Plecter Labs Crystal Focus Saber Core LS V6.50 User manual

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
Crystal Focus Saber Core™ LS V6.50
Illuminated Saber Controller Pro
for LED STRIPS (CF-LS
User’s manual
© Erv’ - Plecter Labs – v 6.50 – April 20 3
[email protected]
http://www.plecterlabs.com
Important release information
-Since version 5.x we use WAV sound files, RAW isn’t supported anymore
-Board is compatible with FAT and FAT32 (beta)
-MacOS is supported (beta)
-This current CF-LS is inherited from the CF v5. 0 and v6. 0
-Simplified gesture recognition settings
-3D motion sensor for a more detailed & accurate motion sensing
-Embedded PLI and 7 LED bargraph sequencer
-Audio output up to W/8 ohm or 2W/4 ohm
-LED strip current support up to 2A per segment (x6 segments)
-Real Time Configuration Editor R.I.C.E
We spent a lot of time writing this manual to ensure all the important
information is provided for proper use of that board. If you are new to saber
building, to the use of Crystal Focus boards, or simply to electronics in
general, we highly recommend you print a copy of that document and keep
it with you during the whole process of installing CF in your hilt.
Modification, copies or distribution of that document is strictly prohibited
© Plecter Labs / Erv’ Plecter 2005-20 3

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
2
Index
CRYSTAL FOCUS SABER CORE™ LS V6.50 1
I MPORTANT RELEASE INFORMATION 1
I NTRODUCTION 4
LED strips 4
Sound section 5
Crystal Focus LS V6.50 Features & Maximum Ratings 6
Placement & Installation 7
T OOLS AND P ARTS REQUIRED TO INSTALL / OPERATE THE MODULE 8
H OW DOES IT WORK ? 8
SD CARD CONTENTS , S OUND B ANKS AND S LOTS 9
B OARD O VERVIEW 10
U SER ’ S N OTES 10
G ETTING S TARTED WITH C RYSTAL F OCUS 11
W IRING AND O PERATING THE M ODULE 11
General Power Switch & Recharge Port 11
General wiring 14
U SER ’ S N OTES 14
Animated Accent LEDs 15
Calculating resistors for LEDs 15
M AIN C ONFIGURATION F ILE 17
P ARAMETERS AND FINE TUNING THE SABER 18
LED STRIP WIRING 25
M AKOTO WIRING ( FULL PARALLEL SETUP ) 25
H ASBRO -F X BLADES 26
S ERIALLEL ™ WIRING 27
S ERIALLEL CLASS II 27
S ERIALLEL CLASS III 28
LED STRIP ASSEMBLY 29
LED BINNING 32
LED STRIP BLADE CONNECTOR 32
LED STRIP DRIVE ADJUSTMENTS 34
LED STRIP DRIVE ADJUSTMENTS 34
M EASURING THE SEGMENT FORWARD VOLTAGE (V F ) 34
R ESONANT CHAMBER 36
B ROWSING THE SOUND BANKS – REBOOTING THE SABER 36
C REATING Y OUR O WN S OUNDS 37
I NSTALLING A S OUND F ONT ON THE SD CARD 37
A
UDIO P LAYER – I S ABER 38
C LASHES , S WINGS & B LASTER ( RANDOM ) S ELECTION M ODES 39

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
3
ADVANCED WIRING & USAGE 41
W IRING A TACTILE FEEDBACK MOTOR AND A PROGRESSIVE POWER O N LED 41
W IRING A GENERAL P OWER -O N I NDICATOR / A CCENT LED 43
W IRING A F LASH ON C LASH ™ (F O C™) LED STRIP 44
A CCENT LED S SEQUENCER 46
Stages & Delays 47
D EEP S LEEP FLASHING LED 48
A CCENT LED S AS A B ARGRAPH : P OWER O N /O FF S EQUENCES & PLI 48
PLI TIPS & TRICKS 49
S PECIAL A CCENT MODE FOR LED1 50
I GNITION AND R ETRACTION SEGMENT SEQUENCE 51
I GNITION & R ETRACTION DURATION AND SPEED 51
“F ORCE PUSH ” EFFECT 52
M OTION A CTIVATED I GNITION : P OWER ON M OVE / P OWER ON F ORCE 53
I GNITION S OUND A NGULAR S ELECTION 53
M ULTIPLE P OWER -O FF S OUNDS 54
P OWER S AVING M ODES & U SAGE S CENARIOS 54
Idle Mode 54
Deep Sleep Mode 54
Scenarios & Usage 55
M UTE O N T HE G O ™ 56
U SER ’ S N OTES 56
USING R.I.C.E.(REAL-TIME INTERNAL CONFIGURATION EDITOR) 57
G ETTING STARTED WITH R.I.C.E. 57
R EADING THE CURRENT SETTINGS 59
C HANGING SETTINGS 59
D ISCARDING SETTINGS 59
S AVING THE SETTINGS 59
U SING R.I.C.E. AS A DEBUG TOOL 59
T ROUBLESHOOTING & FAQ 61

