first saber questions of a techniqual nature

[shdwtrpr13]

Recently I put The scorpian saber onto my wedding registry, with the works. But with this new emerald chip I'm questioning if I want to go with that route. I notice that the scorpian is in the catagory of these new chips but not with sound. as I'm looking over the saber I'm wondering if the body is too small for both sound and emerald board/chip. with many of you experience in this maybe I can get some facts on this. Also I was wondering if I went with the Emerald set up how hard would it be to upgrade with an obsidian board later down the road.

Your thoughts and knowledge will help me greatly in desiding if I should update my registry listing for the saber.

[Vyk]

We don't have much technical information on the Emerald yet, but I notice that nobody has yet answered your question so I feel I should throw in some educated guesswork.  Be aware that none of this is authoritative.

I've noticed that several sabers are available only with Obsidian or Emerald, but not both; I've also noticed that they fall into two categories.  First, no saber under $124 is currently available with both Emerald and Obsidian, even though some of them are larger than sabers that do have both.  However, there are also some, such as the Monarch and Scorpion, which are above that cutoff but still not available with both; these mostly seem to be hilts that are particularly narrow.  I expect that sabers in the former category will eventually be available with both Emerald and Obsidian; sabers in the latter category probably will not (unless and until at least one of the boards is significantly redesigned).

Your upgrade question could be taken two ways, neither one of which currently has an authoritative answer.  If you're asking whether you could buy an Obsidian and install it yourself, it should be possible if you can do wire-to-wire soldering.  If you're asking if you could send the saber in to have Ultrasabers add Obsidian, the answer is almost certainly yes; if you look around on the forum, you should be able to get an idea for cost, but I'd expect $150-200 (purely a wild guess).  Both of these are assuming the hilt is already for sale with both; if it is not, do not expect to be able to add it in the future.

Finally, I'd like to note that I'm very impressed that you were able to put this on your wedding registry without your future spouse eviscerating you.  Let us know if you actually get it!