I purchased a Ranger Eco Neopixel saber from Saberforge right after Covid hit. Initially, the blade functioned perfectly and I was elated! But within a few days, I encountered several issues. The saber profiles would switch randomly, it had trouble turning off and on (it almost seemed like the button was sticking, even though mechanically it was fine?), and the audio became distorted as the battery drained.
I intended to send it back for repairs. However, due to a backlog at Saberforge and multiple unsuccessful attempts on my part, it was shelved and forgotten until recently. I just dug it out of my closet, determined to try fixing it myself before my vacation starts in a few weeks!
So far, I’ve found that the battery reads at 3.2 volts on average (I tested it using a voltage meter after charging the battery for about an hour). The saber turned on and ignited once, but since has stopped. Both the SD card and speaker appear to be functioning when the saber is fully charged. One pin connecting to the blade is slightly bent, and two central pins are soldered together, although I’m unsure why, as I found similar instances online.
Now I can’t get the saber to turn on, it just makes a beeping noise occasionally. Sometimes it’ll say the name of the fonts that Saberforge included like “dark side relic” and “frozen winds”, but that’s very sporadic.
Can anyone guide me on where to begin with troubleshooting this board, and where I should start looking? I have no experience with this kind of thing, just some soldering experience from my job as an AV tech. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I would love to have the saber working for my vacation.
Thank you for reading and thank you for your help!
Right out of the gate this screams “issue” to me. A fully charged lithium ion battery should read around 4.2V. There’s a few reasons for this… if you’re measuring directly at the battery though while it’s outside the saber, then you’ve almost certainly got a bad battery, and I’d be quick to say that’s your issue. Low power from a dying/defective battery could be an explanation for everything you described
Your images aren’t loading for me, but that’s the first thing I’d want to verify and replace.
P.S. it could also be a bad charger, but if that were the case I’d expect things to still work fine even with a battery that’s closer to being dead. 3.2V, if the battery were good, should still be within normal operating range.
Gotcha. Thanks for the reply! I’m letting the battery charge a bit more now to see if it possibly wasn’t charged all the way… I actually lost the original charger so I bought a 5v 1a power supply for the saber - it has a 2.1mm plug so I grabbed one off of amazon. It just got here today.
The battery’s name is kind of weird but I think I found a replacement on Spacecantina. It’s a “Li-Ion SaberStudio 3600mAh 10A NeoPixel Protected Battery”. I’ll let it charge some more and see if I can’t get a stronger reading tomorrow morning. Thanks!
More than likely that’s the wrong charger. You need a smart charger designed for lithium ion batteries. Nominal 3.7V.
Trying to use a 5V charger will at best cause the protection circuit to trip and shut everything down and at worst you’re going to have a fire on your hands.
EDIT: the shops I list below also sell such lithium ion smart chargers.
I recommend buying a good KeepPower battery from a trusted seller like The Custom Saber Shop, or SaberBay if you’re in the US.
If you’re in the UK, there’s The Saber Armory. If you’re elsewhere, lmk and I can get you (or someone else can) a recommendation.
That battery you found is from a reseller of a company called “LGT” and they’re generally not super highly recommended. The aforementioned keeppower protected batteries would be recommended.