Nano Biscotte won't boot, no sound, no LED

[Lendo Avery]

Posting this for a friend. Helped him try to figure out what's wrong... He pieced together a NB using JST connectors to put in a converted Graflex. For a switch, he had a momentary tactile, but had accidentally soldered the 2 leads on the same side of the switch instead of one on either side, which basically acted like a latching switch that was closed/short circuit. He put the battery in and said it booted up once and then died, not realizing his switch soldering mistake.

I've since fixed the switch so it closes momentarily. Battery is fully charged and the LED lights when tested with the battery. I've tested voltaged on the pins at the NB and I'm getting the same voltage at the speaker leads as the battery. Is this normal? Will a shorted switch cause a major issue w/the NB?

Thanks,

Lendo

[Strydur]

Do you have another SD card to try? Wiring the switch like that should not have damaged anything as far as I know.

[Lendo Avery]

I have one I can try. Where can one find the files?

Thanks,
Lendo

[Strydur]

Copy them off the other SD or Email me. The card needs to be under 2gb.

[Lendo Avery]

Tim,

He tested the card and could see the files. So looks to be a board issue...

Thanks,

Lendo

[Strydur]

It can still be the SD card.. We had a batch of cards that loaded the files fine but when installed in the NB all they did is static the speaker for a second and then nothing..

[Darth Scorn]

Mine was working great when I first got it put together but after I charged battery for the first time all it does is make a steady clicking sound, I've triple checked everything and I don't get it, anyone else had this issue? any help would be great

[The Grey Elf]

Hi, all,

I'm the friend Lendo is referring to. I asked him to post because if the jargon gets technical he's better than I am.

I ordered the board with the MWS setup, as well as an MWS speaker/2AA battery pack setup. Put in a 14500 and dummy cell.

Now I had to wire the LED and switch myself b/c there's no MWS setup for an LED module and switch that'll work with a Graflex adapter (Tim? Something to think about in the future? Perhaps you could change the threading on your MWS LED modules so that they will screw into one of the graflex adapters...or vice-versa, change the threading in the graflex adapters to match the MWS LED units). Anyway, I wired them to JST connectors to fit into the harness for the NB. Reds and blacks match up, + to + and - to -. That's all good to go.

I'm not an ace at soldering--I need lots of practice. So I was pretty sure I had screwed something up when it didn't work the first time around. Enter Lendo, who checked my solder joints and said they were okay, but we did have to redo the switch per his post above.

Now, I was pretty sure that I'd managed to fry the board (amongst other things, I accidentally let it touch metal while I had the battery in). So I ordered another, assuming that even if I hadn't fried the board, Hell, this way I'd have a spare.

Alas, the new board came today, and IT doesn't work, EITHER. I'm at a loss. I have no clue what's wrong, and it's really frustrating since I ordered the MWS parts for ease of use . Any help would be appreciated.

Here's a picture of the setup with the board that came today. When I put the battery and dummy in, all I get is a repeated, steady clicking from the speaker. No boot sounds, and nothing happens when I press the switch. Could it be that I have two bad SD cards?

20131002_175017.jpg

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

What I would try is to remove the SD card and see if you can read the contents on the a computer. We would need to see a close of of the area you soldered.

[The Grey Elf]

Already done. Both cards read fine on my computer.

Sigh. This is really frustrating and depressing. I've spent so much money on this saber. I just want it to work.