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The Mining Colony: Home of approved FX-Sabers vendors => Protowerkstatt => Topic started by: Obi_1 on March 01, 2018, 04:43:08 AM

Title: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: Obi_1 on March 01, 2018, 04:43:08 AM

Spring is coming and with that the first good news for the saber building community!

I'm happy to introduce the newest member of my DIYino family of Arduino Saber boards:

Stardust V3

(https://cdn.website-editor.net/85bc6b3df1aa41ad817a0ccdd84d8e64/dms3rep/multi/stardust_ad.jpg)

The Stardust V3 merges the best features from the successful Prime V1 and the very compact Stardust V2 designs. I consider the V3 to be the ultimate Arduino Saber board based on the successful Nano design.



New Features:

[The SD-Card is back!!!]: Yes, now the limitation is lifted, you can again enjoy unlimited possibilities to store sound fonts and music on your saber board. With careful placement and layouting I managed to replace the SPI-Flash with a slim SD-Card holder in a way it does not increase the size of the board!!! So the V3 has the same dimensions as the V2, with no size adder.

[Instant Clash]: the V3 utilizes a new concept to detect and trigger clashes. The sensitivity is the same as for the Prime and V2 boards, but thanks to this new feature, clashes have no latency, they are instantaneously triggered upon impact. Combined with the eGesture engine (see later) it makes the V3 best-in-class in the single most important FX of any saber: clash detection.

[Dual Charging Scheme]: you like charging your saber conveniently over USB (which you take along anyway), the Stardust design is the only saber board available you can do so. But do you still like charging your saber fast via a recharge port? What about having both? The V3 can be charged either over USB or over recharge port, you have the choice.

[Pre-loaded with Saber Code]: you wanted to have an easy start with your Stardust board and a bit anxious about uploading code via Arduino IDE? Although uploading code is easy as I've shown in another topic, you can experiment with the most important features right out of the box. I will ship all V3 with a generic saber code for an easy start.

(https://cdn.website-editor.net/85bc6b3df1aa41ad817a0ccdd84d8e64/dms3rep/multi/DSC_5456_kicsi.JPG)
 
Legacy features:


[USB system board]: one interface to interact with the board, the integrated micro-USB port is used to
1. upload code
2. charge a single 3.7V Li-Ion battery

[USB charging]: the V3 can be used to charge a single Li-Ion battery cell according to the standard CCCV charging profile, thanks to the integrated USB charger circuit. The board will come with an on-board micro-USB connector as well as an extrenal, small size micro-USB breakout board to be able to place a port to anywhere in your prop design.

[K3 technology]: the v3 does not need a kill key, with its current consumption of 0.3mA in sleep mode it retains shelf life for a long period of time. With a 3000mAh 18650 battery it discharges the battery in (3000/0.3=10000h=416 days, which equals to over a year!!!

[single battery operation]: the V3 is single battery operated.

[breadboard friendly design]: the v3 is fully breadboard friendly

[eGesture Engine]: stays for easy Gesture recognition, it is a feature of the system code introduced in FX-SaberOS. Stardust based lightsabers do not have to be configured to distinguish clash and swing motions. Thanks to the advanced impact detection of the accelero- and gyro-sensor on-board the Stardust can detect clashes. Period. No threshold, no config needed.

[proven technology]: based on the successful DIYino Prime v1 and Stardust V2 designs for lightsaber props

[Arduino Compatible board]: configured as Arduino Uno to leverage the additional code space of the Uno bootloader

[Extremely small size]: to fit into any lightsaber and blaster prop (W x L x H = 21mm x 51mm x 6mm or 0.82" x 2" x 0.2"), it is only slightly larger than a simple Nano, but with a whole system integrated around the Nano design.

[Broad blade type support]: supports in-hilt High-Power LED (aka. Tri Cree, Luxeon) and NEOPIXEL blades.

(https://cdn.website-editor.net/85bc6b3df1aa41ad817a0ccdd84d8e64/dms3rep/multi/DSC_5458_kicsi.JPG)

How can you order a DIYino Stardust V3 board?


