Plecter Labs Crystal Focus Saber Core V10.0 User manual

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Disney or Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic
or any of their associates. All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
1
Crystal Focus Saber Core™ V10.0 (CF-X)
Advanced Illuminated Saber Controller –User’s manual
©Plecter Labs
February 17, 2022
Crystal_Focus_v10_rev1.13-GB.docx
Firmware v10.006H and up
[email protected]
http://www.plecterlabs.com
Important release information about CFX
New hardware platform, new processor
Some important changes in the parameter handling and configuration organization
compared with previous generations
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. And have FUN with your saber
project!
© Plecter Labs / Erv’ Plecter 2005-2022

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Disney or 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™ V10.0 (CF-X) 1
IMPORTANT RELEASE INFORMATION ABOUT CFX 1
TYPOGRAPHIC CONVENTIONS 11
HIGH-BRIGHTNESS LEDS (AKA LUXEON™OR HB LEDS)MODE 12
LEDSTRIP (AKA PIXEL BLADES)MODE 12
SOUND SECTION 13
FEATURES 14
TOOLS AND PARTS REQUIRED TO INSTALL/OPERATE THE MODULE 17
BEFORE YOU START OPERATING THE BOARD…17
MOTION SENSING 19
SD CARD CONTENTS,SOUND BANKS AND SOUND SLOTS 19
SOUND FONT STRUCTURE 20
USER INTERFACE SOUNDS 21
SOUND FONT MONOPHONIC VS.POLYPHONIC MODE 21
BOARD VARIANTS & REVISIONS 23
BOARD LAYOUT & OVERVIEW 24
PLACEMENT &INSTALLATION 25
BOARD ORIENTATION 26
RESONANT CHAMBER 27
GETTING STARTED WITH CRYSTAL FOCUS 27
POWERING AND OPERATING THE MODULE 27
GENERAL POWER SWITCH &RECHARGE PORT 28
GENERAL WIRING 30
ANIMATED ACCENT LEDS31
INVERTED POLARITY (COMMON ANODE LEDS) 32
EXTERNAL ACCENT LEDS32
ON-BOARD ACCENT LEDS (BARGRAPH) 32
CALCULATING RESISTORS FOR LEDS33
WIRING GUIDELINES 34
AWG TO MM2CHART EQUIVALENCE 34
VOLTAGE CHECKS &TEST-POINTS MAP 35
HIGH-BRIGHTNESS (HB) LED WIRING 36
HIGH POWER LED RESISTOR CALCULATIONS 36

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STUNT UPGRADE 37
RESISTOR CALCULATION 37
WATTAGE CALCULATION 37
RESISTOR BARGAIN 38
DRIVE ADJUSTMENTS 38
BOARD CONFIGURATION SYSTEM 40
CONFIGURATION OVERVIEW 40
TIMINGS &UNITS: 41
COMMENTS /CONFIGURATION DISABLING 41
MAIN CONFIGURATION FILE 42
GLOBAL PARAMETERS AND SABER FINE TUNING 42
MOTION &GESTURE DETECTION PARAMETERS: 42
GESTURE FLOWS &PRIORITIES: 43
SOUND /INTERACTION PARAMETERS 44
LEDSTRIP PARAMETERS 47
BLADE PROFILES 47
INTERACTION 47
TRIDENT /STAGGERED IGNITION 48
BLADE FX49
ACCUBOLT PARAMETERS: 51
LEDSTRIP FX PARAMETERS (MORE DETAILS IN THE DEDICATED PARAGRAPH): 51
ADDITIONAL FX STYLE PARAMETERS 52
COLOR CONFIGURATION FILE 53
COLOR PROFILES (USING DRIVE NUMBERS) 53
COLOR DICTIONARY 54
RGB 55
RGBW 58
ONLINE COLOR PICKERS AND CHARTS 58
PROFILES EDITING IN R.I.C.E. 58
CRYSTAL CHAMBER COLOR PROFILES 58
COLOR PROFILES AND FOCMIXING 59
START COLOR PROFILE VS.STORED (LATEST)COLOR PROFILE 59
FONT CONFIGURATION 59
FONT BEHAVIOR 60
SMOOTHSWING PARAMETERS,CONFIGURATION AND USE 60
ACCUBOLT /MULTIBOLTS BLASTER BOLTS TIMELINES 61
ADVANCED CONFIGURATION:OVERRIDES &THINGAMAJIG 61
INTERACTING WITH THE BOARD 62
UNDERSTANDING COLOR AND BLADE PROFILES 62
PROFILES BROWSING &SPECTRUM 64
MODES 64
AUX.+ACT.METHOD 65
AUX.+TWIST METHOD 65
LEGACY BROWSING P+/- 66
BROWSING B+/- 66
SPECTRUM™66

