Yet Another Disadvantage of The New Hasbro FX sabers with Removable Blades

[Rhyen Skytracker]

Looks like I have found another disadvantage to using the Hasbro FX sabers with Removable Blades. I have spent the past hour trying to get the Pololu board to work with this 2010 Hasbro Anakin with Removable Blade and then I decided to try the same Pololu board on a Yoda FX board that I had laying around and it worked perfectly. I am guessing that since the polarity is reversed on the FX boards with removable blades it will not work with the Pololu boards. I am not sure if there is another solution that has the reverse polarity of the Pololu board out there or not. Seems like there should be. These new FX boards with removable blades are really starting to put a damper on how I was building sabers. I needed the Pololu boards so that I could use the short AV momentary switches. I really like the sounds better in the new FX boards but I also really need a wider selection of switches. I guess it will be the old FX boards for me until I find another solution. I am writting this thread to basically warn people so they don't do what I did and spend a lot of time for nothing.

[dgdve]

Man... that really sucks since I'm finally starting to see broken ones I'd buy for the cards.................. ONLY reason I havent picked them up is lack of actual reference and support(not just for absolutly flawless dissassembly) but for important little things like fixes/mods for dealing with this polarity issue. Good Call Rhy

[Skottsaber]

but for important little things like fixes/mods for dealing with this polarity issue.

*ahemetyhem*
I may look into it at some point.

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Rhyen, have you tried using the lighthound flashlight pcb's on these yet?

[Azmaria Dei]

and i suppose there's no way to reverse the polarity of the pololu...

[Rhyen Skytracker]

@Jay Gon - I haven't tried the lighthound because I have heard that the pololu works better and handles more current. I may try one later.

@Axmaria - The Pololu is polarity sensitive which is why it will only work one way. It is something with the way the new boards handle the switch that keeps it from working with the pololu.

Personally I think Hasbro swapped everything up to at least slow us down from using their boards in other sabers. LOL

EDIT: By doing some research on the lighthound, it works the same way the Pololu board does and will not work with the new Hasbro FX sabers with removable blades. Both the lighthound and the Pololu boards use a gnd from either the battery pack or the sound board and has the sound board switch (positive) to power the lighthound/pololu board. Even when the switch is not made on the sound board you will have voltage on one side of it. When the sound board is switching the negative like the removable blade boards do you have not way to get a + to the lighthound/pololu board

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Oh well, we can't have everything, can we? At least you tried it Rhyen, and now we know not to use one of these boards unless we can use a latching switch in the saber. Saves me from buying one of these just for the board too.

[Rhyen Skytracker]

I just didn't want anyone else to waste as much time as I did on it. If I would have done a little more research up front I could have figured out that it wouldn't work. If you look at the pololu board it takes a gnd from the sound board (or battery) and it gets its + from one side of the switch on the sound board. The pololu can't convert the momentary to latching with out the MOSFET chip having power on it, which requires a + and -. With the new FX boards with removable blades the pololu is not getting the + from the switch. So, instead of getting a - and a + you are trying to power it with 2 -. Anyway, it whouldn't be too hard to come up with a circuit to do the same thing when switching the -.

[Azmaria Dei]

so it may be as simple as reversing the type of transistor?

[Rhyen Skytracker]

No, it is not a transistor that is the problem. The lighthound and pololu are PCBs that have latching circuits built into them and use the momentary switch inputs to set and reset the latching circuit. You will have to redesign the whole circuit to make it use the reverse polarity. I am already looking into it and have some promising results so far.