The V3 is currently in pre-order. I will start the manufacturing once I have 100 orders or latest mid March (whichever is earlier). Boards are expected to be shipped in April. To place an order you can go to my website:
https://www.protowerkstatt.com/diyino-prop-boards (https://www.protowerkstatt.com/diyino-prop-boards)

For the duration of the pre-order you can benefit from PayPal's Buyers Protection by paying for Goods and Services and you do not have to add extra to cover fees. That's on me!

You can find all informations there regarding:
- Payment
- Shipping
- Pre-order
- Warranty

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: jbkuma on March 01, 2018, 06:40:58 PM

Very exciting product release! 

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: EXAR KUN on March 01, 2018, 10:31:16 PM

My friend this is incredible! Board looks so nice

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: Obi_1 on March 02, 2018, 03:20:13 AM

Thanks Master Windu, your liking it means a lot to me :) I did my best to design the layout to be clean and easy to wire up for the users. I also optimized the routing of the charger for faster charging and the LED drivers to prepare them for new challenges like a 3-strip neopixel blade (IntelliBlade).

The SD-card was requested by a lot of people, the Stardust V2 architecture found a good resonance in the community, logically I wanted to build on that proven concept and introduce improvements based on exchange with users. With the introduction of the SD-card saber smiths now have again the possibility to include all the awesome sound fonts they want to have, with no limitation on number or structure of sound fonts.

I will still keep the SPI-Flash, but for another exciting release (from which I'm not prepared to disclose more at the moment, but keep your eyes open).

I also had the target to make the board as small as possible, so there is no extreme hilt design this guy could not be fitted inside.

I already have the new board in one of my MHS hilts, performing superb. I'm currently finalizing another FX-SaberOS release, plan to make a video as soon as I finish polishing the code. There are a lot of awesome new improvements on the software side too.

Last but not least, as was also requested by many, I decided to ship out these boards with a saber code already installed, so folks can start right away, and can decide later on to customize how their saber should look/feel/sound like.

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: JakeSoft on March 02, 2018, 06:25:18 PM

Ooo... can't wait to start reading up on this one. Let us know when the user manual is ready!

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: BEN KENOBI on March 03, 2018, 08:05:32 AM

paid my money.

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: Obi_1 on March 05, 2018, 02:00:22 AM

I work hard on many fronts now, one was to release a Draft User Manual, which can be found now here:
https://github.com/Protonerd/DIYino/blob/master/DIYino_Stardust_v3_User_Manual_v1.pdf (https://github.com/Protonerd/DIYino/blob/master/DIYino_Stardust_v3_User_Manual_v1.pdf)

Please consider it as what it is: a draft version. It was my goal to keep the pinout as close to the V2 as possible, therefore the User Manual still has the pics of the V2, but technically the drawings are correct. I will work to update the remaining drawings and text in the coming days.
Only 3 things are missing:
- a picture showing the wiring of the normal recharge port, because the V3 can be charged both via USB and ordinary recharge port
- the wiring pics still show the connection between BAT+ and 5V, which is now made on-board, so does not have to be manually wired-up
- a short description of the generic saber code the V3 comes pre-loaded with.

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: Obi_1 on March 13, 2018, 02:22:25 PM

Thanks to all the pre-orders placed I was able to start the manufacturing of the PCBs already 2 weeks ago and I just got confirmation that they will be shipped out tomorrow to the assembly facility. It means, based on current state of matters, I'm very confident that the April launch is secured. I have most of the components already transferred to the company assembling the Stardust boards.

I wait until I have all the components from DigiKey (suposedly this week), and I will set the order status of the Stardust V3 from pre-order to stock :) Thanks for all the saber smiths who suport the Arduino Saber story!

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: BEN KENOBI on March 13, 2018, 04:02:47 PM

Thanks for the update.

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: Obi_1 on March 21, 2018, 05:29:34 AM

Finally the first full release of the User Manual is available! I updated all the pictures to have the Stardust V3 and added all the new information necessary to understand the new features of the board.

