Creating a pulsing or "breathing" effect?

[Amanita]

Apologies if this is in the wrong area, for starters.
Eventually I want to build my own saber, and I'm looking for it to have a pulsing or breathing effect at a rate similar to a human heartbeat.
I know a crystal focus board will do it, but from what I am reading, I've got a better chance of being struck by lightning than being right there at the right time to score a Crystal focus board. (I work odd hours and with my luck, would be asleep or at work when a batch came up for grabs.
So aside from that, will the other boards out there give me the effect I want?
Would the Petit Crouton do the trick? Or are there others that will work?

[Ka'getsu]

Yes the Petit Crouton will give you the blade flicker effect, and it can be adjusted using it's config file to give you a pulse/breathing effect

[Batosai]

the PC will give you the possibility of a flickering effect. but with the right configuration I think you will be able to achieve the effect you are hoping for.
+ flks [0-20]: speed of the energy variation / flickering effect of the blade. A high value produces a damaged saber effect while a small value generates subtile energy changes. The value 0 disables the effect (static blade).
+ flkd [0-100]: depth (in %) of the energy fluctuation effect, i.e. the the range over which the LED brightness will be affected during the effect. A low value does not modify the energy very much while a high value « digs » big steps of light intensity. To be used with the parameter flks.
(taken from the PC1.6manual page 14)

EDIT: damn, too slow

[Sunrider]

I don't think any of the boards will give you a organic looking blade effect like a heart beat. You can get that type of signal from the accent led pads on the CF. They are getting much easier to get now too. I would use a 10w and run 2 dies from a PEX controlled by the accent led pad.

[FenderBender]

No, the CF WILL give you a slow (or fast, it is configurable) pulse. It is VERY organic and smooth, but it is rhythmic on a straight clock. It doesn't 'beat' in the same time as a heartbeat, but it is a nice effect. Erv' has been very prolific so far with the CF, and I foresee that very soon, it will be very easy to get one

[Sunrider]

Yes to be fair the CF can look organic in a way but not heart beat like organic. I that makes any sense.

[FenderBender]

Right, you can't change the 'beat' of the pulse, only speed and depth. So, it is more like 'breathing' than beating.

[Amanita]

I guess breathing is really what I'm after. Is the guy who makes the CF boards stepping up production or something? Last I heard, he made them in small batches by hand, and they only came out every few months or so.
I'll have to start checking the fx-sabers forums and see what comes up.

But if I can't get my hands on a CF, will the Crouton do as good a job? I need to look for the manual for this one.