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COLOR PROFILES VS.BLADE PROFILES 66
KYBER DIAL (SPECTRUM COLOR DIAL) 66
FILTERED PROFILE SELECTION 67
SINGLE (ACTIVATION)SWITCH SUPPORT 67
BROWSING THE SOUND BANKS –REBOOTING THE SABER 68
INSTALLING A SOUND FONT ON THE SD CARD 69
TO INSTALL A NEW FONT ON THE SD CARD: 69
TO REPLACE A FONT ON THE SD CARD 69
OPTIMIZE THE SD CARD 69
TEST /BENCHMARK YOUR SD CARD 70
AUDIO PLAYER –ISABER &LOCAL TRACKS 70
ISABER 70
LOCAL TRACKS 71
DOUBLE CLICK TIMING 71
ISABER CONFIGURATION 71
ISABER &LEDSTRIP BLADES “DISPLAY”(MUSIC BEAT) 71
SOUND FX SELECTION MODES 72
ADVANCED WIRING & USAGE 73
WIRING A TACTILE FEEDBACK MOTOR AND A PROGRESSIVE POWER ON LED (HB LED BLADE) 73
CALCULATION OF THE POWER-ON LED RESISTOR 73
CALCULATION OF THE FORCE-FEEDBACK MOTOR RESISTOR 74
SPECIAL CASE WITH A LEDSTRIP 74
CONTROLLING A MOTOR WITH AUDIO 74
WIRING A GENERAL POWER-ON INDICATOR /ACCENT LED 75
VISUAL FX IN DETAILS 76
FLICKER 76
SHIMMER 76
PULSE 76
FLASH ON CLASH™76
FLASH ON CLASH™VS.SHIMMER 77
FLASH ON CLASH™MIXING TECHNIQUES 77
ORIENTATION CONTROL OF THE LOCKUP COLOR 79
ADD A CRYSTAL CHAMBER TO YOUR SABER (USING PWM DRIVING SIGNALS) 79
TRIDENT™ - CROSS-GUARD SUPPORT 81
DEFINING THE QUILLON CHANNELS 81
TRIDENT MODES 81
TRIDENT™WIRING (SINGLE COLOR +FOC) 83
TRIDENT™RGB WIRING (USING THE TRIDENTRGB ADD-ON BOARD) 84
TRIDENT™FLICKERING AND SPECIAL EFFECTS 85
TRIDENT™FOR LED STRIP BLADES (SINGLE DATA LINE) 86
TRIDENT™FOR LED STRIP BLADES (DUAL DATA LINE) 87
TANGIBLE FONT SELECTION 88

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WIRING REQUIRED 89
RESISTOR TO FONT SELECTION CHART 89
NEUTRAL SLOTS 90
TANGIBLE ACTIONS (FEAT.BLADE DETECTION) 91
BLADE DETECTION WIRING 92
TCSS CONNECTOR 92
NPXL CONNECTOR FROM SCW 93
ACCENT LEDS SEQUENCER 94
NOTABLE CHANGES 94
ACCENT LEDS ROLE 94
SEQUENCER SYNTAX 95
STAGES &DELAYS 96
REPEAT AND FOREVER LOOP BLOCKS 97
CONTROLLING A PERIPHERAL WITH AN ACCENT LED. 97
ACCENT LEDS AS A BARGRAPH /PLI 98
SPECIAL ACCENT LEDS #2 AND #5 TO #9 98
CRYSTAL PULSING ACCENTS (CRYSTAL CHAMBER OR LIT SWITCH) 98
INVERTED POLARITY (COMMON ANODE LEDS) 98
BOARD DIAGNOSTICS & DEBUGGING 100
SERIAL PORTS 100
USB 100
TTL SERIAL /UART 100
SERIAL MONITORING APPS 100
BOOT STALLING FOR USB LOGS 101
SLOWING DOWN BOOT TIME FOR DIAGNOSTICS 101
SENDING COMMANDS TO THE BOARD 102
SPECIAL COMMANDS (SPECIAL IN THE SENSE THOSE ARE NOT STUFF YOU FIND ON THE SD CARD) 102
PROFILE,COLOR AND FONT CHANGE 103
CONFIG EXPORT AND SAVING 103
REMOTE CONTROL COMMANDS 104
COMMAND LINE INTERFACE COMMANDS (CLI) 104
SPECIAL SOUNDS & INTERACTION 106
“FORCE PUSH”AND “FORCE CLASH”EFFECT 106
MOTION ACTIVATED IGNITION:POWER ON MOVE /POWER ON FORCE 106
MAGIC ACTIVATION &SABERLOCK™107
REFERENCE FIELD 107
MAGIC ACTIVATION ITEMS 108
SABERLOCK™108
IGNITION SOUND ANGULAR SELECTION 109
MULTIPLE POWER-OFF SOUNDS 109
PRE POWER-ON AND POST POWER-OFF SOUNDS 110
DRAG EFFECT 110
STAB EFFECT 110
POWER SAVING MODES &USAGE SCENARIOS 111

