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Keman
03-08-2013, 11:56 PM
836483658366

I am a first time saber builder/solder'er/electronic fooler wither (as if that wasn't obvious) and thought I would just jump in head first after reading forums looking at wiring diagrams and watching vids. Well....... It didn't work, when I press the switch nothing happens >< I guess it might be a problem with the Recharge port? I was tring to wire it up to not work as a kill key. I thought maybe the wires were switched to the LED but I tried it both ways. I can take the LED put it in an allready premade saber and it works fine so I know it's atleast good.

all of the shown parts are as Follows:

MWS BuckPuck
SPST Short Latching AV Switch
2AA Battery Holder
2 Li-ion Batterys (14500 3.7V 900mAh)
2.1mm Power Jack

Any help is greatly appreciated!

hedgehog1
03-09-2013, 12:37 AM
OK - now that you have created a puzzle for us all:

When debugging wiring issues, the best course of action is to divide & conquer.

The net result is you will now be forced to do what you should have done to start with: separate it all and add one thing back on at a time!

To start with, use JUST these three sets of screw terminals on the buck-puck circuit board:

1) Connect the battery into the two screw terminals for the battery (Polarity matters).
2) Connect the Switch into the two screw terminals for the switch (Polarity does not matter here). <-- this connection really matters - without it connected your LED will never light up
3) Connect the blade LED to the two screw terminals for the blade LED (Polarity matters).

Once you have these three connections done, you should be able to press the button and have the blade LED light up.

Then, check back and lets talk about adding the recharge port properly.

Ari-Jaq Xulden
03-09-2013, 08:21 AM
Having never used one I had to go look at how it was intended to be connected. It looks to me as the battery and recharge port are in the wrong place and completely hooked up wrong. Black line going to recharge needs to be on other switch leg. Battery and recharge hooked up under L and U in Lux drive on other side of puck. There is no other way to assemble the recharge charge port and have it function. You can remove it from the equation or use it as intended. Positive together on middle pin, and negatives separated 1 to board 1 to pack. The way you have it hooked up it isn't doing anything.

Something else I noticed wrong is you have no heat shrink around your connections. Also I would remove (unscrew) any unnecessary wires from the puck. And you probably don't want my opinion on your soldering joint itself, but as you asked what was wrong I would have to include those as well.

Strydur
03-09-2013, 09:27 AM
First off.. read the pinout on the back of the buckpuck.

Main LED (L+ and L-)
Accent LED (A+ and A-) Only on when switch is on
Latching Switch (SW)
Accent LED Resistor (ARES) Simply attach one of the resistor legs to each of the terminals. This will reduce the output voltage to the Accent LED terminals.
Recharge Port (R+ and R-) This simply goes straight to the battery. Only charge with switch turned off. Battery Input (B+ and B-)

Look at the pics on the site
http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/MWS-BuckPuck--P748.aspx


Take the black wire going to the recharge port from the buckpuck and connect it to the switch, leave the red wire going to the switch.

The battery pack connect to the other end of the buckpuck and so would the recharge port but set it up without it to start.

It looks like the LED is connected correctly.

Keman
03-09-2013, 09:44 AM
Oh, no feel free to tell me everything I did wrong including pointing out my god awfull solder joints. they are the very first ones I have ever done and I know if people don't tell me like it is I wont be getting any better.


I should have just decided to use the jst connectors. I thought I just hooked the battery up to the vin -/+ with the switch on the postive line to the buckpuck, with the led hooked to the led -/+ and done. I did not know the switch had its own screw terminals. I will do like heghog suggested start from scratch and take it one step at a time as soon as I get home. looks like I need to reread the wiring threads, not sure where I came up with these ideas sorry ><

hedgehog1
03-09-2013, 12:30 PM
It is easy to get excited about a new project and jump ahead of our understanding. But you will get to the new level of understanding fast enough - events like these help that along (we call it learning the hard way - but it IS learning none-the-less). Someone once said 'we learn the most when we make mistakes' - which I suppose is true. And painful. And expensive sometimes. I know that I have learned: 'the more expensive it is, the more I need to read the documentation first'.

To re-iterate Ari-Jaq Xuldens point from above: Heat shrink is a lot of fun to use, and will save you from tons of shorting issues later on when you use the saber. It also looks really cool!

EDIT: I think I see where you got confused. The Buck Puck has writing on it showing the pin-outs of the buck puck itself. I believe you saw that writing on the buck puck and assumed it was the pin-out description for the circuit board (see - we can cover for you on this - you are not going crazy after all).

