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View Full Version : Nano Biscotte v3 Problem - Either Constant Clicking or LED shuts off after a few Seco



MrArocena
04-29-2017, 08:04 AM
Hi all,

I'm new to saber building and wanted to add sound to a stunt saber I had. After watching all the tutorial videos and reading everything I could find I jumped in and ordered all the things necessary to add a Nano Biscotte to my saber.
I ordered the pre-wired Nano Biscotte from here (http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/MWS-Pre-Wired-Nano-Biscotte-Sound-Module-V3-P835.aspx) because I didn't feel comfortable attempting to solder things to that small of a board but can do wires and larger components well.
Anyways, parts arrived earlier this week and got everything wired up according to the instructions found in the manual and tutorial videos but unfortunately it's not working properly.

Problem 1:
If I have everything attached (battery, speakers, LED, switch) to the board the speaker makes a repetitive clicking sound once I connect power and only stops once I remove a battery. The switch has no effect so the clicking sound comes on as soon as the power is connected. LED doesn't turn on either with or without the switch. It seems that the speaker bypasses the board and powers itself? Seems very unlikely as the board is pre-wired and the speaker pads are really far from the power pads.
Conundrum: I looked on these forums to see if anyone else had similar problems and the one solution I found to a similar problem was either to resolder the board to fix any bridging issues (which I don't think is necessary since I bought the board pre-wired with the harness) or the board is bad (which I don't think is the issue either because I read that the pre-wired boards are tested before being sent out).

Problem 2:
If I only have the LED, battery and switch attached the switch can turn the LED on but the LED shuts off after a few seconds. From what I can gather this is caused by too much current flowing through the board which triggers its auto-shutoff (someone had a similar issue on these forums and that was the explanation). I have a 2 ohm (3W) resistor wired from the LED+ as per the manual which I thought was fine. The resistor was used in the stunt saber and the manual says it should be ok. If it's not then that might be something I need to adjust.
Conundrum: The LED module that came with the stunt saber unfortunately has no markings so I couldn't find its data specs. However, when the LED was in the stunt saber, it was powered with a 4xAAA (alkaline so total 6v) battery pack with the 2ohm resistor between the LED and battery and worked fine.

Other relavent info:
Nothing blew up so no magic smoke emanated from the board.

I am using the 4xAAA battery pack from the stunt saber but only have 3 AAA batteries in it with a wire connecting the + and - ends on the 4th battery space (effectively a dummy cell I think). So I should be providing ~4.5V to the board which is well within the design specs of the Nano Biscotte. Sadly I don't have a DMM at the moment so I can't test the current coming from the battery pack. I haven't attempted 4x NiMH batteries yet (was too late at night to out and get batteries) but I don't see that making much of a difference unless the wire I am running from the + to - draws too much current/doesn't provide enough resistance.

The speaker is the 28mm Premium speaker from here (http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/Premium-28mm-Speaker-P77.aspx). Not sure if it might be damaged or not as it makes the clicking sound whether the diaphragm is touched or not. The magnet in the speaker did attract some random small metal parts to it while I had the speaker mount sitting on my desk so I hope that didn't damage it.

The LED is from an Ultrasaber Sunrider's Destiny LED which I thought was this (http://www.dx.com/p/3w-led-emitter-on-star-multicolored-rgb-4530#.WQSoDPkrKUk) as I read that's what they usually use but upon dissassembling the LED module it turns out my LED is not that. Still an RBG LED but I couldn't find it on any of the electronics sites I searched.
Here's a picture of it though.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p0actw9y62vfpmp/20170429_075148.jpg?dl=0
I suspect the green + and - are the pads that are connected but have no label. I did think about wiring the Red + and - to the FoC feature of the board as I think I can do that with this LED.

Anyways, I'm stumped at the moment on how to proceed. If anyone else has had issues like this or advice on what else I could test I'd be very appreciative.

My next step is to resolder the board myself but that kind of defeats the entire purpose of ordering the pre-wired board.

MrArocena
04-29-2017, 01:36 PM
Found a multi-meter and ran some tests.

In the case of Problem 1, there was a current between the power + and the speaker pads. This was without pushing the switch on or off either.
I don't think that is supposed to happen is it? In my mind there shouldn't be any power between the speaker and battery unless the switch is on but maybe my understanding of how the board works is flawed? As far as I can tell there is no bridging between any of the solder pads but that should be the case regardless since the speaker and power padss are on opposite ends of the board. I didn't solder anything to the board as I didn't think I needed to because it was the pre-wired version.
Between the power and LED there was no current. The presence of a direct connection between the battery and speaker would explain why the switch and LED don't operate when the speaker is plugged in as the current doesn't flow through that part of the soundboard.

In the case of Problem 2, there was a current for about a second and then it stopped when I measured between the power + and LED -. So whatever current is present must be too high for the board and it shuts down as per the explanation I found in another thread. The fact that the speaker isn't attached to the circuit in this case might explain the high current so if I can figure out how to solve problem 1 then this problem should also be resolved.

Again if anyone has had a similar issue or can offer up any help I'd be most appreciative. As it stands it looks like the board is defective but that doesn't make sense as the pre-wired boards are supposedly tested before being shipped out (as per another thread) At least I didn't solder anything to the board and it's still in the warranty period.

MrArocena
05-01-2017, 09:09 AM
Solved the problem!
The solution was really easy but required a lot of reading to figure it out. Turns out the constant clicking was the result of the board constantly trying to boot. Now this problem is caused by not enough current flowing from the batteries. So although my batteries provided the necessary voltage they weren't providing the current the board needed.
This seemed to cause the board to constantly keep trying to boot because it had the voltage but not the current. I found this info in another forum.

So a battery replacement seems to have solved it. I feel really silly for not realizing the batteries might have caused the issue in the first place.

Anyways if any new people are having issues like this looks like a new battery is in order.