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chase
09-25-2007, 12:07 PM
ok...I'm buying a 700mA puck for my 5w cyan and since it has about 3984 leads coming out of it...which leads do I use for wiring everything up? I looked up this on the search but couldn't find anything so I figured it would benefit someone other than me.

xwingband
09-25-2007, 12:18 PM
http://www.luxeonstar.com/3021-buckpuck.pdf

Forget the control leads. Snip them... Use the LED and power leads. Put a switch on the power leads. Pretty simple.

Wu-Li Ruwashii
10-06-2007, 07:04 PM
I've just begun construction on my new saber and had some trouble. Wiring the buckpuck seems easy enough-- it was more or less just like X-Wing said, forget about the controls just wire the power leads, switch and off you go.

However, I got all that taken of and presto the K2 ignites a vibrant green, the switch works pefectly.... then tragedy strikes.

I noticed the area around where the battery was housed felt warm, then way hot! By the time I had removed the rechargeable battery pack it was melted to a gooey mess! It took all of 15 seconds.

I thought I had everything working. I'm running a green K2 with a buckpuck and was using the 4.8V 4AAA 1000mAh recharge pack. Any reason the battery pack would go nuclear on me??? Any help is appreciated, I've been reading these foums for months trying to eliminate the noobie learning curve and thought I had it down.

Perhaps my overconfidence is my weakness...

xwingband
10-06-2007, 07:09 PM
You have a short somewhere. When that happens you are right that it can melt the holder pretty fast... good way to make fire or ruin some batteries.

You need to check that all your joints were isolated. All wires heatshrinked?

gman666
10-06-2007, 07:12 PM
I have a quick question also and I didn't find it when I used search. Can I use a MR sound board with a puck and do I wire it like I was using a regular driver? Do I have to worry about the volts frying the board if I am just using it for sound?

Thanks!

Greg.

LAN-ED-TUL
10-06-2007, 08:50 PM
youll have to run the board at whatever the voltage requirements are, any more will possibly fry the sound board. so a dpdt latching switch, would run the puck and led on one side of switch, and the other the soundboard, but youll need a regulater on that lead to drop the voltage down to the boards limits.

Wu-Li Ruwashii
10-07-2007, 10:04 AM
I suspect that when I pushed everything into the hilt one of my joints got a little exposed and maybe made contact with the hilt. If I'm not mistaken that could be enough to cause a short...

I'll get hold of a new pack and some heatshrink wrap and make sure it does not happen again. Luckily, only the battery got fried, eveything else seems to be in good working order.

What is the best way to secure and isolate the joints?

Lord Maul
10-07-2007, 12:07 PM
Heatshrink tubing works best, but you could use electrical tape.

Jedi-Loreen
10-07-2007, 08:15 PM
Electrical tape is better than nothing, but compared to heat shrink, it's bulkier, doesn't always stay put, and leaves sticky residue when it shifts.

LAN-ED-TUL
10-07-2007, 09:07 PM
i have been usin heatshrink on all soldered wire connections for a while now. its the best and most durable to use. but in a extreme pinch, electrical tape will suffice. before i started with shrink tubing, thats all i ever used, with no probs at all. so i know it will work out, but the tubing stuff is best.

Wu-Li Ruwashii
10-30-2007, 04:09 PM
well.... I have to admit i'm baffled. last night i soldered all the connections and wrapped everything in the heatshrink tubing and everything seemed ok. I posted some pics in the mhs section of these forums.

the saber seemed to functioning well but was not as bright as i thought it could be, so i put my battery on the charger this morning before leaving for work. i get home today and plug in the battery and here we go again. the battery gets really hot, really fast.

i take everything out of the hilt-- led, battery, all wiring, puck, switch, the works. i wait till the battery is cool again and plug it in and before i even turn the saber on, the battery is way hot. how can there be a short if everything is outta the hilt and not making contact with any suface that conducts electricity?

Ghostbat
10-30-2007, 04:45 PM
well.... I have to admit i'm baffled. last night i soldered all the connections and wrapped everything in the heatshrink tubing and everything seemed ok. I posted some pics in the mhs section of these forums.

the saber seemed to functioning well but was not as bright as i thought it could be, so i put my battery on the charger this morning before leaving for work. i get home today and plug in the battery and here we go again. the battery gets really hot, really fast.

i take everything out of the hilt-- led, battery, all wiring, puck, switch, the works. i wait till the battery is cool again and plug it in and before i even turn the saber on, the battery is way hot. how can there be a short if everything is outta the hilt and not making contact with any suface that conducts electricity?

It sounds like the short is in the circuit itself, look to make sure anywhere two wires connect a component to another that they haven't been pushed together or that a drop of solder hasn't bridged them.

I had a battery literally explode in my face when a tiny ball of solder bridged the positive terminal and the case, it doesn't take much.

Strydur
10-30-2007, 10:46 PM
Can you post some pics with everything out of the hilt?

Ghostbat
10-31-2007, 09:38 AM
Rereading your description made me think of one of my all time stupidest electrical moments.

Did you clip the excess wires off the puck, and when you did was the circuit powered?

Another battery blowup (this time thankfully less literally) I had was when I cut simultaneously through a hot wire and a ground wire when removing an extraneous object from a circuit-bent toy. The time the clippers bridged the two was enough to cook the whole thing.

