Artsabers Issues: Help with non working Proffie Lightsaber

[Mara Jade's Father]

09 DEC 2023 Update: I am now looking for anyone who has good communication with Artsabers in hopes they can help me sort out my current issue. Currently they have possession of the hilt that never worked and they have been no responsive to all emails.

I’m hoping someone might know what direction to take to fix this even if it means sending to someone.

I received this new hilt no working. Everything seems to work except the lighting of the blade.

The company/seller I purchased this from has been unresponsive and I already sent it to another third part who thought they knew what the problem was but their fix was not correct.

Below is a video they sent me telling me what they know.

If I can’t get this fixed, I’ll probably see if I can sell it for parts or someone who can make it work.

 

[JGattonII]

Hi MJF,
I'm no proffie expert, but do have some experience with lightsaber wiring (and was a professional 12volt installer for years). In short, (electrical pun only slightly intended) it's going to be incredibly difficult for anyone to precisely troubleshoot this type of an issue without digging into the details of the wiring and programming for your particular saber. To take that a step further, many reputable installers may not feel comfortable fixing another installer's mistakes - due to the liability of inheriting ownership for any subsequent problems (regardless of whether those issues are tied back to the original install or the fix). That could be what your third party tech was trying to get at, i.e. that he didn't feel comfortable going any further without performing a full reinstall (but that he could/ would perhaps perform a full reinstall?). Truthfully, even if you could find someone to troubleshoot it, the full reinstall could end up being more economical - with the added bonus of getting things setup exactly the way you want them. Not sure that this is the help you're looking for but may give you some points to consider...

 

[4str0m3ch]

First of all, it appears they installed a long pin emitter PCB, which shouldn't be used unless its with a diffusion cover that keeps the pins secure. The blade can bend the pins without it. It's also not great with thin necks as the pins protrude more and the blade could push them down out of the PCB.

With your issue, does the PCB light up?

Some photos of the board (front and back, ideally), the underside of the PCB, and posting the config to pastebin.com would help.

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

With your issue, does the PCB light up?

No. That’s always been the only issue.

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

Just an update. JGattonII has been conversing with me and help to narrow down what the problem might be. Currently I am on hold because seller has been in contact with me. He still seems willing to help since we didn’t mess with the card. Unfortunately he is only at this point reaching out to the tech people. The biggest problem is that the length of time between emails is sometimes weeks so I may throw in the towel and just sell it put the whole matter behind me. I have considered just keeping it as I actually think it’s a nice looking replica with working control panel LEDs and sounds but I think it would just remind me of the this disappointment.

 

[FLS89]

No. That’s always been the only issue.
View attachment 1758174

Do you have a copy of the config file? This may sound too obvious and simple, but this exact issue can happen from the config file specifying a certain number of LEDs in the header portion of the config that doesn’t match the number of LEDs in the very bottom section of the config.

If you have the config file, I’d suggest posting either a screenshot of it here or just post the actual file and we can check that. If it’s the number of LEDs being specified that’s the problem, all you’d have to do is reflash the proffieboard with the updated config file.

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

Do you have a copy of the config file? This may sound too obvious and simple, but this exact issue can happen from the config file specifying a certain number of LEDs in the header portion of the config that doesn’t match the number of LEDs in the very bottom section of the config.

If you have the config file, I’d suggest posting either a screenshot of it here or just post the actual file and we can check that. If it’s the number of LEDs being specified that’s the problem, all you’d have to do is reflash the proffieboard with the updated config file.

Are you talking about the file on the SD card? The way the internals are built, I can’t get access to the card. Even if I could, I have know idea what or how to read it. I know zero about these things.

 

[FLS89]

Are you talking about the file on the SD card? The way the internals are built, I can’t get access to the card. Even if I could, I have know idea what or how to read it. I know zero about these things.

Yea most of the time, installers leave a copy of the config file on the SD card in case you ever want to add fonts or change programming. There’s definitely a way to access it. Did they glue the proffie board into place? Can you pry it up? It might just be pressure fit into the chassis or sometimes they add a tiny bit of CA glue on the edges to make sure it doesn’t move out of place. Either way, you can most definitely lift it a tiny bit and get to the SD card. Once you do, you’ll probably see several folders which would contain the sound fonts. You don’t need to mess with those.

You need to find the file that would often end in .h (like config.h).

This file can be opened in notepad and then just need to post it here so I can take a look if there’s a discrepancy between the LED specifications.

This is a lot simpler than it sounds, but I know it sounds like a pain and confusing when you haven’t done this before…I’ve been there.

Let’s see if we can make progress from there.

 

[4str0m3ch]

Unless we can look at your config *.h file, there's no way to know what the issue could be. We need to discount wrong configuration settings.