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
4
Introduction
Our new Saber Controller Pro is the union of our evolutive saber sound module and
our luxeon driver board we designed back in 2005. Driven by a single processor, this
module features a perfect synchronization between light and sound effects with the
possibility to setup each effect with parameters stored on our SD-Config ™ technology.
Crystal Focus Saber Core (LS) V6. 0 has of course a lot of new features and
capabilities compared to the original CF V , including 6 bit sound playback, WAV
format support, 6 different sound banks, blaster blocking, force push effects and
more!
Warning : You’ve just acquired an electronic board containing parts
sensitive to ESD. Final wiring & assembly is under responsibility of the user
with the appropriate tools and ESD protection.
If you’re not familiar with ESD, please visit :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_discharge
Plecter Labs can not be held responsible for improper use or assembly of
the Crystal Focus board.
LED strips
This specific version of the CF-LS drives led strips instead of the high-power LED we
have been using for years in illuminated sabers. The LED strip allows a slightly better
evenness of the blade light as well as a more realistic ignition scheme as seen in the
former MR (and now Hasbro) sabers.
The CF-LS drives 6 segments of LEDs, and an additional Flash on Clash (FoC) channel
that allows an extra strip of white LED to affect the blade color during special Fx
(blade clash, blaster blocking, blade lockup).
The LED strip driver section of the board is different than our regular CF driver by the
fact it is NOT regulating the current. The user must pay great attention to tuning the
proper drive and use the appropriate resistor to adapt the CF-LS parameters to his
own blades. As a matter of fact, there is no “standard led strip” at the moment, but
we kept the CF-LS as open as possible to adapt to most wiring, the only condition
being that it’s a common anode (+) blade.

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
5
Sound section
The Plecter Labs sound board is unique. It has been developed in the purpose of
improving the quality of DIY sabers sound FX in a significant way. During too many
years, sound modules were obtained from sacrificed toys and remained low quality.
Master Replica FX sabers broke the line with better sounds and good dynamics.
However, the low resolution motion sensors used as well as closed electronics made
those boards impossible to adjust in term of sensitivity or sound contents.
We have monitored several attempts for building an embedded sound module playing
custom & changeable sounds, often based on chipcorders. Using bulky parts, those
were often unreliable and hard to fit in a hilt. Not to add those chipcorders were
designed for digital answering machines, and therefore feature a bad restitution
quality (voice sample rate – 8 KHz).
Plecter Labs decided to process the internal motion sensors and the sound generation
on the same board which requires some non-volatile memory. Second, we needed a
simple way to upload or download sound contents or configuration of the saber
through a simple and standard way.
To avoid any plugging problem with a small
connector and an easy-to-loose cable, we
opted for a high-end flash memory card in
the SD format (now microSD).
Inserted in a USB card reader like the one
we sell, the card is seen as a USB storage
key and it takes a few seconds only to
transfer files to or from the card, on Mac or
PC, without the need of any custom piece of
software.