In Chapter 9 I included a short description of the gereric saber code all V3 boards come pre-installed with.

https://cdn.website-editor.net/85bc6b3df1aa41ad817a0ccdd84d8e64/files/uploaded/DIYino_Stardust_v3_User_Manual_v1.pdf (https://cdn.website-editor.net/85bc6b3df1aa41ad817a0ccdd84d8e64/files/uploaded/DIYino_Stardust_v3_User_Manual_v1.pdf)

Feel free to comment and/or post questions, and enjoy reading!

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: JakeSoft on March 21, 2018, 04:24:53 PM

Thanks for the update! If I may make a friendly suggestion: I think all of your DIYino manuals need a table showing how the Auduino pins are mapped. I know for example that D2 is mapped to the INT pin on the Stardust V3, but I only know that thanks to our private conversations. Only external pins are mentioned in the manual, those mapped on the board itself are missing.

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: Obi_1 on March 22, 2018, 12:16:07 AM

Quote from: JakeSoft on March 21, 2018, 04:24:53 PM

Thanks for the update! If I may make a friendly suggestion: I think all of your DIYino manuals need a table showing how the Auduino pins are mapped. I know for example that D2 is mapped to the INT pin on the Stardust V3, but I only know that thanks to our private conversations. Only external pins are mentioned in the manual, those mapped on the board itself are missing.

Good point Jake and thanks for the hint! I will update the table to show how the internal signals of the AVR are wired. It is in fact essential for those guys who actively program arduino sabers.

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: messiahlad on April 05, 2018, 01:28:19 AM

Exactly the Diyino that I have been waiting for. Board ordered, chassis built and now to order my neopixels.

Very excited Andras, thank you and I can't wait to finally try out one of your boards.

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: Obi_1 on April 25, 2018, 05:48:29 AM

The long awaited Stardust V3 boards finally arrived :) I'm performing testing this week and intend to ship out all pre-orders on the weekend.

I've put the status to available, but decided I stick to the good habit of letting people pay with Buyer's Protection and no fees at the same time.
https://www.protowerkstatt.com/diyino-prop-boards (https://www.protowerkstatt.com/diyino-prop-boards)

I will also offer a few boards exclusively on FX-Sabers Forum in the coming days.

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: bogeytron on May 10, 2018, 02:48:46 PM

Can the V3 be used for Blasters as well? Or am I best off just getting a Stardust B instead?

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: Obi_1 on May 11, 2018, 03:33:13 AM

Quote from: bogeytron on May 10, 2018, 02:48:46 PM

Can the V3 be used for Blasters as well? Or am I best off just getting a Stardust B instead?

Certainly it can, but I have something much better in mind for blasters. Look out for announcement due soon.

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: bogeytron on May 11, 2018, 10:06:16 AM

Quote from: Obi_1 on May 11, 2018, 03:33:13 AM

Certainly it can, but I have something much better in mind for blasters. Look out for announcement due soon.

Oooh, I shall eagerly await this announcement then! :D

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: Obi_1 on May 13, 2018, 12:03:02 PM

It a teaser but as good as an announcement for those who know my earlier designs

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: bogeytron on May 17, 2018, 10:25:56 AM

Quote from: Obi_1 on May 13, 2018, 12:03:02 PM

It a teaser but as good as an announcement for those who know my earlier designs

Looks awesome, roughly how long till it's available?  I've got a couple of blasters to build and I'm torn between waiting for this or getting a Stardust B!  :grin:

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: Obi_1 on May 22, 2018, 12:58:46 PM

I'm working hard on finalizing the code and running all the tests on the MKIII design, which is going to be a mid range blaster core, but far surpassing every other comparable offers on the market. It will be launched according to plan in June, pre-order is already started on my website and for 501st members in squads nearby.

Title: Re: Best of two worlds - Welcome the Stardust V3
Post by: bogeytron on May 22, 2018, 02:04:16 PM

Quote from: Obi_1 on May 22, 2018, 12:58:46 PM

I'm working hard on finalizing the code and running all the tests on the MKIII design, which is going to be a mid range blaster core, but far surpassing every other comparable offers on the market. It will be launched according to plan in June, pre-order is already started on my website and for 501st members in squads nearby.

Awesome, I shall pre-order a board when payday rolls around next week then!  :grin: