Troubleshooting Guide for the Crystal Focus Saber Core

Plecter Labs - Troubleshooting Guide

On a soundboard that costs 115€ everything should always be working as long as everything has been soldered accurately and cleanly. In spite of everything, little and bigger mistakes can happen, even if one thinks one has done everything correctly. Erv' of Plecter Labs checks every board individually before he mails them; therefore software and hardware problems are excluded.

The most important thing is to check the wiring more than one time before even attach the accumulators to the board.
If everything is correct, connect the accumulators to the board and check them. If the board does not show any reaction or even starts smelling weird, disconnect the electric circuit immediately!
It is enough to have twisted the electrical connection's polarity to get the board smoking and - in the worst case - burning the small CPU-unit.

When everything is connected, no smoke is rising, and nothing else happens one should check the accumulators. They should be fully loaded and especially all loaded the same, not differently.

If the accumulators and the wiring are okay the most common problem is the SD-card still being in the CPU or not being attached in the intended halter correctly.

For the board's first check one has to change the shifter's configuration at most, depending on whether one uses a shifter or a key button to activate the board.
When changing the information on the CPU it is very important to format the card on every change and copy all data onto the card again. Otherwise errors are possible

The SD-card is formatted with a right click on the SD-card's symbol in the main memory;
the modulation should look like this:

Naturally the memory capacity depends on the card's dimension and can not be changed.
The file system should be set on FAT and the units for assignment's units have to be set on the standard extent. The volume's name is arbitrary, most suitable might be the sword's name.

The short format option should be switched off.
With a click on "start" it can last a few minutes until the CPU is formatted completely.

A common mistake is a certain amount of beeps coming from the speaker when choosing a soundfont.
Every signal tone stands for a missing data in the particular soundfont.

Previous to every copying of files one should check properly, if no file is missing; all in all there have to be 29 files in each of the six soundfont's folders, a readme-file is optional.
When all files are available and errors still appear, another formatting might be helpful, whereas one should check the setting even more accurately.

If that still does not help, one should check the config.txt and led.txt of each soundfont closely, if one changed something oneself. It is important that every parameter exist only once and have the correct details - to check those, our parameter-overview might help you.

If the config.txt is okay, it will not be bigger than 512KB; if this amplitude is passed, something is wrong definitely!

If one cut some sounds of one's own together and they do not work with the stated methods above, the problem is with the RAW-file itself, for the RAW-files' format is very important; summarized it is:
16-Bit, little endian, unsigned, file ending ".raw"

If one looks at all particulars, there should be no more software problems; hardware problems can be even more aggravating.

At the board's installation within the hilt one should pay attention to wires that could get twisted or be compressed in any other way - a clean wiring is very important! Otherwise a wire could be pressed against the bobbin at the front part of the board and demolishes it after some time.

This bobbin is very important for the functional efficiency, for when it breaks the LED can not be actuated anymore (…and what would a lightsaber be without light ;) ).

If the bobbing broke once there are only two opportunities. The first is to write directly to Plecter Labs asking for a reparation, the second would be to buy a bobbing oneself trying to solder it again oneself. For people being not experienced with the Crystal Focus Saber Core the best solution might be to contact Erv' from Plecter Labs first.

Another "stupid"mistake is to overwind the potentiometer on the board. The potentiometer (Poti) is to change the speaker's volume manually. In most cases everything can be left the way it is set from Plecter Labs.
Should one like to change it though, one should be very cautious, if one moves it with a little crosshead screwdriver.
It can be moved 180° and one should pay attention not to overwind it, otherwise the saber will not have any sound at all. In that case best contact Erv'.

Theoretically one could damage every other part of the board, but these two are the most delicate ones.
Therefore one should operate with patience, understanding and accuracy, if one wants to attach a Crystal Focus Saber Core in one's hilt.

One should inform oneself very well beforehand; if there are problems though, one can contact us or ask Erv' from Plecter Labs directly.
We will be happy about every problem description (most suitable of course with the solution) to extent the Troubleshooting Guide even more.