Ventress, Switch Wiring Question

[Shadar Al'Niende]

So as most of you know, I am tackling a project which requires making a custom saber out of a ventress board. The board (after desoldering the switch) has 5 pins/pads and I am not quite sure how to make use of them when attaching my own switch. The pins on the board have 5 pads as follows:

ON ~ On/Off ~ On/Off ~ On/Off ~ OFF

You can find an image of the switch pad marking here:

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x116/TaiDashan/Agony/Ventress/th_05WiringDiagShot02.jpg (http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x116/TaiDashan/Agony/Ventress/05WiringDiagShot02.jpg)


*** Update ***

So as mentioned earlier, there are 5 pads under the switch once you remove it. When looking at the board with the mollex connector on the left, and the pads facing you... you need to wire pins 2 and 3
ON ~ On/Off ~ On/Off ~ On/Off ~ OFF

[Skottsaber]

Well if you hadn't destroyed your switch you could've metered it :rolleyes:

I would test wire it and then just play around with some wires to see what works.
But ON and OFF sounds like the best idea to me ;)

[alreadyRogue]

If you are lucky then the on/off could be wired to a clash or motion sensor so that if either the motion or clash were triggered the saber could activate, I've heard of this system before but I have never worked with this board before.
Good luck on your build.

[Skottsaber]

1) Clash/Swing sensors are momentary and therefore wouldn't work in that application.
2) Why would you want to do that?

[Rhyen Skytracker]

How many wires actually went to the switch? I know the MR Mace Windu had a 4 wire switch and used s DPDT switch but you could get it to work only using 3 wires and a SPDT switch. We really don't haven enough information yet.

[Shadar Al'Niende]

The switch was a metal housing with each end attached to the On and Off pads. It had a small plastic switch that would "click" into two different positions, I am assuming using two On/Off pads and possibly either ON or OFF in conjunction. (basically a DPDT?)

You can see here what I am talking about. This image shows the ON and OFF on either side with a single On/Off for each of the 3 pads underneath, the On/Off is somewhat hidden by the switch:

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x116/TaiDashan/Agony/Ventress/th_05WiringDiagShot02.jpg (http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x116/TaiDashan/Agony/Ventress/05WiringDiagShot02.jpg)

This image shows Pads I was talking about:

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x116/TaiDashan/Agony/Build%20Log/th_50SwitchPads.jpg (http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x116/TaiDashan/Agony/Build%20Log/50SwitchPads.jpg)

Let me know what more you would like, i can take more pics of the board. From my knowledge of switches... which isn't much, my bet is that it is a DPDT switch... i just don't understand enough about how to wire that with my AV....

[Rhyen Skytracker]

What I would do it solder a wire to each pad and strip the other ends off. Touch them together one at a time to see what results you get. You may have to touch 2 together at a time to test too. That is how I was able to determine how to wire up the 4 wire switch on the Mace Windu board. http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/showthread.php?t=11171

[Jay-gon Jinn]

I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of those holes in the board were simply to solder the switch onto the board, and may have nothing to do with activating the board....follow the traces from the holes(pads) and see where they go....if a hole has no trace, then you don't need it.

[Shadar Al'Niende]

What I would do it solder a wire to each pad and strip the other ends off. Touch them together one at a time to see what results you get. You may have to touch 2 together at a time to test too. That is how I was able to determine how to wire up the 4 wire switch on the Mace Windu board. http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/showthread.php?t=11171

Thanks for the tip on how to test it all out Rhyen!


I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of those holes in the board were simply to solder the switch onto the board...

That was what i thought, since the switch was attached by the two outer pins. That would also only leave 3 pins which would make sense why there is only 3 annotations on the board (ON, OFF, and ON\OFF)


...follow the traces from the holes(pads) and see where they go....if a hole has no trace, then you don't need it.

On looking at the underside of the board, the pins 2 and 4 (1 2 3 4 5) have traces coming from them. The center pin looks like it might lead to a resistor on the top of the board but doesn't specifically LOOK like a trace. This leads me to believe that Pins 2 and 4 are the On and OFF and the center pin is the ON\OFF. I suppose when i get it wired up I will have to try pins 2 and 4 to see if that does the trick, then add the 3rd a'la Rhyen's Mace Board diagram!

Thanks again guys!

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Keep us informed on what you find!

[Shadar Al'Niende]

*** Update ***

So as mentioned earlier, there are 5 pads under the switch once you remove it. When looking at the board with the mollex connector on the left, and the pads facing you... you need to wire pins 2 and 3
ON ~ On/Off ~ On/Off ~ On/Off ~ OFF