Diamond Board - Recharge Port - Batteries

[DarthSyronimus]

My Dom just totally died and wouldn't power up while in the middle of programming a new font. (*uh oh*)   I always have it on the recharge port while programming, and the fast charger has a red light on.

I took the batteries out of the casing in case the recharge port wasn't doing it's job, popped it onto my Easttone charger, and one batt was showing 3.0V at half changed, the other 3.6V around 90% charged. 
while waiting for them to charge up, I'm wondering if it's possible to continue programming the board with just the recharge port connected, no batteries.

or, I should just wait for my charger to finish charging the 3.0V back up.   (the 3.6V is now showing 4.2V at 100%)

[DarthSyronimus]

quick update: ok, my charger is an eastshine S4... both batteries showing 100%, 4.2V each.  Putting them back in the Dom, it doesn't power up.

will try after lunch

update 2: swapped batteries with working DALEv5.  No joy on the Dom.

[DarthSyronimus]

desperate plea for help sent to @ultrasaber email accounts... we're in self-quarantine here so I was hoping to have time to make some sound fonts.

[chalion]

desperate plea for help sent to @ultrasaber email accounts... we're in self-quarantine here so I was hoping to have time to make some sound fonts.

With the batteries out and unplugged from the computer, if you put the batteries back in, does the "Obsidian" Font sound off?

[DarthSyronimus]

With the batteries out and unplugged from the computer, if you put the batteries back in, does the "Obsidian" Font sound off?

I'm trying that "right now", after having the batteries out since the last post (a few hours), though my little bit of EE background says that shouldn't make any difference.  But hey, I'm willing to try anything (short of vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, and maybe throwing this in the freezer)

Ok, here goes.

Nothing

With the DALEv5, even just shifting the battery will cause it to say "obsidian" or twitch on... but yeah, something when horribly wrong when I was uploading my wav file to test.  (892k wave file shouldn't have killed it... right?)

[DarthSyronimus]

checking the manual multiple times, there doesn't seem to be any 'push a paperclip here to re-flash the eeproms back to factory' like a modem or any hardware these days either... this is looking grim.

[chalion]

Diamond board is a self-contained piece of electronics, it doesn't have a reset switch or a way that I know of to factory reset it without being able to turn on the lightsaber and and then connect it to the US Launcher. Also, the way US wires up the recharge port you can't use a kill key with it. Plus, if your power supply is the "slow charging" type of power pack it doesn't pass enough amps to run the saber, only to charge the batteries when the saber is off - which usually takes longer than a external charger like the X-TAR VC2.

Slow charger is the 0.2amp charger, while the "fast charger" is the 1.2 amp.

Only thing I can suggest, other than contact customer support, is to remove the batteries and let the hilt sit for some time (maybe a few hours) to let the "surface charge" inherent to electronics, to drain down and see if that helps, but I don't believe it will.

The reason why a modem allows a "factory reset" to the default basic configuration is because it has 2 different firmware chips - a flash chip that is configurable and update ready vs a solid "primary" chip that holds the base information and is pre-programmed then surface mounted in the modem. Some modems have 4 pin connectors on them to allow the manufacturer or authorized repair vendor to change that base information. I can say I work for such a company in the modem division.

Now, US uses sound board/controller cards that ONLY have the flash chips that can be totally erased and changed to the user or manufacturers' own specifications/needs. That makes altering them a risky proposition for users. That's why making backups of the files is always a good idea - but in your case, since the power cut off in mid-programming, i'm not sure what can be done.

[Arcinsaw]

I'm no expert, but US may have a way via the chip manufacturer to brute force the drivers and base config onto the board. You'll probably have to wait to hear back from them. I concur with the above post though. Remove all power sources, batteries/charger/etc, then press the power button to try and dump the capacitors. Let it sit for a while then try powering it on just via the batteries to see if the default still works.

