Apologies for sharing here 1 day late, I've been swamped with work and requests yesterday ! For those who went to see the movie, I hope you all got a great time, I'll remain in no-spoiler mode for some days until we hit the holidays all together with the family
Release notes :
http://www.plecterlabs.com/Media/Doc/PleaseWelcomeCrystalFocusv9.pdf- [NEW] iSaber Multitrack playing (track + saber Fx) with individual volume control
- [NEW] iSaber Fx swing clash stab and spin.
- [NEW] iSaber classic flicker + pulse or dynamic flicker (audio flicker)
- [NEW] iSaber specific font selection, or latest used (selected via the font menu prior entering iSaber)
- [NEW] Improved vocal menu audio real time mixing
- [NEW] Up to 16 color profiles
- [NEW] Spectrum™: a dynamic motion-based Color selection method
- [NEW] Improved color morphing between profiles
- [NEW] Mute-power-off (along with Mute-On-The-Go)
- [NEW] Specific start color profile (font specific)
- [NEW] Per Color Profile FoC mixing
- [NEW] Colder / More efficient power management
- [NEW] Omnisaber support
- [NEW] Accubolt & Multi bolt ported to CF (inherits from Prizm v5)
- [NEW] Deep Sleep & Deep Sleep pad (to power aux. electronics like a BT module, and accents)
- [NEW] New dimensions 50.77 x 22.13mm. Narrower PCB (< 7/8")
- [NEW] End of lockup sound slot for a smoother transition when returning to hum (ported from Blaster Core)
- [NEW] 16 bit motion sensing, larger motion dynamic range
- [NEW] Even faster motion sensing with improved (lower) motion-to-sound latency, now down to 4.74ms
Legacy features- Tri digital motion sensor
- Magic Activation
- Saber ForceLock™
- Genuine 16 bit sound (no magic truncation, no design mistake)
- Sizable PLI 1 to 8 LED
- Glyph for PLI
- Dynamic Motion Flow
- Trident™ support for Cross-guard hilts
- Orientation based Mute-On-The-Boot™ & Mute-On-The-Go™
- Tangible, Accessory based on-the-fly sound font selection
- Crystal Chamber color profiles
- Spin Pitch Shifting
- 4 random boot sounds
- 4 channel color mixing
- StabFx™ (4 sounds)
- SpinFx™ (4 sounds)
- ComboFx™ (4 sounds)
- Dual digital sensor with Motion Fusion™
- Color configurable blade and Flash on Clash™
- Editable Glyph for the sound bank display in the menu (7 segment display + decimal point support)
- 8 accent LEDs
- Crystal Chamber specials
- Hum resume after fx
- Motion controlled sound bank selection (flick=next, bang=select)
- up to 12 sound fonts
Why so long to get this release:I won’t extend much about my private life (not the place, not the goal) but I faced to major losses early this year. It clearly delayed a lot of things.
CFv9 firmware work was started in March but got postponed based on the amount of things we had to deal with and fix regarding the sad events and situation.
The hardware was sort of ready since then and we expected to have enough energy to get a release after the summer, around September. Now that we are beyond the storm, we could finalize some of the ideas that only got prototyped back in May and June, and get to the point.
We actually have more things to come but we decided to wrap up as much as we could in this one as a milestone, based on the fact the former CF8 motion sensor was discontinued, making hard the pursuit of the production of that version. On the brighter side (pun intended) the new motion sensor is even better, and faster.
Availability & Pricing? Boards are already in production, we are wrapping up the default package (a couple of new sounds to make) and I need to finalize the user’s manual, which I have spare time for… now! Everything should be ready for Christmas or early January worse case. No price change.
No pixel love?We communicated several times about this: it makes no sense to sell a board with a current regulator for high-power leds, which both takes space and cost money for a feature that Pixel type blades don’t use. We do have a prototype of CF-LS but we think it deserves more work and experiments to be a nice & modular board. Also, it will inherits from a lot from CF9 and I wanted the code base to be mature before making a code port and avoid counter productive effort.
Omnisabers:In the preparation of the upcoming Omnisaber dongle and software, we implemented all board events (like it was implemented for the Omnisaber firmware we designed for saberproject and their wireless system). All gestures, power on/off, color change etc are logged and sent out thru the RICE port.
We also added some remote control messages so that Omnisabers (or any remote device or program, via a Bluetooth dongle for instance). This way, you can remotely power the saber on and off, trigger the lockup and change color etc with just the ease of sending the saber some serial commands. It’s pretty neat when you want to control a saber as a decoration element in a home cinema room, when displayed on the wall, or on a mannequin.
Color ProfilesWe did not just increase their number (now up to 16) we also added new and better ways to access / browse them.
We introduce Spectrum™: an saber orientation-based color profile selection menu, accessible on the fly while the saber is running. By triggering the safe and natural Aux+Act combination of switches, you get into the menu, then use the orientation of the hilt along with audio feedback to select your color profile, the exist with Aux.
It is configurable to use either the up/down axis of the hilt (referred as pitch axis) or the left/right (roll axis). Both give the feeling of a “dial-styled selector” and it allows for a fast and accurate browsing of the color profiles, which comes handy when you use 16. Using the pitch axis uses the blade as an “vu-meter needle” while the roll axis is reminiscent of a safe/vault combination dial knob.
So that you can still choose and combine, we added 4 modes to use either the legacy profile browsing or Spectrum. We also added a method to trigger the profile selection for those who use latching switches as Activator, combining the Aux with a rotation of the hilt.
Start / Forced Color ProfilesA good suggestion from Markus (Saberproject): remembering the latest used color profile in a font is useful sometimes, but for some users or sabers, you’d like to always start with a specific color when you boot the saber (kill key or reboot from deep sleep).
End of Lockup sound slotDiscussed formerly with Lord Blako, it’s a nice way to end the lockup no matter when you release it. Up to 4 sounds can be integrated; they are automatically played if part of the font, otherwise, the legacy system is used (return to hum). The idea behind it was to port the Blaster Core “End
Shot” used in full-auto mode. The sound slot can be made of a specific part of the lockup, an energy glitch artefact or anything that suggest the blade contact removal (leading to the end of the lockup).
Power management & size: We selected a new regulator is more efficient and allows for an even lower cut-off voltage of the board. While we still recommend to hack it to single cell (remove the regulator), the board runs until 3.7V (vs around 5V previously).
We also phased the new, lower ESR capacitors we started using with prizm to both reduce the size of the board which now fits in a 7/8” width.
Deep sleepWe ported the same deep sleep system as on the NB and Prizm. However, the additional components of the current driver cannot be powered down, so the deep sleep current is slightly higher than on a PZ or NB. We do reach however 0.3mA, estimated to 11 to 12 months of shelf time.
Power Saving modesWe preserved the legacy sleep mode of CF. Now the board uses 3 modes of power saving.
• 1) IDLE: this is when the blade is off. The board plays the accent sequence defined in the idle.txt file. The board uses about 50mA
• 2) After the sleep delay (in multiple of 20ms allowing now up to 994 days) elapses, the board will leave IDLE to go in the SLEEP mode. Accents will be turned off except the one that blinks here and there (font specific settings). The board still computes in that mode, detect motions and moves and will eventually revert the board back to IDLE when using the Wakeup feature. Aux and Act will also wake it up back to IDLE. In that mode the board uses about 10mA
• 3) After the deep sleep delay, the board will move from SLEEP to DEEP SLEEP and will stop computing. It can be started again by either the kill key or pressing the activator switch (not the aux, to avoid jumping in the font selection menu right away). The board will then reboot from scratch. In this mode, it uses about 0.3mA.