eastern57's lighthound momentary to latching switch mod

[Rathan]

I have the link to the fx-sabers.com writeup for eastern57's mod but that forum is down.
Does anyone have a copy of it?
I even tried cached Google pages but I can only get page 2 of that thread. :(
I knew I should have printed it out.

Thanks for any help!

(I'm still noob enough I cant do PMs here)

[Enolmano]

As far as I know, eastern is on the TCSS forums to.
But I can't remember what nick hes using here...

[Lord Maul]

eastern57 is on these boards, yes.

Here is his tutorial from JSSDC



First things first - This only applies to using the PCB from this light:
http://www.lighthound.com/Lighthound-Keychain-Flashlight-Black-Body-White-LED_p_967.html

Anyway. :dft012:

- The main negative of the PCB (that entire gold-circle back) goes to the main negative on the sound board (call this the "back" of the PCB).
- Take the little metal connection plate off and attach your momentary switch leads to those connection points (call this the "front" of the PCB).
- The two spots where the LED was attached will connect to your sound board main switch connections [sw(+) & sw(-)]. Sw(+) goes to the pad on the "back" of the PCB and sw(-) to the pad on the "front" of the PCB.


Wide angle:

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn260/eastern57/MR%20board/DSC05606.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn260/eastern57/MR%20board/DSC05607.jpg

Close up:

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn260/eastern57/MR%20board/MRmom1.jpg
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn260/eastern57/MR%20board/MRmom2.jpg

Diagram:

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn260/eastern57/MR%20board/MRmom3.jpg

[Caine Drathul]

Are things connected differently when there is a recharge port involved? Does the recharge port wire that normally goes to the board negative go to the PCB in this case? I got this to work using a regular 4AAA Alkaline battery solution, but want to use it with a rechargable 3.7 Li-Ion setup

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[Lord Maul]

A charge port doesn't affect it at all. All the port is is a break between the battery and the sound board. It might as well be a solid wire for this PCB. Just put the negative lead from the PCB to your sound board ground.

[Sunrider]

These are simple & will handle 10 amps. They work great & have mini led on them.:cool: I never could locate the lighthound thing & it may not handle larger setups.

http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/750

[Caine Drathul]

OK, just to clarify: I will have both the PCB and the recharge jack connected to the MR board ground, right?

[Lord Maul]

Correct.

[Caine Drathul]

Great. Thank you very much, LM!

[Rathan]

I just cant seem to get this to work right. If I have the wire connected to the battery (-) it doesnt work at all. If I disconnect the batter (-) wire sometimes the saber comes on and stays on, sometimes it comes on and goes off right away, and sometimes it comes on and runs for several seconds then goes off. Pardon the quick sloppy solders here. This was just a quick test to see if it worked. The yellow wire in the middle is NOT touching the "C" shaped pad next to it or it would be on all the time. I have redone the solders several times with the same issue. And yes that IS a momentary switch from the Shack. Any help would be greatly appreciated since I am an electronics newb.
http://www.rathan.com/lightsabers/lightsaber01/lighthoundmod01.jpghttp://www.rathan.com/lightsabers/lightsaber01/lighthoundmod02.jpg

[Caine Drathul]

Those PCB's are tempermental. There are many a reason for your problems.

1. There is too much solder on one connection
2. The switch wires may need to be switched on the PCB
3. There may be parts of the PCB that are bridging that you are unaware of.

I have gotten this to work, but I did need to do some troubleshooting...even after I had everything hooked up correctly. Good luck.

[Rathan]

Thanks.

Well, I ordered 2 of the lighthounds and they sent me 3 so I might just start over with a brand new one.

[Skottsaber]

Hold on. Do you buy these PCBs from somewhere specific? Or do you have to salvage them from something?

[Rathan]

Hold on. Do you buy these PCBs from somewhere specific? Or do you have to salvage them from something?
There is a link in the 3rd message of this thread for the item. You have to take it apart and unsolder the LED. Very easy.

[Rathan]

It is still not working!! :(
I used a brand new PCB and took extra care soldering the wires and if I have the wire to battery (-) attached it don't do a thing. The new PCB does seem to be more stable turning on and off, as long as the battery connection is off, then the last one.

Does anyone think it would be a bad thing to leave it disconnected? Otherwise I am going to call it good enough and move on.

[Caine Drathul]

It is still not working!! :(
I used a brand new PCB and took extra care soldering the wires and if I have the wire to battery (-) attached it don't do a thing. The new PCB does seem to be more stable turning on and off, as long as the battery connection is off, then the last one.

Does anyone think it would be a bad thing to leave it disconnected? Otherwise I am going to call it good enough and move on.

That is odd and I am sure frustrating.

If you are content with this, and you have a recharge port setup, you can always use the kill pin as the way to turn on the saber...although that really isn't ideal for certain people. LDM did that with some of his Korbanth stunt sabers and it was fine...it's all about personal preference.

