Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board

[gmcivor]

It's been quiet around here, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything!
I have been quietly slaving away over a hot keyboard, day and night to bring you updated TeensySaber software. (1.45)

Release highlights:

• MTP support!!!!! (You can now drag-and-drop sound fonts to the sd card over the USB connection from windows) Currently requires some patches to the teensy code base, see here for more information.
• Power button + clash = previous preset (good for single-button setups)
• Support for RAW & USL audio files.
• Lots more comments in the code.
• Doesn't hang anymore without a motion chip. (Means you don't have to commend out ENABLE_MOTION if you want to try the code without a prop shield or TeensySaber V2 anymore.)

As usual, you can find the latest version here: Teensy Saber OS (beta)

Wahoo! Drag and dropping sound fonts is an amazing addition to the teensysaber, will make changing it super easy! Thank you!

I know you use linux to do your coding(as previously mentioned) on a windows how would my students and I add the mtp files needed to run this on the teensysaber? 

Great work! I cant wait to see what you come up with next. I'm almost done rebuilding the teensysaber. hopefully the lights turn off this time. I think I found the issue=, well lets hope.

Regards,

GMcIvor

[profezzorn]

It's been quiet around here, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything!
I have been quietly slaving away over a hot keyboard, day and night to bring you updated TeensySaber software. (1.45)

Release highlights:

• MTP support!!!!! (You can now drag-and-drop sound fonts to the sd card over the USB connection from windows) Currently requires some patches to the teensy code base, see here for more information.
• Power button + clash = previous preset (good for single-button setups)
• Support for RAW & USL audio files.
• Lots more comments in the code.
• Doesn't hang anymore without a motion chip. (Means you don't have to commend out ENABLE_MOTION if you want to try the code without a prop shield or TeensySaber V2 anymore.)

As usual, you can find the latest version here: Teensy Saber OS (beta)

Wahoo! Drag and dropping sound fonts is an amazing addition to the teensysaber, will make changing it super easy! Thank you!

I know you use linux to do your coding(as previously mentioned) on a windows how would my students and I add the mtp files needed to run this on the teensysaber? 

Great work! I cant wait to see what you come up with next. I'm almost done rebuilding the teensysaber. hopefully the lights turn off this time. I think I found the issue=, well lets hope.

Regards,

GMcIvor

Follow the link to the PJRC forum above. If you're ok with following the directions there, then you can get MTP support now.
If not, just wait until Paul updates the teensyduino distribution, and then just select "MTP disk" in the "USB Type" menu.

[gmcivor]

Sounds good, I'll take a look at that today. Over the weekend, I have been trying to fix, yet again, the teensy saber. This is the third build and I am stumped. I am confident in my abilities, but I cant seem to find the issue. Maybe I have been staring at it to long. I rebuilt the whole project since I broke the usb connector and had extra parts laying around. It worked (minus turning the LEDS off, but I bought the FETS you used) then I was making sure all the sounds played properly. I triggered the clash sound lightly against my table then it stopped working. Now if I plug in a blade  the power boost heats up and nothing turns on. I checked everywhere for shorts and I do not see any. I even plugged in the charge adapter (maybe the short was in the blade) and it still did the same thing. I followed the schematic and I cant see why it wouldn't be working.... I am at a loss. Any ideas? Have you encountered this problem ?

Regards,

GMcIvor

[profezzorn]

Sounds good, I'll take a look at that today. Over the weekend, I have been trying to fix, yet again, the teensy saber. This is the third build and I am stumped. I am confident in my abilities, but I cant seem to find the issue. Maybe I have been staring at it to long. I rebuilt the whole project since I broke the usb connector and had extra parts laying around. It worked (minus turning the LEDS off, but I bought the FETS you used) then I was making sure all the sounds played properly. I triggered the clash sound lightly against my table then it stopped working. Now if I plug in a blade  the power boost heats up and nothing turns on. I checked everywhere for shorts and I do not see any. I even plugged in the charge adapter (maybe the short was in the blade) and it still did the same thing. I followed the schematic and I cant see why it wouldn't be working.... I am at a loss. Any ideas? Have you encountered this problem ?

Regards,

GMcIvor

When I've had things heat up, it has either meant a short, or something was plugged in backwards.
I recommend taking a pair of aviation connectors, get 8 colored breadboard wires, cut them in half and solder them up to the two connectors. Then grab a breadboard and start experimenting. Start with just connecting the two black wires together. That should power things on, but nothing else.

