I got a new board from Electronics123 and it got here so fast I nearly traveled back in time. Thank you for such excellent service!
So here is my cleanly soldered on the first try new proffie 2.2, may it wash my soldering transgressions away.
My first igntion was a great success, but moments later some bugs popped up and I got a little help 
I really like the second one 
Whut, seems fine I spent hours on this so one side could look like a broken bodega sign 
But, after some reworking at the base of the strips, and replacing the interconnecting data lines, I’ve moved to beta testing!
This is a simple Fett263 rotoscope with a Ventress font. I’m keeping most of the other styles a secret until the prop is complete. Plus I feel like all blades should spend some time as a saber to create a baseline for effects.
But as you can see, we’re at full cobb.
I have some blade film coming, and new foam. I tried the diffuser from Amazon, but a simple flashlight test showed how uneven it turned out. What I hadn’t been considering the mathematical value of distance, and how a 3/4" blade is related. We’ll see how it looks and then maaaybe go back to a dual strip set up. That would double the distance btw the interior blade surface and the LEDS.
But then again, it’s not a lightsaber so it will depend on the user’s taste. She was able to try out the button placement and motion controls, and try edit mode.
I received some satisfying feedback: “I’m totally winning the costume contest this year.”
So with everything loosely set, it’s time to rest and wait for parts.
“To wait is beautiful.” - T.T. Liang