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MUTE-ON-THE-GO™113
MUTE-ON-THE-BOOT™113
USING R.I.C.E.(REAL-TIME INTERNAL CONFIGURATION EDITOR) 115
RICE OVER USB 115
LEGACY RICE WITH THE TTL SERIAL PORT /UART 116
GETTING STARTED WITH RICE 117
READING THE CURRENT SETTINGS 118
CHANGING SETTINGS 118
DISCARDING SETTINGS 119
SAVING THE SETTINGS 119
USING RICE AS A DEBUG TOOL 119
BOARD DIAGNOSTIC:VOLTAGE AND TEMPERATURE 120
BLADE AND COLOR PROFILE SELECTION 120
COLOR SETUP &COLOR MIXING 121
WIRELESS CONTROL AND CONFIGURATION USING BLUETOOTH 123
PRINCIPLE OF OPERATIONS 123
PARTS NEEDED 123
CONFIGURATION WITH A HOST (COMPUTER) 123
CONFIGURATION &WIRING USING THE CFX 125
SSP CONFIGURATION ON A WINDOWS PC –WIRELESS RICE 126
BOOTH / MANNEQUIN MODE AND WIRELESS REMOTE CONTROL 128
POWER ON/OFF AUTOMATION 128
AUTOMATIC SHUTOFF &DIMMING 128
ACTIVATOR /AUXILIARY REMOTE CONTROL 128
EXTENDED AUTOMATION OR CONTROL 130
RECORDING OR TRANSMITTING SABER AUDIO 131
WIRED RECORDING 131
WIRELESS STREAMING 131
LEDSTRIP BLADE SPECIFICS 133
SUPPORTED LEDSTRIPS 133
LEDSTRIP WIRING &WARNINGS 134
THE PLECTERPIXEL™BLADE 134
POWER SAVING -STRIPOFF™FEATURE 135
LEDSTRIP HARDWARE PARAMETERS 136
LEDSTRIP COLOR DEFINITION -COLOR ORDER 136
LEDSTRIP COLOR SPACE 136
DETACHABLE BLADE &QUICK (DIS)CONNECT 136
WIRING TO THE TCSS SPRING-LOADED /PCB CONNECTOR 138

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WIRING TO THE SCW SPRING-LOADED /PCB CONNECTOR 138
DIFFUSION AND BLADE TUBE INSTALL 139
BATTERY REQUIREMENTS 140
KNOWN LEDSTRIP ISSUES 140
LEDSTRIP VISUAL FX PARTICULARS 140
LEDSTRIP BLADE PLUG 141
ADDING A PIXEL ACCENT LED(S)TO YOUR SABER 142
BLADE PARALLEL ACCENTS 142
BLADE SERIES ACCENTS 142
LEDSTRIP BLADE SPECIAL EFFECTS 143
LEDSTRIP EFFECT LAYERS AND LAYOUT 143
SCROLLING AND SPECIAL FX 143
COLOR CONFIGURATION 144
BEHAVIOR MAPPING CONFIGURATION 144
POWER ON/OFF TAKEOVER AND BLENDING 144
EFFECT LIST (WIP –MORE EFFECTS ARE BEING ADDED) 145
LEDSTRIP FX PARAMETERS 145
POWER ON EFFECTS 146
POWER OFF EFFECTS 147
LEDSTRIP EFFECTS DESCRIPTION &CONFIGURATION EXAMPLES 147
CLASH FX AND LOCKUP FX147
LOCALIZED LOCKUP 148
CLASH FX VARIANTS 148
DRAG TIP FX VARIANTS 148
STAB FX VARIANTS 149
FLICKER FX VARIANTS 149
SWINGBRIGHT FX VARIANTS 150
LEDSTRIP +TRIDENT SPECIALS 150
FIRE FX 150
AGGRESSIVE UNSTABLE FX -VERY "BLINKY" 151
SLOW-MO UNSTABLE FX -SMOOTHER -USE WITH DRIFT ON OR OFF 151
RAIN SIZZLE FX-SLOW RAIN 151
RAIN SIZZLE FX-FRAGILE BLADE 151
RAINBOW -AUNICORN CASE STUDY FX152
WAVE~ FX 152
GRADIENT FX 153
TFU UNSTABLE FX 154
STARKILLER FX 154
JEDI FALLEN ORDER FX 155
SAURON'S EYE FX 155
SAURON'S EYE II FX 155
KNIGHT RIDER 155
UNSTABLE FIRE 156
BICOLOR PULSE FX156
GRAFX BLADE 157
VISION BLADE 158
LEDSTRIP PLI 159
ACCUBOLT™ AND MULTIBOLT™ BLASTER IMPACT SIMULATORS 161

