What would you like on buttered toast V4.x?

[erv]

yeah, pot is an ugly way to change the current of a power LED, but I'm not kicking any one, I love the saber Gelukandhar has made for instance.
The problem to make such board is that you need 3 independant PWM running at at least 30 KHz and with a 10 bit resolution.
I'm working on that as well, I have my own part for a tri lux. I know how to do it, but it will require an additionnal microcontroller to handle the PWM. Sounds like I'll have to split functions with sound at one end of the board, and lux power at the other end. Length of the board will be doubled. Many more features are planned on that tri lux version : white flashes during clash, color subtile changes for energy shimmering to get the blade alive (I'm already doing that, but with just intensity of a single colors) and of course : radical color change from blue to red héhé...
Erv'

[Luke-SkyMarcher]

So when it comes to playback speed alteration, it will only slow it down, not speed it up, correct?

[erv]

yeah, that's it. I like the way it works cause you can also define the zone in which you alter the sample rate. Defining the "zero gravity" param defines where the alteration starts.
I think the effect is much better when slowing down the speed, cause making it deeper and slower is nicer to the ear compare to speeding it up to twice the original speed (which turn your saber into a plane engine or a Mickey's voice)

[Novastar]

Holy lightsaber, Erv... you're SMOKIN' right through all this stuff!!!

How could any saber builder be happier?

[erv]

How ? by owning a double blade saber, dude !
(which is the tool you need actually to butter a toast on BOTH sides )
holly crap, I'm really twisted this morning (please thanks jetlag for me !)

How could any saber builder be happier?

[erv]

sorry about the double posting, this is just to notify the forums of a new message here.
I'm done with the LEDs blinking sequence and patterns. I started with a 3 LEDs system, keeping the "power on" solder tab for the exclusive use of the bargraph control wire (reminder : this pad goes to 3.3V when the blade is ignited or 0v when the blade+sound are off - it controls the power on/off of the bargraph display).
Then I thought that not every one is using a bargraph, and in this case, using the tab for an additionnal LED would be cool. 3 is great but does not allow to make a symetric lighting pattern.
Four LEDs = 4 bits => 16 possibilities (2^4). I therefore implemented a sequenced state machine in the code that handles 16 steps, allowing to a make a sequence up to 16 different patterns from all-off to all-on.
The leds.txt config file now has 32 lines. One line for the state (pattern) of the LEDs, one for the delay after which a new state will be set. The delay can be from 1 to 30100 in multiple of 1.9 ms (don't ask why, internal recipe and cooking inside the core). Think about a multiple of 2 ms, won't make a big difference. Hence a delay of 30100 = 60 sec = 1 min.
States are binary coded on 4 bits. LED 4 is the fourth bit on the left side of the nibble, also called the MSB (most significant bit) and has the biggest power of 2. Opposite for LED1

8 4 2 1 = power of 2 of each bit in the nibble
____________
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | = bit number
-----------------
L4 L3 L2 L1 = LED number

So if you want for instance to have an LED dot scrolling back and forth between left to right and right to left, only one LED/bit will be ON at one time (not exactly K2000 D. Hasseloff car but kind of).
state00=0
state01=1
state02=2
state03=4
state04=8
state05=0
state06=8
state07=4
state08=2
state09=1
state10=0

etc. All the 16 states must be filled in the file. If the pattern sequence is shorter than 16 steps, you can either dupplicate the sequence until it fills the 16 slots, or put a fixed state for the rest of the sequence, with very low delays so that it rolls over back to the beginning of the sequence.
A zero delay anywhere in the sequence will stop the sequencer. Allows you to make a sequence at start up, then stop (smart isn't it ?)

If you wish to use the bargraph, simply make sure that the LED output and corresponding bit is set to 1 on all states. An led AND the bargraph control wire can be connected on the LED output.
BUT, you can also decide to use the sequence to power the bargraph only for a short duration every minute or longer (not sure that it's a brillant idea, but it can be done). First state puts the bargraph control wire to 1, short delay (like 5 seconds), then all other steps put the bit to 0, bargraph is off. With one minute max per state, and 15 available states (the first one being used to turn the bargraph on), you can have the bargraph lit every 15 minutes or so.

funny patterns : so far I've tried various stuff, like a simple 4 bits binary counter, you can do gray code, johnson counter (K2000), blinking between 2 patterns and everything you'd like to do with 4 LEDs.

Of course, one leds.txt sequencer configuration file per sound bank directory (won't be fun otherwise), so that you can choose LED, sound and blade look n' feel in each configuration !

thoughts, idea, comments and feedback would be welcome on this work so that I could see if I can move forward to other design points, or if additionnal features are requested.
Erv'

[neophyl]

Sounds good Erv and I can follow it very easily being used to binary.

