Arduino Lightsaber for/with LED string blade

DJWing79:
um thanks.....I have no idea what any of that meant....how BRIGHT is it during the day?

It depends where you are during the day. In a dark room or outside under the sun on a clear day?

But to keep it simple:

Rule#1: no matter what kind of technique you use, there is no competing with the Sun!

Rule#2: it is not only about brightness but also about the lightsaber look. If you compose an LED string or a neopixel stripes, at full power they will be visible outside, but then they are not yet lightsaber-like AND you seriously endanger your eyesight by looking at them. You do not want to do that, instead the string/stripe has to be diffused and put into a blade tube. This will decrease brightness but make the lighting of the blade more even, which is what you wanna achieve.

Having said that, if you make a LED string blade from really good, high brightness rating LEDs, it might be visible even if you are outside. But still faint (see Rule#1). Neopixels is a new technology, so there is really no reference to judge. First people need to build lightsabers with stripes of different densities, different diffusing etc. and try them out in daylight.

ever on the hunt for more powerful beams.....

wonder if I could get just the laser module and modify it....

Hey guys,
I'm having a little trouble getting my nano to save the configuration mode settings. Everything works perfectly action mode, swings blocks and the config mode saves while powered but once I put the kill key in all config settings (fonts, volume etc) revert back to what it was set at at the first boot.

I've looked over the sketch but the solution eludes me.

I was going to put this on the github page but it won't let me sign up at the moment

I'd really appreciate any help
Thanks guys

Can buckpucks be used with the DIYino? I plan on making a RGB string blade with adjustable colors; three different buckpucks would be on each leg of the RGB led. Would the buckpuck interfere with the output of the DIYino and PWM?

I am curious, is there an updated full-saber schematic for Neopixels, now that they're integrated into LSOS? I'm kind of basing my wiring off a combination of the LSOS diagram, and the DIYino wiring diagrams showing neopixels (as well as I can understand it. Learning a lot here). I'd love to have one that's dedicated to running neopixels from the individual components though for those of us attempting a scratch build. Might be nice to have a separate diagram for an RGB LED as well, in case someone is running that, since it's also supported.

Does anyone know of a safe way to charge batteries running in parallel for extra amp hours? I am thinking of combining two 18650 6000mah 3.7v batteries to double the amps to run the neopixels.

DJWing79:
Does anyone know of a safe way to charge batteries running in parallel for extra amp hours? I am thinking of combining two 18650 6000mah 3.7v batteries to double the amps to run the neopixels.

I do not know any reason why that should not work... if you have a Li-Ion charger which can charge a single 3.7V cell, it can be used to charge 2 of them as well. I have such a config and for my neopixels I already wired up 2x 18650 in parallel, going to a single recharge port. I charged this combo a few times, so far no adverse effects. I use 2 protected ones. I'm not sure if that counts though...

My dad who has experience in electronics said that doing it that way can eventually lead to voltage irregularities as one charges better than the other, but I'm thinking the PCB on each one should help that. Proto, how are you putting them inside your hilt? Side-by-Side or one in front of the other?

DJWing79:
My dad who has experience in electronics said that doing it that way can eventually lead to voltage irregularities as one charges better than the other, but I'm thinking the PCB on each one should help that. Proto, how are you putting them inside your hilt? Side-by-Side or one in front of the other?

That is something you are the master in :slight_smile: with your superb 3-D chassis. I would like to have such sleds to simply slide in.
Side-by-side is a nogo for most hilts, there is simply to enough room to accomodate 2 18650 (they are at least 18mm wide, 36 side-by-side, there is no hilt on the market which have an ID so large). So in my next build I will place them on top of each other, this basically already fills that particular hilt (ASP from SaberForge, nice hilt but awefully small room inside), maybe I can squeeze in a DIYino on top of the lower battery facing down to the pommel.

BTW, your father I guess is right, that is why those who use such batteries in larger quantities like RC cars/planes etc. use balancing circuits.

