Just finished my first build a couple weeks ago and just a couple tips. Flux is you friend use it in every joint and Pad! It makes the solder flow extremely well! Do a completely out of the hilt test to make sure everything works beforehand. I would highly recommend soldering all the wires to your board first and pulling the wires through the chassis. Then soldering the wires to your battery, pixel connector and so on. This makes it extremely easy to manage the cables and gives you a ton of peace of mind when putting the chassis into the hilt. And just remember not to get discouraged. In the end it's an amazing learning experience and making mistakes is all part of it! Best of luck 👍
another thing i found to be a life saver for *most* things, **SOLID CORE WIRE** especially with through hole stuff. bend it into shape and solder the ends, I made a nearly complete mock up before is did the final assembly I also did the same on a bread board to confirm it worked
I’m sure you’ve figured this out by now, but regardless of blade being inserted your board should make a boot up sound when you remove the kill key. You definitely had power to the board (that little red light) but I’m willing to bet when you squeezed the chassis in your hilt a connection was messed (done it myself more than once). I would try some flux, helps ALOT with solder flow and connections, there’s no need for the wire to be in the slot fully if you have a good solder joint. Also you want to make sure you clean up that excess solder that’s on the recharge port from the nearby pads, you don’t don’t want bridge anything that shouldn’t be bridged, recipe to fry the board.
I don’t know how these sabers work but i did get electrical engineering. So with that on of button if it was soldered to one pad its probably shorted out is it not?
@@commandantkevin you should know how it works then. There are 2 wires, one to ground, one return so pressing the button pulls the IO pin on the MCU to GND, activating it.
@@commandantkevin yup, Adam is correct. Each button gets its own +, and use a common ground or -. Less pads used up on the board this way, allowing for small footprint.
Dang, I had a flashback watching this! I fried a couple boards before getting it right. I watched dozens of video before starting but most of the real learning comes from trial and error. For me more error that necessary $$$$! You arlready figure the following out im sure but...Pre-tinning pads/wire, prefit to determine wire length, test components prior to install, check that you have continuity where you should and no continuity where you shouldn't (using a multimeter). A little prayer, meditation, stiff drink may help? Thank you for your candidness and sharing.
I know how you feel, lol. I had the same problems. I had a proffieboard and I accidentally fried one of my components. Ugh. So I bought a new Golden harvest board. I highly recommend doing a test of everything outside of saber and chassis to make sure you get it right. That goes for any board.. which I did and it worked. Hope you get everything working soon. May the force be with you on this
The greatest teacher failure is. Don't give up, I can't tell you how many times i pulled the kill key and....nothing. Finding out where you went wrong is part of the journey man. But i can tell you for certain, you WILL get it right. Trust the Force. Also a tip: You don't need all the negative wires going to the board, cluttering things up. You can join the pads directly on the board using cutoff resistor tails. That way, you only have a single wire going to the board, but all pads are active. You might not be able to at this point, since the holes have solder in them now. It works best on a new board. Biggest advice I can give, which others have said is this: Test all the electronics outside of the saber first. All of it. And test as you go too.
As someone with a degree in electrical engineering and who built stuff for the DoD and NASA (43 years), built over a dozen sabers, lots of cosplay electronics, I was cringing watching some of this. But I really wished I could have been in the room to help guide you and show you the way my friend.
Yo!!! Sad I missed you at celebration Anaheim (I was there saturday) and im about to solder up my cfx finally! Didn't get done in time for SWC, but headed to Disneyland tonight so hopefully I don't fry it!!! You have been very inspirational to me, finally got the guts to do it!!!
Well I hope you learned a few lessons and I hope you know how to trick the lightsaber into thinking there is a blade and there that's and then you have to be clean very clean I've had the same problem for a long time messy Saturday but this is so awesome I love it❤
So did you solder the switches correctly? Each switch has two wires, the plunger connects the two wires when depressed so it doesn’t matter which of the wires goes where but, the power switch has one lead that goes to the pad you were pointing at, the other lead goes to a ground. Should be illustrated in the wiring diagram for the CFX in the manual. Same for the aux, one lead to the aux pad, the other lead to the same ground the other button went to. If the switches are wired incorrectly, the board my may be reading that the buttons are depressed and when pulling the kill key will result in no boot up. You don’t need a blade to test the saber. Another note, usually you don’t want to bridge wires as Y connections as this is an easy way to create a “loop”. All wires should go from pad to pad or component to pad.
Tips from an experiences sabersmith: 1)plan plan plan plan. Plan out your build thoroughly before you putting everything together. 2) test fit everything every single step of the way before you put anything together. 3) read your soundboards manual at least 3 times all the way through before building. 4)take your time. Go slow. 5) always use more wire than you will need. That way you can remove excess when soldering to the board. 6) 22 guage wire is much too large. 28 guage for neopixel work, 30 guage for everything else. 7) plan out and know which wires can go on which side of the board. 8) hot glue is not recommended for anything except for securing wire joints. 9) NEVER TIN THE WIRES OVER THE SOUNDBOARD!!!! Solder can drip and bridge pads causing shorts and all kinds of other nightmares and you'd never know where the problem was.
