Strange Behaviour - distorted audio - main blade deactivating, color going red when should be blue

Building a Desert Wanderer and I have a feeling something might have crossed up but not sure where to start troubleshooting.

Briefly the saber functioned perfectly with good audio and correct blade styles.
I then wire-wrangled the board into it the chassis (maybe something got compressed crimped or shorted) but after gluing the board to the chassis everything started going wrong (maybe the glue caused a problem, it was thin Super Glue - Krazy Glue Brand)

Now the proffie is giving weird symptoms and I’m not sure where to begin troubleshooting this.

First issue

  • Speaker became distorted audio track still plays but heavily distorted
  • When I installed a blade, I noticed that the audio flicker effect was not working in the blade (32" KR Pixel strip blade)
  • The blade would cut in and out, and when I removed the blade (which should have been blue) the Shtok V3 connector (with the little 2020 pixels) would not light up,
  • Then the Shtok V3 connector lit up Red.
  • I checked the visible FETTs for damage and did not see any.

I put the project down for a few weeks and picked it back up again without making any changes or repairs…and

  • Audio is still heavily distorted
  • now the V3 connector is lighting up Blue with Flicker Effect, However within a second or so of igniting, the Saber suddenly deactivates
  • This time after deactivating though the saber made a weird set of rapid beeps like (beep beep beep beep beep) in rapid 8th note succession…not a font sound, so am assuming it’s some sort of system alert.

any ideas?
This chassis (Goth-Eco-CC) is impossible to take apart without destroying it, I’m not convininced it’s in the chassis wiring rather something to do with how either I glued the soundcard into the chassis (maybe compressing or crossing something) or less potentially the double button PCB that I mounted just ahead of the sound card at the same time (with the same “Krazy Glue”).

I used the Krazy glue on the bottom of the switch PCB (Khal had warned me that the E3000 would be too thick and cause interference with the chassis so I used the Krazy Glue since it’s thin, but it’s on the bottom of the Main and Aux button PCB and the sides of the Proffie mounting it into the chassis)

Anyhow any ideas or suggestions appreciated, thanks!

This is a little all over the place, so it’s a bit difficult to be sure what’s going on.
However, it sounds like these issues may be related to battery power. This would indicate a poor battery, or poor or shorted wiring between the battery and the board and/or pogo pin PCBs. Poor wiring means cables that are too thin, or cold/cracked solder joints.

The primary way to detect power problems is to measure the voltage with a multimeter. Like, what is the voltage at the board, at the battery, and at the pogo pins?

Another potential way to detect poor or shorted wiring is to see if it gets warm or hot. If something is getting hot, then there is almost certainly a problem there…

It’s starting to settle down into the same consistent behavior (Video below), here are the voltage readings…

Voltage at the Battery is 4.2v
Voltage at the Board is 4.18v
Voltage at the V3 Blade adapter is 4.1v

I have a video of the Saber’s behavior here: (Note I am activating the saber, but it is deactivating on it’s own…but it does play the blade deactivation sound, before playing that weird alert sound)
Video on Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BIEKLivCJlLAaEweSQVuR3nIRhKFvcER/view?usp=share_link

Additionally on one time after deactivating, some of the 2020LEDs on the V3 connector were still lit up…(pic below)

Have a look on the SD card for a wav file called lowbatt. If it makes the same sound as you’re hearing, then for some reason the Proffie thinks it’s not getting enough power. It could be caused by a short somewhere which is sucking power from the battery by getting hot.

I would use the test meter to check for any kind of short that shouldn’t be there between any of your connections. My Getting Started with Proffieboard guide gives a few pointers on what to look for: Dropbox - Getting Started with Proffie.pdf - Simplify your life

Also the saber switched off when you moved it. If you keep it perfectly still, does it still switch off? If not, it may be a config issue where you have an overly sensitive gesture control.