Adding FoC and Shimmer to MR boards

[clahey83]

with how sparse plecter boards have been this year, ive been messing around with some MR boards recently. i got into this hobby shortly after MR boards lost steam in the customs community and never had a chance to mess with them until the last month or 2. my biggest complaint with MR boards is the lack of main blade flicker and lack of FoC.

for my setup, the LED im using is a RGB common positive RGB module that i got from General Grievous. they're not the top of the line, but they give me a really nice cyan by combining the red and green dies, which leaves me with the red for FoC.
it doesnt matter which MR board im using because they all have the same inputs and outputs (at least from what ive seen)

FoC was an easy fix. i took a power extender and took the output from the clash sensor and put it into the input signal for the PEX... pretty nice effect and it didnt stop the board's ability to read the clash signal. i did notice that the PEX saw the signal from the clash sensor a little more often than the board, but im ok with that. i will be testing this with some TIP41 NPN transistors when they come in considering TCSS is having trouble keeping PEXs in stock this year. if all goes well, this will be an easy upgrade for FoC

for shimmer, i cant exactly just grab the speaker output signal like i do with the economy hasbro boards because while it's hooked up to the negative from the speaker, that negative signal is used to control the positive side of the LED. i cant do that with this module or it will also shut off the main LED while the clash sensor is not engaged.
what i am hoping to do is take the negative signal form the speaker and pass it through a PNP transistor. the output from this transistor will basically allow me to change the negative signal from the speaker into a positive signal. i will take this positive signal and use it to control a NPN transistor which will in turn control the negative side of the main LED. i drew up a basic diagram of what i'm trying to do.
i have yet to test the shimmer curcuit.
is there any reason why this wouldnt work? would this possibly diminish the sound output on the speaker?


screenshot

[Ender9492]

I am trying to do this exact same modification to 3 different Master Replicas boards. Any update on whether or not you were able to get the shimmer to work? Also, how does using a transistorfor FoC  differ from using the extender?

[clahey83]

this was a failure... the problem with MR boards is that they basically go silent (hum momentarily shuts off) when you get a clash... so using the speaker output will not look very good :(

[Ender9492]

Bummer. Thanks for trying. I'll mess around with the board I'm wiring right now and see if I can get anything to work...

[charlesnarles]

I'm gonna resurrect this topic on the grounds that I'm in the process of adding shimmer to a Hasbro BS board by simply adding a 5mm 20mA flicker LED in line with one or each of the two main 1A LEDs. Self-teaching myself all this, so no idea if this can work with the different amperage but I'll give it my best. I at least know the theory is solid, and it might give close enough to the right effect.