Whistling Birds v2.6: The Deep Sleep Update
v2.6 is the Deep Sleep Update for the Whistling Birds. A disarmed prop now goes into a real deep sleep, with weeks of standby. Disarm it between photos and parades, and one charge can last a full day of trooping. It also brings a battery display that counts down the lit time left, a battery check at power-on, and a fix for builds whose USB power detection kept them awake. Firmware only; printed parts and wiring are unchanged.
v2.6 is the Deep Sleep Update.
It finally delivers something I have wanted since the first version: a real deep sleep, with weeks of standby. The tips stay lit for a solid 6–8 hours, and when you disarm between photos, parades, and breaks, the prop sleeps through the gaps. A single charge can now carry it through a full day of trooping without switching it off.
What you’ll notice in v2.6
- Weeks of standby: a disarmed prop drops into deep sleep after half an hour untouched, on battery or on a charger, and stays there until the magnet wakes it. On the bench, that works out to about three weeks on a full charge.
- A full day of trooping: arm for the moments that count and disarm in between, and the 6–8 lit hours can stretch across the whole day.
- A battery display you can plan around: the twelve tips count down your lit time evenly, from full to empty.
- Your battery level at power-on: switching the prop on shows the battery display for a moment, along with the boot sound.
- A fix for idle battery drain: on builds with the USB power detection mod, a bad connection in that circuit could keep the prop awake until the battery emptied. It now sleeps normally whatever the circuit reports.
Updating from v2.5?
Firmware: recommended. Sign in to your account, open your original order, and download again; the link always serves the current version. Updating is the same copy-the-files process as before, and the package’s Software guide walks through it. Your saved menu settings carry across. If you have edited config.py by hand, back it up first and carry your values into the new one, as the guide describes.
Printed parts and wiring: unchanged. v2.6 is firmware only. Your printed parts stay as they are, and so does the optional USB power detection mod.
Battery draining while idle? If your prop has been going flat within about a day of being left switched on and disarmed, install this update first. See USB power detection mod under Fixes.
Full v2.6 changelog
Everything below is the complete change list for the release.
Firmware changes
Deep sleep, wherever you leave it
Disarmed and idle, the prop powers down its lights, speaker, and servo rail and sleeps until the magnet wakes it. After half an hour untouched, it drops into deep sleep. In v2.6 that happens on battery and on a wall charger or power bank alike, whatever the USB power detection circuit reports; only a connected computer holds it awake.
You can change the half hour. Open config.py and set DEEP_SLEEP_AFTER_SECONDS. It counts in seconds: the default is 1800, which is half an hour, and the most is 86400, which is 24 hours. Set it to 0 to turn deep sleep off. The prop then stays in light sleep, which empties a full charge in about two days.
We measured it on the bench: a disarmed prop on v2.6 sat in deep sleep for nearly ten days, draining at a rate that works out to about three weeks on a full charge. The power switch is still the right way to store the prop for longer than that.
A full day of trooping
At full brightness on the recommended battery, the tips stay lit for 6–8 hours of armed time. Disarm between photos, parades, and breaks, and the prop sleeps through the gaps; a long lunch puts it into deep sleep. The same charge can stretch across a full day of trooping without switching the prop off.
The battery display shows lit time left
The twelve tips now count down your lit time evenly, from full to empty. It used to show full for the first couple of hours and still show a few tips just before the battery ran out.
The low-battery warnings follow it: amber and red now show when the battery really is getting low. In both power modes, when about 30% of the charge is left, the tips slowly dim on their own. This saves power so the charge lasts longer. Charging brings full brightness back.
Power-on shows your battery level
Switching the prop on now shows the battery display for a moment, with the boot sound, so every power-up starts with a charge check. It used to fade the tips in your dart color.
On the charger
On a wall charger or power bank, the battery display turns itself off after five minutes; charging carries on. On a computer it stays up.
A disarmed prop left on a charger drops into its deep sleep after half an hour untouched, the same as on battery. From then on the display stays off when you reconnect, until you next touch the magnet.
Fixes
- USB power detection mod: a divider with a bad connection could make the prop think it was always plugged in, which kept it awake and emptied the battery in about a day. It now sleeps normally whatever the divider reports, and plugging into a computer still brings up the battery display while the prop is awake.
- Config Reset: after a Config Reset, damaged saved settings could bring back old settings from an earlier firmware’s settings file. The prop now falls back to the shipped defaults.
- Under the hood: lighting effects use less memory while they run.
Model and hardware changes
None in this release. The v2.6 package carries the same printable models as v2.5, and the wiring is the same.
In the download
Gauntlet-Darts-Package-v2.6.0.zip carries the firmware, every printable model, the illustrated Operations Guide as a PDF, and these release notes, so you can read what changed offline.
Previous release
The v2.5 release notes cover the last full update: swarm firing, persistent settings, the battery gauge colors, Power Mode, and the revised printed parts.
Guides & support
The full build guide, assembly instructions, operations guide, and support docs live here: Whistling Birds Guide Landing Page.