Why do i have to cut the bridge?

in this chosen format using a blade connector the image says cut here…scary for my first build…is there a better way to wire to avoid this cutting …if not how would i safely cut the bridge?

also i noticed that the charge port image is not there?

Isn’t that for one of them old audio type connectors?

@profezzorn I was under the impression BATT- and GND are bridged internally, elsewhere too? Very curious about this…

tl;dr; these are not the droids circuits you’re looking for

My original blade connector used an “aviation” (or cb-radio) connector for the blade. It had 8 pins, and I used one of those as a way to cut the power to the board when the blade is not connected. This option is available for backwards compatibility, but unless you have blades built like this, I do not actually recommend it anymore.

In my original setup, GND would be interrupted when the blade was removed. However, for that to work, GND and BATT- had to be separated, and on the original TeensySaber boards they were. You needed to connect them with a wire if you didn’t use this sort of setup.

Nowadays, everybody uses pogo pin PCBs to connect their blades, and that means that this particular setup isn’t possible, so at some point I connected GND and BATT- on the board so you didn’t need to connect them with a wire anymore. However, they are only connected at this bridge, so they can still be separated if desired.

It is possible to make something similar using a pogo pin connector. However, it would need to be wired on the positive side instead of the negatie side. Basically, you would need to cut a trace on the pogo pin PCB so that one of the positive pins is separated from the other ones. Then you connect that pin to BATT+ on the board, and the other + pins would connect to the + side of the battery. There would be no need to cut the GND-BATT- bridge in this case.

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Interesting… I guess I’m confused though as to what the point would be?

Why would you want to separate GND and BATT-? You mentioned “GND would be interrupted,” but interrupted how? I’m curious now…

The blade works as a kill switch.
No blade - no power.

Oh so the internal blade contacts were what connected the board to the battery power? (board GND to Battery -)

That is correct.
It’s easiest to see how that works in the original V1 design:

https://fredrik.hubbe.net/lightsaber/electronics.html

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Awesome, thanks for clarifying!

That seems to be the case for at least a few things :slight_smile:

ok thanks you,

So i think i took the pictures to literally, the neo pixel setup shows wires direct to led chain but those same wires could link to pogo neg, pos and data ?

Yes. There are different types of pogo pin connectors, but in general they get wired just like you would wire the led strips.

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