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
6
Crystal Focus LS V6.50 Features & Maximum Ratings
-Dimensions : 54.3x23.5x7 mm (with the microSD card).
-Power supply : 5.5 to V. 2 li-ion cells ( 8650 or 4500) batteries
recommended.
-Idle current consumption : 9 mA (deep sleep mode)
-Speaker : 4 to 8 ohm.
-Audio output Power : 2W
-Accent LEDs : 7
-Accent LEDs pad current source : 8 mA max per pad
-On-board PLI
-Handles momentary or latching for blade activation
-6 selectable sound banks via audio menu
-Blaster Blocking, Force, Force Clash™ and Lockup Fx
-Blade Flickering & Core pulse Fx
-Blade Shimmering on Clash
-Flash on Clash™ (FoC™)
-Anti Power On / Off technology (A-POP™)
-Blaster Move™
-Power on Force™
-Hilt Angle Ignition Sound Selection
-Alternate Power Off sounds (motion vs no motion)
-Up to 4 boot sounds
-Up to 6 swing and 6 clash sounds
-Configurable Idle mode & power saving timer
-32 stage accent LED sequencer
-WAV file support
-True 6 bit, 22.050 ksample/sec crystal clear DAC
- iSaber Audio Player, up to 50 WAV tracks, play/pause/shuffle
-SD card support : up to 2GB, FAT 6 or FAT32. Sandisk and Kingston brands
preferred.

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
7
Placement & Installation
Ideally, the module is placed in the hilt so that :
-the motion sensor is at ” or more from the spinning center of the hilt
-the SD card remains easily accessible.
Usually the pommel area is a good choice, however hilts made of 2 halves can have
the board installed in the top side of the saber.
Securing the board can be done using double sided foam tape or a velco strap.
Rechargeable battery pack
Motion sensor µSD Card
Hilt Double sided foam tape
Pommel
Hand

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
8
Tools and Parts required to install/operate the module
-an ESD safe soldering station & soldering wire (60/40, mm OD or eq.)
-pliers (flat and cutting)
-a Digital Multimeter / DMM (strongly advised, so useful)
-a latching or momentary switch for the blade ignition, and a momentary switch
for the auxiliary switch.
-wire & heat shrink
-rechargeable Batteries
-recharge port (canon 2. mm socket)
-appropriate Battery charger
-a USB SD card reader accepting micro SD card or a regular SD card reader with
a micro to regular SD card adapter.
-a computer
-a digital audio editor software handling WAV files if you wish to create your
own sound fonts.
How does it work ?
The two main effects of the lightsaber is the production of a sound when the blade is
cutting the air (swing, producing a sort of Doppler effect) and the impact between two
blades (clash). The motion sensor we use is capable of detecting rotation movement
and shocks. The main difficulty is to make the proper difference between the two
classes of movements. The sensor is digitized by a microcontroller, then analyzed in
realtime and compared to a modelization of clash and swing gestures using low
latency DSP techniques (now down to 0 ms or less).
The algorithm has many trimming parameters in order to be adjusted to the fighting
style of each user or fighter, and also to each saber hilt design. As a matter of fact,
each saber is unique and various interaction scenarios can be desired. A setup allows
then to change the sensitivity to the swing and the clash, depending if the user wants
a really verbose saber, or casual sound FX. Along the different versions we improved
our gesture recognition algorithms which now have semi automated parameterization,
the user selecting only basic thresholds and the general sensitivity. Moreover, default
settings usually suit most users.
The swing gesture is a rotation of the blade leading it to cut the air at an
average speed. The clash gesture is a sudden shock of the blade on an
obstacle, or a hard shake of the hilt.
The saber setup is located on the SD card which also stores the sounds. A
configuration text file is editable with a simple text editor such a windows notepad.
The CF-LS also has full support of our Real Time Configuration Editor (R.I.C.E.) just
like the regular CF.