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ACCUBOLT™(LEDSTRIP SPECIFIC) 161
ACCUBOLT PARAMETERS 162
BOLT STYLES 162
MULTIBOLT™(HIGH POWER LEDS &LEDSTRIP COMPATIBLE) 163
CONFIGURING MULTIBOLT™TIMELINES 163
USE A SOUND EDITOR 163
OPEN THE SOUND FILES IN THE EDITOR 163
WRITE THE TIMING IN THE BOLT SEQUENCE 164
SECONDARY, SIDE AND ACCENT AUXILIARY LEDSTRIP BLADES 165
GRAFX BLADE FX & PIXEL ACCENTS SEQUENCER 166
GRAFX ACCENTS &BLADES 166
GRAFX SEQUENCER ORGANIZATION AND LINKING 167
GRAFX PARAMETERS 168
PIXEL SEQUENCER SPECIFICS 169
GRAFX PIXEL ATTRIBUTES 169
GRAFX TIMINGS &MORPHING 170
GRAFX BMP SIZE AND SEQUENCE DURATION CONSIDERATIONS 171
GRAFX ALPHA MASK BLENDING AND HUE CONTROL 172
THE [FOREVER] SEQUENCE 172
GRAFX /PIXIES PLI 172
GLYPH (ACCENT PIXEL FONT SIGNATURE) 173
GRAFX &PIXEL SEQUENCER DEMO /RESOURCES VIDEOS: 173
OLED SCREEN SUPPORT 174
WIRING 174
CONFIGURATION &BOOT ACTION 174
VISUAL SKINNING &SIMPLE BMP FILES 176
ANIMATED BMP FILES 176
VOCAL MENU &FONT SKINNING 177
SCREEN SAVERS 178
OLED IDLE SEQUENCE 179
OLED PLI 180
GRAPHICAL ELEMENTS 180
CONFIGURATION &LOOK 181
OLED ANIMATION WHILE THE BLADE IS ON182
OLED BMP RESOURCES 182
USER INTERFACE 183
VOLTAGE /PLI ALERTS 183
HIGH TEMPERATURE ALERT 183
BLADE IN /BLADE OUT 184
GENERAL DIAGNOSTICS &UI FILES 184
GAMES GRAPHICAL AND SOUND ELEMENTS 185
SPINNING 3D OBJECTS 185

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USB MASS STORAGE 186
OPERATION 186
PERFORMANCES 186
AUTOMATIC LAUNCH 186
MANUAL TRIGGERING 187
LIVE SOUND VOLUME ADJUSTMENT 187
ENHANCED VOCAL MENU 188
VOLUME MENU 189
BLADE POWER MENU 189
COLOR SETUP MENU 189
SPECIAL OPERATIONS 190
LEDSTRIP +5V OPERATION 190
BOOTH /DEMO MODE 190
BOARD FIRMWARE UPDATE 191
SWITCH COMBO ACCESS 191
SERIAL COMMAND ACCESS 191
UPDATING WITH MONITORING 192
VIDEO TUTORIAL OF THE FIRMWARE UPDATE 193
TRIGGERED UPDATE FROM RICE (OR SERIAL MONITOR) 193
BOOT TIME (AUTOMATIC)TRIGGERED UPDATE 193
FW UPDATING GUIDELINES 194
BOARD BOOTLOADER UPDATE 194
DISCLAIMER 194
FIND OUT WHICH BOOTLOADER VERSION YOU HAVE 195
WHY CONSIDERING UPGRADING? 195
HOW THE BOOTLOADER UPDATE IS PERFORMED 196
COLD FEET /ICHANGED MY MIND /STOP THE BOOTLOADER UPDATE PROCESS 196
POSSIBLE ISSUES 197
TROUBLESHOOTING AND CFX Q&A 198
MY LEDSTRIP COME WHITE WHEN IBOOT THE BOARD: 198
IGET STUCK IN THE VOCAL MENU (AKA FONT SELECTION MENU): 198
IBUILT A HB LED SABER WITH CFX AND NOW MY BLADE LIGHTS UP WHITE: 198
IGET MISSING SOUNDS OR “GAPS”. CERTAIN THINGS DON’T PLAY: 198
IGET BEEPS WHEN ISELECT A FONT OR BOOT THE BOARD: 198
ICAN’T LOG THE BOARD FROM THE BEGINNING,IT’S GOING TOO FAST: 198
MY BOARD DOESN’T FINISH BOOTING.NO SOUND,STUCK IN LIMBO (ONBOARD LED STAYS ON): 199
IGET SOUNDS LIKE “FOCUS PATH TEMPERATURE CRITICAL”OR “CELL ENERGY CRITICAL”: 199
WHERE DO IGET MORE FONTS FOR MY SABER: 199
IGET RAINBOW UNICORN RGB ON MY STRIP INSTEAD OF MY CONFIGURED COLOR.STRIP IS SCROLLING UP AND DOWN
BUT PIXEL NUMBER IS WRONG. 199

