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Thread: Illuminated AV Momentary switch, Hasbro board and accents

  1. #1

    Question Illuminated AV Momentary switch, Hasbro board and accents

    Greetings all! I've been away from the saber sceen for about 3 years since I built my first basic (no sound) saber. The TCSS community was an enormous help to me in building that first saber. I'm getting abit more ambitious with my latest project that consists of the following electronic parts:


    I think I have a basic understanding of the difference between momentary and latching switches (thanks to these forums), although I have no idea how to determine which one to use in different situations. My problem is that when I connect everything to the battery, everything turns on without depressing the switch. I tried reversing my neg and pos leads (uh oh) and got no response. I have tried holding down the button to see if it will turn off/on, but that does nothing. Since I'm using an econo Hasbro board, I believe I have to use a momentary switch, right? That brings up another strange issue. When i replace the AV mom switch with a simple "push on/push off" switch http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/Pu...utton-P41.aspx it all seems to work fine. Here is a link to my wiring diagram:
    http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/y...AV-accent2.png

    Help me TCSS community! You're my only hope!
    ROBODOC

    That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
    -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

  2. #2

    Default

    Switches don't have a polarity, so switching the pos and neg won't do anything for the switch.

    Can you post a picture of the wiring for your switch itself? It sounds like something is hooked up incorrectly.
    We all have to start somewhere. The journey is all the more impressive by our humble beginnings.

    http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz for the lazy man's resistor calculator!
    http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com...e-to-Ohm-s-Law for getting resistor values the right way!

  3. #3

    Default

    Ok, first let me explain the differences between the switches. There are two terms I will be using here, open and closed. Picture the big Frankenstein type of switch. When it is open the circuit is off. When Igor throws the switch, he closes it, turning the circuit on.

    What a latching switch does is everytime you press it the switch cycles between being open (circuit is off) and being closed (circuit is on). This is the type of switch used when you don't have a sound board and is the type of switch you have linked to for the simple push on/off.

    The other type of switch is a Momentary switch. What this does is that normally it is either open (circuit is off) or closed (circuit is on). You will see this a lot of times listed as NO (normally open) or NC (normally closed). When you press the switch it changes from what it is normally to the other and when you release the switch it changes back to what it is normally (unlike the latching that stays in the new state until you press again).

    So based on this it sounds like the sound card actually needs a latching switch, not the momentary contact version.

  4. #4

    Default

    Even if the board required a latching switch, that wouldn't explain why everything turned on when he applied power with the momentary switch. Three possibilities come to mind:

    1. The switch is connected incorrectly, possibly with a short somewhere.
    2. The momentary switch is of the NC variety (unlikely if purchased from TCSS).
    3. The switch is defective and has an internal short leaving it permanently closed.

    The boards we normally refer to as the "econo" boards use momentary switches. It's possible that this particular board uses a latching switch, but I'd like to see a picture of the wiring so I can rule out possibility #1.
    We all have to start somewhere. The journey is all the more impressive by our humble beginnings.

    http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz for the lazy man's resistor calculator!
    http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com...e-to-Ohm-s-Law for getting resistor values the right way!

  5. #5

    Default

    I totally agree that it sounds like a short issue. I'm new enough I didn't know if TCSS sold NC or NO switches so my initial gut was "Ooops, hooked up an NC to a latching setup."

  6. #6

    Default Thanks and one more question ...please

    Wow! Thanks for the quick response! I couldn't get a pick of the wiring so I made a diagram.
    Attachment 9225
    The good news is that I think I've figured it out. I assumed that the terminals labelled "+" and "-" were to go to the sound card. But as Silver Serpent said, switches do not have polarity. When I tried switching the leads to the unlabelled terminals it seemed to work properly.

    I'm still not sure that I'm getting the most out of my Lux III LED or my accents. Any suggestions on whether I can wire my setup differently?
    ROBODOC

    That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
    -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

  7. #7

    Default

    Yes, the "+" and "-" leads are for the LED in the switch. The other two terminals are for the switch itself.

    If your main LED is lighting up, then it's getting the full 1000mA from the buckpuck. If you want more brightness, you'll need to use some different hardware. Either swap to a multi-die LED like the Tri-Rebels, or get a LED driver to overdrive the LED at higher than 1000mA.
    We all have to start somewhere. The journey is all the more impressive by our humble beginnings.

    http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz for the lazy man's resistor calculator!
    http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com...e-to-Ohm-s-Law for getting resistor values the right way!

  8. #8

    Default

    Thanks for all your help! Can't wait to get started on building the actual saber! Gonna try to build a chassis/sled for the electronics using the multitude of ideas on the forums.
    ROBODOC

    That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
    -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

  9. #9

    Default

    From my point of view the diagram is missing the PNP transistor between the LED output of the board and the BuckPuck.
    I suppose the lack of brightness might be caused by the fact that the econoboard shouldn't be able to give 1000 mA to the LED.

  10. #10

    Default

    Thanks for noticing that Don Se Wion. I thought I was running the main LED directly off of the battery (through the Buck Puck, of course). I've seen the diagrams using a PNP transistor, but, I must admit, I don't see the purpose of it in my particular setup. I don't know what the output of this Hasbro board is - gotta dig out my multimeter, but others have posted that econo Hasbro boards in general only put out about 350mA. That would be woefully inadequate to run a Lux III ...I think. If you wouldn't mind taking another look at my diagram to see whether I'm running the LED off the board or directly from the battery pack, I would greatly appreciate it.

    http://s795.photobucket.com/user/Rob...cent2.png.html
    ROBODOC

    That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
    -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

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