2010 General Grievous Hasbro Economy Board Guide

[cardcollector]

Hey Fellow Saber Builders!

The other day I was at target and found the new General Grievous Lightsabers Hasbro has made. I decided to get one and make up a guide.
Most of the information is in the video I put together, It has a review of the toy itself, How to break it down, and How to wire it up in a saber.


Video is Here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBnmGx960lQ

Some members have criticized the mixing of the board and I agree, it is pretty bad with the motion sensor, but if you cut that out, the sound is pretty good!

One thing that is super cool about this saber is it has two sound fonts. Let me say that again… TWO SOUND FONTS!!! It has a light side and dark side font. The way this works is a separate momentary switch is attached to the board. When you press the switch down (and hold it) the sound goes from light to dark. Replace this with a latching switch and you have a dual sound saber!
With a little modifying, you could rig it up so the blade goes from one color to the other…

On the same little board, there is another MOM switch that makes a different swing sound. It is mixed beautifully, but can only be used with the dark font…

Anyway, here is a pic of how the board is wired up…
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_NEn2MDL_Y8E/TQ5SP1NojTI/AAAAAAAAAKo/PFHX9MsZM0g/General%20Grievous%20Hasbro%20Economy%20Board%2060 0x800.jpg
The red wire is the momentary sensor switch... Sorry I didn't label that...

You will have to use the PNP transistor setup with this board, just like the 2010 economy DVD boards…

Questions? Comments? Adding your own feedback and experimentation results is desired!

Major edit!!
OK, so after a few days of testing and wiring, I have come up with a diagram that will not only allow you to change in between the two sound fonts at will, but also change the color of the LED if you use a RGB setup.

This circuit allows you to turn on and off the saber on any sound font (SF1, SF2) setting.

so, here is the diagram, I used publisher for this one because I wanted it to be as clear as possible... I know, it looks bubbly.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_NEn2MDL_Y8E/TVys7zZlDXI/AAAAAAAAARQ/m4uPdDpLyYI/General%20grevious%20with%20sf%20change.jpg

You can add a recharge port to this, just look it up in the older thread.
Keep in mind you may/may not need a resistor depending on your power supply.
The LED I used was from dealextreme.com
The motion sensor 2 is optional, you don't have to use it if you don't like it. It only works on SF2 (the dark font)

I spent many hours figuring this out, so I probably won't be to happy if you ask n00bish questions, especially since pretty much everything is answered for you above. ;)

Oh, you will have to solder onto the switch traces for the main power switch like so...
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_NEn2MDL_Y8E/TVyp560v6vI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/4s4nwVEf6FA/edit%203.jpg

Hope that helps someone...

[Azmaria Dei]

the second sound font has a lot of programming for the spinning thing that it does though, hence i considered it unusable when i wired mine up. i suppose if you forget about the swing portion, that would solve the uselessness of it. and the mixing isn't bad once you get used to it - it's just not the quality you would expect from any other board. also, the board i fried with 5.5V was one of these so be cautious...

[Skottsaber]

Interesting. Looks like they went back to the old school sensors for some reason.

[dgdve]

Interesting. Looks like they went back to the old school sensors for some reason.

Money, Money, Money..

[Loachri MacTalabh]

I was wondering about it. My two nephews and niece are wanting a saber of their own. The General Grievous Lightsabers are exactly what I had in mind. It be awhile before I can build them (no job you know, as I have said in another post), Keep experimenting. I am eagerly awaiting your results.

[cardcollector]

I was wondering about it. My two nephews and niece are wanting a saber of their own. The General Grievous Lightsabers are exactly what I had in mind. It be awhile before I can build them (no job you know, as I have said in another post), Keep experimenting. I am eagerly awaiting your results.

I will be wiring on of these boards up with a rgb led to see if I can get a color change/ sound change in the board in a couple of weeks... I'll let you know how it goes. ;)

[Azmaria Dei]

i picked up another pair of these for future play/use. ^_^ i'll have to take pictures of the things i do with them.

[Loachri MacTalabh]

:cool:Cool, Thanks guys. I'll be on the look out.

[dazzlah]

Nice overview Cardcollector. I picked up a couple of these and have extracted the soundboards and am trying to figure out how to add my own power on/off momentary switch to it. While the small attached board with the 2 mom switches does power the board on it does not power it off. Am I missing something here? Do you have any clues for me?