 

[4str0m3ch]

The file would look similar to this:

#ifdef CONFIG_TOP#include "proffieboard_v2_config.h"#define NUM_BLADES 1#d - Pastebin.com

Pastebin.com is the number one paste tool since 2002. Pastebin is a website where you can store text online for a set period of time.

pastebin.com

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

Yea most of the time, installers leave a copy of the config file on the SD card in case you ever want to add fonts or change programming. There’s definitely a way to access it. Did they glue the proffie board into place? Can you pry it up? It might just be pressure fit into the chassis or sometimes they add a tiny bit of CA glue on the edges to make sure it doesn’t move out of place. Either way, you can most definitely lift it a tiny bit and get to the SD card. Once you do, you’ll probably see several folders which would contain the sound fonts. You don’t need to mess with those.

You need to find the file that would often end in .h (like config.h).

This file can be opened in notepad and then just need to post it here so I can take a look if there’s a discrepancy between the LED specifications.

This is a lot simpler than it sounds, but I know it sounds like a pain and confusing when you haven’t done this before…I’ve been there.

Let’s see if we can make progress from there.

Unless we can look at your config *.h file, there's no way to know what the issue could be. We need to discount wrong configuration settings.

The file would look similar to this:

#ifdef CONFIG_TOP#include "proffieboard_v2_config.h"#define NUM_BLADES 1#d - Pastebin.com

Pastebin.com is the number one paste tool since 2002. Pastebin is a website where you can store text online for a set period of time.

pastebin.com

Ok. I was able to pry up the card and I think I can now pull the card, but before I do… is there any thing special need to read the file on my computer?

Once I see what’s on the card, do you want me to copy the code and show it here?

 

[4str0m3ch]

Ok. I was able to pry up the card and I think I can now pull the card, but before I do… is there any thing special need to read the file on my computer?

Once I see what’s on the card, do you want me to copy the code and show it here?

.h files are just text files. Something like Notepad should be enough.

 

[FLS89]

Ok. I was able to pry up the card and I think I can now pull the card, but before I do… is there any thing special need to read the file on my computer?

Once I see what’s on the card, do you want me to copy the code and show it here?

So the only thing you’ll need for seeing what’s on the card is a micro SD card reader. Some computers have them, but otherwise you’d need one that you can plug into yours. I got a cheap one from Amazon if you don’t have one already. They’re often already included on several other usb related device readers.

Once you plug in the card, your computer will likely automatically bring up a window that shows the various things that are on it. My expectation is that you’ll see several folders, one per sound font, and then hopefully the config file is somewhere on there also. It likely won’t be within the sound font folders, usually it’s just sitting on its own.

As far as reading the file goes, you don’t need anything special, just Notepad.

If possible, I would just post the actual file here as an attachment. If that’s not possible, I would take a few screenshots (it’ll probably be fairly long depending on how many sound fonts you have).

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

I am not seeing anything here that stands out. Everything in these folders seem to look to be a sound fonts (.wav) or document files (.txt and .ini)

Thoughts?

 

[FLS89]

I am not seeing anything here that stands out. Everything in these folders seem to look to be a sound fonts (.wav) or document files (.txt and .ini)

Thoughts?


View attachment 1761215

Jeez alright, that’s irritating because it seems they didn’t even attach a copy of the config in the SD card.

Best option might be to just ask whomever you’ve spoken with from the seller to provide the config file.

The whole point of doing this is to narrow down whether it’s a software issue or a hardware issue. If we know for sure that the config is good, then it could be a faulty proffie board, maybe those specific ports. Because the other video you posted already showed that it wasn’t the PCB itself. So that leaves us with it being either the board, the wires (unlikely), or the software. And from my experience, I had this exact issue when I accidentally had a typo in my config file where I specified the wrong number of LEDs in one spot.

 

[FLS89]

Just figured I’d share another option in case you can’t get the config file from the seller.

You can create your own config file using some YouTube instruction videos. This is how I learned to do everything I needed for my personal installs. It’ll take you a couple of hours but essentially you would need to create a config and then name each of the font sections within the config with the exact name of each sound font folder that’s on your SD card. You would also need to ensure you have the blinking LEDs for the arrows on the control box listed as “blade styles”. I know this all sounds confusing.
You can then reflash the proffie board with the new config you made and see if that fixed the problem. If not, then you know it’s a hardware problem.

I may be able to provide you with an example config that you can then modify for your sound fonts. But you’ll still need to download Arduino and install any drivers needed for proffieboard.

This video shows you how to do all of that stuff:

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

 

[FLS89]

View attachment 1761302

lol yup, I know. Sorry it’s a pain no matter which route you take.

 

[4str0m3ch]

The point is that there's no point swapping out components until we know it isn't a software issue. The OS needs to know how the hardware is wired up to be able to understand what needs to light up, and how much. My suspicion is that bladeconfig section references the wrong data or LED pads, or something similar.

 

[Halliwax]

View attachment 1761302

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