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or any of their associates. All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
10

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Disney or Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic
or any of their associates. All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
11
Typographic conventions
We tried to keep this document as coherent as possible and use some typographic styles and
conventions to reflect the kind information we explicit.
Courier New font: usually used for configuration file names or content, serial
commands or so-called “code”
Bold font: configuration parameter names
Highlighted text: important information (we refrained from applying this style to the entire document)
Highlighted text in bold: the freakin’ details you usually avoid or overlook
Margin lightbulb icon: tip (because despite how we sound sometimes, we’re happy to help you!)
Comic sans MS font: we don’t use it aside for jokes. Since lightsaber building is a very
serious business, don’t expect to find it in this document. Like bagpipes, it’s ok to own it,
rarely to use it.
<something>: tag syntax used for special contents like non-visible ASCII characters.
Ex: <carriage return>.
[number1;number2] : between brackets and bold, usually parameter range

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Foreword
Our saber controller reaches its tenth generation! A lot of changes have
been phased in for this new revision, which migrated to a 32-bit computing
platform, among other things.
This new board can be seen as a fusion of the former Prizm board and the
CF: it combines support of high-brightness LED saber and ledstrip support
while maintaining the CF features and saber scenario. It also adds our
implementation of the SmoothSwing audio effect designed by Thexter.
The board remains driven by a single processor to synchronize audio and light fx and provides an
exhaustive parameter list organized in profiles and stored on the SD card (SD-Config™), along with
the sounds.
That new generation removes most of the former sound bank contents limitation and allows for
(almost) unlimited sound files and pretty much any number of sound fonts (that would fit on the
SD card).
Warning: You’ve just acquired an electronic board containing parts sensitive to ESD. Final wiring &
assembly is under the 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 cannot be held responsible for improper use or assembly of the Crystal Focus board.
High-Brightness LEDs (aka Luxeon™ or HB leds) mode
The board handles up to 4 channels (RGBW) to drive a HB LED type of saber. Those sabers are
primarily used for duel or cosplay and have the benefits of a removable blade that holds no active
components, the LED being installed in the hilt.
The board achieves a realistic ignition/retraction effect of the blade by ramping the led brightness
accurately. The CF-X breaks up with the previous generation and doesn’t embed an onboard
current regulator: hilt builds are now clearly oriented toward single cell and direct drive. However,
drive signals remain available for both crystal chamber light-up and external multi-channel current
regulator which should come to market later on.
Warning: High-power LEDs (such as the Luxeon brand LED, which is mentioned in this document)
are extremely bright. They are considered "class 2 lasers"! You should neither look directly to the
beam nor point someone with it when the blade is not attached to the hilt, just like a powerful lamp
or flashlight. Plecter Labs could not be held responsible for any bad use of high-power LEDs.
To avoid injuries and retina damage due to the high brightness of those high-power LEDs, simple
“emitter plugs” can be built using a piece of blade tubing ended with some decorative greeblies.
Ledstrip (aka Pixel blades) mode
The board handles tri-wires addressable RGB and RGBW type of ledstrip from various chipsets,
WS2812 and SK6812 being the most popular. Those blade are more sensitive to dueling compared
to HB led type of blades since they embed active parts (the ledstrip itself and some wiring)

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13
however they allow intricate light effects spatially distributed all over the blade, including
obviously better defined ignition/retraction effect.
Sound section
The sound effects played by the board are organized in sound fonts. Each font represents a sound
universe related to the saber style. Sounds are sorted by filenames describing what it does, ie
poweron.wav for ignition sounds.
The board plays 16-bit WAV file types either 22050 or 44100 samples/sec directly from the SD
card. A font is composed of a folder starting with a number and a hyphen after which the font
name can be added for an easier organization and retrieval on the SD card.
The SD card can easily be edited using a USB card
reader. Unlike the previous generations, all
contents can be edited or renamed in place on the
SD card. Once a saber configuration is final (sound,
settings) it’s however recommended to format the
SD card and copy the package in a single shot to
reduce fragmentation of the card, for best
performance.
Since this new generation also embeds a USB port
the SD card is now accessible directly thru USB as a
mass storage driver.

