Saber Forge SaberSound quick change?

[Rhyen Skytracker]

A customer should never have that many problems with any product. I realize he was trying to get it put out fast, but he should have done alot more testing before he released it to the public. He could have at least sent out several boards to more knowledgeable saber smiths to do some beta testing before he sent them out to the public. That would be what I would have done.

[mihunai]

Patience, Saberforge needs.
Rushing, leads to bad quality.
Bad Quality, leads to anger.
Anger leads to hate,
Hate, leads to suffering.....

More effort, Saberforge must put in this.
Now, he must test.
Yes, test he must... Test...
A nice, loong testrun....

mTm

[Darth Zion]

I understand that people have busy lives, but customer services has to be #1. When I bought the sound board it took 2 weeks to get it to me. Then he never sent any of the shipping info to me. It just showed up in the mail 1 day. Then I had requested some sort of wire digram just so I was sure of everything, but did not get any. Then the next day I finaly got a email with my shipping info. I then asked him to email me a wire diagram and still nothing. So to sum it all up I like the product now that I have it working, but in the age we live in a simple email is all it would have taken to sole a lot of anger.

[xl97]

there was enough free time from a busy life to have an interest/order thread posted up..

[Novastar]

Saber forge asked me (via private message on TCSS) about making some sound fonts for him. This was months ago, while I was about to release the CD#2. I got back to him, but never heard back. I even followed up, just to see what he was all about. Nothing.

It doesn't appear that others are running into much of a different experience in terms of raw communication. It's not a positive sign, that's sure...

[Steli Demar]

I too ordered a board and it was faulty the swings were going crazy and clash sounds were stuck. I have tried several times to get a hold of saberforge but no replies or nothing, now stuck with a defective board and out $60.

[Matt Thorn]

I too ordered a board and it was faulty the swings were going crazy and clash sounds were stuck. I have tried several times to get a hold of saberforge but no replies or nothing, now stuck with a defective board and out $60.

Hmm. I at least got a response from him about that, but that was a month or more ago. My guess is he's been swamped and basically has his head in the sand. I can sympathize with how me must feel, but, as has been noted, there's no excuse for poor customer service, particularly in a niche market like this, where word of mouth can make or break. The sad thing is, he was great when I bought one of his hilts through ebay. He threw in all kinds of goodies and was very communicative. It's too bad.

Anyway, it sounds like you're having the same problem I was having. Are you giving it 6V? Because despite what the early descriptions said, the board will go haywire if given less than 6V. The same board that was doing this subsequently worked quite well with 6V (alkaline) and 7.4V (Li-Ion).

[mihunai]

Just be on the safe side,
if i use 7.4V and a buckpuck/Corbin Driver (v2) in conjunction with the SaberSound,
would that safely power the LED without
giving it too much voltage?
'Cause if it doesnt regulate, doesnt that mean the SS will feed 4-5V straight into the LED?

mTm

[Novastar]

...The same board that was doing this subsequently worked quite well with 6V (alkaline) and 7.4V (Li-Ion).

Ohhhh SNAP, ... that is some crazy response. And... holy cow, I didn't know that... the boards REQUIRES 6v or > ???? I'm sorry, that's just ridiculous. Especially if there is no current regulation.

Ugh... sorry for de-railing a bit here... I'm just... not thrilled to see this kind of thing going on in the LED community. It saddens me more than it "makes me angry" or whatever. Ugh...

[Matt Thorn]

Just be on the safe side,
if i use 7.4V and a buckpuck/Corbin Driver (v2) in conjunction with the SaberSound,
would that safely power the LED without
giving it too much voltage?
'Cause if it doesnt regulate, doesnt that mean the SS will feed 4-5V straight into the LED?

mTm

Yes, that should work fine. The board was never intended to regulate current. It's a soundboard, not an LED driver. (Ultrasound and Crystal Focus are both.) The drop off in voltage from the board is negligible, so when you calculate for a resistor, you should do so as if you were driving the LED directly from the battery pack. But if you're combining a Sabersound with a Corbin LED driver and a Buckpuck, you may as well just get an Ultrasound, since you'll end up spending more and taking up much more space inside the hilt. Besides, I don't recall the specs for the Corbin, and it's no longer in Tim's catalog, so I don't know if it would negate the need for a Buckpuck.

Ohhhh SNAP, ... that is some crazy response. And... holy cow, I didn't know that... the boards REQUIRES 6v or > ???? I'm sorry, that's just ridiculous. Especially if there is no current regulation.

Ugh... sorry for de-railing a bit here... I'm just... not thrilled to see this kind of thing going on in the LED community. It saddens me more than it "makes me angry" or whatever. Ugh...

Well, I've got another Sabersound board here that has been working fine with 4 AAA Ni-Mh batteries (4.8V) and a green 5-Watt LedEngin with a 1-Ohm resistor. So your mileage may vary. And that is a big part of the problem. It is sad, because Saberforge isn't some shady snake-oil salesman who popped up out of nowhere. He's been providing great hilts and sabers for quite a while, and seems to have a pretty spotless reputation on ebay. But I was actually surprised to learn he was making a soundboard, since that requires a completely different skill set. I think others hit the nail on the head in saying that he rushed it to market too soon. I've been trying to learn Arduino in order to do some cool stuff with my sabers, and I've learned that something that works fine on a breadboard will not necessarily work fine on a PCB. He definitely should have done a lot more testing.