Saber — Post-Con Edition

Games

Six games.
No screen time required.

Each game is played with the saber itself: you swing it, twist it, spin it or hold it still. Every game saves your best score, so there's always a record to beat.

Games list: Bop it, Swing rush, Helicopter, Focus your force, Stormtrooper patrol, Spin Text — **Games**Six to pick from.

Bop It screen shouting TWIST IT — **Bop It**Do what it says, fast.

Swing Rush screen: 23 swings with 18 seconds left — **Swing Rush**Swings in 30 seconds.

Helicopter detail screen with a best of 8.4 seconds — **Helicopter**Keep it spinning.

Score screen: 8.4 seconds, NEW BEST — **New best**Saved on the saber.

Endless

Bop It

Obey the call before time runs out: bop, twist, pull, slash or jab.

30 seconds

Swing Rush

Swing as many times as you can in 30 seconds.

Endless

Helicopter

Spin it fast and keep it spinning as long as you can.

Fastest time

Focus Your Force

Hold still.

Fastest time

Stormtrooper Patrol

March the length of the Imperial March.

Show-off

Spin Text

Spin the saber and your name, or your battle record, shows up in the air.

Hardware

Real hardware.
Nothing to hide.

It's a full development board shaped like a saber, with a black 4-layer board and no logos on it. It has an RP2040, a colour display, a motion sensor, a speaker and infrared. And now a USB-C port.

Close-up render of the hilt: USB-C port, two buttons, RP2040, colour display, thumbwheel and speaker — The hilt: USB-C, RP2040, display, thumbwheel and speaker. The dev header pads are left bare.

Top view render of the full board — Front. 319 mm from pommel to tip.

Angled render of the underside: two AA battery holders and the blade's back LEDs — Back: two AA holders, and a second row of LEDs that the flashlight uses.

Processor

Raspberry Pi RP2040

Dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+, 4 MB flash

Display

0.96″ colour

80 × 160 pixels

Blade

18 RGB LEDs

Front and back faces

Motion

6-axis IMU

Accelerometer and gyroscope

Sound

Class-D amp

Digital (I²S) audio, 23 mm speaker

Infrared

2 × TX, 2 × RX

For saber-to-saber battles

Controls

Thumbwheel + buttons

Scroll and push, plus Battle and Home

Power

2 × AA

Boost regulated, with auto-sleep

Connectivity

USB-C

Flash and manage over USB

USB-C

No debugger.
Just a cable.

At the con, reading or reflashing a saber took a debug probe and three jumper wires. This edition has a USB-C port and a single standalone program, saber-tool. With them you can back up your saber, restore it, flash new firmware and change anything that's saved on it.

Plug in. Hold one button.

Put the batteries in. The batteries power the saber; the USB-C port only carries data.
Hold the BOOTSEL button and switch the saber on. It shows up on your computer as RP2 Boot.
Run any command with --probe usb. Commands that only read leave the saber waiting for the next one. Commands that write restart it into its firmware.

There's nothing to install. It's a single file for Linux on x86-64 or ARM64 (including a Raspberry Pi). Its only dependency is libudev, which every systemd distro already has.

saber-tool — Terminal

$ ./saber-tool-x86_64-linux probes
# every debug probe, and every saber in BOOTSEL mode on USB

$ ./saber-tool-x86_64-linux --probe usb backup
# writes saber-tool-<id>-<time>.bin (8 KiB: identity + saved state)

$ ./saber-tool-x86_64-linux --probe usb show
# everything the saber has saved: identity, settings, side, record

saber-tool --help (excerpt)

$ ./saber-tool-x86_64-linux --help
…
Commands:
  probes           List the debug probes, and badges in BOOTSEL mode on USB, attached to this computer
  show             Print the badge's identity and saved state. Read-only
  backup           Save the identity and state pages to a file (8 KiB). Read-only
  restore          Write a `backup` file back to the badge
  reset            Erase the saved state: the saber starts over at first-boot setup. The identity page is untouched
  handle           Set the saber's name (2-11 characters, A-Z and 0-9)
  allegiance       Set the side: Republic or Empire. The faction blade colour follows it
  record           Set the duel record: wins and losses (0-65535)
  flash            Flash a firmware ELF (e.g. saber-play-fw). The identity and state pages are never touched, so progress survives
…
Options:
      --probe <PROBE>
          Debug probe: VID:PID or VID:PID:SERIAL; or `usb` / `usb:BUS:ADDR` for a badge in BOOTSEL mode on USB (see `saber-tool probes`). Omit with one attached; with several you are asked

backup · restore

Save your whole saber (name, side, record, best scores and settings) to an 8 KiB file, and put it back on any time. --state-only keeps the saber's own identity.

flash

Load new firmware over USB. Your name, record and scores are never touched, so an update doesn't cost you anything.

show · handle · reset

See everything the saber has saved, rename it, or wipe it back to first-boot setup. Every write accepts --dry-run first.