However, it occurs to me that since you have two blades that have the same problem, you either connected both blades wrong. (Beware that pins 1-8 are clockwise on the female connector and counter-clockwise on the male connector.)  Or, the problem is somewhere else.  Some pictures of your build might help if something is hooked up backwards, but it won't show a short.

To find a short, measure the resistance between + and - in various places in your circuit with a multimeter. If it's near zero, you have a short.

[gmcivor]

Hey sorry for the late response and going dark. How has it been over there? It has been crazy around here. Had report cards to due and I started a game jam with a few of my students. And prepping for the car show that we have this weekend. I decided to take a break from the saber and work on that. Now I have a good amount of code blocked out I thought I would come back to the saber.

So I tried to find a short and I didn't see one, although the multi-meter wasn't working that great so I have to check again. Here are some pictures (shared with my google drive) of my build it will look different from yours, well mainly the chassis and orientation of parts, but everything should be connected in the same fashion. If you see anything let me know. I haven't attached the SD card reader because I am not sure how I want in orientated in the chassis. I don't think this would be causing the power boost to over heat. Light saber build pics - Google Drive

Regards,

GMcIvor

[profezzorn]

Hey sorry for the late response and going dark. How has it been over there? It has been crazy around here. Had report cards to due and I started a game jam with a few of my students. And prepping for the car show that we have this weekend. I decided to take a break from the saber and work on that. Now I have a good amount of code blocked out I thought I would come back to the saber.

I've been quite busy too, but I'm back to working on saber-related stuff as well. (May the 4th tomorrow... :)

So I tried to find a short and I didn't see one, although the multi-meter wasn't working that great so I have to check again. Here are some pictures (shared with my google drive) of my build it will look different from yours, well mainly the chassis and orientation of parts, but everything should be connected in the same fashion. If you see anything let me know. I haven't attached the SD card reader because I am not sure how I want in orientated in the chassis. I don't think this would be causing the power boost to over heat. Light saber build pics - Google Drive

Regards,

GMcIvor

I agree that the missing SD card shouldn't cause any over-heat issues.
In fact, apart from not having any sounds to play, it shouldn't cause any issues at all. :)
I looked at the pictures for a while, but nothing jumped out at me as obviously wrong.
One thing that occured to me though: Since you seem to have a roomier chassis than I did for my build, you may want to incorporate more connectors in your build. That way, parts can be disconnected, tested and measured in isolation. Ideally you could build test rings that makes it easy to verify that each component is doing what it's supposed to that the students can use before hooking things up.


Anyways, back to your current build...

1) I would wire up a female aviation connector to only short the two black wires, nothing else. Plugging this in should
   be enough to boot up the teensy. If it doesn't heat up with this, the problem is in the blade connector somewhere.

2) Get a working multimeter, plug in the connector from (1) and measure the voltage coming in and out of the lipower booster. It should be 3 to 4.2 on the input side and about 5 on the output side. Triple-check the polarity!

3) Get another multimeter, insert between the teensy and lipower and measure the current flowing.
   It should be pretty low, less than 100mA.

4) Cut the connection between the teensy and the lipower. Hook up a 50 ohm resistor to the lipower and make sure that it still produces a steady 5 volts without heating up. Try it again with a 10 ohm resistor (now it may heat up a bit). Try hooking up a 5v bench power supply to the teensy instead of the lipower input and make sure that it boots, runs and draws a reasonable amount of current. (< 100mA)  (Note that it can draw more than 100mA when audio is playing.)

Cutting and re-soldering is not a lot of fun, which is why connectors can help....

Hope this helps.

(PS, you can get super-cheap multimeters from harbor freight)

[gmcivor]

yes, I would have liked to have my saber working for tomorrow! But I do not think that will happen haha. I'll just play some starwars movies for my students instead of saber duels. For the lights not turning off could the fets be in backwards from the pictures I sent you? I built my unit the same way as before (when it worked the lights still wouldn't turn off the fets seems to be doing what they were suppose to).

Well I will give that a try. For shorting the black wires. can I un solder from the connector and attach them or do they have to be in a aviation connector?

Yeah for my next built I am going to incorporate more connectors. I am planning to use the breadboard male and female connectors and tape them together once everything works. It  will make trouble shooting a heck of
 a lot easier (I hope). 
 
Regards,

GMcIvor

[profezzorn]

yes, I would have liked to have my saber working for tomorrow! But I do not think that will happen haha. I'll just play some starwars movies for my students instead of saber duels. For the lights not turning off could the fets be in backwards from the pictures I sent you? I built my unit the same way as before (when it worked the lights still wouldn't turn off the fets seems to be doing what they were suppose to).

