#4954912
Hey everyone! Recently I decided to do an upgrade to my current pack, nothing major, just adding spacers between my motherboard and ALICE frame. After I got it all put back together, I noticed that there are now issues with the electronics. I have the three GBFans kits installed (Soundboard, Wand and Cyclotron/Powercell). First off, I have no sound at all. Then the Powercell lights and Cyclotron lights start to go on their own before 'turning on' the pack via the wand and keep going until the main power is shut off. I have checked and tripple checked all of the connections and settings, with nothing seeming to be out of order. The only thing that seems to be working properly is the wand itself, with the lights, bargraph and toggle switches all functioning as they should be. Even replaced the battery pack, still nothing.

Anyone out there have any possible solutions that I can check out?
#4954916
You can try checking the continuity of the ribbon cable from the gun to the pack. I drove myself crazy trying to figure out some strange issues with my electronics. Turned out one of the wires in the ribbon cable was broken somewhere along the length of it. There was no visual damage, so it must have just been a defective cable.

Try disconnecting the wand cable from the soundboard and see if you get sounds by using the separate button screw terminals on the sound board. If the sound board and pack lights seem to work correctly isolated from the wand. Then it might be an issue with that ribbon cable like I had.

You said you checked the settings, assuming you meant the dip switches. Might also be worthwhile making sure they are fully engaged in the desired position.

Also, did you try running the test mode?
NekoFallenOne liked this
#4955026
I have not tried the Test Mode, will have to check up on the instructions how to access it. Did try a variety of options, replaced the speaker cable, tried a different speaker and still no sound from the board. Even without anything connected other than a speaker and switch to activate the pack. The Powercell/Cyclotron kit still powers on, goes through a cycle, then turns off when power is set to the board. I am going to try a different ribbon cable to that part to see if that is the issue.

Would the board accidentally switch itself to test mode and cause such issues?
#4955029
If you turn all the dip switches to off and then turn on dip switch 3, the theme song should play. If it doesn't, try connecting a mp3 player with the aux jack. If you get sound through the aux jack, it might be an issue with the SD card.

Maybe the SD card got dislodged. Maybe try removing and plugging back in. You could also try plugging it into your computer to see if the files are loaded or if the card got corrupted somehow.

If your not getting any sound through the aux jack either, it might be a potentiometer issue. Are you using the built in one or an external one?
NekoFallenOne liked this
#4955070
I did all of the checks you mentioned, still nothing. I am using the built-in potentiometer. Still the light kit for the Powercell is not responding properly, I even switched out the ribbon cable. Even checked my batteries, currently running at 11V charge, so not a possible battery issue (had run the pack off of 9V when I first started).
#4955095
How do you have the kit mounted in the wand? Is your wand metal? Sounds like something is shorting out somewhere and possibly touching other metal? Do a check for that and make sure none of the soldered leads are touching anything else that's metal. If that doesn't work, I recommend removing the kits from your pack and re-hooking it all up outside of it. If it works just fine then you do have some issue with it rubbing up against something. However, if you still have issues and connections seem good, then you have an issue with one of the boards or one of the cables. Check the ribbon cables for any breaks. These are fragile and shouldn't be bent if possible.
#4959099
So, it ended up being the SDcard reader being fried. When my new board came in, things seem to be normal, though for some strange reason it will not play the Theme Song at all (either through the diagnosis with Dip Switch #3 or the switch on the wand). I even swapped out the SDcard reader to the old board, and the same issue happens, but will play the normal pack sounds. Though that is not that big of an issue.
Still having issues with the Powercell lights, not getting any of the usual pulsing or modes, only can have it either set to ON or OFF. With all the information I can find being for the original kit, the newest version or the Spirit Mod, not the ver 3.2 that I have from GhostLab42 that I got from GBfans when I first built this pack.
#4960192
My board would not play the theme song in the diagnosis mode either and I had to hook up my ipod to the audio jack in order to test the speaker out. The songs seem to not want to activate if you have the board in movie mode but they play fine when in TVG mode by quickly holding the fire button down with the vent light off. However, in the TVG mode, I cannot fire the wand with the vent light off and get the overload. Instead, I get a quick power down and power up sequence. I have a feeling that the gb soundboard does not play nice with all the custom configurations while using the Spirit Wand light kit and Spirit Pack light kit. You lose quite a bit of the options and are only limited to the movie sounds and overload.
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