Rather large issue, not amused.

[FallenJedi]

This post was meant to be full of thankyous and photos of my new saber, unfortunately the ultrasound i was wiring seems to have died on me....

My setup is 2 Trustfire 3.7V Li Ions, K2 LED, Ultrasound 2.5, and an illuminated AV switch.

I wired everything according to a diagram i found on the forums, and when i put the batteries in i got the boot sound with the womans voice saying "ultrasound 2.5" and the AV switch lit up, though when i pressed the switch the light on it flickered, and the speaker stuttered some incoherenet static, then everything ceased to function.

The only problem i could find is that when i used a quick connector for my led, i didnt realise that the positive and negative wires were reversed when the two parts of the connector were put together, and so i wired the led backwards onto the ultrasound.

My question is, is there any way to salvage the board? or to fix it? i spent quite alot of time and money to aquire one, and now its just sitting there, much to my disappointment...

Ive tried desoldering the led and just having the power speaker and switch connected, but it still doesnt work...

All that seems to function is the tiny led on the switch..

Any and all help would really be appreciated quite alot. If i cant fix this saber after how much money ive invested into it, i think im going to quit the whole star wars/saber scene altogther, this is the third time something has gone horribly wrong.

[Jedi-Loreen]

It says right in the Store:
Quick connector

These are not always made the same. When you cut the wire in half and connect the connector together the striped wire does not line up with the other half of the striped wire sometimes. This may lead to incorrect wiring. Please double check and always visually trace each wire to make sure the connection is correct.

If you didn't check it, I'm afraid that's on you. I always check mine, and if I find a problem, I switch the wires so the wrong side is correct. I gently push on the tab that locks the pin into the connector with a jewler's screwdriver, while gently pulling on the wire till the pin slides out. Then when they're both out, I pull the tab out a bit to make sure it will relock when I swap the pins into opposite holes.

Have you tried anything since you discovered that the QCwires were backward on one end? You may not have burned out the LED. Try redoing the connector or try a different LED, if you have one.

I've never had a US 2.5, but I think that everything has to be hooked up correctly in order for the board to boot up.

[FallenJedi]

I will try to solder everything together one more time and see if it works. If it doesnt i shall have to comission someone to build me one, id rather pay a small fortune for a high end saber i know will work than be disappointed yet again.

[Rhyen Skytracker]

Having the LED wire backwards shouldn't have damaged the card. If anything it would cause the LED not to light up. One problem you may have is too much voltage. It is highly recommended to only have around 1 Volt over the forward voltage of the LED. Anything over that will cause the US 2.5 to get very hot and maybe damage the board. The US 2.5 is also pretty temperamental with power and sometime you have to remove a battery and then put it back in to get it to power back up. That is why I do not use the spring battery packs. I always make custom NiMH battery packs where the batteries are soldered together for the US 2.5.

[FallenJedi]

Is there any way i could tell visually that the board is fried? like a brown burn out spot or something?

I dont trust myself to wire it all up again so im thinking of just desoldering all the connections and sending it, my spare parts, and my saber away to a sabersmith to be done professionally. Money isnt a problem to me, i really love this thing and want it finished regardless of cost.

[Rhyen Skytracker]

I can usually tell by smelling the board if it has any fried components or not. You will usually see the burnt part too but in some cases you will need a magnifying glass to see the small components. The best way to tell is to get a meter and trace out some of the circuits. Keep in mind this will not work on all the internal circuitry.

[Shadar Al'Niende]

I can usually tell by smelling the board if it has any fried components or not. You will usually see the burnt part too but in some cases you will need a magnifying glass to see the small components. The best way to tell is to get a meter and trace out some of the circuits. Keep in mind this will not work on all the internal circuitry.

Rhyen has a good point. I would smell the board and if possibly meter the board. I doubt that if you do not have a mulitmeter you will get one since you don't seem interested in the building, just the owning of a custom saber.

You will not get much but advice on how to build it yourself since that is what we do here and the purpose for this forum, however, i will tell you that should you decide to just ship it off: Please do not openly solicit here as that is a no no.

Good luck!

[FallenJedi]

I didnt realise i was soliciting, i am still purchasing all the parts from tim and using the store, so i didnt see an issue in mentioning getting someone else to build the saber for me. Though in future i wont bring it up again, rules are rules.

I really am in an awkward position here, i havent a clue what ive done wrong with the board, and more importantly i still dont know if its damaged or not

For now it is just sitting in my room, and seeing as how i dont really have any options its going to stay that way, really not happy about that..

[Shadar Al'Niende]

My advice? Grab yourself a multimeter (the instructions that came with mine could not be any more simple..) apply power to the board and check your pads/components... see if your speaker is getting power at the pads, is it getting the same power at the connection to the speaker?

This will tell you what is bad, the board or your joints (or possibly the components) as for your LED, i have soldered 2 LED's backwards before, one due to the QD's. I have only ever gone 1-2 volts above the LED's max rating, but i didn't blow mine so there is hope!

[Rhyen Skytracker]

You could send an email to anyone of the saber smith's here to help you out. You can email us through our profile page. The only down side is it is hard to troubleshoot problems like that with out having the sound board in hand.