deflection" or "AccuBolt" effect that is available on the Prizm5 is not available on the NB4 correct? Didn't see it listed here or on the comparison chart on your website, but wanted to ask to be sure. I plan on doing a Neopixel build soon.
Thanks!
No it is not on the NB. The NB is designed for single button operation so doesn't have plaster block or any of the associated things that go along with it.
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Hey Erv,
Sorry to bother again, have you ever experienced a crazy hot SD card?
I have one that didnt turn on my NB and when putting it in my card reader the thing is turning really hot in only one second ! And not recognize by my PC.
Just for information i have 6 NBV4 and only one SD is oding this.
Thanks
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I got a couple which failed in my hands but never hot like this. Where did you get your nb from?
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From EW, i am also very surprised by quick rising in temperature!
first i thought i may have wrongly wired the NB but i don't think that wrong wiring would cause such a thing, right?
This asumption was out when i tried all the other SD cards.
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Wrong wiring Can damage a sf card. Esd too
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Hopefully soon we will get LS strip abilities like fire effects, rainbow shifting and whatever else might be seen on some of them test audrino boards. but thats just some complex programming. possible the boards data files can be edited for more advanced ideas.
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Erv- super awesome. One Q for you- i don't know if its been asked/answered here or elsewhere. But i figured i would go to the source. On the NB3 your diagrams (in the manual) show the resistors going to high powered Leds on the Positive side. On the NB4 the diagrams show the resistors on the neg side. Are these merely choices- are they truly interchangeable- or should resistors on the V3 card designed specifically to be on the + side and on V4 on the - side? I am making a couple sabers and asking so i can make the led modules (with quick connecters) interchangeable - even between boards- IF its merely a choice- and not imperative to follow the diagrams in the particular manuals. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
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resistors can be placed anywhere (up side or down side of the led) and they aren't polarized. It changed only to accommodate a diagram that would fit on the page and avoid too many wires crossing each other.
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Thank you for clarification sir!
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Just finished my first saber with the NB and its amazing! Thank you for that, Erv!
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Thank you erv! You've enabled me to make my dream Graflex 2.0 lightsaber with this awesome saber card! It's very easy to use and wire. I read your manual back to back and it is well written and documented with a LOT of images that helped me ensure my wiring was good. I opted to use the 2812B LED string in the 144 LEDs per meter configuration, you'll need two as you'll have to stick them back to back. Lots of sources on eBay so no shortage there. For building my blade with a good diffusion and even lighting I used a trans white 7/8" thin walled tube from TCSS. I first removed the adhesive from one of the LED strips and then connected to the 2nd LED strip. I used 126 pixels x 2 overall. I wrapped the back to back led strip with a thin packing foam sheet. Just one layer is good enough. I then used gift wrapping tissue to create a single layer diffusion with a 1/8" overlap in the blade. I used a wooden dowel to guide the tissue into the blade. I simply wrapped the tissue sheet around the dowel and inserted it into the tube. for added padding of the LED strip, I used the clear plastic bag that came with the trans white tube and wrapped it up just enough to get the LED strip from flying around the tube. I taped the tissue sheet to the tube ends to keep it in position. The NeoPixel is awesome, it's bright, you can create an endless combination of customized colors and the NBv4 made it soooo easy to install. It simply worked the first time, period! Love the default sound fonts as well. Keep up the great work, I'm just honored I was able to get my hands on your NBv4!
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taken to the heart, I'm glad you're loving it and that it helped bringing your saber project to life ! cheers !
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These are great. I'm ordering more- Thanks for such a great product!
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possible or best practice to just bridge L1 and L2 for Led strip builds??? got some EN ROUTE!
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Hey Master Erv,
did you share somewhere your settings for the NB and the Prizm5 boards?
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If you mean the configuration files, they are in the default package of each board, available on the website.
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Will the future Nano Biscotte v5 have 12-bit audio?
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Hey erv,
Just wanted to say that your NB boards were my entry to this hobby and their resilience and easy-to-solder design has enboldened me to build even more sabers and play with new configurations. It's a great product and a very forgiving one for a first-time soldering novice.
Thanks!
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Thank you so much, very useful feedback !
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Good afternoon everyone!
Complete noob here on the forums, but I wasn't able to find what I was looking for. I figured asking a question about wiring a Nano Biscotte v4, should go in the Plector Labs area.
So ya.. basically my question is, does anyone have a detailed wiring diagram for a Nano Biscotte v4? Specifically being connected to a Blue/Blue/White Cree LED, Monotary switch, recharge port, battery, speaker, etc. If there are any details I can add, I could always write out what my current wish list is from TCSS.
Thanks in advance!
Deadguy11
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Did you look at the manual? Also the custom saber shop has a video on wiring the Nano on YouTube, but it’s called wiring a saber with sound I believe.
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Yes the manual shows a configuration for an RGB LED, from what I have read so far, a BBW is wired differently.
But thank you for the heads up on the videos. I will look for them.
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Yes the manual shows a configuration for an RGB LED, from what I have read so far, a BBW is wired differently.
But thank you for the heads up on the videos. I will look for them.
the NB is a tri channel board. There's no wiring difference between RGB and BBW wiring. As you have a single blade color, you can wire your 2 BB on the first channel, the FoC (W) on the second.
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Will the future Nano Biscotte v5 have 12-bit audio?