[Rathan]

Ok, saying it is not working is erroneous. It turns on just fine and turns off 90% of the time on the first button press. It just doesn't work at all if I have it setup exactly as the diagram shows.
That is why I was wondering if there would be anything bad with leaving the connection to the battery (-) disconnected.

[Sunrider]

Instead of trying to make that key light do something it wasn't meant to you can still try this.

http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/750

It is made specifically for what your doing & it's 10 x 20mm. Smaller, better, faster will do 10 amps its bionic.;)

[Rathan]

Cool, just ordered 2.
Thanks

[Rhyen Skytracker]

Thanks Sunrider. I plan on ordering some.

[Caine Drathul]

Yeah, that Pololu is another option that I haven't done yet, but planning on doing so.

[Rathan]

So I got my Pololu switchs but I don't see how to use this to make a momentary switch into a latching switch for a sound board.

I am an electronics newb so bear with me. I attached the mom switch to the board and tried just attaching the switch (+) from the sound board to the VIN and the switch (-) to the VOUT but got nothing. I didnt want to run any juice from the battery through the Pololu because that would have sent voltage to the sound board switch probably damaging or frying the board.

Any wiring help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[Ari-Jaq Xulden]

not mine just helping.
linky (http://www.fx-sabers.com/forum/index.php?topic=23490.msg350281#msg350281)

[Rathan]

not mine just helping.
linky (http://www.fx-sabers.com/forum/index.php?topic=23490.msg350281#msg350281)

Thanks!! Bookmarked.
Apparently I just needed to hook up a ground. :oops:

[Sunrider]

In the middle of the board there are 2 holes to connect a mom sw. 1 V in 1 V out & 2 common ground connections. Vedy simple Vedy easy.;)

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I recently did this lighthound pcb conversion myself, and managed to get a few more pictures that may prove useful to someone:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o141/Jay-gon_Jinn/Chrome%20Saber%2033/100_9267.jpg
I put the MR board's positive switch lead on the solder pad on the flashlight pcb where the led 's positive side was soldered. The gray wire is the negative for the flashlight pcb. I soldered to the board's negative that leads to the battery later.
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o141/Jay-gon_Jinn/Chrome%20Saber%2033/100_9268.jpg
The negative switch lead from the MR went to the other point on the pcb where the negative side of the led was soldered. The polarity of the switch wires probably doesn't matter, but I decided it was better to be safe than sorry. ;)
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o141/Jay-gon_Jinn/Chrome%20Saber%2033/100_9276.jpg
The two white wires shown in the above image are the wires from the illuminated anti-vandal switch I used on that particular saber. their polarity doesn't matter.
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o141/Jay-gon_Jinn/Chrome%20Saber%2033/100_9275.jpg
I ran the gray negative lead for the flashlight pcb through a hole in the MR board then soldered it to the pad where the board's negative is also soldered.

Added batteries to the saber, pushed the button, and the saber fired up:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o141/Jay-gon_Jinn/Chrome%20Saber%2033/100_9280.jpg

[Caine Drathul]

I have done this about 4-5 times now, and always had it work....but I did a build last night where I tried this with two different PCB's and was still getting the same results...I couldn't shut the board off. I switched wires around, tried different switches...same results. Is it possible that some MR boards are just picky on this?

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Could, be Caine. I've only done it three times now myself, and they have worked for me each time. What switch were you using? If it is an AV style, double check to make sure you have the leads from the switch on the correct rterminals, "common" and "normally open." I did that once myself on another saber that was usign a Pololu board instead.

[Caine Drathul]

Could, be Caine. I've only done it three times now myself, and they have worked for me each time. What switch were you using? If it is an AV style, double check to make sure you have the leads from the switch on the correct rterminals, "common" and "normally open." I did that once myself on another saber that was usign a Pololu board instead.

Nope, it was just a mini tactile ...then I tried it with a micro pushbutton (like the ones sold in the store here) and still no worky. I double and triple checked my solder points to make sure there were no bridges, and it was clean....so I figured that the board was just being a punk (which happens now and then as we all know)

[Jay-gon Jinn]

That was likely the problem....a board with an attitude. ;)

[Aradian Valentine]

I have used these Lighthound boards on several builds and found that on occasion it would not work until I reversed the leads for the switch, not sure why.

I also suspect that micro bridges are forming during the soldering phase.

best,
-AV

[linkingdots]

Just to confirm because I'm not sure if I am able to get light hound on my side of the globe but the flashlight just has to be the type which goes out when released?

[(null).exe]

Yes, but as stated earlier, you're better of getting a Pololu board.

Also, holy necro batman :D

[Tasau]

I accidentally bought a momentary switch instead of a latching one. I'm not really interested in spending more or in waiting another few weeks for a latching switch to get shipped to me. For my project I'm not using a sound or control board. It's just a straight circuit. Is there a way to convert the momentary switch to a latching one without the control board? If so, how?

[Silver Serpent]

You can hold the button down. Any other solution is going to be more expensive and time consuming than ordering a new switch.