I don't post much on forums. I feel I don't have much to contribute. However, I have been reading the forums for months and I believe I have an idea which may be of interest to people. May I present, the "Open Saber Sound Project".

What is the "Open Saber Sound Project"?
For those of you familiar with the Linux operating system, I was thinking something similar to that. I purpose a project to design and program a sound board as a community, posting the schematics and firmware free for anyone to use.

Advantages

Obviously, this project would have all the advantages of other "Open" projects. A group of people all with their own specific skill set working on the same project. I am sure some of us are good programmers, and others may be good at designing circuits. Other people may be great at testing, and trying every configuration to find bugs. With the many talented people we have on the forums, we could have one hell of a sound board.

Hardware customization. Right now, one of the common complaints with the other sound systems is the lengthy configuration process. With an system where you are building the board from the schematic, configuration could be done in hardware. Why build it to handle 1500mA if you are only ever intending to use a LuxV?

Price. The schematics are free! Anyone can use them and build one.

Availability. The Schematics would be available 24/7 (online). No more waiting around for boards to come back into stock. One would simply need to purchase the parts and assemble.

Cutting Edge Technology. Since the schematics are there, the option to fork the design (similar to what Erv' does) and redesign parts for custom projects or new technology testing is there. For example, if somebody had the urge, one could redesign (or request from the community to redesign) the LED driver to handle the RGB tri-rebel in order to test it. This would allow for the project to remain very up to date with current technology (My hat goes off to Erv' for the CF, and his work on keeping it up to date). Custom designs are possible, A driver for LED strings perhaps? or sound mixing for background battle music?

A word on competition. I understand that many may think I am purposing a project that would be in competition with the other saber sound products (CF, Ultrasound, etc.). This is not the case, I doubt very highly that this project will ever be able to rival the Crystal focus (I have one and love it). If somebody wants a CF, they will buy a CF, end of story. The idea of soldering together a board will not turn everyone on, and those people will of course continue to seek conventional methods of saber sound. The Open Saber Sound Project is geared towards people who want to experiment with customized sound boards or for those not willing to wait for other options to come into stock.

I know this doesn't really explain everything. But hopefully it gives people a rough idea of what I am thinking. I would welcome questions. What do people think? Has this been tried before? Is anyone interested in contributing? Are people interested in building their own sound boards?

Thanks for reading
Clockwork