Nano Biscotte v 2.0 possible malfunction or short circuit

[Mazutant]

Hello everyone!

Please i welcome any advice or hint with my saber. I bought my parts in the customsabershop store, everything arrived fine, I took time with reading the manuals, I did the calculations, then did the proto-wiring everything worked just fine bootup, light, sound, clash etc.

Then I optimized the wiring, so all the internal wiring and stuff could cram into small place, put everything togeter and again, everyting just fine. The only thing was that I had to swing a little bit heavy to pull out the swing sound. I thought that I will just play a bit with the SD card settings and everyting will be perfect. But after another minute or two, i no longer needed to swing hard, the swing sounds came out smoothly. And after another couple of swings, hits and so, the swing sound started to occure way too much. And then even without moving the saber at all. Also the saber started to turn itself off when the flash on clash should occure. And now, when i was about to write this message to TCSS forum and wanted to capture it on video, the saber shuts itsel off on its own after like 2 seconds after I fire it up.

If it helps, I can draw the complete wiring. This is my setup:

• Nano Biscotte v 2.0
• 4x AAA batteries (4x1.2v ~ real output is a bit more than 4.8v )
• Tri-rebel (blue-blue-white)

The two blue LEDs are wired in parallel. The current is limited using single 1ohm 5w resistor. The resistor for the white LED for FoC is 1.8ohm 5w resistor - wired to the power extender.

What are the possible explanations of this strange behavior? Could I have burned the circuit board? Is a short circuit possible explanation?

And one more thing. When the saber turns itself off, the bootup sound is played rigth away.

You can check my fail in this short video. I took the saber apart.



And here is my wiring sketch, if it helps, but I originaly draw it only for planning pourpose, not to show it, so sorry for the ugliness.

lsWiring.jpg

Thanks in advance for any help.


BB-8 = bye bye eight times,
Christoph (Kry?tof here in The Czech republic :-)

[darth_chasm]

Resistor each led with an appropriate resistor and make sure the battery is charged.

The two main issues for constant swings are too much current to the led and low battery.

Not sure about the boot sound after shut down.

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

Also, 4 AAA's are NOT ideal for running 2 LEDs much less adding on the FoC. You need something like a 3.7V Li-ion battery for this setup.

[Silver Serpent]

Low battery is the most likely culprit in this case. You're going to eat through AAA batteries like candy. Consider bumping up to AA sized if you can fit them in the hilt, or changing to a single li-ion cell.

[darth_chasm]

Just noticed that the resistor value for the blues with your current battery solution is too low.

[Mazutant]

Thanks a lot for presented solutions.

Silly me, should have checked the batteries after all the testing during the assembly and proto-testing.

There is propably enough room to fit AA batteries. So i might consider that later. It could not have bought the standatd 3.7V battery via TCSS, because the shipping restrictions to my country. I could buy them here, but they are not that common. But I went with AAAs mainly because they are the most common powersource for my kind. Me and a bunch of enthusiast manage a playgroup for children. We do some "experimental archeology" stuff during the whole year schedule, but we mostly just play. Ultimately, we do a 3week summer camp every year. This timem it is set up in the Star Wars universe. Aaaand here goes why I'm writing all of this - we use AAAs as a powersource for headlights, which is kind of a must have in the middle of nowhere. I would use this nonstandard battry only if I really had to.

Regarding the resistors, I went through a couple of tutorials and videos and there were builds both with one and two resistors. There is enough room for more, so I'll add another, no problem. I bought some extra resistors with various values for "just in case". I calculated the resistor values for 4x1.2=4.8V and because the output is actualy a little bit higher then I will also switch to 1.2ohm resistor.

I hope it will fix the problem. This is only one of the sabers i intend to build. I bought most of the parts together, but there is always somehing out of the stock But that is completely understandable.

Can't wait to get some more free time to complete my sabers and wave them like a just don't care and hack and smack stuff like a child!

Too much office work ... I'll post as soon as I rewire the saber.


Thanks again!
Christoph

[Mineral]

3.7V Li-Ion batteries are pretty weird for regular stores, but if you have electronic cigarette/vaporizer stores there, you might pop in and see if they have some. They're a common voltage for vaporizers.

[darth_chasm]

Blue Rebel = 3.4v @ 1000mA
Current Battery Source 4.8v

For each blue die: (4.8v-3.4v)/1A = 1.4 ohm 1.4 w. 1.2 ohm is too low. I would go with a 1.5 personally.