Wiring Issue or Fried Board?

[srose418]

Hey All,

Just finished wiring up my first saber for a custom Darksaber build, pulled the kill key and....... nothing. Not entirely nothing, measure the voltage at the top 2 terminals on the board i do at least see 3.7 to 0 so I know at least my battery and recharge port were wiring properly. I also hear a very faint crackling from the speaker but no actual sound and no leds on the AV switch not the Tri-cree. Now my question is, did I wire something incorrectly or did I fry my board during soldering? Admittedly I did find it quite hard to solder the AV switch LED to the tiny deep sleep contact and the board does have appear to have gotten "hot" in that area. I hope the picture shows what I am talking about. I also did a crappy paint drawing showing how everything was wired. If its not an obvious issue what steps can i take to troubleshoot?

Thanks in advanced! Glad to finally join the community.

http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o714/srose418/IMG_20170530_214707_zpsgl1o29rv.jpg (http://s1339.photobucket.com/user/srose418/media/IMG_20170530_214707_zpsgl1o29rv.jpg.html)

http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o714/srose418/wiring_zpsbswmlnuc.jpg (http://s1339.photobucket.com/user/srose418/media/wiring_zpsbswmlnuc.jpg.html)

[srose418]

Quick update. After taking some more voltage readings i moved the dynaohm wire from the switch led to the "Power Indicator" contact instead of the deep sleep contact that i had trouble with. The saber now ignites and makes noise but not in the best of ways. When i yank the kill switch the boot sounds play along with like 3 clash sounds. While the saber is still it randomly plays, swing/swing/clash, hum................ swing/swing/clash, repeatedly. Smacking the blade on my had seems to trigger clashes in addition to the unwanted noise, but swings dont really seem to trigger swings sounds. LC is at default and LS is at 60.

[Silver Serpent]

Have you charged the battery to full yet? They do not come fully charged.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

The PIC on your board may be also damaged...you have a lot of solder and on that tiny little deep sleep pad your accent/switch led is wired to, and heat marks on the PIC, the big square chip next to it. You also have a lot of bare wire exposed on the leds on the end of the board...that is asking for a short circuit when you install the chassis into the hilt.

[srose418]

Quick side note: Both resistors are .5 ohm 3W as Rob recommended in his wiring guide for white LEDs


Have you charged the battery to full yet? They do not come fully charged.

I have not. Read 3.7v on my voltmeter and for whatever reason assumed that was good. I now see a fully charged 3.7V battery should put out around 4.1V. Ill try that.


The PIC on your board may be also damaged...you have a lot of solder and on that tiny little deep sleep pad your accent/switch led is wired to, and heat marks on the PIC, the big square chip next to it. You also have a lot of bare wire exposed on the leds on the end of the board...that is asking for a short circuit when you install the chassis into the hilt.

I have since removed the wire running to the deep sleep contact and things started working, albeit not correctly. With the AV led on the power indicator contact the saber turns on an makes noise, just too often and when nothing should be triggering anything other than the hum. Could a damage PIC be the cause of that or would the board be completely dead? Thanks.

[TheUnchosenOne]

I have since removed the wire running to the deep sleep contact and things started working, albeit not correctly. With the AV led on the power indicator contact the saber turns on an makes noise, just too often and when nothing should be triggering anything other than the hum. Could a damage PIC be the cause of that or would the board be completely dead? Thanks.

A low battery could definitely be the cause of that.

[srose418]

A low battery could definitely be the cause of that.

Welp, no such luck. Gave the battery a full charge, pulled the plug, boot noise played along with a swing or 2 overlapping. Once the saber was ignited I get the same hum, hum, swing, swing ,clash on loop. The saber does respond to intentional clashes on top of the loop but no swings.

What should I try next? Obviously last resort is a new board in the event that the PIC was damaged.

[Therion Jinn]

Not an expert, but it sounds to me like something fried on the board if it's still acting like that on fully-charged batteries

[Zook]

common problem I have seen with the wiring of DS LED on the older NB (erv moved it further away on the V4) is the solder will bridge some of the pins on the processor. Take a good clear pic where the DS lead was showing the edge of the processor.

A lot of times you can just run your solder through the shorts (if that is the issue) from bottom to top and can separate them.