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or any of their associates. All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
14
Features
ARM32 based board with 3.2W digital amplifier (constant power / volume over runtime),
with 128x32 OLED support, 4 channel (RGBW) on-board drivers, USB serial port, SD card,
activator + auxiliary switch, 9DoF motion sensor with MotionFusion, on-board (red) diag
LED, temperature measurement and alert, voltage measurement and alert (PLI).
Dimensions: 34.30 x 20.75 mm. Black and gold PCB
Micro USB port
SD card update with signed firmware.
SD card in place sound editing / replacement / file rename
Mass storage access to the SD card via USB (MSD)
1 / 2 cell compatibility with no “voltage-hack” required, only a solder jumper to bridge, and
only when using ledstrips with 2 cells (+5V buck regulation needed then for the strip)
Auxiliary serial port (like the former RICE / TTL serial port) for legacy RICE cable or Bluetooth
module.
Fixed and Auxiliary 3.3V power supplies
3 additional GPIOs (1 currently used for Tangible interaction / blade detection)
HB led or Ledstrip compatible (RGB / RGBW)
Enhanced accent sequencer with 9 configurable accent LEDs
8 Accents resistors footprints (0603) allowing for top or bottom on-board bargraph (board
can be installed facing up or down)
Zero CPU Ledstrip driver with 2 outputs, with level shifters (compatible with 1 cell or 2 cell
setups, or permanent +5V PSU for booth/demo mode).
SD card benchmarking routine ported from CF9 and made accessible via remote message
/ hook (formerly a dev tool)
16 bits / 44.1 kHz sample rate multi-track, low latency motion to sound (4.6 to 6ms motion
to clash sound) with backward compatibility with 22.050 kHz sounds (monophonic font
main player should have at least hum and Fx with the same SR, otherwise, non-mixed
sounds can mix SR)
Polyphonic / monophonic font (backward) compatibility with existing fonts. Unlimited file
numbers or font numbers.
Automatic font number detection and diagnostic –Ordered Font names
100 ms boot time average with 12-15 fonts on the SD card
Enhanced logging / debugging mode of all events of the board
Omnisabers ready
Software hooks to remotely control any aspect of the board (power on, power off, lockup,
clash, blaster, on-the-fly font change, tracks playback etc) via the serial port(s) or external
events (tangible, force sensing, user identification)
Extended tangible interaction with 16 slots including blade detection (saber enabled,
disable, blade insertion / removal interaction)
AccuBolt / Multibolts engine
32 Color profiles and 32 blade profiles allowing mix and match, selection via Spectrum™
selection
720° (2 turns) accurate real time Kyber Dial™ rotary control of the blade color

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10-bit color definition for more color accuracy in HB leds (and future ledstrips!)
Hilt roll (twist) controlled lockup color (FoC / Lockup color blending).
Extended use of User Interface (UI) sounds and graphics. Fully skin-able.
SmoothSwing, implemented as described by Thexter with his public documentation, with
a bunch of tweaks and heuristics to get it to my taste. Smoothswing font automatically
detected, 3 Smoothswing mode legacy SS, hybrid font (using swings sounds) and (pseudo)
pitch shifting mode. Per-font Smooth-swing configuration
Vocal menu for font selection, iSaber and (soon) parameters adjustment, with use of the
OLED display (if attached), animated or static graphical font description.
Local tracks and iSaber tracks audio player(s) and double click play/pause
Sleep mode (accent stop, partially reduced current) with automatic wake (aux, movement)
Deep sleep with 240uA (18 months of shelf-time with a 3200 mAh fully charged cell). Board
revived with either AUX or ACT with adjustable delay.
Support for NO and NC latching switch though some of the new features require ACT as
momentary switch. Single (activation) switch mode available as well.
Motion sensing for font selection (in menu or when blade is off)
Quick Ignite: automatically starts the saber when reviving from deep sleep (en./dis.)
Power-on sound interrupt with motion sounds (en. / dis.)
OLED Font graphic support (static or animated), or font name and number if no graphic
provided.
OLED animation diversity (signal analysis, vu-meter, screenAccents™, midi-chlorian
scanner)
OLED animated screen savers, can be customized to taste.
OLED 3D files support (custom spinning 3D object on the screen, OBJ file format)
OLED PLI support (custom, examples provided)
OLED orientation parameter and custom boot / info strings.
OLED custom boot screen (static or scrolling) or font graphic
OLED animated blade and color profiles transition
OLED animated blade insertion, removal, tangible selection, saber disabling or low power
OLED animation while blade is on and when it goes off
OLED vocal menu for font selection, system sub menus for parameters tuning & saber
setup.
Reduced idle quiescent: 42mA with SD card and all peripheral activated (not playing sound)
High temperature, low power, dead power, blade missing, blade inserted UI sounds &
graphics.
Disable lockup and blaster for heavy duelers (Use 0 for lockup delay)
Font skipping for quicker selection in the vocal menu (when the SD card stores 1138 fonts
but you don’t need all of them)
Spectrum™ “filtered” selection (per font) to reduce the selection to a limited number of
color or blade profiles
Booth Mode (or mannequin / poser) with automatic ignition retraction with randomized
blade & color profiles
Automatic blade power reduction (time configurable)