[cardcollector]

the way the little board works is with a common lead (not sure if it is negative or positive yet..)

Then, when the sound font change lead is connected, the font will change sounds. Now, if you use the main switch leads to turn the saber on while pressing the sound font button down. the saber will activate with the second sound font.

Again, hard to explain, and i will post up a complete tut as soon as I get my nex TCSS order. (Sat, MON, or tues...) So bear with me, I ruined a few switches so those re on the way. I do have a rough diaggram setup too, I just want to make aure it works one more time before I post it....

[dazzlah]

Excellent. I hope your delivery arrives soon. Are you saying that the little board may be able to power off the unit? What I am looking for is a way to attach my own switch to control power on/off. I can of course add a latching switch to the power wire but then I miss out on the cool power-down effect. On the main board the power on/off switch is embedded to the board. I tried soldering leads to the contacts under the rubber button but could not get it to work. That board is now in the "mostly dead" pile. That pile seems to be growing ;). That might be named the "tuition pile" soon.

[cardcollector]

I have not found a way to use the board as a power off switch, just figured Out how to wire everything up so it doesn't matter which sound font is selected when you use the main switch to turn it on.

[Azmaria Dei]

now you're starting to see why i left the ones i used as the main font. mine also like to reset the hum quite a bit and the mixing is pretty bad still, but the overal sound besides that is pretty nice. combined with a vibe motor, if you're not careful it will get stuck in a hum reset loop and do nothing else.

[cardcollector]

First post is edited with all the requested info above...

For the record, I am tired.

[Piraterogue]

Thank you for this tutorial.
I had a couple questions, I am new to saber making so I hope they are not noob questions.
Have you used illuminated switches on this?
Can it be done without the 6 pole switch?
Did you not wire the red led for a reason? (I don't know anything about RBG led's)
What is a PNP transistor and what does it do?

A more general question, anyone know where I can learn more about circuitry? Books to pick up?

Thank you for your time.

[Azmaria Dei]

Link to Online Basic Electronics Training (http://101science.com/basicelectronics.htm)

i use illuminated switches with mine - the switch LED is resistored and wired in parallel to the main LED.
a PNP transistor uses a 20-30mA line and switches a larger, more powerful power line direct from a power source to give 1A or more to a main LED.

and the rest of your questions i'll leave for someone else.

[Piraterogue]

Thank you for the link it is very helpful.

[cardcollector]

Thank you for this tutorial.
I had a couple questions, I am new to saber making so I hope they are not noob questions.
Have you used illuminated switches on this? Yes, treat the LED in the switch like you would and accent LED. The switch has to be momentary.

Can it be done without the 6 pole switch? yes, that switch is used to change sound fonts. If you don't want to change fonts, dont use the six pole switch.

Did you not wire the red led for a reason? (I don't know anything about RBG led's) Yes, I didn't want the saber to be red. Just blue and green.

What is a PNP transistor and what does it do? The PNP transistor acts as a gate of sorts that allows the current from the battery flow the the Luxeon LED while still allowing power to the board so it can function properly.

A more general question, anyone know where I can learn more about circuitry? Books to pick up? I like this site alot. It has helped immensly; http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/
Thank you for your time.

Answers in this color.

[Piraterogue]

Anouther question, is the DPDT switch a momentary or latching switch?

[Azmaria Dei]

Anouther question, is the DPDT switch a momentary or latching switch?

for changing sound fonts? latching.

[Piraterogue]

A couple questions before I order parts.
For the rgb leds from deal extreme, how big a battery pack would I need?
How big a hilt space does this generally fit into?
Finally the drawing shows a MOM power switch, is that a momentary switch? would that mean to keep the blade on I would need to hold the button on the switch?
Thank you for all the help.

[hebert466]

if you have looked at the wiring diograms then you would see that the power goes into the board. you will NOT have to hold the switch for the main LED to stay on.;)

[Piraterogue]

if you have looked at the wiring diograms then you would see that the power goes into the board. you will NOT have to hold the switch for the main LED to stay on.;)

Actually without having seen how the board itself is wired it could be either way, so I asked to make sure.

[Piraterogue]

Sorry to resurect an old dead thread, but I wanted to try this build but the wireing diagrams links have expired. Did anyone happen to save them somewhere else?

[Maximus Wong]

I to am looking to build a saber with this board. Apologies for the resurrection but would anyone have the images for the wiring diagrams?