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
9
SD card contents, Sound Banks and Slots
Sounds are stored in the WAV format ( 6 bits, 22050 samples per second). The
previously used RAW format is no longer supported.
WAV sound files must comply with the format above or they will be skipped
during the boot, leading to sound gaps or board failure.
Crystal Focus Version 5.0 has 6 sound banks. This allows storing different “style” in
the same saber. Each sound bank is stored on the SD card in the sub-directories (or
folders) bank1 to bank6. The contents of a bank is called a Sound Font
In the root directory of the SD card, you’ll find the sound bank selection menu files:
6 descriptive sounds of the sound banks (one – two – three – four –
five - six.wav)
a sound announcing the bank selection menu (menu.wav)
a sound announcing the selection of the audio player – iSaber (player.wav)
a background sound for the menu (menubgnd.wav)
The sounds played by the saber are stored into 6 sub-directories (folders). During the
selection of the sound bank (see further in this document), the latter is identified with
a descriptive sound (one – two – three – four – five - six.wav) which
can of course be customized. The user can record is own voice and describe the
contents of the sound font/bank from the simplest manner like saying “bank one” to
something really descriptive like “dark side configuration”, or by naming the weapon.
Each sound bank has 32 sound slots split as below :
a boot sound (boot.wav)
4 power on sounds (poweron.wav to poweron4.wav)
Power on Force (poweronf.wav)
2 power off sounds (poweroff.wav and pwroff2.wav)
continuous humming (hum.wav)
8 clash sounds (clash1.wav to clash8.wav)
8 swing sounds (swing1.wav to swing8.wav)
4 blaster blocking sound (blaster.wav to blaster4.wav)
 blade lockup sound (lockup.wav)
2 force effect sounds (force.wav and force2.wav)
When the power supply voltage is applied to the board, our board “boots” and plays a
little logo sound to notify the user, just like a digital camera. This little logo makes
sure the Crystal Focus Saber Core started properly and it gives a special identity to the
saber and to the loaded sound font. This sound can be of course customized. If the
boot sound boot.wav is not on the SD card, a little beep is played instead. If you
don’t want any sound when powering the module, create a WAV sound file with 00
ms of silence.

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
0
The sounds must be all there on the SD card and be named properly (lower case) to
have the module operating properly. Same thing for the configuration files (.txt). In
case of losing files, the original package of sounds and configuration file are available
from the Plecter Labs website, in the download section. We advice the user to keep all
its sound and configuration files in specific folders on the hard disk on the computer
so that changing the saber’s contents remains easy. Use some explicit naming of the
folders so that you can easily remember what the sound font and configuration files
are doing, for instance [very_sensitive_dark_lord_saber].
Board Overview
User’s Notes
LED strip
segment
pads (x6)
Speaker Pads
Motion Sensor MCU
Accent LED
Pads
Aux. Switch
Ignition Switch
Power Supply
Pads
µSD
Common Anode
(+) of the LED
segments

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
Getting Started with Crystal Focus
The board has been designed so that the user can enjoy an “out of the box”
experience. The default package of the SD card contains 6 sound banks with ready
made configuration files and accent led sequence files.
The switch parameter is set to by default, which corresponds to a normally
closed (NC latching switch. This way, the user doesn’t need to hook up a switch
to the board, the open contact on the activation pad tells the boards to start just after
power up, allowing the user to test the board with a minimal soldering job of 6
connections: power supply, speaker and LED strip.
Further install of the board in the hilt and customization of the CF board will require
the user to change the parameters in the configuration files. Keep in mind that,
especially if this is your first CF, and due to the high configurability of the board, you’ll
spend quite some time on adjusting the parameters to reach the desired look & feel.
The SD card slot should remain accessible during that process and possibly once the
saber is completed too.
Wiring and Operating the Module
The board must be powered with an appropriate battery pack. We highly recommend
the use of good quality li-ion battery packs made of 4500 or 8650 cells and
including protection PCBs. The AW brand makes superior quality batteries while
the Ultrafire remains a cost effective solution.
Unless you have a convenient way to open the hilt and access the inside of the saber
(Graflex base for instance), we strongly recommend the use of a directly connected
battery pack (with a “recharge port”) vs. removable cells. Moreover, for dueling
sabers, directly wired battery packs have more reliable connections compared to
spring action battery holders.
A 2-cell li-ion will provide a nominal voltage of 7.4V to the board. The board isn’t
compatible with a 3-cell solution without some modifications of the electronics.
Ni-MH battery packs are simply not recommended since they have a bigger energy
storage/volume ratio and cost of li-ion cells isn’t an issue anymore.
General Power Switch & Recharge Port
Despite the CF board has a very low idle current use (9mA) when the blade is off and
board is in deep sleep mode, long term storage of the hilt on a shelf or display case
requires the electronics to be fully shut off. To avoid the use of an additional general
power switch, we use the recharge port for that very purpose. A pin 2. mm “Canon”
socket is a popular choice. Two of those pins are connected when nothing is inserted
in the socket. Contact is disrupted when a plug is inserted.
Along the years, the “kill key” technique has been developed: a fake plastic plug is
decorated to look like an actual part of the hilt. When inserted, it cuts the power
supply to the board in the recharge port. Of course, the port recharges the internal
battery pack when an actual charger plug is inserted.

