Lightsaber: Updating the firmware of the CFX board on Saber #1

 I realized in an online business meeting today, that I had not updated my lightsaber's firmware for a while.  Why did I have a lightsaber in a business meeting?  The better question is, why doesn't everyone have a lightsaber in a business meeting? Well, I use a meeting background that is Tatooine and when someone made a comment about me being a Skywalker I pulled out the saber and fired it up.  Just for the record, a green blade color doesn't show up very well in online video calls.

First things first, let me describe saber #1. It came together quickly when I realized that my main design was going to take a while to put together.  I had some extra parts laying about so I threw it together one day.

My vision of the main design is one where the chassis (what houses the electronics) can be exposed.  When that happens, it will have an OLED display and a crystal chamber.  Also, the soundboard will have LEDs that flash.  All of this required me to collect some additional tools like an upgraded soldering station.  Having new toys tools is a cool thing.

Saber #1 is just a test.  The hilt is from The Custom Saber Shop (TCSS) modular hilt system. It's just a blade holder, 7" hilt section, and a minimalist pommel.  It is meant to be my test mule for weathering.

The soundboard is a Crystal Focus X v1.  During an earlier attempt to solder 0603 SMD LEDs to the board, I messed it up.  This would not work for the main design I originally planned so I set the board aside and ordered a new one.  When I decided to throw this saber together, I pulled out the soundcard from the junk drawer and used it.  

The blade is a Neopixel that I constructed myself.  I used a TCSS hilt and blade side connectors for it in a thick walled blade (in theory dueling capable) cut to 32" with a parabolic tip.  For the pixel strips, I grabbed two of these from Amazon:

With those pixel strips from Amazon and following the wonderful tutorial from Rob Petkau, it all came together very quickly.

One thing that does stand out though: The weight of the blade versus the weight and balance of the hilt is a bit off for my liking.  I have all of the parts to construct a thin walled blade and that might improve it.

The switch box was something I thought I would use going forward.  It has a lit main switch, a momentary activation switch, a recharge port and a programming port.  I tried wiring it up before and found out it was a huge mess of wires that didn't work well with the 7" hilt section and the chassis.  In this shot, you'll see that the programming port isn't being used.  This was to save the space that three wires going to the board used. I've decided the main design will be simpler with all of the switches and the recharge port in a straight line and the programming port in the easily accessible main chassis.

Software Updating

For Saber #1, I did not install a port to make updating easy.   This requires me to open up the back end of the saber to access the USB port. I had to whittle away the speaker holder to give room for the right angle USB. (note the minimalist pommel)

Plecter Labs, the maker of the CFX, has some awesome tutorials on how to update the firmware.  This firmware upgrade was mostly bug fixes and some additional blade effects.  The biggest issue on updating Firmware is that pretty much all of your settings don't carry over.  There are a few websites working on a system to make reloading your settings easier.  I will give a review of each later.

The one thing I found tricky, when you select bootloader and the board reboots, you have to rescan the ports since bootloading takes on a new port number.  I have spent so much time trying to connect to the old port.  That new port is not obvious and has caused me a bunch of frustration.

I will have to sit down and do some real customization of  the blade color profile, sound fonts, and blade effects one day. And put together a demo video of the functions of it all.