need help with cheap hasbro soundboard.

[supersith]

I decieded to upgrade my saber with sound so I got a premium speaker and for a first attempt I went with the hasbro sound. I was using the wiring diagram from this thread

http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/showthread.php?10288-2010-Electronic-Lightsaber-w-DVD-Tutorial

but everytime I hook it up to test the led wont light up..it stays slightly lit like its getting power but not enough. I am using a Lux 3 led with 4AA regular duracell batteries. And the sound works cause the speakers make noise just no led working.
forgot to mention that the lux 3 is red and Im unsing a 2.2 5w resistor and when I hook the led directly to a power supply it is a hundred times brighter. Could it be the resistor should I take it out.

[jin starkiller]

are you using a tip 42 pnp transister

[Skottsaber]

Yeah check the wiring on your transistor.
Try switching the emitter and collector pins.

From left to right, looking at the transistor with the text side in front, the pins go base, collector, emitter.

[supersith]

are you using a tip 42 pnp transister

Yes I am...

[cardcollector]

sounds like a transistor problem.

can you post a pic of your wiring?

[supersith]

I will...think I got the flu so need a bit of rest

[supersith]

after my nap here is the pic...I hope I can get some help.

http://i916.photobucket.com/albums/ad6/supersith707/2011-01-18210902.jpg

[Rhyen Skytracker]

We need to see more of the picture. I can't see which wire goes where on the sound board and battery. Also, are you sure that is a TIP42 PNP transistor? If it is a NPN it won't work right.

[cardcollector]

Black is usually negative... Are you hooking the led negative the transistor?

[Azmaria Dei]

is that resistor wire unshielded AND soldered directly to the LED pad AND touching the heatsink?

[Jedi-Loreen]

is that resistor wire unshielded AND soldered directly to the LED pad AND touching the heatsink?
Yeah, you're just asking for the LED to short out that way. That is NOT the way to put the resistor in the circuit. I've never seen anyone do that before. :shock:

You can't take short cuts that way. You really need to solder a wire to that resistor lead, and don't forget the heat shrink! Make sure the wire is only stripped back far enough to cover the solder pad on the LED. You don't want exposed wire even touching the LED star itself, and especially not both the star and the heat sink at the same time.

[JRD1]

your red power from the board should go to the right pin of the transistor. Solder that resistor to the middle pin of the transistor and then run the wire up to the positive side of the LED. The three wires you combine go to the left pin of the transistor... If that doesn't work look for possible shorts ie bare wire touching other bare wire or metal it should not be touching. If this does not work you may have fried the LED already.

[dgdve]

ok.. first disassemble it all.. stop trying to troubleshoot that circuit it will just have another issue somewhere else, just start fresh its your best bet.. now wire leads onto everything(dont forget your heat shrink).. then begin to test the circuit... solder a lead a few mm off the resistor and be sure to isolate all exposed wire

you should ONLY have 3 wires from the soundboard going to the Tip42... the 3 negative wires.. they go to the BASE.. the emitter goes DIRECTLY back to the main positive, the collector is the output and goes directly to the resistor then to the main LED.. the main LED negative goes directly back to the battery pack.. so in other words the positive and negative go right from the battery... the tip42 acts as a floodgate to send the power toward the led(kinda like a switch, cool?).. anyway dont use the original positive off the board.. get a positive straight from the source hooked up to the emitter(yes I know it sounds wrong.. emitter sounds like output but were using it differently understand?). I hope this helps