Well I will give that a try. For shorting the black wires. can I un solder from the connector and attach them or do they have to be in a aviation connector?

Yeah for my next built I am going to incorporate more connectors. I am planning to use the breadboard male and female connectors and tape them together once everything works. It  will make trouble shooting a heck of
 a lot easier (I hope). 
 
Regards,

GMcIvor

Of course you can unsolder them. :) But a female connector that just turns everything on can be a handy tool to have.
(Even better, get some breadboard wires, cut them in half and solder them to the female connector, this makes an excellent trouble-shooting tool as well.)

[profezzorn]

For the lights not turning off could the fets be in backwards from the pictures I sent you?
 

I forgot: It looks like the FETs are hooked up correctly as far as I can tell from the pictures.

[gmcivor]

okay, So I un soldered one of black wire and pressed it to the other one. Nothing happened, but the power boost heated up. So something is plugged in backwards or shorted. So I wondered what is tied in wrong. I looked over the wires and the diagram and they all seem to be connected properly...


When I place the multimeter on the ground wire from the battery (which is the one I un soldered) and to the power cable on the connector I get 4V So it is giving the correct voltage to the connector.

[profezzorn]

Got POV mode mostly working:



This is a 1.6 second exposure where I wave the saber through the air in an arc using my 144-neopixel strip blade.
Unfortunately it's not fast enough that you can observe the effect without a slow-exposure picture, but it's still kind of cool.
(With dotstar/SPI LEDs it might be fast enough, but I don't really have support for dotstar LEDs...)

Working on some other changes right now, once they are done I will upload new firmware.

[JakeSoft]

Got POV mode mostly working:

Working on some other changes right now, once they are done I will upload new firmware.

You are the very best kind of lunatic. Now there's something other sabers don't do!

[gmcivor]

That sir is amazing! Truly a one of a kind addition to any saber!

[profezzorn]

Yeah for my next built I am going to incorporate more connectors. I am planning to use the breadboard male and female connectors and tape them together once everything works. It  will make trouble shooting a heck of
 a lot easier (I hope). 

I would recommend using polarized connectors. For the students I would recommend a different connector for every component... :)
Of course, you can polarize breadboard connectors by plugging holes and pulling out pins...

[gmcivor]

I agree that the missing SD card shouldn't cause any over-heat issues.
In fact, apart from not having any sounds to play, it shouldn't cause any issues at all. :)
I looked at the pictures for a while, but nothing jumped out at me as obviously wrong.
One thing that occured to me though: Since you seem to have a roomier chassis than I did for my build, you may want to incorporate more connectors in your build. That way, parts can be disconnected, tested and measured in isolation. Ideally you could build test rings that makes it easy to verify that each component is doing what it's supposed to that the students can use before hooking things up.


Anyways, back to your current build...

1) I would wire up a female aviation connector to only short the two black wires, nothing else. Plugging this in should
   be enough to boot up the teensy. If it doesn't heat up with this, the problem is in the blade connector somewhere.

2) Get a working multimeter, plug in the connector from (1) and measure the voltage coming in and out of the lipower booster. It should be 3 to 4.2 on the input side and about 5 on the output side. Triple-check the polarity!

3) Get another multimeter, insert between the teensy and lipower and measure the current flowing.
   It should be pretty low, less than 100mA.

4) Cut the connection between the teensy and the lipower. Hook up a 50 ohm resistor to the lipower and make sure that it still produces a steady 5 volts without heating up. Try it again with a 10 ohm resistor (now it may heat up a bit). Try hooking up a 5v bench power supply to the teensy instead of the lipower input and make sure that it boots, runs and draws a reasonable amount of current. (< 100mA)  (Note that it can draw more than 100mA when audio is playing.)

Cutting and re-soldering is not a lot of fun, which is why connectors can help....

Hope this helps.

(PS, you can get super-cheap multimeters from harbor freight)

May the Fourth be with you!


So I tried #1 and the power boost heated up and the teensy didn't boot. So I went to #4 and used my power supply at 5v and connected the leads directly to the leads going to the 5v and gnd on the propshield. The teensy led came on. This tells me that it booted and i felt it it didn't over heat.

So I am guessing the problem is with the powerboost. Do you think it might be faulty? Or it is something else in that side of the circuit. But at least I am isolating possible suspects...

With the teensy power leads still disconnected I attached the main ground wire to the other black wire and the power boost heated up...

Any ideas now?

Regards,

GMcIvor