Crazy Idea of the day: Proffie Master Board

Proffieboards
41

Master board poll…

I’d like my master board…

  • Fully assembled
  • as a kit
  • I can buy the parts myself
  • I will build it from scratch
  • My mind will create it from the void - atom by atom
  • Don’t care - don’t want one
0 voters

Features I want in a master board include, but are not limited to… (multiple choice)

  • a battery
  • no battery, I’ll just use a USB bank to power it if needed
  • a belt clip (so I can hang it on my jedi belt)
  • a display, to look cool
  • a display that I can use to operate it (even if using my phone would be easier.)
  • save the space - no display
  • speed - if it’s slower than using a computer it is useless
  • simplicity - save me from the hardships of arduino!!
  • a cool looking, in-universe-styled case
  • blinking lights
  • minimal - don’t case what it looks like, only care about what it can do
0 voters

I would use my master board…

  • never - i don’t need or want one
  • never - but I still want one
  • when I don’t have a computer available
  • if it’s simpler than arduino, I would use it all the time
  • I can use my phone instead of grampa’s computer? count me in!
  • I would keep it under my pillow so I always have it available
0 voters
1 Like
42

What is it supposed to do ? From the poll options, I guess it would be used to program or control a Proffieboard ? I was initially under the impression that it was the next version of Proffieboard (v4.x) but from the poll option it seems it is not meant to go in a lightsaber/blaster/detonator/or jetpack.

43

My understanding reading through the thread is the Master Board would hook up to your proffie board and allow it to work like WLED or Pixel Blaze. It creates a web server that can be accessed by any typical device (phone/laptop). This way there no messing with the local network, and updating can be done ‘live’.

For example: I use a pixel Blaze at work for a display be use I don’t have to use the building WiFi (the we server is the board itself), the updates are immediate, and there’s a GUI interface on my phone.

Since this does not exist for Proffie, the big board proposed here essentially a hardware prototype that will allow for the coding and creation of the interface now, instead of waiting for the right parts to appear for the final design of a little guy inside the hilt or on the board.

So based on that I’ll do the very amusing survey. :slight_smile:

1 Like
44

tl;dr; the master board is a device that lets you program a ProffieBoard. All the configuration and font handling would be done from a web interface that you load on your phone, tablet or computer.

It would have some similarities with the PixelBlaze, but the goals are different. For instance, the updates won’t be “live”. (Live implies that the changes happen immediately, but the Proffie Master board will still do an “upload”, which can take a minute or two.)

Basically the goals are twofold:

  1. make something that makes Proffieboard configuration easier and portable. For some, this would be great because they don’t have to learn how to use config files or arduino. For some it would be helpful to re-program their saber or blaster while at a convention, or other events.
  2. From a developer perspective, the master board would be a stepping stone to having linux running inside your saber. Once linux is running inside your saber, all of these things can be done directly from your saber, with no extra hardware. However, if such a board were to show up today, we’d still have months of writing software ahead of us. By making a master board first, most of the software will already be written once the hardware arrives.

I’m imagining that the master board will also do a lot of things better than how it works on your computer today, ideally the master board will:

  • backup your saber program for you
  • keep track of the configuration for each of your sabers
  • keep track of your fonts for you
  • automatically backup your config files and fonts to some online storage (google drive / dropbox)
  • automatically put a copy of the config file on the SD card
  • automate ProffieOS upgrades
  • integration with style editor, fett263 style generator, font formatter and other online tools
  • look cool
5 Likes
45

The future is here now.
The new Arduino board (Arduino UNO Q) runs linux.
It basically has a smartphone chipset on it, and an STM32U585 to handle GPIO (which has more flash, ram and pins than the chip on a proffieboard)

Now, the sad news is that the board is big, has a million components on it, and the chance of building something like into a saber is currently zero… but if we all manifest real hard, maybe the next version will be in a form factor we can use… :slight_smile:

1 Like
46

How/where could we manifest “real hard” ?

47

If I knew that we would already have tiny boards that runs linux.

1 Like
48

Maybe pick one up now and try setting it up so you can connect it to an existing board if for nothing more than what we’re chatting about in the other topic, reading the temporary stored files and converting them to a usable config? Dreaming?? I’m down to do testing if you do go there. *Have it connect via micro-usb or usbc cables for the win? LMK