MaskedNozza:
Thanks for the pictures! Any reason why there are three different colours? I assume the functionality is the same.Grand plans? I await with great anticipation!
If they run fine off a single 3.7V, that's great news! But I would love to have a lightsaber which can go long intervals before needing to charge. How long would you expect a single battery to last? Most likely I could be using the sabre for practice for a period of up to 2 hours. I'm happy to try cramming more cells in the chassis if it means longer runtime.
I did not mention mini-USB at all. As far as I know, mini-USB is a dead interface type. Having looked further into what 'breakout' means, USB-C is not feasible (seems to have upwards of 10 'pins') and I will probably use a breakout board for a micro-USB connector.
Run time strongly depends on your blade illumination, and not much on the board. The Stardust is only consuming ~300uA in deep sleep, so with that you are looking at a shelf life of several months at least. With a good 18650 type Li-Ion you do not have to charge often. But of course you can always cram in multiple batteries if you can spare the space. But charging them in parallel might be an issue, you have to find a charger which can support that.
That is where an USB charger has its advantage: you have it everywhere, no need to bring a dedicated charger for your saber with you.
I know that the mini-USB is not widely used any more, except for Arduino boards ;o) , but I still prefer it mechanically to the slimmer micro-USB. To save room I mount a micro-USB on my Stardust boards and every Stardust will come with a micro-USB breakout included in the package. But now I'm experimenting with chassis designs and will probably use mini-USB. Easier to plug in/out.
All DIYino boards come in multiple colors, but in the functionality there is no difference. Except the newest run of Stardust, where I made red boards for sabers and white boards (wo/MPU) for blasters. But as the demand for saber boards is much higher than for blasters, I'm converting the whites to saber boards now to satisfy demand.
On the subject of my grand plans I'm not ready to disclose anything as of now, but stay tuned in the coming months 