Had a small accident (drop) with my Saber.. HELP with Sound NEEDED

[CloneWarGeneral]

Hey guys,

So I’ve ran into a bit of an issue with my saber, during the last week. I unfortunately had a small accident with it, where I’d accidentally fumbled the saber out of my hands whilst trying to grip a camcorder / video recorder properly (via the video recorder strap).
The saber itself dropped onto the kitchen floor. However, the area it dropped onto wasn’t carpet (which would have cushioned the blow) but it wasn’t tiled-flooring either. But rather a more laminated / "coated” flooring (that is like carpet but without the protective “fluff” that a carpet has).

Anyhow… The saber still works and generates sound though the speaker. But I now have an issue with the sound, where it sounds really low / hollow compared to how it sounded prior to the accident and obviously I want to fix it / have it fixed.
I’ve tried disconnecting and reconnecting the speaker back to the saber (via the little white connector) but that’s seemingly done nothing. The battery has also been fully charged (since the saber drop / accident). I have the volume set at 2250 in the config.

I’ve reached out to SabersPro, where I got the saber from last June but they can’t really help or do anything, as it’s now out of the 1-Year warranty. Is there anything I can do about this? I was actually looking into purchasing a better speaker from Smuggler’s Outpost (on Etsy) for the saber at some point so I can safely increase the base volume to near max, without blowing the speaker or it being distorted and crackly. But obviously I want to fix the current issue I’m having with it right now.

If anyone’s been unlucky enough to experience this before or can help, it’d be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[profezzorn]

Replacing the speaker would be the first thing to try I think.
You might also want to check that the 5v pad actually has 5 volts on it when sound is supposed to be playing.

[Afrojedi]

OOF, yeah i’m extremely familiar with fall damage, go check out afrojedi and usb connector, I ripped mine off.

so there’s a few things that it can be, what i would like to see is, are you comfortable in opening up your saber and showing us your speaker, do you see any visible tears in the speaker membrane or anything that might explain the low volume?

if there is no visible damage to the speaker, also in addition to that you send us a copy of your configuration if you have a backup. for troubleshooting the things you might need are multimeter (not expensive they’re about 15 bucks).

[CloneWarGeneral]

Yeah, I can open up the saber. No problem. I can also remove/disconnect the speaker again, if necessary.

As far as physical damage to the speaker itself, goes… I didn’t see or notice any. I had to look up a YouTube video from “Lightsaber-support” that shows how to fully dismantle and assemble this particular saber, so that was a bit of a pain in the ass.

Just a quick question and I also extend this to @profezzorn…
If I buy and install a better speaker from Smuggler’s Outpost, will the sound quality be much louder and clearer? I’m obviously trying to get that authentic/realistic feel as much as possible.

Sure, I can send/post up my current config. I need to actually redo my config (currently have 2 in the works, for different blade styles and colors) but I still have my current one that’s flashed to my proffieboard through Arduino.
How do I go about posting my config in here, @profezzorn? Do I post it as an attachment or do I have to upload it somewhere and post the download link to it?

[profezzorn]

@CloneWarGeneral

If I buy and install a better speaker from Smuggler’s Outpost, will the sound quality be much louder and clearer? I’m obviously trying to get that authentic/realistic feel as much as possible.

Without knowing what you started with, how can we know?

