After several nights of disastrous blunders with the V3 electronics, I'm thinking I may be better off going the route of buying as much pre-assembled electronics as I can. Would I be able to use the firmware with a Teensy 3.5 (has an SD card socket) and a Prop Shield? This is close to the V1 electronics.
Some questions:
Will the TeensySaber software be able to use an SD card on the Teensy 3.5? I saw a post on the PJRC forum (the thread profezzorn started) that got an SD card working with MTP on a Teensy 3.5/6.
Will I need a booster? The Teensey Vin accepts 3.6 - 6 Volts. Can I run the Teensy (and Prop Shield) directly from an 18650? How much battery energy will I not use if the Teensy stops working at 3.6 V?
Must I use a FET if I only use a PL9823 string? The blade will be blue on power up until the Teensy boots up enough to to command the PL9823s to turn off, right?
Any other issues?
Yes. a teensy 3.5 + prop shield should work. You will need to use a wire to hook up the audio, but it should be pretty easy.
I think you'll be ok without the booster, you'll loose some speaker volume, and some things may glitch when the battery is low, but I think it will work.
You can probably go without the FET, but a single FET really is pretty easy to put in.
The problem with not having a FET is that the LEDs draw a lot of power even when off, but you could work around that with a physical on/off button or a kill key.
And yes, the blade will be blue for a second or two while the teensy boots.