First saber troubleshooting

[sparkyinbozo]

I just wired up my first saber and it didn't work quite right. That is, almost not at all. The LED switch turned on and stayed on as soon as I removed the plug from the recharge port...nothing else in the saber worked at all. I'm not sure exactly how to start troubleshooting with a systemic issue like this; there's obviously power in the system, but maybe not to the board? Or maybe something is wrong with the board itself (I didn't mess with any of the settings on the card, I assumed they'd be fine to test out at least as-is).

The wiring diagram I used and pics are below. Thanks for the help.
1038410385

(Edit: I do just realize that's how the LED should be working, considering how it's attached to the board's accent pad and that jazz.)

[Silver Serpent]

Wiring diagram appears correct to me. The switch LED illuminating is a good indicator that the board is getting some power. What battery are you using, and have you charged it yet?

[sparkyinbozo]

Wiring diagram appears correct to me. The switch LED illuminating is a good indicator that the board is getting some power. What battery are you using, and have you charged it yet?

Li-Ion 18650 3.7V 2600mAh PCB, and I charged it about a week ago (and made sure to keep the cap in).

[Silver Serpent]

Hrm. So you get no sound AND no light from the main LED when you press the power button? No boot up noise or beeps or anything when you pull the kill key?

[sparkyinbozo]

Absolutely nothing...no sound, no light other than the switch. I wondered for a bit if the switch itself might be broken, like stuck closed.

[Silver Serpent]

Even if that were the case, you should still hear the boot sound from your speaker when you pull the kill key.

I'd recheck all the solder connections. Something isn't connecting like it should. Possibly more than one thing.

Did you get the prewired NB, or did you solder it yourself? If you soldered it yourself, did you remember to remove the SD card before soldering? Did you put the SD card back?

I would like to see more pictures of the actual wiring.

[sparkyinbozo]

Good point...

I'm at work, can get more pics when I'm back at home after. I used the NB with the wiring harness - I wonder if I didn't solder the connections from the harness well enough; I went pretty light on them because I was afraid of overdoing it. That would make sense if it were the case, I suppose. I don't remember if I had the SD card in or not, don't think so.

[Silver Serpent]

It's possible you have some cold solder joints on the harness. The first pic is a little blurry, so it's hard to be sure. Clear pics of the solder joints, as well as the rest of the wiring, will certainly help us with troubleshooting.

[sparkyinbozo]

I just thought of something else...there is a wire coming from the wiring harness that plugs into the empty slot on the NB board (the FoC spot), but that isn't connected to anything or grounded. I don't suppose that could that be a factor?

[sparkyinbozo]

It's possible you have some cold solder joints on the harness. The first pic is a little blurry, so it's hard to be sure. Clear pics of the solder joints, as well as the rest of the wiring, will certainly help us with troubleshooting.

Thanks, I'll try to get some in later.

[Silver Serpent]

I just thought of something else...there is a wire coming from the wiring harness that plugs into the empty slot on the NB board (the FoC spot), but that isn't connected to anything or grounded. I don't suppose that could that be a factor?

Not unless the other end of the wire is shorting out on something. I'd cap the end of that wire with some heatshrink for safety purposes before installing the board in the hilt.

[sparkyinbozo]

Great idea. Thanks so much for the help, by the way. I'll report back when I know more.

[sparkyinbozo]

Here are my photos, both before (when I tried it earlier) and after when I touched up some solder on the middle few connections. I didn't solder the top of the board at all, due to the wiring harness being there, so didn't include any pics of it.

Here are pics, sorry a couple aren't the best. The top three are after pics, the bottom two are before.
http://imgur.com/a/XGID2

[Silver Serpent]

Soldering job looks acceptable to me, apart from the "oops" on your accent LED wire. Get some heatshrink on that burnt spot, or replace that wire.

