The PRIZM Sound Board User's Manual
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and Magic or any of their associates.All brands and trademarks listed are the exclusive property of their respective
Owners.
11
Getting Started with Petit Crouton
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 1 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, high-power LED.
Further install of the board in the hilt and customization of the PC board will require
the user to change the parameters in the configuration files. Keep in mind that,
especially if this is your first PC, 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 14500 or 18650 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 the cost of li-ion cells isn’t an issue anymore.
General Power Switch & Recharge Port
Despite the PC board has a very low idle current use 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 2.1 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.