@CloneWarGeneral

How do I go about posting my config in here, @profezzorn

Recommended way to post a config file

I haven’t found a helpful document that specifies all the different kinds of formatting discourse can do. However, a very common thing is to post a config file, and probably the easiest way to do that is to put three backticks “```” on a separate line in your post, then paste the contents of the config file and then end with another three backticks. It looks like this: #ifdef CONFIG_TOP #include "proffieboard_v2_config.h" #define NUM_BLADES 1 #define NUM_BUTTONS 2 #define VOLUME 1000 const unsigned int maxLedsPerStrip = 144; #define CLASH_THRESHOLD_G 1.0 #define ENABLE_AUDIO #define ENABLE_MOTION #define ENABLE_WS2811 #define ENABLE_SD #endif #ifdef CONFIG_PRESETS Preset presets[] = { { "TeensySF", "tracks/venus.wav", StyleNormalPtr<CYAN, WHITE, 300, 800>(), "cyan"}, { "SmthJedi", "tracks/mars.wav", StylePtr<InOutSparkTip<EASYBLADE(BLUE, WHITE), 300, 800> >(), "blue"}, { "SmthGrey", "tracks/mercury.wav", StyleFirePtr<RED, YELLOW>(), "fire"}, { "SmthFuzz", "tracks/uranus.wav", StyleNormalPtr<RED, WHITE, 300, 800>(), "red"}, { "RgueCmdr", "tracks/venus.wav", StyleFirePtr<BLUE, CYAN>(), "blue fire"}, { "TthCrstl", "tracks/mars.wav", StylePtr<InOutHelper<EASYBLADE(OnSpark<GREEN>, WHITE), 300, 800> >(), "green"}, { "TeensySF", "tracks/mercury.wav", StyleNormalPtr<WHITE, RED, 300, 800, RED>(), "white"}, { "SmthJedi", "tracks/uranus.wav", StyleNormalPtr<AudioFlicker<YELLOW, WHITE>, BLUE, 300, 800>(), "yellow"}, { "SmthGrey", "tracks/venus.wav", StylePtr<InOutSparkTip<EASYBLADE(MAGENTA, WHITE), 300, 800> >(), "magenta"}, { "SmthFuzz", "tracks/mars.wav", StyleNormalPtr<Gradient<RED, BLUE>, Gradient<CYAN, YELLOW>, 300, 800>(), "gradient"}, { "RgueCmdr", "tracks/mercury.wav", StyleRainbowPtr<300, 800>(), "rainbow"}, { "TthCrstl", "tracks/uranus.wav", StyleStrobePtr<WHITE, Rainbow, 15, 300, 800>(), "strobe"}, { "TeensySF", "tracks/venus.wav", &style_pov, "POV"}, { "SmthJedi", "tracks/mars.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 EDIT: If your config file is too large to use backticks, just attach it instead.

[Afrojedi]

@CloneWarGeneral

Sure, I can send/post up my current config. I need to actually redo my config (currently have 2 in the works, for different blade styles and colors) but I still have my current one that’s flashed to my proffieboard through Arduino.
How do I go about posting my config in here, @profezzorn? Do I post it as an attachment or do I have to upload it somewhere and post the download link to it?

the above is a quote, which I highlighted from you comment and got two options “Quote” “Copy Quote” and “Share”

to add lines of code, you need to add three of the following symbol (no spaces) ```

then line break and close it with the same symbols
e.g.

my config here

[CloneWarGeneral]

Okay, so this is my current speaker;

“TSK
23
K36J”

… From what I can make out. I don’t know if that gives you the information you need?

That’s the black text that’s on the rear of the speaker (silver reverse). I’ll post a direct link to a photo of it in here, so you can see what it actually is.
Lightsaber Speaker (Image 1)
Lightsaber Speaker (Image 2)

Due to having so many Sound Fonts (around 17) in my CURRENT Config and there being a crapload of text, yeah it’s gonna be better to just attach it.
Anakin_Skywalker.h (52.9 KB)

[profezzorn]

I don’t really know what kind of speaker that is.
It doesn’t look like a bad/small/wimpy speaker though, so I would guess that upgrading isn’t going to make huge difference.

[CloneWarGeneral]

That was the one that came with the saber. So it hasn’t been changed or upgraded. The volume in the original config (before I did the Anakin_Skywalker.h config) was set to 1800.

And with some outside help on config building, I jacked the volume up to 2200. Which seemed to be okay. Although did generate some crackling here and there and slight distortion.

Obviously, I want to get the best sound quality and to make it a lot louder (with the limit being 3000) and the speakers on Smuggler’s Outpost aren’t really expensive. Hence why I’m looking into upgrading it.
Especially if the now low / hollow volume coming from the speaker… Could potentially be a speaker issue, as when the saber dropped, it landed on the pommel area of the hilt.

[profezzorn]

I don’t know what speaker is actually the best, but I do agree that you should try a new speaker and see if it fixes the problem or not. It’s one of the easier and cheaper things to try, so it would be really nice if it fixes the problem. Speakers are also somewhat sensitive, so it would make sense if it broke when you dropped it…

[CloneWarGeneral]

It’s been a while since this thread was posted, but I do just wanna respond to your message and confirm that a NEW speaker (one that I got from Smugglers Outpost) has indeed FIXED and RESOLVED the sound issue I was having.

The drop had obviously damaged the original speaker… But after installing the new one, the sound is back and working as it should. It’s also a MUCH higher quality speaker, so the sound can be boosted up to near max level in the config, according the Albert over at Smugglers Outpost.