Crystal Focus 4.x and beyond Bug list & Fix

[Novastar]

So just a piece of scotch tape or something? I'll give that a shot and see if that makes a difference. Thanks for the help, Erv.

Phil, you can also use a little piece of electrical tape to hold the SD card onto the frame (until you wish to remove to change fonts, and then replace)... or... you can put a little tape on the SD's back itself... so that it's a tighter fit... as Erv suggests.

Or you could just glue in the SD. JUST KIDDING EVERYONE, any n00b$ don't listen to that!!!! hahahha...

Beggars-O... if the poweron sound is taking a few moments... the "hum" sound hasn't even started yet, and so the pitch shifting may not occur.

Also... I wanna say... TWO SECONDS is not long to wait for this little option, hehehe

[killphil]

@Nova-

I tried the tape on the back of the card itself. It doesn't seem like a tighter fit. In fact, it seems to have a tendency to bounce back out (via spring tension) much easier.

I did you tip on taping the SD card down on earlier versions, but these 4.whatevers don't have enough space to let the tape gather any grip.

If you have a method for these Micro cards that I haven't thought of (taping it down), please post a pic if you can, because everytime I try to tape it down, the tape just pops loose due to little to no viable space to tape it down (mostly trying to go over the board, it stays on just fine on the under side).

[erv]

I'm using clear tape on the top of the micro SD card. On the side where the capacity / brand is written. All over the surface, then I cut out the edges. I layer is fine. Electrical tape with be too thick for the micro SDs.

[Novastar]

Oh shoot, sorry Phil & Erv... here I am with my CFs... all with "NORMAL" SDs (not micro)... duh. Sorry for that, lol...

[killphil]

I'm using clear tape on the top of the micro SD card. On the side where the capacity / brand is written. All over the surface, then I cut out the edges. I layer is fine. Electrical tape with be too thick for the micro SDs.

I'm just trying to visualize this here. You said at the top, but then said all over the surface. I'm not clear if by "top" you meant the upper part of the card, or if you meant the outer side of the card in it's entirety. Do you encompass the top half of the card with tape, or does that whole side get the treatment?

Hope that made sense...

[killphil]

Sorry for the double post, but I have another issue. When I recharge my saber, weird things have been happening.

When I plug in the charger, it doesn't always turn all the way off. When I remove the charging plug, the idle LED blinks very fast, much faster than usual. Other times, nothing happens (no lights, no nothing. One time I removed it and it made the most awful beeping noise. Sometimes the luxeon is partly on when I remove the charger.

When I reset the saber with the kill key it's always fine, but I'm sort of nervous to charge it, as I've never experienced this before.

[erv]

that's because your recharge port isn't working well OR because the male charger plug isn't matching the recharge port.
Getting the charger voltage to the CF can damage it, so you need to fix this before continue to recharge or you'll fry something.

[killphil]

I would guess that it is the recharge port, since I've been using it with no problems for awhile now, until tonight, that is...

I'll just buy a new one from here along with the matching charging plug.

[Novastar]

Phil... don't feel badly--this has happened to me before with certain charge ports/charge pins... and it does suck.

I want to say: the charge ports/pins I was using during this time were NOT bought from here @ TCSS, so... I don't want anyone to think that they came from here.

I do have a feeling that buying "one port here" and "another pin there" and all that jazz (which CAN be natural when you buy saber electronics/parts/doohickies over a period of TIME)... can basically make a bad mix & match.

Even today... I notice some ports of mine that are "finicky". I've replaced one of them, but it didn't solve it. So... then I replaced the charge plug... and that did the trick.

I don't know WHY, but... here we are today. Your results may vary. Slippery when wet. Caution: contents will be hot when removed from oven...

The only last bit of advice I could give to any who are reading... take the charge + kill setup SERIOUSLY. If this little component isn't well taken care of, you risk all SORTS of heinous things. Grounding to the hilt is ugly... and having CF get voltage from the charger for a long period of time--can be catastrophic (as Erv says).

[killphil]

OK, here's an update:

I ordered the recharge port and matching plug here at TCSS.

It worked just fine when I 1st wired it all up.

By that, I mean, the plug (independent from the charger) worked just as well as the kill key. Plug it in, power is instantly off. Remove it, and it boots up normally.

When I went to attach the plug to my charger and start charging the saber, the thing got finicky again. When I remove the plug (attached to the charger now), most times it will not produce the boot sound, the idle LED blinks. When I hit the power switch, the idle LED stops flashing for a few seconds, then the saber reboots.

Now if I slowly (very slowly) remove the charging plug, then it does indeed behave normal. I do this a few times, and then the recharge plug (now unattached to the charger) will work as well as before.

Another symptom is when I insert the plug (attached to the charger), it makes alot of pops and clicks from the speaker while I am inserting it into the recharge port.

The last thing of note, I am certain that the saber was low on battery life, hence the low battery indicator was flashing when I last used it. I rewired the new recharge port EXACTLY like the old one, but I do not seem to get the low battery indicator.

Sorry for the long winded post, but this is quite weird and I have never experienced anything like this.

Is it possible that the problem could be the charger itself?






Edit: it would appear that the charger isn't the issue. I plugged in my other CF saber, and this one is behaving with absolutely no issues. Completely normal.

So, to re-iterate:

1. New recharge port and matching plug wired identical to the last one., so that can't be the issue.

2. Charger works normally on my other saber. Can't be the charger.

I could try taking a video and demonstrating the problem, since I am not entirely certain I am explaining myself clearly. :End edit





2nd edit: On a whim, I decided to try it once again since my red saber was charging with no problems. Switched over to the offending saber once again....and it's perfectly normal now. I've unplugged it no less than 10 times at random intervals and all is well.............


.....what the hell is this?

Just hope it stays this way :End 2nd edit