Close your eyes and repeat after me. Never use hot glue always use E6000 it is sooo awesome 👍 best tip I ever got and " you rush it you reck it." I been building for 4 years . I think the CFX board is way easy Proffie is cool but pretty annoying. Basically haveing to program everything.👍🤙
most saber hilts, and thus the blades for them, are compatible at 1" for their diameter. The emitter here looks to only be able to hold 7/8" inch blade instead likely. Not usually a major problem but there are less places that sell 7/8 blades since most hilts take the 1" as mentioned. And since it's neopixel, 7/8 pixel blades are a little bit harder to find complete (so tube and tip together), and neopixel costs a fair bit in comparison to hollow blade for in-hilt led.
Nice video BUT PUHLEEZE re-think things i.e., not putting awful (annoying) music or any music in future videos. Thanks in advance, and May The Force Be With You...Always! My brief back-story: My dad passed on to me his treasured (in mint condition, still has the original factory box it came in) Master Replicas FORCE FX Luke Skywalker Episode IV Lightsaber and I've been a Jedi Junkie ever since. ;)
Your irons tip is small. Use the largest tip that still allows you work comfortably on your project meaning the tip size should about the same size as the pad your soldering to. Also it’s better to use a chisel tip not a pointed tip. Allows for better heat transfer to the pad.
Just finished my first build a couple weeks ago and just a couple tips.
Flux is you friend use it in every joint and Pad! It makes the solder flow extremely well!
Do a completely out of the hilt test to make sure everything works beforehand.
I would highly recommend soldering all the wires to your board first and pulling the wires through the chassis. Then soldering the wires to your battery, pixel connector and so on. This makes it extremely easy to manage the cables and gives you a ton of peace of mind when putting the chassis into the hilt.
And just remember not to get discouraged. In the end it's an amazing learning experience and making mistakes is all part of it!
Best of luck 👍
another thing i found to be a life saver for *most* things, **SOLID CORE WIRE** especially with through hole stuff. bend it into shape and solder the ends, I made a nearly complete mock up before is did the final assembly I also did the same on a bread board to confirm it worked
And using a good quality solder is also very important.
Watching Him Do This Boosts My Self Confidence
The amount of support and advice in the comments of this video gives me hope!
I have a red forehead from facepalming after watching this series xD
I’m sure you’ve figured this out by now, but regardless of blade being inserted your board should make a boot up sound when you remove the kill key. You definitely had power to the board (that little red light) but I’m willing to bet when you squeezed the chassis in your hilt a connection was messed (done it myself more than once). I would try some flux, helps ALOT with solder flow and connections, there’s no need for the wire to be in the slot fully if you have a good solder joint. Also you want to make sure you clean up that excess solder that’s on the recharge port from the nearby pads, you don’t don’t want bridge anything that shouldn’t be bridged, recipe to fry the board.
I don’t know how these sabers work but i did get electrical engineering. So with that on of button if it was soldered to one pad its probably shorted out is it not?
@@commandantkevin you should know how it works then. There are 2 wires, one to ground, one return so pressing the button pulls the IO pin on the MCU to GND, activating it.
@@commandantkevin yup, Adam is correct. Each button gets its own +, and use a common ground or -. Less pads used up on the board this way, allowing for small footprint.
Dang, I had a flashback watching this! I fried a couple boards before getting it right. I watched dozens of video before starting but most of the real learning comes from trial and error. For me more error that necessary $$$$! You arlready figure the following out im sure but...Pre-tinning pads/wire, prefit to determine wire length, test components prior to install, check that you have continuity where you should and no continuity where you shouldn't (using a multimeter). A little prayer, meditation, stiff drink may help? Thank you for your candidness and sharing.
The head hanging at the end... "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" 🤗 Hugs love, you've got this!
I know how you feel, lol. I had the same problems. I had a proffieboard and I accidentally fried one of my components. Ugh. So I bought a new Golden harvest board. I highly recommend doing a test of everything outside of saber and chassis to make sure you get it right. That goes for any board.. which I did and it worked. Hope you get everything working soon. May the force be with you on this
The greatest teacher failure is.
Don't give up, I can't tell you how many times i pulled the kill key and....nothing.
Finding out where you went wrong is part of the journey man.
But i can tell you for certain, you WILL get it right. Trust the Force.
Also a tip: You don't need all the negative wires going to the board, cluttering things up. You can join the pads directly on the board using cutoff resistor tails. That way, you only have a single wire going to the board, but all pads are active.
You might not be able to at this point, since the holes have solder in them now. It works best on a new board.
Biggest advice I can give, which others have said is this:
Test all the electronics outside of the saber first. All of it. And test as you go too.
As someone with a degree in electrical engineering and who built stuff for the DoD and NASA (43 years), built over a dozen sabers, lots of cosplay electronics, I was cringing watching some of this. But I really wished I could have been in the room to help guide you and show you the way my friend.
