Working on a self-install on this hilt: Saberbay/Laredo Sabers Vindicator Staff 'Dark Matter'
Config: Darkmatter - Pastebin.com
Proffieboard v2.2
OS6.9
When the saber is on, all the Shtok PCB’s and middle section (a mini KR pixel strip wired to Data2, LED6) light up. When the saber is off, the middle section should be lighted up even when off (going to default off style), however it is dark.
In addition, while the Shtok PCB on furthest main blade from the board lights up without a blade inserted (Data4, LED 4,5), it will not light up when a blade is inserted. However, the Shtok PCB on the board closest (Data1, LED2,3) will light up and light up a blade. For the presets.ini, the furthest and closest main blades both run the same 0 1 preset
Also something I noticed. When turning the saber off, the middle section will do what it’s supposed to when off for a second until the main blades turn off.
Edit:New thing! If I set the furthest PCB and middle section to the same middle section preset (lights while ON like an accent LED), both PCB and middle will light up!
This sounds like it might be a wiring problem, but it’s hard to say without knowing how it is wired.
I recommend doing a couple of things:
- Make a backup of your config, get rid of all presets except one, also remove KEEP_SAVEFILES_WHEN_PROGRAMMING. This will prevent any confusion about which preset is actually in effect and should be helpful in narrowing down the problem. (Once everything works, you can go back to the backup.)
- Post a wiring diagram, or something that will help us understand how this saber is wired.
- Use ProffieOS 7.8, it has many bugfixes.
Updating for photoshoping in the pcbs
I thought there was a bunch of pogo pin PCBs involved?
The proffie v2 config page is missing the pogo pin PCB option, but essentially, they go to the negative, positive, and data for each.
Wait is the “middle” strip wired directly to the board?
(Not to a pogo pin thingy?)
Yes, negative and data directly to board and positive direct to battery. Data is pre-resisted as it’s a KR strip.
Proffie OS7.8 (had to trim about 5 presets in the config to fit) also gives same issues.
New thing: I put 6.9 back on. Middle section started working until you turn the saber on, after which, it went back to dark (went to off mode until blade extinguished on main closest to board side).
Well, this could either be a configuration weirdness, a power problem, or a data problem. I’ll leave it up to you which one you want to investigate first:
- If it’s a configuration weirdness, the thing to do is to simplify your configuration as much as possible until the problem either goes a away, or you’re left with something that cannot possibly be a configuration problem anymore.
- If it’s a power problem, you use a multimeter, as described here:
ProffieOS Documentation: Finding Voltage Drops
and here:
ProffieOS Documentation: How to test a FET
- If it’s a data problem, see this page:
ProffieOS Documentation: How to test if data pins are working.
Results so far:
-
Tried the default proffieboard config. Same deal.
-
Tested FET’s, ~3.7 for all LED pads when on. When off, LED 4,5 is 0.04, LED 6 is 1.4-2.3V.
Couldn’t test with blade owing to the design of the chassis and hilt for now.
- Steady ~1V on all data pads.
Continue to find it odd that on board reset, middle section works with off colors but once turn on, it stops working. While trying to create enough of a gap in the chassis to measure negative, noticed while on, the Shtok PCB led’s are on but the blade isn’t. Possible PCB replacement needed?
How? The default proffieboard config has two blades and none of them are on when the saber is off.
It should turn off when the blade powers down though…
I just duplicated each preset for each blade and added Blades 3. Didn’t test the middle section off mode but only testing for the furthest PCB in terms of lighting up the blade. Then I just tested
StylePtr<Red>(),
StylePtr<Green>(),
StylePtr<Blue>(),
for each. Same thing. Then I added a more simple off mode configuration off the fett263 site to test the middle section. So all attempts to resolve the two issues (middle section off mode, furthest PCB blade lighting) pretty much failed.
The data pad voltage does turn off when the blade powers down save for a few spurts on the furthest PCB’s data line.
Have you checked that the power wires actually go to the right place?
It kind of seems like the second and third blade power has been mixed up?
I had thought so initially but used my multimeter before I had put everything together and they correspond correctly. Could it be the FET?
Seems unlikely, since you measured 3.7v when it was on, as it is supposed to be?
So for this middle strip, when it’s not lighting up, there are only three options:
- The strip isn’t getting power.
- The strip isn’t getting data.
- The strip is getting the wrong data.
Now it may seem like all three of these have been eliminated, but I don’t think there are any other options, so keep measuring I guess?
One tool that might help would be a single neopixel. Connect it to GND and 3.3v temporarily, and then use the data in as a probe to see if the output of the data pads produce what you expect?
Another possibility for testing is to bridge LEDx to GND with a wire when it’s supposed to be on. It shouldn’t make a difference, but if it does, then you know there is a problem with the FET, or with the code that controls it.
