Tri-Rebel & NB

So I'm trying to finish a saber but I'm having trouble with the LED. This is my second time using the Tri-Rebel and my first one was perfectly fine. I'm using a GGW, wired in series, a 1omh 2W resistor, and a Nano Biscotte. Every time I test my connections, the LED doesn't turn on whatsoever. I tested with a Lux. Rebel (red) and it worked perfectly fine. Then I wired the GGW with a single die, works perfectly fine. Everything about the board is working fine; sounds, recharge/kill key, switch, everything. I even tried the GGW wired in series on my Petit Crouton saber; both dice light up like they should.

What the heck is going on? I know the dice on the Tri-Rebel are fine and working, I know everything on my NB is working. Is it my setup? When last I read, it was possible to wire a GGW with both greens in series and have a good, functioning NB saber. Am I wrong?

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Originally Posted by Yoshi-Taka

When last I read, it was possible to wire a GGW with both greens in series and have a good, functioning NB saber. Am I wrong?

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*FJK nods like a bobble head doll* Greens in series would require 6.8V or thereabouts. You would have to wire them in PARALLEL. ;)

Crapola! How much does that reduce my run time by? I have no problem getting another resistor to work with.. but at least I know now for the future.
Also, that was the funniest way to describe nodding and I can't stop imagining it.

If you run both at 1A, I am going to guess it will cut it by close to half. On the bright side, it'll light up now. ;)

Yeah, that's what I though. Good thing I have a huge battery. Now I wait for another resistor. Thanks FJK!

If you want to figure out the approximate runtime of your saber, then add up all the mA of your LEDs, and throw in about 350mA for the board itself. Then divide the total mAh of your battery pack by that number. That's your runtime in hours.

With the 3400mAh Panasonic 18650 battery, you'd get:

3400 / (1000+1000+350) = 1.45 hours of runtime. On paper. Your mileage may vary.

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Originally Posted by Silver Serpent

Your mileage may vary.

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Originally Posted by Forgetful Jedi Knight

*FJK nods like a bobble head doll*

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I love this forum so much.

That's not too bad, I suppose. Thanks, SS. I'll have to bookmark your post.. as I've done with many of your posts.

Good idea. ;)

Best idea, I think. Most of my time on this forum is spent reading and when I find good advice, I bookmark it for future use. 52% of my bookmarked posts are Silver Serpent; 47% are Forgetful Jedi Knight; the other 1% is LDM. That the best advice I can give to users here: read, and bookmark advice posts from FJK or SS.. or LDM.

Also, you should be safe setting the drive parameter of the NB to about 940, then dropping the resistors altogether.

(3.7 - 3.4) / 2 = 0.15 ohm

(From the NB Manual): "When getting such a small resistor value (below 0.5 ohm, AND Vled < Vcell), the drive can be calculated as follows:"

drive = 1023 * (3.4 / 3.7) = ~940

Any NB experts want to chime to to verify my math, please? :)

Your math is good.

That was a thought that occurred to me, as I normally do that with single-dice LEDs. I wasn't sure if it applied equally to multi-dice LEDs in the same way. Guess I don't have to wait for resistors to come in, lol.

Thanks again, guys. I appreciate it much more than I can express.

Okay, I hate to doublepost but a new issue has arisen. Now whenever I turn on the saber, the swings start triggering like crazy. What the heck is going on with this saber [other than its incredible need to not work with me]?

Here's a video of it doing its thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLM2wF1GWOE

//Nano Biscotte LYRA V3
vol=4
drive=940
offd=200
deep=15000
resume=0
lc=400
hs=220
ls=50
i=57
shmrd=210
shmrp=6
shmrr=13
swing=200
clash=150
qon=0
qoff=0
flks=5
flkd=20

These settings are what I use in all my sabers (other than Drive changes), so it shouldn't be acting up. Is it because of the LED? Yes, they're wired in parallel so that's...... I have no idea what's going on here.

Low battery, or vibration from the speaker. Those are my top two guesses. Charge the battery to full and see if the problem goes away. If not, you may need to either move the board further from the speaker or adjust the swing sensitivity down. If you adjust the volume down to 1 and the saber stops with the extra swings, then it's probably vibration from the speaker.

Each saber is different, and requires some tweaks to get the actions dialed in properly.

Alright, I'll charge the battery. It's been a while since I've done that anyway. That's likely the problem. If not, I'll post again.

Thanks again, SS!

The NB (and other boards) start exhibiting odd behavior when the voltage drops too low. With a 2A draw for your two GG dice, the voltage from your li-ion is going to drop even faster. It's something to be aware of, and it's why my first recommendation for odd behavior is nearly always "charge the battery" before opening the saber.

I'll definitely keep that in mind. Thankfully I don't do serious trooping or anything. Would the runtimes be better with a setup like this with a PC?

With a PC, 7.4v li-ion pack of similar mAh capacity, and running the two dice in series, yes. You'd get about 2.5 hours per charge vs. 1.5 hours with the current setup.

Of course, if you intend to do serious trooping, you should really build the saber with removable battery packs and carry a spare. For normal saberplay, conventions, etc., 1.5 hours of runtime is usually more than enough.

That's what I thought. Though neither are really anything to scoff at, given what's being run (seriously, tri-rebels are way brighter than I could have possibly imagined).

I personally have no intention on seriously trooping. I plan on dueling with some friends (building a buddy of mine a staff in the next month or two. Both of us are excited), and I'm more than sure that an hour and a half is plenty of time.