[DarthSyronimus]

Update:
tried everything.  no go.   Emailed US... US responded with more things to try, but then went radio-silence for a week... hopefully they get back to me soon... I'm down 2 sabers since I don't want to mess up the DALEv5 either.  (at least, not try to load or change the fonts)

[Arcinsaw]

I would say that the only thing I can think of is that it had to do with the charger being plugged in when connected to the computer. Maybe a static buildup or a grounding issue with the computer popped something

Sent from my Redmi Note 7 using Tapatalk

[KaiserSosay]

So, if your saber shuts off while plugged into your computer, it can wipe all info off the board.
 No light sequence or sounds.
So if you power on the saber at that point, it will play no sounds or light sequence.  It will appear dead, but is still working just fine.

 To fix this problem, charge your batteries to full. Plug them into the saber and don't bother with the recharge port for now. Turn on the ultrasabers editing program. You will want to plug the saber into your computer while the program is running.
 Now the hard part. You can't tell if your saber is powered on or not. So you are going to hold down the power button on your saber, while plugged into the computer, with program running.  You will want to hold the button for about 5 seconds  then release the button. Hopefully the saber connects to the program.  If not,  keep trying the button press for 5 seconds and then release the button. It should reconnect to the program eventually.  Then you can run diagnostics on the saber from the editing program.  Once you run diagnostics, you can use factory reset.  Factory reset will reload the original fonts and is the quickest way to get the saber acting normal.

 If you can't get the saber to reconnect to the Ultrasabers program,  then there is nothing to do but send it back to Ultrasabers for repair.

[MVHI JEDI]

See my post "Diamond board crash please help" I had a similar issue.  I drained the batteries, took them out, let everything just sit.  Couple days later I put the dead batteries back in (nothing happened) connected, lauched the software, THEN connected the charger to the recharge port and it fired up.

[DarthSyronimus]

So, if your saber shuts off while plugged into your computer, it can wipe all info off the board.
 No light sequence or sounds.
So if you power on the saber at that point, it will play no sounds or light sequence.  It will appear dead, but is still working just fine.

 To fix this problem, charge your batteries to full. Plug them into the saber and don't bother with the recharge port for now. Turn on the ultrasabers editing program. You will want to plug the saber into your computer while the program is running.
 Now the hard part. You can't tell if your saber is powered on or not. So you are going to hold down the power button on your saber, while plugged into the computer, with program running.  You will want to hold the button for about 5 seconds  then release the button. Hopefully the saber connects to the program.  If not,  keep trying the button press for 5 seconds and then release the button. It should reconnect to the program eventually.  Then you can run diagnostics on the saber from the editing program.  Once you run diagnostics, you can use factory reset.  Factory reset will reload the original fonts and is the quickest way to get the saber acting normal.

 If you can't get the saber to reconnect to the Ultrasabers program,  then there is nothing to do but send it back to Ultrasabers for repair.

Tried those steps just now.... fully charged batteries, new USB cord (tested with my Kindle)... no recharge port.... hold 5 seconds (I counted to 10 just in case)

looks like I really fried my poor Dom here somehow.... I think it was the last font i was trying to test, though I don't know why... I had overlaid part of the imperial march onto the standard hum, added some light pulses on the W channel... it should've been innocuous (well... other than I -was- fiddling with the Dark Side...)

[Arcinsaw]

Might be worth checking each of the connections on the board with a multimeter to look for shorts

Sent from my Redmi Note 7 using Tapatalk

[KaiserSosay]

Tried those steps just now.... fully charged batteries, new USB cord (tested with my Kindle)... no recharge port.... hold 5 seconds (I counted to 10 just in case)

looks like I really fried my poor Dom here somehow.... I think it was the last font i was trying to test, though I don't know why... I had overlaid part of the imperial march onto the standard hum, added some light pulses on the W channel... it should've been innocuous (well... other than I -was- fiddling with the Dark Side...)

I'm sorry that didn't work for you. MVHI Jedi was saying he had luck plugging and unplugging the recharge port while the saber was hooked up to the program.  May be try that?
 The 5 seconds I suggested was not meant to be exact. You just need it to connect. So if you plug in the recharge port and you hear the boot sound, that is all you really need. The program should reconnect to the saber again.

 If the saber doesn't reconnect there is not much you can do. I really hope you get it figured out! Sorry that happened to you in the first place.