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tk-421
07-17-2013, 09:02 PM
I recently completed my first saber. i was extremely stoked; it worked beautifully until i went to charge it up. I used a Li-Ion 18560 3.7v 2600mAh cell to power the saber and, without paying proper attention, plugged it into a 2.4v-7.2v NiMH/NiCD charger. i only had it on there for a short while. now the speaker faintly cracks and hisses, and the momentary LED and blade LED will only stay on for about a minute before shutting down.
Did i do permanent and irreversible damage to:
1) the NB board
2) the speaker
3) the blade LED (luxeon rebal star blue)?

any help would be greatly appreciated.

GFJedi
07-17-2013, 10:29 PM
Just to confirm so you can take it out of the equation, but after you realized you were using the wrong charger, did you happen to plug in the correct charger to try and continue recharging the battery?

Caine Drathul
07-17-2013, 11:18 PM
Have you tried changing out the battery? You may have only fried that.

tk-421
07-18-2013, 05:47 AM
GFJedi, i have not used the correct charger. i'll have to order one.

I have done no troubleshooting. i was hoping that folks on this forum would help me with that. one issue is, i have no spare parts to swap in. i only bought what i needed for the build, and this is my only build.
When i take the kill key out, the momentary LED comes on, and when i activate the blade, the blade LED fires up and is plenty bright (no sound, just cracking and hissing out of the speaker). after about 1 minute, all power shuts off and the momentary will not re-activate the blade. if i then insert the kill key and then remove it shortly after, power is applied again and i can activate for another minute or so.

GFJedi
07-18-2013, 06:09 AM
Sounds like the battery needs to be charged. You might have gotten lucky and the protection circuit on the battery could have kicked in when the wrong charger was applied. I'd say at the very least for diagnostics, order the correct charger, the 2.1mm adaptor for the charger, another 3.7v li-ion battery, and a speaker. Best case you have a few parts for your next build, worst case you'll realize you need the NB to be looked at for repair or replaced. Hopefully it's just a drained battery thou. GL!

tk-421
07-30-2013, 08:43 PM
troubleshooting update:
i charged the battery with the correct charger. i never saw the charger's light turn to green, but it was on there for hours. now the saber illuminates and stays on. i notice blade flicker and shimmering. the sound still does not work but if i put my ear up to the speaker, i can hear the boot chime when i remove the kill-key very faintly. no other noticeable sounds besides faint crackling and hissing. i looked at the speaker and it looks undamaged. i looked at the NB micro SD card and all parameters were normal looking per the manual. Sound level was at 4.
a couple questions before i proceed:
1. How long should it take to charge a nearly depleted 18560 3.7v cell? 2 hours or 20 hours?
2. if the battery is holding charge, and the speaker is producing some distinct sounds, then is it the NB that is damaged?

GFJedi
07-30-2013, 09:02 PM
the charger will recharge about 500mA per hour, so about 5 hours or less to recharge a depleted pack.

Are you sure the speaker is good? Do you have a spare you can use to test? It may be bad. OR, check your solder joints, make sure you didnt bridge the 2 speaker pads on the soundboard, and be sure that you have good solid connections at all 4 points between the board and speaker.

Caine Drathul
07-30-2013, 11:00 PM
Your speaker is blown. Did the outsides of it accidentally touch any metal?

tk-421
08-03-2013, 01:49 PM
I replaced the speaker; no change. the problems with the sound started with plugging it in to the wrong charger. before that it was preforming perfectly. i had to order some more parts, when they come in i will poke around some more and look at every solder joints and look for scoring on the board. it's looking more and more to me like i fried the board.
more in a week or so...

tk-421
08-16-2013, 09:00 PM
Here are a couple pictures of the NB and speaker. Let me know if i need better photographs. Can anyone tell if there are problems with either?
910791089109

tk-421
08-30-2013, 08:14 PM
Update:
The speaker was fine, the battery was fine, it was the NB. When it took it out of there if found scoring and discoloration around the speaker pads. Thanks for all the help everyone.