NBv4 Mute on the Go issue

[Cheule]

Board works perfectly, meaning:

-powers on
-changes all 3 banks fine
-swings and clashes work great

But when I attempt to use mute-on-the-go, I hold the button for a second or two, and I get the first short beep.  I then release, and the saber powers up silently but then powers back down after a second.  I've tried it over and over and every time I use mute on the go, the saber powers back down.  Am I doing the button press incorrectly? (I did RTFM)

Additional issue: board doesn't seem to be entering deep sleep after 5 minutes properly.  At about 4.5 minutes of idle, It plays the sound bank sound again, but the LED I have wired up to the DS pad stays lit.  Been tested up to about 30 minutes, accent LED wired positive side to "DS" pad and negative to "LED -" never goes out, even though the override.txt has deep=15000 (default value). And about every 5 minutes the sound font bank sound plays.

[erv]

if you can't enter deep sleep your are probably creating a ground path in your circuit. It's also possible that your led takes too much current on the DS pad. I would try with a small value of sleep (like 500 = 10 sec) and without the led

I'm not sure of what the term "powers back down" mean regarding the mute on the go. Does the blade retract and saber goes off with the power off sound or do you get a power shortage and the saber goes totally off ?

please post a video and also wiring pictures of your saber with macro pics of the board, thanks

[Cheule]

Here's a video that will hopefully explain better: YouTube

I can open it all up when I get home from work, but everything seems to work great with the exception of those two issues.

[erv]

Ytnsays video unavailable

[Cheule]

Video was set to private (even though I set it to unlisted).  I just set it to unlisted.... again.

[erv]

Switch is probably wired along a power ground /neg instead of a dedicated gnd wire. That would also explain why the board is self waking up when hitting deep sleep

[Cheule]

I was following the "Let's Build a Graflex" tutorial.  I have the momentary switch soldered to ACT and Bat - on the board.

As shown here:
(note that is from the video, not my board/work.  I'm still away from the saber)

In the video, he's using the v3, and I have a v4, but wiring the momentary switch to ACT and Bat - still seemed like the way to go.

[erv]

Twistn/braid your switch wires together

[Cheule]

I was just about to mention this.

I saw in the manual.  I didn't twist the wires because I used 30 AWG with silicon jackets, and they're not staying twisted when heated with a heat gun like the PVC jackets would.  When I get home I'll twist and hot glue.

You think it's the induction issue from the LED wires huh?  Interesting.  I'll try it out.

[Cheule]

Here is the video you were asking for.  I pulled all of the saber apart, and I can't find any problems with my setup.  Let me know if you see any.

Thanks for your help Erv.

[erv]

Have you twisted your wires?

[Cheule]

Yes, I tried twisting them. No difference. The saber immediately “powers down the blade” after entering mute on the go. It also never deep sleeps.

Thoughts? See anything in my video?

[Cheule]

also, I think the switch connections are a bit of a red herring, as the switch allows sound bank changes, and powers the blade up and down normally.

[Cheule]

Well, I'm at a loss.  So all I can think to do at this point, is unsolder everything.  Solder things back together in logical stages outside of the hilt itself and see if that helps.  If I get the same result, I think I'll have to RMA the board.

[Cheule]

Erv, good news.  I unsoldered everything, and used a solder sucker to remove all the solder.  I then soldered everything back on, and the problems went away.  As best as I can tell there must have been a small solder bridge across two of the solder pads on the flip side (the top side that has the DS pad).  When I say small, I mean like so small I couldn't see it even with a magnifying glass.

Anyhow, it all works perfectly now.  Thanks for the support Erv!