Blade color help

So I have things up and running. However, my main blade layer is not the color I want. I’m trying to get a pink blade, but every shade of pink or Magenta just comes out as an orangish red. The weirdest thing is I have a preon effect that has magenta sparkles and THAT works. It’s just that for the base blade color it doesn’t work. Other colors work (Blue, Green, etc). I’ll post my config file. Maybe someone can see something I’m not.

#ifdef CONFIG_TOP
#include "proffieboard_v2_config.h"
#define NUM_BLADES 1
#define NUM_BUTTONS 2
#define VOLUME 1800 
const unsigned int maxLedsPerStrip = 144;
#define CLASH_THRESHOLD_G 2.9
#define ENABLE_AUDIO
#define ENABLE_MOTION
#define ENABLE_WS2811
#define ENABLE_SD
#define ENABLE_ALL_EDIT_OPTIONS
#define SAVE_STATE
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_PRESETS
Preset presets[] = {
   { "Sailor_Jedi", "Sailor Moon - Theme Song (English) [HD].wav",   
StylePtr<Layers<
  Lockup<DeepPink,AlphaL<Layers<
    Mix<SmoothStep<BladeAngle<>,Int<0>>,Stripes<1000,1000,Orange,Red,Green,Blue>,Stripes<1000,-1000,Orange,Red,Green,Blue>>,
    AlphaL<White,Bump<BladeAngle<>,Int<6000>>>>,Bump<BladeAngle<>,Int<24000>>>,Black>,
  LocalizedClashL<White,80,100>,
  InOutTrL<TrWipeSparkTip<White,300,100>,TrConcat<TrWipeIn<1500>,AudioFlicker<Magenta,White>,TrWipeInSparkTip<White,300,100>>>,
  TransitionEffectL<TrConcat<TrWipe<2800>,Sparkle<Black,Magenta>,TrConcat<TrWipeSparkTip<White,750>,Black,TrWipeInSparkTip<Magenta,150,100>>>,EFFECT_PREON>>>()},
   { "SmthJedi", "tracks/CantinaSong01.wav",
    &style_charging, "Battery\nLevel"}
};

BladeConfig blades[] = {
 { 0, WS281XBladePtr<144, bladePin, Color8::GRB, PowerPINS<bladePowerPin2, bladePowerPin3> >(), CONFIGARRAY(presets) },
};
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_BUTTONS
Button PowerButton(BUTTON_POWER, powerButtonPin, "pow");
Button AuxButton(BUTTON_AUX, auxPin, "aux");
#endif

Is your battery fully charged?
What is it rated for max current draw?
Do you have 22AWG or equivalent wiring for the blade power lines?

Is the max current draw in mah? All it says on the battery is LC 18650 3800mAh 3.7V Li-ion.

The battery case I’m using has 26 AWG wires connected.

No, mAh is milliamp hours. That’s how long it will last.
Got a picture of the cell?
How many 26 AWG wires per leg, one? (one positive, one negative) Or are they doubled up.

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Most likely this is caused by a power drop. Red works with less voltage than other colors. Measure the voltage at the blade when the saber is on. Ideally it should be at least 3.5 volts with a full battery.

Voltage drops can be caused by weak batteries, too-thin wires, cold solder joints, bad FETs, or some other kind of bad connection.

You can find out where the problem is by going back wire/component at a time until the voltage goes up. If you get all the way back to the battery, then the battery is the problem.

2 Likes

just one, yes. One for negative one for positive. I can double the wiring?

yes. The more copper the better.

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@profezzorn I measured the voltage and the tip of the blade and sure enough it’s at around 2.6 volts. the power drop seams to happen at the solder points were I connect the two strips back to back. I used the method that I found on Megatooth’s tutorial videos. I’m gonna try re-soldering them and hopefully that will help. Thank you for all the advice.