TeensySaber V4

hubbe

Active member
I'm working on a shield for the Teensy 4.0 which has:

* SD card (UHS-I speed)
* motion chip
* 3W amplifier
* 6 FETs for driving LEDs or cutting power to WS281x strips
* battery charger

It's called a TeensySaberV4 because...

... it's intended for building props, such as lightsabers
... I've built things like this before, and this will be the fourth iteration. (The last one can be found here: https://fredrik.hubbe.net/lightsaber/v3/)

My ongoing build thread for the TeensySaber V4 can be found here: https://crucible.hubbe.net/t/teensysaber-v4/1571/22

The shield will be open-source once I've verified it works, but I'm also hoping to make and sell some if there is interest.
 
I'm curious if there is a reason you are sticking with the Teensy 4.0 instead of using the Teensy 4.1? The Teensy 4.1 has the SD card slot built-in, plus you can solder a PSRAM chip underneath if you need more space. It saves having to use pogo pins and the like to access the Teensy 4.0 SD card pins. Obviously, the Teensy 4.1 is 1" longer than the 4.0, which in a saber might make a difference.

I haven't checked the pinouts yet, but are the pins for driving the ws2812b/neopixels using the various Serial UART pins that let you use the WS2812BSerial library which can do the ws2812b timing via DMA hardware?
 
The reason for using the Teensy 4.0 is simple: Size.
The 4.1 is very nice, but smaller is better when building lightsabers (or any kind of prop really).
The OctoWS2811 library can drive pixels on any pin on a Teensy 4.x, and also uses DMA. I don't think there is any reason to only stick to serial pins.

I'm also writing software for this board of course. I have something called ProffieOS which can simplify the process of building props, and I will be adding support for this board to it: https://fredrik.hubbe.net/lightsaber/proffieos.html
 
Oh, one more thing: The teensy 4.1 has the SD card slot at the opposite side from where the USB connector is. That can be inconvenient when building props. It's easier to provide access to one side than it is to provide access to both.
 
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