Next question: Are you using the v1 or v2 Nano Biscotte? That looks like the v1 harness, and you wire the switch up a little differently. It would be helpful if we could see ALL of the wiring, not just closeups of the board.

[Obi1]

Silver Serpent made a valid point there. You mentioned a FoC pad, but NBv1 did not have FoC...so I guess that answers the quesion: you have a v2. The wiring is different, you might still use the wiring harness cause the circuitry has the same number of pads/landings, but the function of the pads has been re-shuffled:
1. LED- and Battery- have been swapped
2. and one side of the activation switch now connects to the Battery- (either on the board, pad #2, or directly on the 18650), instead of having a landing of its own like in v1.
It would be really helpful to see the whole "system" on a single pic.

[sparkyinbozo]

That's correct, I have a v2 pad and got the v1 harness - it was the only one available. I ended up taking the system apart last night for the purposes of troubleshooting and it all got a little pulled around, so I know I need to fix some of the taping, etc. I really would like to get it functional first, then I'll throw it back in the saber and make it more stable. I'll be sure to fix the accent wire oopsie, thanks for the catch. I think I have the switch to pad #2, Obi1, so that one shouldn't be the issue.

Here are some pictures, I tried to draw connections that were cut when I took it apart. http://imgur.com/a/XRAlv

[Silver Serpent]

Hrm...

You have two green wires. The green wire next to the blue wires should be the one going to your switch. I can't tell if you've hooked up to the switch wire or the FoC wire. You'd still get the boot sound when you pull the kill key, even if that were wrong.

I don't see anything that would stop the board from working. I see electrical tape, which we *highly* recommend you avoid using. Heatshrink is less likely to come loose and gum things up. The soldering on the speaker looks a little sloppy, but functional. You've got red wire being used for neg on one of the recharge port legs, but that's only bad practice, and won't affect the operation of the electronics. Nothing in the wiring looks functionally wrong to me.

FJK, if you've got another set of fresh eyes to look at this, I'd appreciate it. At this point, I'm a bit stumped.

[sparkyinbozo]

You have two green wires. The green wire next to the blue wires should be the one going to your switch. I can't tell if you've hooked up to the switch wire or the FoC wire. You'd still get the boot sound when you pull the kill key, even if that were wrong.

The speaker - and LED, for that matter - both pretty sloppy. I did them with my old soldering gun and it was refusing to heat up..hahah. The green extra green wire was the FOC wire, I cut it early on and just double-checked it for my own peace of mind, so that shouldn't be an issue.

I plan on re-testing it all this evening now that I've re-soldered the board/harness connections, which may have been the issue all along.

And yeah, the point about the heat shrink is truth. I didn't realize how much of a pain electrical tape would be until I had already connected things. :S

[Silver Serpent]

Let me know how it works out. Don't forget to put the SD card back in before you test it. :)

[Obi1]

Did you use a multimeter to check the connections? It is pretty useful , for several reasons:
- measure the resistance between the speaker landings while the speaker is soldered: you should get 8Ohms (I guess that is what you use), if yes, that is wired the right way
- switch to continuity mode and check the LED by connecting the positive of the multimeter to the Battery+ on the board and the negative to the LED- on the board. It is recommended to plug in the kill key first. The LED must light up.
- Remove the kill key and measure voltage between Battery+ and - and check that it reads around 3.7V to see if the board gets supplied.
- maybe reformat the SD card to avoid a corrupted SD mess up with the functionality
If all of these are done and ends up OK, then the wiring is correct, the thing should work fine.
Keep us updated and good luck!

[sparkyinbozo]

Update: IT WORKS!

I think the board solder was the key bit. Thank you guys so much for your help. Seriously.

Now that it's done, though, I am already wanting to make another...

[Silver Serpent]

Glad to hear that it's working!

Watch your wallet. This hobby is addictive. :)

[Obi1]

Great news! Enjoy your first and share the upcoming ones (and take that hint von Silver Serpent very seriously :) )