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or any of their associates. All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
16
Magic activation and saber locking / unlocking using a magnet
Speaker: 4 to 8 ohm.
Trident™ (cross-guard) support
Blade mirroring accent LEDs
Handles momentary or latching for blade activation
Selectable sound banks via audio menu or via gestures
Blaster Blocking, Force, Force Clash™, Lockup and Drag Fx
StabFx, SpinFx, SlashFx
Blade Flickering & Core pulse Fx
Blade Shimmering on Clash
Boot, Blaster, Spin, Stab, Swing, Slash, Clash, Lockup, Drag, Force sounds
Flash on Clash™ (FoC™)
Ledstrip special fx
2 independent ledstrip outputs
Pixel accent sequencer
GraFx color BMP file sequencer and player for custom blade & accents animations
Anti-Power-On / Off technology (A-POP™)
Blaster Move™
Power on Force™
Hilt Angle Ignition Sound Selection
Responsive Mapping for Ledstrip Fx
Mute-on-The-Boot™
Alternate Power Off sounds (motion vs no motion)
Configurable Idle mode & power saving timers
Wake-up on motion with WakeOnMove™
Motion-triggered Ignition
Tangible font selection
WAV file support
True 16 bit, 22.050 or 44.100 kSamples/sec audio output
SD card support: (tested up to 32GB), FAT16 or FAT32. Sandisk brand preferred.
FlexiBlend™ powered Color Mixing on 4 channels
Configurable normal blade, FoC, Lockup, Drag, Flicker, Fx & Bolt colors
Real Time Configuration Editor (R.I.C.E.™)
Easter eggs! (OLED games, audio games, system menus, audio player)

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Disney or Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic
or any of their associates. All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
17
Getting Started with CFX
Tools and Parts required to install/operate the module
An ESD safe soldering station & soldering wire (60/40, 1mm OD or eq.)
Pliers (flat and cutting)
A Digital Multimeter / DMM (strongly advised, so useful)
Two momentary switches (blade ignition and aux. effect)
Wire & heat shrink (we suggest to use flexible stranded 22-28 AWG wire, not bigger)
External power resistors to limit the LED current (for HB LEDs)
Ablade connector if using a ledstrip blade
Rechargeable battery (18650 3000mAh li-ion cell recommended)
Recharge port like canon 2.1mm socket (optional)
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 micro USB data (not charging) cable to connect with serial, RICE or mass-storage
A computer
A digital audio editor software handling WAV files if you wish to create your own sound
fonts (audacity).
Abench power supply or an adjustable voltage source with current limiting for initial
powering, diagnostics and tests.
A small bag of Magic Smoke just in case you’d need to refill parts if plug-n’-pray fails you.
A medium box of PureLuck™ if you decide to skip the next 180+ pages

Before you start operating the board…
1) Check what firmware you’re on, based on the description where you purchased it or
check the contents of your SD, if you purchased one with the board. If you got a SD card
with your board, check that the contents match your firmware. Obtaining the firmware
version of the board can be done in several ways, either using the RICE configuration
app, or typing “version” in the serial terminal after powering the board1. The board
will also log its firmware version during the boot, over the USB serial port.

2) To be noted: the board cannot be powered from the USB port only, and needs at least
50-70mA / 3.4V to be booted for the above (no speaker). If you’re new to CFX, I suggest
you start powering up the board with a bench power supply or 3 x AAA batteries to avoid
the risk of having a high drain battery shorting on your beloved electronics.

3) If the SD card came with a minimal test package (factory QC & testing) download the
latest package matching your firmware or consider updating your firmware to the
latest one (read the increment changelog from your firmware to the new one). The
default package also has a changelog.txt file in the root directory.
https://www.plecterlabs.com/shop/articles.php?tPath=10

4) Choose your main configuration for your CFX board. CFX can deal with both High Brightness
Leds (aka HB Leds or Luxeon) and Ledstrips type of blades. The default config.txt file
is made for ledstrip and will not work with HB leds due to the strippower settings.
Copy then rename the appropriate configuration files as config.txt.

