Please Welcome the Nano Biscotte v4

[Darth Chasm]

Exciting news. I may have to pick up one...or 10

Ok just 3 to start ;)

[Lobezno]

I already purchased mine too. Any tips about the blade, 2/4 inside faces, the better socket to attach it to the hilt?

[erv]

thanks everyone, glad you like it. I wished i could bring the stellar motion sensing (which is now our standard) earlier to this board !

[EXAR KUN]

This is awesome! Just ordered one from TCSS! Will be fun playing with the Neopixel

[Jax Solo]

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!

[Wolf69]

Are the pad for a high power led and string blade the same?
Can a hotswap can be made then?

Thank you

[oldgamefreak]

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?

[Jax Solo]

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.

[erv]

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

[oldgamefreak]

Thanks Erv, Thats exactly what I was looking for.

[erv]

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.

[I71A]

Brilliant work Erv! I can't wait to get a hold of one of these awesome Neopixel blades...

Those realy look amazing.
Nice work

[SirRawThunderMan]

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  don't suppose there's any chance of a buyback/upgrade program? 

Seriously, though, what is this LEDStrip^tm? is it just the fancy name for an LED string with Neopixel-like LEDs, or something new?

[erv]

Seriously, though, what is this LEDStrip^tm? 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)

[XsaberX]

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?