Petit Crouton Sound Board 1.6 - Sudden Failure

[simjason]

I just finished my first saber and did final assembly. Everything worked great for a little while, then something bad must have happened... Either the board shorted out or I have a bad connection somewhere. Before I take the whole thing apart again (a bit of an ordeal with this particular build), I figured I'd ask.

Symptom: As soon as the battery is connected, I get a sound from the speaker that sounds like its growling at me. Don't know how else to describe it. No startup sound, no LED functions, and the power on switch is unresponsive.

Anyone experienced this before? Please tell me I just have a bad connection or non-critical short somewhere... I've already checked the speaker connections, and the connections to the board itself and everything looks fine. The only remaining possibility would be connections at the switches and charging jack... Of course, I'll check them next. But, at the moment, my gut tells me it's the worst and whatever happened in there fried the board.

[brett]

I have had the exact same thing happen to me when I first wired up my board. Strangely enough it turned out to be a low battery. It may not be the case for you, but I really hope it is.

[Wong Yoon Wei]

Do charged the batteries and try again. I had sabers acting weird before due to low bat.

If that didn't work, remove the board and only wire the speaker and battery pack and see it is powers on.

[Crystal Chambers]

I've had this happen too and I believe it was using a single 3.7V Li-Ion cell as apposed to the more recommended 7.4V. It was a low charge issue but I haven't had it happen at all with the 7.4V packs.

It can be scarey at times but most issues seem to be fixable one way or another.

[simjason]

Beautiful! Makes perfect sense... Now that I think of it, I've had other electronics act similarly with low batteries. Will give it a shot!

[Crystal Chambers]

3.7V will work fine with some LEDs till the battery gets low. The rebel and lux3 should be fine with them. Ledengine require more juice.

[simjason]

To clarify, I'm using a 7.4v pack. And, I just charged up and, unfortunately, the problem remains. Any other ideas before I tear this thing apart?

[Wong Yoon Wei]

At this point, you will need to tear the PC apart, might be a grounding issue or something.

[simjason]

Ok, I pulled the board, disconnecting everything but the speaker. I hard wired the battery to the board, and I get the same symptom. Yikes... I don't see any obvious signs of damage / shorting / overheating on the board, so I really have no clue what could be wrong at this point. Need a miracle... anyone have any extra to share?

[Silver Serpent]

Pics of the board and wiring might be helpful.