Hi everyone,
I’m new to the board and would love some help with my first saber. I just received it yesterday. It’s a one button Proffie Neo Pixel. When I received it, I tried to turn it on and it didn’t activate so I assumed it needed a charge. Plugged the supplied charger in and the saber said a Kylo Ren quote. Then nothing else. No light or anything to signal it’s charging. I let it charge for a few hours and came back to it and still nothing would happen when I tired to activate it. I tried triple pressing the button to check the voltage but nothing happens either. So I opened it up and everything seems to look normal, although it’s my first time seeing a proffie board, so I might be missing something. I removed the battery and bent the connectors to make sure they’re connecting. I plugged the battery back in and got the same Kylo Ren quote. I also get that same quote when I plugged the charger in with the battery removed. But I haven’t been able to do anything else with it.
One little side note, when I opened the box and took out the hilt, I noticed the activation button had fallen out of the saber and was loose in the box. I put the button back in but then noticed afterwords there was a spring also loose in the box. I’m not sure if the spring was underneath the button, but maybe the battery/board is fine but the button just isn’t pressing because the spring is supposed to be there? I don’t have any other sabers so I can’t test the battery in a different one. I’ve tried getting the button out again but I can’t find a way to remove it. Does anyone know a way of removing it so I can put the spring back in?
Has anyone else had a similar experience or know what the issue may be? Would definitely appreciate any help troubleshooting! I’m extremely new to this so I don’t know where to begin troubleshooting. I was so excited to receive my first saber so I’m hoping it’s an easy fix!
Thank you!
You’re going to want to reach out to your installer, if you’re hearing a boot.wav sound “quote” or noise when putting battery in the board is fine. This sounds like a hardware issue with the button, especially if it had parts fall out. I’d ask your installer how to fix correctly. If there’s a spring and it’s not where it needs to be then your button won’t work.
Your board is booting (that’s the boot.wav file playing the Kylo quote you’re hearing) so things are likely fine and your button is the issue.
Based on your description of behavior when plugging in the charger, I am going to assume this is an LGT saber, which is wired with a direct charging port (doesn’t disconnect the board when plug is inserted). This is not ideal, but it’s how they roll.
The spring that fell out is there to return the button plunger to the top position. If you hold the button upside down and tap near it, it should pop out enough for you to grab it and unscrew the cover. Then you can reassemble it with the spring.
You can test the board directly from a computer by using Arduino’s Serial Monitor window, where you can type ‘on’ and ‘off’ to make sure the board works regardless of the button.
If you have not yet ventured into connecting the board to your computer, this is where to get started on that:
It seems to me like it’s the button as well. I’ve reached out to the installer but no response yet. I might have to ship it back but I’d rather try to fix it, if possible.
Thank you for the reply! I tried holding it upside and unscrewing the cover but there doesn’t actually seem to be anything to unscrew. I opened the case to see if maybe the whole button could unscrew from the board but it doesn’t seem to be able to. I’ve tried to get behind it to pop it out but that hasn’t worked either. Here are some pictures of it, which part is supposed to unscrew? Side view, top view.
Oh that’s an all-in-one AV switch button. It’s a 12mm illuminated button that does not come apart. I don’t see how you could have lost a spring from there. Are you sure the spring isn’t just from your battery negative contact?
Did you have a wire come off of the bottom of that board?
You showed the top and side…got a pic of the bottom?
Hmmm, weird. The button was definitely loose in the box when I opened it. I tried to push the button when I first unpackaged the hilt and noticed there wasn’t actually a button and then I found it in the box. I’m not sure if the spring came from there, I just assumed it did. The only time I’ve opened the casing was to take that picture. Is there a way for the spring to fall out of there if the casing was closed? I can definitely upload a picture of the bottom in about 10-15 minutes. Would you like any other picture when I open it up?
so… you resoldered it back on?
No, the whole component wasn’t off. The actual switch was there, but the whole illuminated button face was off. Highlighted here. So basically the part that you push. So I just put it back into the switch before I noticed there was a spring in the box. Are there springs used anywhere else where it could be coming from?
Oh! Well if that part came off, then yes, the spring is from inside.
Prying it off with a pin should work, but that thing is probably shot and could use to be replaced.
Do you know if there’s a way to activate gesture control so I can without pushing the button? So I can still use it while I try to fix the button.
Yeah of course. Just use a prop file that uses gesture control. Open your ProffieOS/props folder, open the prop files and read the top comments sections of each and see which one you like.