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
2
Below, an example of a decorative kill keys (Mara Jade saber replica, July 20 0)
The Kill Key must be made out of a non-conductive material (PVC, Nylon etc).
Here’s the usual wiring of the recharge port. Please note that not all recharge ports
have the exact same pinout. User must understand the principle of wiring a recharge
port and must be able to identify the different pins of a socket.
The idea is fairly simple: the positive of the battery pack goes to the recharge port
central pin (referred as tip) and the to the positive of the board. It’s not affected by
the kill key. The negative of the battery pack goes to the pin of the recharge port that
is connected to the outer sleeve of the socket. The last pin is referred as switched
negative pin and goes to the negative of the board.
When nothing is inserted in the port, the negative of the battery pack is internally
connected to the switched negative tab, hence powering the board. When a Kill Key is
inserted in the port, the negative of the board is no longer connected to the negative
of the battery pack: the board is fully powered down. When a charger plug is inserted
in the recharge port, the charging voltage is reaching both leads of the battery pack

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
3
while the negative of the board is still unconnected from the circuit, preventing
damages to the electronics and ensuring only the battery pack is connected to the
charger for proper charge.
In the previous picture the green-black drawn switched doesn’t need to be wired per
say, it only illustrates the recharge socket internal switch.

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
4
General wiring
The board doesn’t need so many connections for basic operation. Aside of the
recharge port / power supply detailed above, only a pair of switches, the LED strip
the speaker are required to be soldered to get 80% of the features the CF-LS board
proposes.
You will notice the wiring difference with the regular CF board : the LS version
requires 2 additional power supply wires going to the (+) and (-) of the LED strip
driver section of the board. As a matter of fact, we kept the dimensions as close as
possible to the regular CF (especially the width) and as some LED strips can consume
a lot of current, we decided against the use of very thin copper traces on the PCB. As
a result, the user must wire those 2 with the proper wire gage matching the LED strip
used. 26 or 28 AWG wire will suit most applications. With our “seriallel” wiring, which
uses much less current than the traditional all-parallel LED strips, the 28 AWG wire we
sell can be used as well.
User’s Notes
Speaker Pads
From Recharge Port
+
µSD
-
Act. switch
(mom/latch)
Aux. switch
(mom)
LED strip common anode (+)
LED strip
LED strip individual segment
return negatives -6 (-)

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
5
Animated Accent LEDs
There are many ways to “pimp” your saber hilt using additional small LEDs further
referred in this document as Accent LEDs.
Crystal Focus features a 32 stage sequencer that allows the user to setup a blinking
animated sequence for up to 7 LEDs. The board outputs 3.3V / 8mA max per accent
LED pad. User must ensure the used accent LEDs have a forward voltage (Vf) lower or
equal to 3.3V. The LED negatives can return to any power ground, like the LED strip
ground as shown on the picture below, or the main negative of the board.
As a space saver CF-LS embeds the footprints for SMT resistors. The footprint is made
for 0402 resistors like Farnell reference # 1357998 (22 ohm value provided as an
example, user must do the maths for the actually used accent LEDs – see below).
To install those resistors on the board, pre-tin one pad only, then grab the resistor
with a pair of sharp tweezers, slide it against the pre-tinned pad, heat up the joint,
wait for it to cool down, then solder the other side of the resistor.
If the user prefers to use classic resistor with leads, the SMT footprint must be
bridged: tin both pads first then add a bit of solder while the soldering iron tip is right
in the middle of the pads. Some stripped wrapping wire can also be used to achieve
the bridged connection.
On the picture above, the red arrows point to the positive pads of the accent leds, use
small gauge wire to send those signals to the positive of the LEDs. Flat/Ribbon cable
can be very handy for that purpose. Then all negatives of the LEDs return to a single
pad pointed by the blue arrow (ground return). The main negative of the board can
be also used as the accent led ground return.
Calculating resistors for LEDs
R = (Vsupply – Vled) / LedCurrent
In our case, Vsupply is the voltage the board provides to power the accent LEDs, ie
3.3V. The Vled is the forward voltage of the LED, usually referred as Vf in the
Accent LEDs Resistor Footprints
Accent LEDs PADs
Accent LEDs common ground

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
6
datasheet. The led current has to be decided by the user, depending on the
brightness and the maximum rating of the used LED. 5 to 5 mA are fairly common for
most accent LEDs.
As an example, let’s consider a .6 volt LED (red) at 0 mA
R = (3.3 – .6) / 0.0 = 70 ohm ( 50 ohm in the classic E 2 resistor serie)
Be sure not to drive too much current in the LED ( 8 mA max). If you wish a good
brightness with a low current, use high efficiency LED (generally coming in a
transparent “crystal” coating).
Please see further in this document for the sequencing of the accent LEDs.