Keman
03-09-2013, 05:21 PM
ah I see strydur posted while I was posting last time and I never saw it. >.> but I moved my soldering equipment to where I can still look up the needed info as I do it. I am going to take all your alls advice and try to do as you all say. (sitting down to give it a try now)

Ima use the letters on the back of the buck puck as guidence this time.

never thought of using heat shrink on the port/switch solder connections but will give it a try since I have plenty


Edit: it seems to be near impossible to find anyone talking about wiring a recharge port up with out the kill switch feature >< maybes it's unsafe to have it on like a show piece with it charging for a long time? guess I will just try to wire it up like everyone says

Double Edit: YES! got it to work with out the recharge port...... holy crap that was so simple >.>
Switch to "S"
Battery to "B"
LED to "L"

I wonder why I never saw that or if I did I didn't understand it :/

Ari-Jaq Xulden
03-09-2013, 06:11 PM
Okay the recharge can be tricky too. The long windowed connection goes to the puck (B-), the pin(on the recharge port) gets both positives (B+ connection on puck and Battery +) and the other to the battery negative.

Keman
03-09-2013, 06:17 PM
I'm wondering is this setup using a Kill Key? is it advised to always use a kill key set up for safety reason?

Edit: never mind I wired it up and found it. Kill Key :/ but it does work! I guess I could make another thread but if anyone sees this and has any info on the non kill key recharge port safety/wiring wise that would be great.

Oh and THANK YOU ALL so much I swear my solders have got alot better and it almost feels like I know what I am doing.

Triple and Last Edit: I found out how to wire it without a kill Key, looks like I just move the Negitive wire coming from the buckbuck to the same contact on the recharge port that the battery negitive is connected too. I am just curious about any safety concerns I should have.

hedgehog1
03-09-2013, 09:15 PM
Keman,

Because your are wiring in a stunt saber mode without a sound card, when you 'click' the power button off, you cut power to the buck puck (and therefore the saber). So a kill key is not strictly needed for safety in that way.

However, it is really better to have the negative of the battery isolated from the rest of the saber electronics during charging. If you just leave the saber off during recharge, you can go like you are now. Otherwise, we use the feature of the recharge port where it can also be a switch the 'turns off' the negative from the Negative pin that is at the same height as the positive pin when any plug is inserted. It is a nifty feature, but as long as you don't power on the saber during charging you are OK for now.

HOW ABOUT SOME PICS OF YOU NEW WIRING, PLEASE! We want to revel in your success! :eek:

Forgetful Jedi Knight
03-09-2013, 09:52 PM
I'm wondering is this setup using a Kill Key? is it advised to always use a kill key set up for safety reason?

Edit: never mind I wired it up and found it. Kill Key :/ but it does work! I guess I could make another thread but if anyone sees this and has any info on the non kill key recharge port safety/wiring wise that would be great.

Oh and THANK YOU ALL so much I swear my solders have got alot better and it almost feels like I know what I am doing.

Triple and Last Edit: I found out how to wire it without a kill Key, looks like I just move the Negitive wire coming from the buckbuck to the same contact on the recharge port that the battery negitive is connected too. I am just curious about any safety concerns I should have.

Normally recharge ports and "kill keys" are used when using sound boards. It allows for easy recharge of the saber, without having to take them apart to change batteries, and also will prevent the draining of a battery pack when not in use. ;)

Keman
03-09-2013, 10:58 PM
well I wired it up to not use a kill key, I am mainly worried about somthing happening and burning down the house if it is left pluged in, as a show piece on the wall. >< Let me know if I really should just throw that idea away and redo the wiring.(I dont even want to think about redoing that at the moment)

When I went to put it all together I just noticed that the battery pack with the batteries in it would not slide into the grenade grip I had >< (I had only tested it with an empty pack) I tried to dremmel it and hollow it out enough but that was a no go, it did work a little but not enough. So yeah I had to add a few extentions I had for another saber to it. so it is a little longer then planed and it might not look right with the short blade.

83678368836983708371 - Wiring

Keman
03-09-2013, 11:02 PM
8372837383748375 - More Shots

PS: >< >< >< >< >< I droped the saber right before I made these posts........ looks like it broke the switch becuase it wont stay pressed in now >< >< ><

Keman
03-09-2013, 11:19 PM
and not really worth another thread I doubt but here are some shots of some weathering practice on a hilt that the threads got messed up on. gonna weather my next project somehow.

83778378837983808381 - Weathering

hedgehog1
03-10-2013, 01:56 AM
Kenan,

If you plan to have to always plugged in for show, do you even need the batteries at all? Just thinking out loud on this.

If you do need/want the batteries, you will find the pre-made Li-Ion pack is a little smaller: http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/74v-Li-ion-800mAh-14500-Battery-Pack-P698.aspx. I just tested this in a grenade extension, and it does fit. So this as an option.

hedgehog1
03-10-2013, 01:57 AM
and not really worth another thread I doubt but here are some shots of some weathering practice on a hilt that the threads got messed up on. gonna weather my next project somehow.

83778378837983808381 - Weathering

My very first car as a teen had that same paint job. Ahhh, the memories... And the break downs...