One suggestion though. Dont know if its possible with the parsing of the txt files but would it be possible to do it like an assembly binary number format instead.

For example instead of
'state00=5' to light up led 1 and 3* use something like
'state00=b'0101' instead. Would probably make it easier for people not familiar with binary as they could visualise the pattern easier.

*Editing for correctness

[erv]

I've thought about that. Even if I can deal with decimal binary numbers quite easily, I often write bytes in a binary form when I'm caring about the state of each individual bit. I'll see if I can make a parsing routine that is "fool proof" in case of bad "spelling"
(and thanks for being concerned about that, I'm sure users will thank you)

"There are 10 kind of people in this world, those who can deal with binary, and those who can't"
(sorry about that, I don't mean to make fun of people, it's just that it's a famous tshirt, héhé.... but when I went to thinkgeek.com for some tshirt shopping, I bought one dealing with electronics ! it says "resistance is futile... if < 1 ohm" )

[Firebird21]

I have an idea that has little or nothing to do with the programming but I think would make installation and general use much easier...


Can you install a "Recharge Input Wire(s)"? This wire(s) would be connected to one side of the recharge receptacle (+ or -) and serves a couple of functions...

1. It is used to recharge a rechargeable battery pack.

2. When energized it cuts off all power to the board to prevent damage from charging.

3. It could also possibly be attached to a PLI graph (if installed) so that you can see how far along the charging is by glancing at the PLI.



It would basically replace the "Key" system I'm using now (and I think you too, erv...) where as you have to insert the Key to power the saber...


I still have not taken a new pic of the new key...

Installation would be easier because you'd only wire one side of the battery to the board and the other would be split to the board and recharge port. The other side of the Recharge Port would be wired to the Recharge Input Wire from the board. (Unless you had 2 Recharge leads then they would both go to the Port)

Plug the charger in, power is cut off to the board as if it was unplugged and bypassed to the batteries and maybe the PLI.


Is this possible?

[erv]

not a bad idea per itself, except that (yeah, I know, I'm often the "yes, but" guy, please don't take it for you) :

- my recharge port system (the one described in the tutorial) actually does not need the key to turn on the saber, but the key turns the saber off. I remembered when we talked about your recharge port system that there is not "switch" inside, but you use the 3rd pin to make the battery voltage (or ground) going to the board.
With this recharge port here :
http://www.plecterlabs.com/catalog/a...12&language=en
the 3rd wire is connected to the ground of the batt pack when the key or charger plus isn't there, and it's floating (open switch) when you insert the male plug, hence causing the ground to the CF board to be disconnected when you put the charger or key.
Well, I might have used the term "contact key" once or twice, which is confusing, since it's actually more a "safety key".

- charging process : again, pretty good idea ! I'd love to have the charging state of the battery pack. Unfortunatly, the voltage of the batt pack is not what defines the pack as charged. It's a matter of reaching a voltage peak in the charging curve, then when full, the batt voltage starts to decrease (well, that's for nicd and nimh, charging li-ion is more complex and more dangerous). The voltage can stay a long time climbing very slowly before starting decreasing just a little bit. Something you could monitor with a 2 decimal point digits multimeter, but not with a 7 LED indicator.
This is why a "smart charger" is called also "negative delta peak", cause it detects the voltage peak and see when the voltage starts decreasing, indicating the fast charge with high current must stop.
A bargraph hence can't be used to determine when the charge is over. Expecially because batteries are alive materials, and getting older, the point at which the neg delta peak will happen is not always at the same moment, old batteries often need more time to be charged. That's why you often have a single "charged" led on a batt charger, not a bargraph or a scale. Would be different however with lead batteries.

Smart chargers are actually driven by a microcontroller with good intelligence and programming to make sure not to burn the battery pack. It's even worse with li-ion, which must be double monitored, eventually with temperature sensor, to avoid it to burn. Having an overcharge protection IC does not replace a good charging curve. Li-ion are charged with constant voltage first, then after a certain point, constant current. Not respecting that with accuracy lead to a huge explosion.
R/C guys know pretty well the story with lipo batteries (which used not having a protection IC, maybe this has changed now). Check this out
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...60570423705609

Then, it does not mean an integrated charger could not be implemented in the saber, but it will not replace the smart charger. Embedded little charger/controllers chips generally charge at capacity/10, means 10 h of charge minimum and you still need a AC/DC wall mount adapter. Prefer then your nice external charger, which is safer, and even sometimes, for some models, works out of 12v (car power outlet).

(I hope I'm not ruining your day or expectations)
Erv'