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Author Topic: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board  (Read 91591 times)

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Offline profezzorn

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Re: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
« Reply #180 on: May 09, 2017, 11:08:27 AM »
Not with the current code.
Fixing it wouldn't be that difficult, but I don't really see the advantage of RGBW. It seems like RGBW gives you brigheter whites, but that's just not a high priority for me. I'd rather have brighter colors than brighter whites.

Offline gmcivor

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Re: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
« Reply #181 on: May 09, 2017, 02:04:36 PM »
So I rebuilt the whole top half of the circuit. Everything past the fets and including them as well. I isolated everything with heat shrink and double checked the wires. I haven't attached the teensy to the power boost yet. But when I plug in the two LED blade and even the charge adapter the power boost still heats up. I am at a loss as to why this is happening. I am positive I do not have a short. and everything is wired correctly.

This is turning into a huge pain. And it will probably be the simplest fix too...

Regards,

GMcIvor

Offline profezzorn

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Re: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
« Reply #182 on: May 09, 2017, 03:04:54 PM »
Making electronics is always a huge pain.

I don't remember what advice I've already given, and exactly what things you've already tried, so I'm going to dump whatever ideas I have left:
  • Do you have current coming out of the booster? Do you have the right voltage? It's possible the booster is just fried and will heat up whenever you give it power.
  • I don't know if I already said this, but the pin numbers on the connectors are counter-clockwise on the male connector and clockwise on the female connector, so beware of that.
  • Also, it's possible to have shorts through the casing on the female connector unless you heat-shrink them properly.
  • To actually find the problem, start disconnecting things that *shouldn't* matter, one at a time and re-test each time.
  • The short could be one of two things: A) VCC is shorted to any of the ground wires  B) BATT+ is shorted to GND  (This would cause the *traces* inside the board to heat up, not the chips.)
  • Note that BATT- and GND are directly connected inside the booster, so VCC can short to either one.
  • Hook up an unused male connector to one of the blades, turn on the "beep when connected" mode on your multimeter and test that only things that you expect to be connected, are connected
  • Giving the booster negative volts, or more than 4.5 volts can also cause it to heat up.
  • Disconnect everything from the booster except the battery. Make sure that it doesn't heat up and that you get 5 volts out. Connect one thing at a time until the problem happens.

Offline gmcivor

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Re: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
« Reply #183 on: May 10, 2017, 10:23:05 AM »
Making electronics is always a huge pain.

I don't remember what advice I've already given, and exactly what things you've already tried, so I'm going to dump whatever ideas I have left:
  • Do you have current coming out of the booster? Do you have the right voltage? It's possible the booster is just fried and will heat up whenever you give it power.
  • I don't know if I already said this, but the pin numbers on the connectors are counter-clockwise on the male connector and clockwise on the female connector, so beware of that.
  • Also, it's possible to have shorts through the casing on the female connector unless you heat-shrink them properly.
  • To actually find the problem, start disconnecting things that *shouldn't* matter, one at a time and re-test each time.
  • The short could be one of two things: A) VCC is shorted to any of the ground wires  B) BATT+ is shorted to GND  (This would cause the *traces* inside the board to heat up, not the chips.)
  • Note that BATT- and GND are directly connected inside the booster, so VCC can short to either one.
  • Hook up an unused male connector to one of the blades, turn on the "beep when connected" mode on your multimeter and test that only things that you expect to be connected, are connected
  • Giving the booster negative volts, or more than 4.5 volts can also cause it to heat up.
  • Disconnect everything from the booster except the battery. Make sure that it doesn't heat up and that you get 5 volts out. Connect one thing at a time until the problem happens.

you got that right.

Well I started at #1 I came in this morning and I plugged the blade in and didn't heat up right away and burn my finger. It got warm but not like before... I checked the input voltage which is about 4.2v and I checked the output voltage and it is sitting around 3.5v which means the booster isn't working. But I would hate to replace it and have it get fried again.. But if its not heating up like before something fixed itself maybe!

I will still check the other connections and go through the list but I wil replace the booster first to see if that makes a difference.

regards,

GMcIvor
« Last Edit: May 10, 2017, 10:40:40 AM by gmcivor »

Offline gmcivor

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Re: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
« Reply #184 on: May 11, 2017, 09:48:00 AM »
Alright, So it was a faulty powerboost causing all the trouble. I put a brand new one on and it worked fine!! So that problem is now solved.

But wait there is more!! we are back to my original problem where the LED's aren't being controlled by the FETs and turning on and off. I purchased the same FETs as you too. I tripled checked the wiring to see and they are wired correctly.

I am confused... Hopefully fourth time is the charm? I am in the home stretch now.