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
7
Main Configuration File
The config.txt configuration file is a simple text file to be edited with windows
notepad.
It is composed of 5 parameters that must all be present in the file. Otherwise, the
module will use default parameters.
The text file accepts comments on a stand alone line (not mixed with a parameter
line). The comment symbol is the C language double slash ‘//’ as the very first
characters of the line.
Certain parameters are integers (0-255 values), others are floating point numbers.
Format must be respected: even for entering value ‘ ’ for a floating point parameter,
‘ .0’ has to be entered.
To modify the file, insert the SD card in the USB card reader, and then browse the
contents with windows file explorer (on E: for instance). Double-click on file
config.txt : the notepad opens. You can directly save the file on the SD card. Once
the configuration is over, simply remove the card from the reader after having it
“ejected” (right click on the reader device in windows explorer, contextual menu,
eject). Put the card back in the saber and test you new setup!
The configuration file MUST BE LESS than 1024 bytes. If the size is bigger, the file
will be skipped without further analysis and defaults parameters will be used. The
basic configuration file of Crystal Focus LS is about 590 bytes, with a few comment
lines for an easier reading. Make sure not to add too many comments in the file. If
you are not sure of the file size, check it in Windows file Explorer, with a right click on
the file, then “properties” in the contextual menu.
Make sure you have no space characters at the beginning of the line, or
between the ‘=’ sign and the value of a parameter.

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
8
Parameters and fine tuning the saber
The configuration file includes a set of parameters dedicated to the sound section of
the controller and the gestural / motion detection (both being linked). A second set of
parameters handles the behavior of the high-power LED. Some parameters influence
both categories, since visual and sound effects are in tight relationship intrinsically. All
parameters are lowercase.
Certain parameters involve time / duration / delay. We tried to normalize
those parameters to a single unit: a multiple of 2ms. Unless otherwise
indicated, that’s what is used to define those timing parameters and it
matches the internal clock of CF.
Motion & Gesture detection parameters :
Motion recognition is processed using complex low latency DSP algorithms, however,
most of the parameters used for those are internally computed so the user only has to
setup a few thresholds & sensitivity level as high-level parameters.
The overall sensitivity of the board is controlled by the “i” parameter. If you want a
more “verbose” saber while you’re satisfied of the swing / clash discrimination, just
increase a little bit that parameter, turning it to 55 instead of the default 53 value.
Swings and clashes are separated using 3 thresholds. A swing motion must exceed ls
(low swing) and must remain under hs (high swing). A clash must simply exceed lc
(low clash).
It’s important to maintain a dead-zone between hs and lc to maximize the quality of
the motion detection.
Default parameters have been setup for you and usually, only the “i” parameter has to
be touched up.
However, some special cases can be considered:
The saber is not sensitive enough to the swing (placement in the hilt too close
to the spinning center, spinning style etc) : decrease parameter ls of one point
of two. Don’t decrease ls too much or undesired swing sounds will be
triggered.
When the saber cuts the air too fast, the swing is not triggered (it’s in the
dead-zone). Increase a little bit parameter hs(or reduce the speed of your
swings).
The saber often produces a clash sound when the user executes a swing:
parameter hs is probably too high and too close to parameter lc. If the clash
sensitivity is correct, decrease parameter hs.
The saber is not sensitive enough to clashes: decrease parameter lc.
The user wants the clash to happen only when blade is smacked very hard:
increase lc (keep it under 255).