Room kit

Light up
the whole room.

Every saber within sight of the room kit plays the same light show at the same moment. The distribution board sends it over infrared from its own emitters and from up to four more on Cat5 cables. Press a button, or play the room from a MIDI keyboard.

Spectrum SweepComet ChasePulse BloomKyber SparkleIon Storm

IR distribution board

The controller. Its eight onboard infrared emitters cover a small room by themselves. For a bigger one, run Cat5 cables out to emitters on the walls. MIDI is built in, so notes from a keyboard set off the shows in time with the music.

Onboard IR8 × 940 nm emitters
Emitter outputs4 × RJ45 (Cat5)
MIDI in3.5 mm TRS, opto-isolated
Controls5 buttons
Power12 V DC barrel jack
Size120 × 50 mm, 4 × M3 holes
FlashingNeeds a WCH-LinkE

~C$15per board, estimated

IR emitter

A helmet-shaped panel with twenty infrared LEDs. Screw it to a wall or a stand and plug it into one of the board's four outputs with an ordinary Cat5 cable. Add one per corner of the room, and every blade picks up the show.

IR20 × 940 nm LEDs
InputRJ45 (Cat5) from the board
Size98 × 95 mm, 3 × M3 holes

~C$8per emitter, estimated

Room kit prices are estimates. The distribution board's comes from an October 2026 JLC quote for 20 boards (C$10 each for the board and assembly), plus its controller chip, a share of shipping and 13% HST. The emitter's is from our August 2026 prototype order. A bigger order should bring both down.
Boards arrive assembled. The 12 V adapter and the Cat5 cables aren't included.
The distribution board runs on a WCH CH32V003, so flashing or updating its firmware needs a WCH-LinkE programmer (not included). The sabers' USB and SWD tools won't do it.
You can register interest in the room kit with or without a saber, in the form below.

Group pricing

The more of us,
the less it costs.

Sabers are built in panels of four, and every order has fixed setup costs. Spreading those costs over more sabers brings the price down for everyone. Pick a group size to see the estimated cost per saber, delivered to Canada.

C$25per saber

100 sabers · 25 panels · about C$2,519 for the whole order

Group size	Parts + assembly	Bare boards	Shipping	HST 13%	Brokerage	Order total	Per saber

These are estimates, in Canadian dollars, from October 2026 JLCPCB part and assembly pricing at 1.4226 CAD/USD. The bare-board and shipping figures are calibrated against a real 20-panel quote.
Each saber arrives fully assembled, with every part soldered on both sides by the board house. AA batteries aren't included.
The estimates assume duty-free import with Ontario HST at 13% and DHL brokerage. The final price is set once the order arrives and the actual duties and brokerage are invoiced.
Registering interest is not an order and doesn't commit you to anything.
Sabers are made at cost recovery only, not for profit. Any money left over from rounding is disclosed and donated to charity. See the note at the bottom of this page.

Interested?

Count me in.

Tell us what you'd like: sabers, the room kit, or both. Nobody pays anything until the order has arrived and every cost is known.

Register interest. Fill in the form below. It's not a commitment, and you can change your numbers any time.
Confirm at the estimated price. Once we know the group size, we email you estimated prices and a personal link to confirm or decline. Import duties and brokerage are only estimated at this point.
Pay the final price. When the order arrives and the duties and brokerage fees are known, we will email everyone their final price and provide instructions on how to pay.

Already signed up? Use the link in your sign-up email to change your quantities, or send this form again with the same email to replace your last answer.

First name

Last name

Sabers

IR distribution boards

IR emitters

Pick any mix: a saber, the room kit, or both. Your name and email are used only to contact you about this group order.

Saber.

Rebel or Empire.
The blade knows.

Rebel

Empire