I bought some charging boards and am waiting on my second string of neopixels to finish my brother's birthday saber, will show off when its all done.

Anyone with coding experience want to tackle the code LSOS is using for neopixels to allow it to also use the RGBW version of neopixels?

DJWing79:
I bought some charging boards and am waiting on my second string of neopixels to finish my brother's birthday saber, will show off when its all done.

Looking forward to see the pics!!! We are all thirsting to see new neopixel sabers, so don't be shy :slight_smile:

Anyone with coding experience want to tackle the code LSOS is using for neopixels to allow it to also use the RGBW version of neopixels?

I'm not sure the gain would justify the effort. Reason is, neopixels draw a dramatically high current with 3 LEDs per pixel, my assumption is that with an additional die they could easily trip a magic threshold from where onwards they could be simply technically not be viable for lightsabers.

I personally think people should try to build saber first with high-density stripes and once it has an established supply scheme we can consider going to the next level:

I agree with high density, but I accidentally got rgbw...so...pretty useless...also I am working on a parallel battery setup using two 3.7v 18650 6000mah batteries....shoudl provide plenty of juice, still waiting on my P channel MOSFET to arrive, my 3D design has my hilt at 11" long, going to see if I can shrink it down to 10"

p-channel MOSFET? Wow, that must be a new idea! Explain!

P-Channel MOSFET would go between the protection circuit for the batteries and the DIYino's link to the charge port. Basically, when it detects the negative lead coming from the open charge port it will connect the circuit, but when Kill Key is in charge port, it will disable power so the battery won't drain.

DJWing79:
P-Channel MOSFET would go between the protection circuit for the batteries and the DIYino's link to the charge port. Basically, when it detects the negative lead coming from the open charge port it will connect the circuit, but when Kill Key is in charge port, it will disable power so the battery won't drain.

I'm not sure I get the meaning... if you plug in the kill key, the battery is decoupled from the circuitry. So no current can flow, no discharge can happen. That is why it's called kill key, it "kills" power from battery to anything else it supplies. There is no need for any additional measure. But maybe I got you wrong, maybe a drawing would be helpful.

I am referring to my parallel battery setup. Each battery needs a circuit board to regulate power and prevent overcharging a dying battery, the current board I have would then not have a shutoff feature, so I will use a P Channel MOSFET to turn it off and on

Nevermind, I used the negative output lead to feed back to the charge port and everything is fine, but in order to charge it I have to use a 7.2v charger instead of 3.7. Just something new I was playing around with.

DJWing79:
I am referring to my parallel battery setup. Each battery needs a circuit board to regulate power and prevent overcharging a dying battery, the current board I have would then not have a shutoff feature, so I will use a P Channel MOSFET to turn it off and on

Care to make a drawing and share? This could be a new idea to further the hobby!

I started to brainstorm on a v2 of the DIYino Prime board over the last weekend, collecting ideas in my head, reading through the numerous posts on the Arduino Forum to collect the Feedbacks from others using the board what Features saber builders would like to see in an improved version.

The very first thing I wanted to give a try was an idea I had for a Long time: to connect both an FTDI and a USB device on-board to the USB port and see what happens. I knew that the FTDI chip (USB to UART) would likely dominate the bus, so I thought about how to make it release the USB signals.
I looked at the Manual, but no hint, then I saw a pin named reset. Wow, a resetted chip shal leave the bus alone for sure. Idea was quickly followed by action, I made the FTDI reset pin accessible, hooked up the MP3/Wav Decoder chip on-board to the USB, resetted the FTDI and...
... my Windows displayed the content of the SD-Card on the DIYino.

I was able to format the SD-Card without even removing it, upload new set of sound files. So the DIYino Prime v2 will for sure contain signals to pull this trick, imagine not even removing the SD card to upload new content! I'm quite happy that I found this trick...

Man, that sounds amazing. I've gotta figure out what I can sell to be able to grab one.