Question about CF 3.1 board

[sfer1]

As you can see in the pic, the Aux. button and Low power LED output pinouts on my CF 3.1 board are inverted compared to what's shown on the User's Manual and the Quick Reference Card.

http://i564.photobucket.com/albums/ss85/sfer1_album/CF31board.jpg

Which one is correct? What's written on the board or the user's manual?

[Ade Kenobi]

My CF 3.0 board came with a note from Erv stating the following:

Despite my extra care,a labelling mistake ended on the silk screen of this crystal focus board. The "low battery" soldering pad and the "aux. button" pads have been mislabeled. The wiring in the user's manual remains the right one. It's just the white text on the board that has been swapped.Thanks for your attention.

I assume it's the same on CF 3.1.
Some one will correct this if it's wrong.
Hope this helps.

[sfer1]

It helps a lot. Thanks!

[Novastar]

I'm going to echo this that:

* Erv's wiring guide remains correct no matter what
* The silkscreen was in error for a small portion of a run of those boards

:)

Hopefully... it will help others too.

[sfer1]

Thanks!

I'm almost done. I have a problem with my recharge port though.

http://i564.photobucket.com/albums/ss85/sfer1_album/rechargeport2.jpg

The kill switch cuts the power fine until I screw the pommel on. When the pommel touches the main body of the saber, electricity is conducted. If I unplug the kill switch, the saber works fine. I wired the recharge port exactly like in the pic above. Did I do anything wrong?

[Ade Kenobi]

If it all works as it should when the pommel is not attached to the hilt then something must be touching to make an unwanted connection when it's all screwed together.

It could be one of the pins on the end of the recharge port just catching somehow or possibly the actual CF board rubbing on the inside of the hilt and some stray solder making the connection.

I'm sure you've done it but make sure any soldered connections are heat shrinked.

On my saber,I lined the inside of the hilt with insulating tape where the CF board sits so as to prevent accidental connections.

[Novastar]

Ade has the right idea... the canon 2.1mm port is (sadly) made quite entirely of conductive materials (basically "all metal"), and will ground out to the body of your saber pretty easily if you don't plan ahead and think of a way to outsmart that outcome.

Some possible suggestions:

* Mount the charge port in a plastic portion of the saber
* As Ade is saying--add some non-conductive materials
* Get creative, heheh

Personally... the canon 2.1mm ports bother me because of the grounding issue, but... I'm stuck with them for now. :(

[erv]

it's the usual suspect(s) here,
a classic

- recharge ports is conductive, the outside of the plug is connected to the hilt. Overall, the 0v (zero volt) potential reference is connected to the hilt.

- if you have an unwanted connection between CF and the hilt you have a ground path that makes possible the 0V to return to the battery thru the hilt, so even if you put a kill key, you're stuck saber stays on, sometime just partially

- a ground path can be caused by the luxeon backplate, it's supposed to be NOT connected to anything, I've seen many problems and not just with the red, red-o family.
that's why I'm preaching for the use of COOL TAPE, but for some reasons, it's still boycotted while it's the thing to do. ISOLATE your luxeon from the hilt.

- it can also be the CF pads / wires / soldering points touching the hilt. Or the switches. It can also be thru the speaker case, since it's housed in the pommel too, and has one pad wired to the ground (internally on the CF PCB)

- USE A PLASTIC / NON CONDUCTIVE KILL KEY.

[sfer1]

Thanks to everyone for their advice.

I unassambled the saber (which was a pain in the a... :mad:), replaced the recharge port and added non-conductive materials to the sides of the board. Problem solved. :D

I was in a hurry to finish my lightsaber, because I had to get to the avant premiere of Star Wars The Exhibition Argentina. I got there an hour late, but happy with my saber in perfect working order.

Here are some pics from last night:
http://www.theforce.com.ar/Scripts/WebFormsLibrary/MainContainerForm.asp?iAction=2&lNewsId=249
I'm the one with the green lightsaber.

Thanks again.

[Ade Kenobi]

Good to hear you got it working.