Yo!!! Sad I missed you at celebration Anaheim (I was there saturday) and im about to solder up my cfx finally!
Didn't get done in time for SWC, but headed to Disneyland tonight so hopefully I don't fry it!!!
You have been very inspirational to me, finally got the guts to do it!!!
Well I hope you learned a few lessons and I hope you know how to trick the lightsaber into thinking there is a blade and there that's and then you have to be clean very clean I've had the same problem for a long time messy Saturday but this is so awesome I love it❤
Dumb question but did you have your SD card plugged in when you tried to turn it on?
Thats what I was wondering too based on the lack of a boot sound and that the red light was blinking rapidly.
turns out he didnt xD
So did you solder the switches correctly?
Each switch has two wires, the plunger connects the two wires when depressed so it doesn’t matter which of the wires goes where but, the power switch has one lead that goes to the pad you were pointing at, the other lead goes to a ground. Should be illustrated in the wiring diagram for the CFX in the manual.
Same for the aux, one lead to the aux pad, the other lead to the same ground the other button went to.
If the switches are wired incorrectly, the board my may be reading that the buttons are depressed and when pulling the kill key will result in no boot up.
You don’t need a blade to test the saber.
Another note, usually you don’t want to bridge wires as Y connections as this is an easy way to create a “loop”. All wires should go from pad to pad or component to pad.
Agree with all except Y wiring. It's necessary for recharge port wiring. Also hard to fit 2 wires on 1 pad.
Do what works best for you!
Tips from an experiences sabersmith: 1)plan plan plan plan. Plan out your build thoroughly before you putting everything together. 2) test fit everything every single step of the way before you put anything together. 3) read your soundboards manual at least 3 times all the way through before building. 4)take your time. Go slow. 5) always use more wire than you will need. That way you can remove excess when soldering to the board. 6) 22 guage wire is much too large. 28 guage for neopixel work, 30 guage for everything else. 7) plan out and know which wires can go on which side of the board. 8) hot glue is not recommended for anything except for securing wire joints. 9) NEVER TIN THE WIRES OVER THE SOUNDBOARD!!!! Solder can drip and bridge pads causing shorts and all kinds of other nightmares and you'd never know where the problem was.
What’s after the light saber?
CFX doesn’t need a blade in it to be tested. You can navigate the sound font section without any blade and you would know it works
How do you make sound fonts for the board?
Hey I am the guy who won the giveaway lol
This was great!!
MAKING MY OWN LIGHTSABER! makes someones lightsaber...
I mean, he cosplays as Ezra so... if he says that while in character...
You got this!
Close your eyes and repeat after me. Never use hot glue always use E6000 it is sooo awesome 👍 best tip I ever got and " you rush it you reck it." I been building for 4 years . I think the CFX board is way easy Proffie is cool but pretty annoying. Basically haveing to program everything.👍🤙
I’m thinking of starting a build of my own because of u so I am trying to figure everything out.
Nooooooo.... You look so defeated at the end why is no one giving you a hug?!?
Dangerous to approach in times of frustration... that's how I am. Need space lol
Awww i feel so bad. It looks like you need a 7/8 inch blade rather than the 1 inch blade you have
Not as easy as it may look. Don't give up. Worst case is you'll burn up a board, but they make more.
It's amazing how easy it is to get crystal focus now!
What's the difference between a Lightsaber and a Heavysaber?
Easy, they're not plasma swords
50th like lets go
How you have learned the skill
how did the blade not fit
most saber hilts, and thus the blades for them, are compatible at 1" for their diameter. The emitter here looks to only be able to hold 7/8" inch blade instead likely. Not usually a major problem but there are less places that sell 7/8 blades since most hilts take the 1" as mentioned.
And since it's neopixel, 7/8 pixel blades are a little bit harder to find complete (so tube and tip together), and neopixel costs a fair bit in comparison to hollow blade for in-hilt led.
Nice video BUT PUHLEEZE re-think things i.e., not putting awful (annoying) music or any music in future videos. Thanks in advance, and May The Force Be With You...Always!
My brief back-story:
My dad passed on to me his treasured (in mint condition, still has the original factory box it came in) Master Replicas FORCE FX Luke Skywalker Episode IV Lightsaber and I've been a Jedi Junkie ever since. ;)
Mediation breaks advised without getting the itch of committing suicide out of frustration 🙈
Less go more content. edit sad that the blade didnt fit
This was painful to watch. You know there is another side of the board you could have soldered to so you didn’t fry your wires.
First like ayy
Ayyy 👊
@@StarWarsIRL Ayy
First babyyyyyyyyy
Your irons tip is small. Use the largest tip that still allows you work comfortably on your project meaning the tip size should about the same size as the pad your soldering to. Also it’s better to use a chisel tip not a pointed tip. Allows for better heat transfer to the pad.
Pls pls give a giveaway of lightsaber
I don’t have anyone
First
Do your best but that really stinks that the blade doesn’t even fit