Regards,

GMcIvor

Offline profezzorn

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Re: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
« Reply #185 on: May 11, 2017, 10:42:21 AM »
Ok, progress is good. I don't remember the details of the original problem, so here is another troubleshooting list:

  • What version of teensysaber.ino are you using? There has been a lot of bugfixes in the last few weeks.
  • What does your blades array look like? Comment out all entries but one, does that help?
  • If you run a serial monitor when you power on the teensy, it should tell you what blade configuration it picked. Does it match your expectations?
  • The serial monitor will also tell you the estimated battery voltage, and if the battery voltage is too low, the teensy will not turn the blade on.
  • Make sure the heatsinks on the FETs aren't touching metal. The heatsinks are connected to the *middle*
     pin of the FETs, and touching it to ground, or each other will cause shorts.
  • Bring out your trusty multimeter and measure the voltage between GND and the gate on the FETs (pin 1). Does it change when you turn things on? It should be ~3.3v when the blade is on, and 0v when the blade is off.
  • Check that your leds are hooked up in the right direction. Check that your LEDs light up if you short pin 2 and 3 on the FETs. (Source-Drain). Check that your FETs light up if you connect pin 1 (gate) on the FETs to BATT+, 3.3v or 5v

What kind of blade are you actually using? Does it have nepixels, because in that case we need to debug the data line next....

Offline gmcivor

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Re: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
« Reply #186 on: May 11, 2017, 11:06:24 AM »
Sorry I should rephrase my problem. The LED's turn on when the blade is pluged in, but they do not turn off when the button is pressed or from commands in the serial monitor. But I will give the check list a go through as well.

Regards,

GMcIvor

Offline profezzorn

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Re: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
« Reply #187 on: May 11, 2017, 11:14:16 AM »
Is the teensy even booting up then?

Since there are no pull-down resistors on the FETs, they may start in the "on" state when you power things on. This is normal, but as soon as the teensy boots it should turn the FETs off. In lightsaber-1.60.ino  and later, this happens a few microseconds after boot. In older versions, it would happen 1-2 seconds after boot.

Offline gmcivor

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Re: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
« Reply #188 on: May 11, 2017, 11:17:15 AM »
Is the teensy even booting up then?

Since there are no pull-down resistors on the FETs, they may start in the "on" state when you power things on. This is normal, but as soon as the teensy boots it should turn the FETs off. In lightsaber-1.60.ino  and later, this happens a few microseconds after boot. In older versions, it would happen 1-2 seconds after boot.

Yes, The teensy boots, I can press the button (or in serial monitor) and have the hum play, the clash, and sound tracks. Everything seems to work except the LED's turning off. I am currently using lightsaber-1.60.ino

Regards,

GMcIvor

Offline profezzorn

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Re: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
« Reply #189 on: May 11, 2017, 11:41:07 AM »
I went back and looked at the pictures again.
Unfortunately there are no pictures of the "top" edge of the teensy. (Where most of the connections are.)
Also, there are no pictures of the connections inside the blade.

What I can see looks right, I just can't see everything.

Offline gmcivor

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Re: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
« Reply #190 on: May 11, 2017, 12:05:21 PM »
I will get those pictures to you after I teach my woodwork class, that's when I back in the computer lab. Also When I plug the blade in the lights start off dim then when the teensy boots they brighten up.. I will take a video of it and add it to the new photos. Its almost the opposite effect of what is suppose to happen.

Regards,

GMcIvor



Offline profezzorn

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Re: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
« Reply #191 on: May 11, 2017, 12:15:25 PM »
Hmm, double-check the part numbers on the FETs.
It almost sounds like you have P-channel FETs instead of N-channel FETs.

Offline gmcivor

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Re: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
« Reply #192 on: May 11, 2017, 01:21:48 PM »
Hmm, double-check the part numbers on the FETs.
It almost sounds like you have P-channel FETs instead of N-channel FETs.

Part number is FQP30N06L for the FET's

Regards,

GMcIvor

Offline profezzorn

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Re: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
« Reply #193 on: May 11, 2017, 01:31:54 PM »
Hmm, double-check the part numbers on the FETs.
It almost sounds like you have P-channel FETs instead of N-channel FETs.

Part number is FQP30N06L for the FET's

Regards,

GMcIvor

Well, that rules out that particular problem. :)

Offline gmcivor

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Re: Announcing the Teensy Saber open source sound board
« Reply #194 on: May 11, 2017, 02:48:31 PM »
Hmm, double-check the part numbers on the FETs.
It almost sounds like you have P-channel FETs instead of N-channel FETs.

Part number is FQP30N06L for the FET's

Regards,

GMcIvor

Well, that rules out that particular problem. :)

Yes it does :) I took the pictures of the top of the teensy and added them here https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwqZ0qtAgdt_OVE0Qk4wamppdFk

I couldn't open the blade to show you. I put hot glue on the end to keep it in place.... But I am going to be finish the full length blade soon. So I can send you pics of that one before it is enclosed...

Regards,

GMcIvor

 

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