CRYSTAL FOCUS X
Unstable Effects Collection
PART 14 OF 18
Unstable series · Knight Rider · unstable=14

Knight Rider (unstable=14)

A practical guide to the Knight Rider effect on Crystal Focus X, including scanning beam motion, trail persistence, bounce or wrap behavior, and classic marquee-style scanner recipes.

What you will learn
  • How the glowing head and trailing fade work
  • How sine and linear scan modes differ
  • How head size and trail persistence shape the look
  • How to tune recipes you can paste into your blade profile
Main parameters
Motion
hcool, spark, drift
Trail
lcool
Head size
sparkd
Best used for
  • KITT-style scanners
  • Moving beam accents
  • Looping strip effects
  • Clean sweep animations
Crystal Focus X Guide
Knight Rider (unstable=14)
Series: Customizing Unstable Effects on Crystal Focus X · Guide 14 of 18

Introduction

Knight Rider recreates the classic KITT scanner: a bright head sweeps back and forth along the blade and leaves a fading trail behind it.

The movement can be smooth and sinusoidal or more direct and linear, and the trail persistence is one of the main creative controls.

Parameter Reference

ParameterRole in Knight Rider
unstableSet to 14 to select the effect
hcoolMovement speed
lcoolTrail persistence
sparkMovement mode
sparkdHead size
driftBounce vs wrap in linear mode

Knight Rider has no audio mapping, no angular mapping, and no special clash or lockup behavior.

Movement Modes

ModeConditionBehavior
Linearspark > 127Constant-speed scan. With drift=1 it bounces; with drift=0 it wraps.
Sinusoidalspark ≤ 127Smooth ease-in/ease-out oscillation. Always bounces.

How It Works

  1. The current head position is calculated from the movement mode.
  2. A Gaussian head of the selected size is drawn at that position.
  3. All pixels are faded by multiplying them with lcool / 255.
  4. The Fx color is blended into the visible brightness, leaving a trailing afterimage.

Recipes

Classic KITT

Linear bounce with a moderate trail.

unstable=14
hcool=15
lcool=220
spark=200
sparkd=10
drift=1

Smooth Sine Scan

A fluid sinusoidal sweep.

unstable=14
hcool=10
lcool=230
spark=50
sparkd=12

Fast Scanner

A quick darting point of light.

unstable=14
hcool=40
lcool=180
spark=200
sparkd=5
drift=1

Wide Glow Sweep

A big scanner head with a very long trail.

unstable=14
hcool=8
lcool=245
spark=200
sparkd=30
drift=1

No-Trail Scanner

Only the moving head, no trail.

unstable=14
hcool=12
lcool=0
spark=200
sparkd=8
drift=1

Looping Scanner

The head wraps from one end to the other instead of bouncing.

unstable=14
hcool=15
lcool=200
spark=200
sparkd=10
drift=0

Tuning Tips

  1. lcool is your trail control.
  2. Sinusoidal motion looks more natural than linear motion.
  3. Small heads plus high speed can look like skipping. Widen the head or slow it down.

Crystal Focus X firmware guide · Unstable Effects Collection · Part 14 — Knight Rider (unstable=14)