Aux switch makes board reset

[Deke]

One of my sabers has developed a wierd bug - it has a PC1.6 board in it and whenever you hit the AUX button, the board resets.

I thought it might be batteries at first, but I just fully charged it and its still the same. Saber otherwise stays on happily, only hitting the aux button makes it reset.

Assuming theres a short or something in the switch, unless anyone has any genius ideas why it might be resetting?

[CHEWBACCA]

is the aux operating a FoC LED?  The board probably reboots because of battery draw.  There could be a is a short in the FoC LED (if there) or one of the batteries is going bad and cant handle the extra draw.

What are the batteries?

[erv]

what MH said, it's a common issue (FoC wiring problem, too much current going to the FoC led or weak batteries)

[Deke]

Is that sort of thing common to just randomly crop up after the fact? The saber has been fine for over a year and just started going funny...

Anyway, I'll have to get it sent off for repairs. Thanks for the info.

[Caine]

Is that sort of thing common to just randomly crop up after the fact? The saber has been fine for over a year and just started going funny...

Anyway, I'll have to get it sent off for repairs. Thanks for the info.

If it's been fine for a year, yeah it's most likely the batteries. Battery packs and/or PCB's sometimes just randomly go bad (not a high ratio, tho)...and some last for years and years. It just happens, lol.

[Deke]

Batteries! Always the batteries :p

I did the normal charge on my charger and it didn't help. Put it on the deep cycle and balance and oh hey look it works perfectly again!

Thanks for the help everyone.

[erv]

if the cells were individually protected and were not equipped with a dual cell PCB, it's not surprising. Packs must be balanced while charging, otherwise the pack can miss up to 50% of its capacity. In your case the result is that as soon as you started to pull out some more current, one cell cuts while the other is still charge. Charging again won't solve unless you manually balance or charge the cells individually.

I've been militating for properly made packs, using dual cell PCBs and NEVER individually protected cells (unless they are removable, of course, as they can be charged individually). People tend to think the pack will become unbalanced a LONG time, when it's time to change the batteries. Unfortunately, I experienced unbalanced packs a short time after building a saber or a blaster and I had to rework the pack.