It's official

[revan1138]

My first saber disaster.... So, I had my Relic hilt wired up, powered, and charging. I found a great product for the battery holder and sled, as well as an old MR piece for the soundboard holder and everything was dropping into place and I was screwing the pommel on (the charging port on the end style) and apparently on the last half turn the insulation for the charging port wires was sliced by the aluminum (unknown at the time of course) I plugged in the charging adapter with the smart charger set to .09 amp dump and POP, HISSSS, SMOKE, and the speaker coil melted as well as a resistor or two on the soundboard. Resisting the temptation of the Dark Side I calmly disassembled the hilt and disconnected the components to test everything.... No light (LED is still good), hooked up another speaker and I get a static pop followed by the creepy "someone is still on the line" sound when I connect/disconnect the leads, and current runs through SP- even while the switch is open. As far as I know with my knowledge accumulated to date; COOKED, FRIED, WELL DONE, ETC, ETC.

I wasn't looking for one of the local bad@$$ master's to troubleshoot this for me, this is more of venting this small pinch and frustration to fellow brothers and sisters of the saber addiction.

[Jedi-Loreen]

Ouch.

Sorry about your mishap.

[DJMoonbass]

hey at least you didnt screw bolts into the batteries. i did that. didnt realize that was the problem untill acid dripped out of my pommel and burnt my hand, (ouch)

[cannibal869]

No light (LED is still good), hooked up another speaker and I get a static pop followed by the creepy "someone is still on the line" sound when I connect/disconnect the leads

Stalker saber??

j/k

sorry to hear about your board getting fried... I think we've all gone through little setbacks like this on our path to building our one of a kind creations...
cr@p I fried a buckpuck last night (or at least sometime between when I first got it and tried to use it) - luckily it was just DOA or something

[Rhyen Skytracker]

Don't feel bad, I fried Yoda last week. LOL

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

Fried Yoda is good with some fava beans and a nice Chianti...lol

Seriously though sorry to hear that mishap befell your build and I hope you can find another soundboard and get it together soon.

[Caine Drathul]

Oh man, sorry to hear about that....but look at it like this...every good builder NEEDS to have a fry every now and then...keeps you on your toes...and your next build is going to be extra awesome to make up for it.

But I am still sorry to hear about it.

[revan1138]

So I ordered a new speaker and a few other items to make the Relic rebuild easier, thanks for the pick me ups everyone. I also picked up 2 ROTS Anakin FX sabers from Craigslist to harvest for more parts. More to come

[Lord Dottore Matto]

You have a short in your battery pack...and (as a result) a fried board. Sorry.

[Novastar]

Be grateful it is not "Burned Toast"...

And if anyone thinks *I* have not come close to that... well... here's a story for ya...

A blade holder was made for me with 4 wires (2 main blade, 2 for FoC). Somehow... the jackets of at least one of the wires was getting pinched between the heatsink and holder (TCSS 1.25" setup). Well in the beginning, when it first arrived all wired up... it was fine! No problems. In fact, I didn't see the "pinching" until hindsight + disaster revealed it...

Sure enough... the jacket(s) eventually worked/moved around... and severed apart! The heatsink area/hilt got EXTREMELY hot. I was very curious, and after about 10 seconds... I just about PANICKED as I knew what was happening!!!!

I immediately had to unscrew 4 screws CALMLY to get the thing apart. At this point, the hilt was almost too hot to touch, but I didn't care: I did not need to fry any Crystal Focus!!!

I chased the problem around until truly discovering the source... but MAN... the damage? -->

* Some wires were toast...
* My SD card has some SERIOUS warping + burn/black & melt areas(!)
* CF has a little... uh... let's call it "carbon scoring"
* The sink tube + blade holder and heatsink have some crazy burn damage
* Some foam inserts melted into things... so the saber smells of a permanent (but light) "fried foam" wafting once opened up...
* This one MAJOR resistor (5w capable) took the brunt of the damage. Still functions too! Just looks BLACK when it started out pure WHITE... O.O

So... yeah. Just when you think your wiring is perfect... check it again. After you've checked your wiring the 2nd time...??? Check the THIRD time, especially when it's mostly all "closed up" in a saber hilt.

While you're at it... WATCH your saber VERY very VVVVERRRYYY closely once you've turned it on for the first time. Move it around. Observe. Shock it. Observe. Feel the hilt for "excess heat".

It's important. Well... if it's CF.