sw616 + TCSS speaker/battery mount assistance

[Silent_Jedi]

Basically, trying to wire a TCSS speaker/battery pack to a MR SW616 board.

The board has a red (positive), Black (negative), and grey wire
The pack has a red(positive), Black(negative), green and blue for speakers

I know that the positive and negatives get wired together, but the grey wire on the SW616 and the two wires for the speakers are what puzzles me, especially since I can't see where the speaker wires lead to in the enclosed space. I'm sure one of the speaker wires goes to the positive wires while the other goes to the grey wire on the board.

Yes, I've been through both the Wiring schematics forum, Saber Sound Forum, and went in search. Closest I can find is Arms' diagrams, but seeing as the pictures are either in a disassembled state or fully assembled/in hilt state (as he stated, he was excited and didn't take pics during the inbetween stages) some things are left out.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[DJMoonbass]

flame me,i probably deserve it but i have tried google search and all sorts of stuff. will someone please clear up for me what this SW616 is???? i ask this with pride...lol ;p

[Silent_Jedi]

the sw616 is the product name for the soundboard on the Master Replicas "Joe Jedi" FX saber.

[xl97]

SJ-..

hmm you sure it GREY? and is it the original wire? I though it a BROWN wire was there and that is the speaker wire.. is it right next to te GND wire?

[Jedi-Loreen]

Also known as the Star Wars Force FX Lightsaber Construction Set. ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eAELr6fE8k&feature=related

[Silent_Jedi]

Well, it looks grey to me...but yes, it's the original wire and it's next to the black wire.

[Rhyen Skytracker]

If it is next to the black wire, it is the speaker wire. I had one 616 that had a greyish wire for the speaker wire too, but most of them are brown. Just solder that wire to one side of your speaker and the other wire on your speaker goes to the positive of the battery pack.

[Silent_Jedi]

Does it matter which wire?

[Jedi-Loreen]

He told you which wires.

If you mean which leads on the speaker they go to, then no, it doesn't matter. Speakers are rated in ohms, like a resistor. There's no polarity with them.

[Zook]

He told you which wires.

If you mean which leads on the speaker they go to, then no, it doesn't matter. Speakers are rated in ohms, like a resistor. There's no polarity with them.


wait...are you sure? I haven't fooled with speakers in a long time but from what I remember if you hooked a speaker up backwards then the sound was out of phase (sub sucking in instead of going out when firing). That is with auto speakers but I assume the small speakers work on the same principle. Then again its been close to 20 years since I messed with car speakers (subs etc) so my memory may be off a little. I have some old subs somewhere around the house so maybe I will hook a battery up and see what happens.

EDIT---yup just confirmed. I stuck a 9V battery on an old sub. When its correct (+ of batt. on + of speaker) it pushed the speaker out. When I reversed it (+ of batt on - of speaker) it sucked the speaker in. Which puts it out of phase.

Again what that will do with a small speaker and saber sound I don't know.

btw speakers are coils not resistors I believe (voice coils). I know you said "like a resistor" and not calling them a resistor but I just wanted to comment on that part.

[Jedi-Loreen]

All right, I will concede to your info. I haven't played with a speaker for a while, I so I should have been sure before I posted.

[Kal El Rah]

Zook, I concur with you about wiring up the speaker, that is how I remember having to make sure the speaker was phased correctly.

[Zook]

Silent Jedi...if I remember correctly the 616 has the speaker + (pos) lead going to the + voltage of the battery pack so I think the - (neg) lead goes to the board speaker connection.

[bleach1977]

Speakers can only go out of phase if you have more than one of them, it happens because when one speaker is pushing air out the other is sucking it in, so it doesnt matter which way you wire a speaker if there is only one speaker being used. If there is more than one it doesn't matter if its wired right either as long as all the speakers are wired the same.

[Novastar]

Bleach is correct... although it's generally a good idea to 'get it right' when wiring up a speaker's contacts--it doesn't usually matter. Especially for something like:

* super small speaker (like in a prop saber)
* speaker being powered by batteries (like in a prop saber)
* speaker is so small, hardly any "bass" will be there (prop saber)
* no special sound software "tricks" are being used that make a distinction about what signals "push" & which "pull" (95% or more of sound drivers??)

And of course--as mentioned--we're not using more than one speaker. Although that HAS been tried in LED sabers (I even tried it) by people who were far more adept with sound than someone as ridiculous as am I.

[Silent_Jedi]

Thanks for the help guys, technically it did work. Perhaps I should have specified that I wasn't running a 'puck with it. I apparently burnt out the board... yeah, it has sound, but the LED isn't working and I got the lovely blue smoke. A friend of mine said it's cause I probably ran too much power to it by upping it from 3 AAAs to 4 AAAs. Ah well... live and learn.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Your friend is wrong....those boards can handle 6 volts just fine, like all the rest of the MR boards. Without seeing picturs of your wiring set-up ot's difficult to tell what went wrong with it.

[Zook]

Your friend is wrong....those boards can handle 6 volts just fine, like all the rest of the MR boards. Without seeing picturs of your wiring set-up ot's difficult to tell what went wromg with it.


I had a similar experience. When I put my 616 together the batteries I had were used (still good voltage just not full charge). I put brand new batteries (4 energizer AAA) and the LED worked for a couple of seconds and then quit but the sound still worked. I tried the LED on another hilt and it worked so I started checking the board but without a schematic I am not sure what V is supposed to be where etc so I just scrapped it.

I figured it was because I asked too much from it because here is the whole story.

I originally bought the 616 and a resistor LED kit from Tim. I wired all of it in with a DPDT switch but wanted to put my original switch I got with the kit in because it looked better. I then put in a STDP relay in place of the switch and put my old (original spst from tcss) switch in. Everything was fine and working great.

I then decided to see if the board would run the red lux III so I took everything out and hooked the board up to the LED. Measured the current at a little over 700ma and everything looked great and was working as it should. I even tried my K2 royal blue on it and it worked much better than with a resistor set up (I had the correct resistor but it was just never very bright).

I checked my batteries after that and they were pretty low. I replaced the batteries the next day (after using the saber for a while with the old batteries). While I was sticking the board and battery pack back in the hilt I accidentally hit the switch on the board. It powered the LED on for a second and then it went off. I originally thought I blew the LED but didn't. Then I thought I shorted something out but saw no signs of that (plus I was using the 616 sled and it protected everything from the metal of the hilt anyway) and I am very careful when it comes to that.

Now originally like i said I figured I asked it to do to much and it put to much current out to the LED (though I thought the current was to stay constant with these boards) which blew the driver circuit or something. I don't know that much about how the boards work though and like I said without a schematic I couldn't do much.

It just makes me wonder now that someone else is posting about sound working and no LED out what might have caused it.

I never saw any smoke though...silent jedi which component smoked on your board?