Kamurah
10-31-2007, 10:51 AM
I don't mean to hijack this thread....but I had a bad scare last night...very similar to the events in this thread...except that it was due solely to my own stupidity.

I was trying to fashion a charge port 'dummy' plug for my CF board. (anyone not familiar with Erv's board, it will draw current even with the saber off unless you plug the recharge port....which acts as an overall power switch). I was attempting to do this by using a real recharge plug that was not connected to any wires.

Well...to cut down on the bulk of the plug, I used a dremel to saw off the excess. When I did...I separated the inner sleeve from the outer sleeve, and the inner sleeve fell out of the plug.

Before I realized I had dorked it up...I plugged in the dummy plug and....yep ....you guessed it..... MELTED my frickin battery pack as the '+' and '-' were bridged from my homemade plug.

What a doofus.

So I had to trek out at 830 pm to go get another battery holder and new batteries. Got it back home, resoldered / heatshrinked everything and charged it up....

Luckily I didn't damage any of the electronics, but MAN...what an "OH NO" moment that was.

Almost ruined my halloween :D

Novastar
10-31-2007, 12:19 PM
I hear ya, Kamurah... Li-Ion cells w/ the protective PCB have saved my butt on that sort of thing several times when I was first learning about charging/ports, etc.

Wu-Li Ruwashii
10-31-2007, 02:15 PM
here are some pics. i thought it was all pretty straight forward but for all i know i might be be completely misguided. oh well, that's why it's good to put a bunch of heads together. if i need to redo this thing, then a diagram or description of what steps i need to take to correct it would be much appreciated.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n138/j_berg1979/Saber%20Stuff/CIMG2253.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n138/j_berg1979/Saber%20Stuff/CIMG2252-1.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n138/j_berg1979/Saber%20Stuff/CIMG2248.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n138/j_berg1979/Saber%20Stuff/CIMG2252.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n138/j_berg1979/Saber%20Stuff/CIMG2247.jpg

Ghostbat
10-31-2007, 02:28 PM
Well right off the bat the switch you have there is likely the culprit, with it on power is flowing directly from the positive terminal to the negative bypassing the rest of the circuit.

The good news there is you probably haven't fried the puck.

You want the switch to interrupt the circuit so it would go: Positive terminal to switch, switch to puck, puck to LED. Then LED to puck, puck to negative terminal.

Do-Clo
10-31-2007, 02:30 PM
I bet the battery pack gets really hot when you turn the saber off. What you have is a dead short when you turn the switch on.

What you need to do is remove the switch wire from the ground side wire of your battery (Black wire) then cut the positive side wire (red wire) and solder one side of your switch to one red wire and the other side of your switch to the other red wire.

Ghostbat
10-31-2007, 02:37 PM
Or Do-Clo could go the whole "Understandable instructions route."

Yes, listen to him, my description, though accurate, contains too many words :)

xwingband
10-31-2007, 02:45 PM
I bet the battery pack gets really hot when you turn the saber off. What you have is a dead short when you turn the switch on.

What you need to do is remove the switch wire from the ground side wire of your battery (Black wire) then cut the positive side wire (red wire) and solder one side of your switch to one red wire and the other side of your switch to the other red wire.

This!

Your switch is creating a circuit where the positive and negative are going together. That = short and a lot of heat.

Jonitus
10-31-2007, 02:51 PM
DANG!

No wonder things get hot.

Yeah, just for future reference - a switch goes on one leg of a circuit ONLY. Rewire it like Do-Clo says to, and things will work much better and your batteries won't get hot and get damaged.

Wu-Li Ruwashii
10-31-2007, 03:13 PM
so based on what i am seeing here, then something like this would be correct?

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n138/j_berg1979/Saber%20Stuff/diagram.jpg

Ghostbat
10-31-2007, 03:15 PM
Exactly

Jonitus
10-31-2007, 03:17 PM
BINGO!

Wu-Li Ruwashii
10-31-2007, 03:18 PM
thanks much! tonight shall be the night...

Wu-Li Ruwashii
10-31-2007, 09:02 PM
update-- i went ahead and rewired everything based on the suggestions everyone made and sure enough it works like a dream. no battery overheating, and the blade is brighter than ever!!!

all is well and my first saber project is complete. thanks again guys.

sensaibmf
11-03-2007, 03:35 PM
I just wanted to add to this thread that I used the controls leads and my LED worked great. Is there some disadvantage to using the control leads?

ArkaiHalon
11-03-2007, 04:18 PM
use of the control leads can lead to flickering, as well as the LED not turnnig off correctly.

sensaibmf
11-03-2007, 04:49 PM
Thanks, I will re-solder it. I want it to work the most efficient as possible.

LAN-ED-TUL
11-03-2007, 06:14 PM
yep, Do-Clo told me not to use them, to just cut into the hot lead and splice in the switch below the puck. i did, and mine works great.

sensaibmf
11-04-2007, 04:25 AM
Worked great! Thanks!

petriomelony
11-18-2007, 10:56 AM
hmm... is that a latching or momentary switch?

Jay-gon Jinn
11-18-2007, 01:53 PM
You'd need a latching switch with the pucks...make sure it's in either the neg or pos from the battery to the puck, but I'm sure you knew that already.

LAN-ED-TUL
11-18-2007, 07:10 PM
your best off to cut in the positive side for the switch.