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
9
Rule of the thumb for a proper configuration process: modify only a single parameter
at once and work separately on clash and swing parameters. Fine tuning the module
might take some time, but a good configuration will lead you to a very satisfying
interaction with the saber.
Gesture flows & priorities :
Our gesture analysis are so fast that sounds could be chained one after the other at
light speed! We therefore have to slow down the module because too many swing
sounds played in a short time are not so realistic. For that reason we implement
gesture flow limiters for swing and clash sounds.
Clash sounds generally have the priority over all other sounds except in the following
cases:
-lockup is engaged : no other sound will be triggered until the aux. switch is
released
-a blaster sound is triggered. Swings cannot interrupt it. A clash can interrupt it
if the blaster priority parameter (blastp) is set to 0.
A clash sound can interrupt a swing sound even if the swing flow limiter is engaged
(just after a swing was triggered).
A clash sound cannot interrupt a previously triggered clash sound if the clash flow
limiter is still engaged (delay for triggering another one hasn’t expired).
A swing sound cannot interrupt a previously triggered swing sound if the swing flow
limiter is still engaged (delay for triggering another one hasn’t expired).
A swing sound can never interrupt a clash sound if the clash flow limiter is still
engaged, and whether or not the swing rate limiter is engaged.
If the clash flow limiter has expired, and even if the clash sound is still playing, a
swing sound can interrupt it.
swing [0-500]: swing rate flow limiter. Delay during which swings cannot be
furthermore triggered.
clash [0-500]: clash rate flow limiter. Delay during which clashes cannot be
furthermore triggered.
Sound parameters :
random [0-4]: set the selection mode for reading the clash and swing
sounds. With value 0, random play is active : when a clash or swing occurs, the
sound is randomly chosen in the available slots (up to 6). The motion
detection engine will determine the main axis of the gesture and will pick a
sound either in the first half of the sound set (first axis) or in the second set
(second axis).
With value 1, the sound is played in sequence (slot , then 2 etc.). If the user

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic or any of
their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
20
requires a single sound, simply duplicate 8 times the same sound in the 8 slots.
In this very case, the random flag will have no effect. We’ve added another
mode of sound selection activated by the gesture itself.
With the random mode set to 2, the hardness of a clash or a swing is
measured and scaled from to the max number (n) of clash or swing sounds.
Ordering your sounds from to (n) as well, from soft to hard, and the
measured gesture hardness will pick the corresponding sound ! With the
random mode set to 3 we get a random mode that ensures no triggering the
same sound twice in a sequence of (n) gestures (in 99% of cases). Finally, with
mode 4, it’s the time elapsed between 2 consecutive movements that will
decide which sound is played (see parameters gtsl et gtsh for more details
on this mode)
randb [0-1-3]: same as above but for the selection of blaster blocking
sounds
vol [0-4] : digital volume setup. 0 mutes the sound output, 4 is the
maximum volume.
beep [0-127] : Sets the volume of the beeps emitted by the unit (reboot,
iSaber).
shft [0-100] : sound effect modifying the playback speed of the sounds
(and therefore their pitch) with the tilt of the saber. The saber sound more or
less menacing depending on the orientation of the blade/hilt. This effect is also
applied during the movements of the saber. The parameter specifies a
percentage (%) of the playback speed alteration. When set to 0, the effect is
disabled.
grav [0-1023] : parameter to be used with the shft parameter. It defines
the « zero » of the tilt at which the playback speed is unmodified. To be set
around mid-scale (620 is the usual default value) depending of the desired
effect. Not used when parameter shft is set to zero.
dyshft [0-100] : sound effect modifying the playback speed of the swing
sound only. A slow swing will have a deeper sound than a fast sound (played at
normal speed and pitch). The parameter specifies a percentage (%) of the
playback speed alteration. When set to 0, the effect is disabled.
shmrd [10-500]: duration of the shimmering effect of the high-power LED
during a clash. Make sure this duration is not too much longer than the
associated sound to keep a nice result.
shmrp [5-25]: periodicity of the light bursts during the clash effect. A slow
period will produce tight bursts.
shmrr [0-25]: random value applied to the periodicity of the light burst
during a clash effect. Allows having bursts that are not regularly spaced in time
which increases the realism. For instance, a period shmrp of 20 and a random
value shmrr of 0 will produce a period between two bursts varying between
20 and 30 (ie 40 and 60 ms).
focd [0-500]: Flash on Clash™ (FoC™) duration. Used when an extra LED
die is wired to the board with a Power Xtender™ circuit and the Flash on
Clash™ Pad.