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or any of their associates. All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
18
5) Once your SD card is freshly loaded (a quick format to your SD card is always a good
process before installing a default package), you can proceed to the full wiring of the
board. Do no leave your SD card inserted in the board while you’re soldering it.

Plecter Labs is in no way affiliated, associated, licensed or endorsed by Disney or Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic
or any of their associates. All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
19
Motion Sensing
The board detects several classes of gestures and movements based on the on-board motion
sensor readings and context like prior detection or blade orientation. The sensor is analyzed by
the microcontroller, then analyzed in real-time and compared to a model of each gesture using
low latency DSP techniques (now down to 4ms).
The algorithm has some 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.
Gesture types:
Swing: a rotation of the blade “cutting the air”
Clash: a sudden shock of the blade on an obstacle (another blade) or a hard shake of the
hilt
Stab: a thrusting motion with the hilt resulting in an impact along (mostly) the blade axis
while the blade angle is within the stab angular range (horizontal as default)
Spin: spins are engaged after the blade been rotating above the spin threshold, then spins
are played instead of swing sounds
Force: pressing the aux switch then engaging a swing before the lockup timer elapses.
Force Clash: pressing the aux switch then generating a clash before the lockup timer
elapses
Drag: pressing the aux switch then generating a clash while the blade angle is within the
drag range (usually below the horizontal level, slightly down).
Slash: a swing variant during which the swing speed accelerate above a certain threshold,
usually in a whipping manner concluding a series of swings in 8 pattern.
SD card contents, Sound Banks and sound slots
Sounds are stored in WAV format (16 bits, 22050 or 44100 samples per second).
WAV soundfiles must comply withthe format above or they will be skipped during the boot, possibly
leading to sound gaps or disabling features.
CF-X can use as many banks that would fit on the SD card, as long as the folder are numbered
correctly with a number followed by a –or _ character. Please note however that fetching and
scanning fonts at boot time will take some (little) time for each additional font but 12-15 fonts
keeps the board boot duration around 100 to 150ms
Multiple fonts allow for storing different “styles” in the same saber. Each sound bank is stored on
the SD card in the sub-directories (or folders) named with a number followed by a dash or
underscore and the font name. The contents of a bank are called a Sound Font.
The SD card structure has slightly changed with that new generation of board. The root directory
of the SD card essentially contains the configuration file and the fonts themselves. All additional

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or any of their associates. All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.
20
files (games, vocal menu, alerts and more generally speaking user interface sounds) are stored in
the /extra folder.
Sound font structure
This structure keeps evolving over time and now has a lot of optional sound slots. To avoid the use
of too many parameters in the configuration, some of the features (sounds and/or light fx) can
easily be enabled or disabled by just renaming the sound file eg. The drag feature can be disabled
by renaming the file to no-drag.wav.
Multiple sounds like swing or clash sounds are simply ordered with a number at the end of the
file, with the exception of the first power-on, power-off and blaster sounds which doesn’t have an
ending number (legacy naming from the past)
Sound slots
font.wav: a font/bank description sound (played when selecting the font via the vocal
menu)
boot<n>.wav: boot sounds randomly selected at boot time
poweron to poweron<n>.wav: power on sounds (up to 9 works fine with the angular
selection)
poweronf.wav: Power on Force
poweroff to poweroff<n>.wav and pwroff2.wav: power off sounds + alternate
power off (when power off is triggered while moving)
hum.wav: monophonic (pre-mixed) font continuous humming sound
humM<n>.wav: polyphonic font continuous humming sounds
clash<n>.wav: clash sounds
swing<n>.wav: swing sounds
slash<n>.wav: slash sounds
blaster to blaster<N>.wav: blaster blocking sounds
lockup.wav: blade lockup sound
lockup<2;N>.wav: additional lockup sounds
drag.wav: blade drag sound
drag<2;N>.wav: more drag sounds
endlock<n>.wav: lockup end sounds
enddrag<n>.wav: drag end sounds
force.wav: force effect (aux+swing)
force2.wav: force effect sound (aux+clash)
More Force sounds are possible. If more than 2 force sounds (force, force2, force3,
force<N>) are found in the font, they all belong to the Force class and Force-Clash sounds
must be named fclash<N>.wav
spin<n>.wav: spin sounds (if not there, swings are played instead)
stab<n>.wav: stab sounds (if not there, clashes are played instead)
color.wav: a color profile transition sound, used also when accessing Spectrum™ ()
lswing<n>and hswing<n>.wav: smoothswing hum pairs to be used in smoothswing
font
Optional sounds